Merry Christmas!!!

Top 25 Highest Income Counties

Top 25 highest-income counties by median household income (2006-2008) This data is average 2006-2008 from the American Community Survey of the United States Bureau of the Census. Of the top 25 counties, 11 are part of the Washington Metropolitan Area, 6 counties are part of the New York Metropolitan Area, and 2 counties are part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Rank County,Median Household Income, Population, Educational Attainment* 1 Loudoun County, Virginia $110,643 277,433 58% 2 Fairfax County, Virginia $106,785 1,005,980 60% 3 Howard County, Maryland $101,710 272,412 60% 4 Somerset County, New Jersey $103,227 321,589 53% 5 Hunterdon County, New Jersey $100,947 129,000 52% 6 City of Fairfax, Virginia $98,133 23,281 52% 7 Morris County, New Jersey $97,565 486,459 52% 8 Douglas County, Colorado $97,480 270,286 54% 9 Arlington County, Virginia $96,390 204,889 71% 10 Montgomery County, Maryland $93,999 942,747 59% 11 Nassau County, New York $93,579 1,352,817 45% 12 Stafford County, Virginia $89,536 120,219 36% 13 Calvert County, Maryland $89,049 88,126 30% 14 Prince William County, Virginia $88,675 358,719 38% 15 Putnam County, New York $88,580 99,195 40% *Based on bachelor's degree attainment (and above) for people 25 and older in the county

Happy Halloween!!!

Redskins Beat Cowboys 13-7

The first half ended with a fumble returned for a touchdown. The second half ended with a touchdown that didn’t count. Nothing less should be expected from a game between the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys. The cast might change with new quarterback Donovan McNabb and new head coah Mike Shanahan into the mix, but one thing is eternal: This Redskin/Cowboy rivalry will always have some memorable finishes.

The Redskins came out on top this time, winning 13-7 in Sunday night’s opener even though Tony Romo completed a 13-yard pass to Roy Williams in the end zone on the game’s last play. Alas, the score was negated because tackle Alex Barron was whistled for holding linebacker Brian Orakpo, stopping the Dallas celebrations in their tracks and giving Washington a victorious start in its new era with quarterback McNabb and coach Shanahan.

“I knew he held me, but as soon as I seen him throw it to Roy, I’m like `Are they gonna call it?”’ Orakpo said. “Then I looked up and saw the yellow flag on the floor. Hey, it’s game, set and match. Game over, it’s celebrating time.”

The Redskins didn’t get to celebrate much last year, going 4-12 under coach Jim Zorn and 0-6 in the NFC East. They didn’t score a touchdown in either game against the dreaded Cowboys. For that matter, they didn’t score an offensive touchdown Sunday night— cornerback DeAngelo Hall was the only Redskins player to find the end zone—but that hardly seemed to matter.

Virginia Colleges Rank High

The University of Virginia is the top non-military-academy public university in Forbes Magazines "America's Best Colleges" rankings, released Wednesday.

U.Va. ranks 44th overall among the 610 schools on the Forbes list, which was compiled with the assistance of the Center for College Affordability & Productivity. The only public institutions rated higher are the United States Military Academy (No. 4), the U.S. Air Force Academy (No. 11) and the U.S. Naval Academy (No. 29).

In total, 88 of the top 100 schools on the Forbes list are private. Trailing U.Va. among public schools in the top 100 are the College of William & Mary (No. 46), Virginia Military Institute (No. 60), the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (No. 62), the University of California, Berkeley (No. 65), the University of California, Los Angeles (No. 71), the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (No. 92), the University of Florida (No. 93) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (No. 97).

The top-rated school was Williams College, followed by Princeton University, Amherst College, the U.S. Military Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Forbes rankings have a heavy consumerist influence. In explaining its methodology, the business magazine wrote: "Americans spend more money on college education than nearly any other investment. Just as they want home inspectors to evaluate possible house purchases, and Consumer Reports or J.D. Power and Associates to help guide car purchases, they look to information providers like Forbes to assist them in their choice of colleges and universities."

To that end, rankings of student satisfaction – chiefly from RateMyProfessor.com – account for 27.5 percent of the score. Postgraduate success, including alumni salaries, are weighted 30 percent, and measures of student debt account for 17.5 percent of the score.

Also factored in are the four-year graduation rate (17.5 percent) and competitive awards won by students (7.5 percent).

The commonwealth of Virginia was well represented, with 17 schools appearing on the Forbes list. Besides U.Va., William & Mary and VMI, other Virginia schools listed included Washington and Lee University (No. 37), the University of Richmond (No. 84), Sweet Briar College (No. 87), Randolph-Macon College (No. 103), Virginia Tech (No. 156), James Madison University (No. 169), Hampden-Sydney College (No. 205), the University of Mary Washington (No. 208), Hollins University (No. 267), Randolph College (No. 272), Emory and Henry College (No. 278), George Mason University (No. 297), Roanoke College (No. 433) and Longwood University (No. 462).

In a separate ranking of "America's Best College Buys," Forbes rated U.Va. 43rd overall. Those rankings were derived by dividing each school's overall quality score by its 2008 tuition and fees.

The rankings do not take into direct account financial aid – though student debt factors into the overall quality score. In the Princeton Review "Guide to the 373 Best Colleges" released earlier this month, U.Va.'s financial aid program, AccessUVa, was rated second in the country.

Forbes released its rankings days before Tuesday's expected announcement of the closely watched U.S. News and World Report rankings.

Hot Time in Washington!!!

Why "Pink Floyd" Still Rocks

　　

Happy Memorial Day

National Marine Museum

The National Marine Museum in Quantico, Virginia is worth a visit. The displays are great and life-like of U.S. Marine history.

Monday Morning Quarterback

It's Spring and almost time for baseball to start, so time to look at how the winter sports have done.

The Maryland Terps Men's basketball team had a very good year, finishing the regular season with six wins in a row and a tie for the ACC Championship(13-4) and 24-9 overall.. The Terps did OK in the NCAA's and should have beaten Michigan State(they were lucky to hit a 3-pointer with just .3 seconds left in the game). Michigan State is now in the Fnal Four, and it should have been Maryland.

Gary Williams earned "Coach of the Year" and Greivas Vasquez was "Player of the Year" in ACC basketball and both were very deserving of the honors.

The Maryland Terps Women basketball team were very young this year with three freshman and a sophomore starting most games. They still finished wih a 21-13 record and should be back in the playoff picture next year with an excellent recruiting class for 2011.

The Washington Wizards had a diaster of a season both on the court and off the court. The team never played to its potential. Owner Abe Polen passed away and star player Gilbert Arenas got into a lot of trouble for bringing guns into the locker room and was suspended for the rest of the season. The team decided to trade away all-stars Antwan Jamison and Caron Butler along with cneter Brendon Haywood. The future does not look good for the Wizards.

The Washington Capitals ice hockey team continues to dominate the NHL and are seriously looking to make a run at the Stanley Cup in April. Ovie Ovetchkin looks to win his league MVP for third year ina row.

And the football team Washington Redskins always make news during the winter off-season. They have a new cach in Mike Shanahan and a new approach to building a winning team. Making slower and not as "splashy" moves as they did in past off-seasons. We'll see how this goes.

Back to Spring and baseball. The Washington Nationals signed the best college pitcher of the past decade, Steven Strasburg, and he pitched like it during Spring Training. So, The Nats decided to send him to the minors for "seasoning". He should be "sesasoned" by May and up in the big leagues. The Nats didn't improve the team from last year so I am not expecting them to do much better than last year when they lost 102 games. Going to be a long summer, except on days that Strawsburg pitches.

Maryland Beats Duke!!!

On one glorious night, Maryland bid farewell to its three standout seniors, avenged a bitter loss to Duke and moved into a tie with the Blue Devils atop the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Greivis Vasquez scored 20 points, including a clutch basket with 37 seconds left, and 22nd-ranked Maryland beat No. 4 Duke 79-72 Wednesday for its sixth straight win. It was the final home game for Vasquez, who was honored with seniors Landon Milbourne and Eric Hayes before the game.

Afterward, fans stormed the court to celebrate Maryland's first win over Duke in seven tries. "You couldn't really ask for a better script than that," said Hayes, who scored 13 points. "The ACC regular-season title was on the line; it was just a real special night."

Jordan Williams had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Terrapins (22-7, 12-3), who haven't lost since falling to the Blue Devils by 21 on Feb. 13.

Top Albums of 2009

Top 10 Albums 2009

1. The Fame - Lady Gaga

2. Wilco the Album - Wilco

3. Fearless - Taylor Swift

4. Only by the Night - Kings of Leon

5. 21st Century Breakdown - Green Day

6. The Resistance - Muse

7. It's Bliz - Yeah Yeah yeahs

8. Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King - Dave Mathews Band

9. No Line on the Horizon - U2

10. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear

11. Lungs - Florence and the Machine

12. It's Not Me, It's You - Lily Allen

Washington Sets Record for Snowfall

It's official. This is the snowiest winter on record in Washington, DC, breaking the total snowfall for a winter set in 1888-89

NBC4 chief meteorologist Bob Ryan broke the news at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, February 10, 2010 that the District officially has recorded 54.9 inches of snow this winter -- thanks in part to two blizzards.

The frist blizzard was on December 18, 2009 and gave the area 22 inches of snow. The second blizzard was on February 5, 2010 with another 22 inches of snow followed by a second punch on February 10th with an additional 10(or more) inches of snow.

The old record was set in 1888-89 of 54.4 inches.

1. 2009-10 54.9

2. 1898-99 54.4

3. 1995-96 46.0

4. 1921-22 42.5

5. 1891-92 41.7

6. 1904-05 41.0

7. 1957-58 40.4

The largest snow in Washington was 36 inches in 1772 and was recorded in the diaries of both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It is still the "unofficial" record for a single snowstorm.

The "official" record is 28 inches on January 28, 1922(the "Knickerbocker" snow). Other large snows were the 20.5 inches on February 14, 1899; the 18.7 inches on February 18-19, 1979; the 17.1 inches on January 7-13, 1996; and the 16.7 inches on February 15-18, 2003.

The two snowstorms this season now rank second and third on the list of snowstorms in Washington, DC.

Washington Caps Streak Ends at 14

Brooks Laich scored with 19 seconds remaining in regulation to rally the Washington Capitals from a three-goal deficit and force the game to overtime Wednesday night.

But, with eight seconds left in the extra session to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 6-5 win that ended Washington's winning streak at 14 games.

After falling behind 5-2 late in the second period, the Capitals put fans on the edge of their seats with goals from Mike Green, on the power play, and Laich, on an odd man break, that whittled Washington's deficit to a single goal.

Laich then completed his hat trick when he redirected a pass between Carey Price's pads. But the Capitals faltered in the waning seconds of a wide open, four-on-four overtime period, that ended when Montreal scored the winning goal with just 7 seconds left in the OT.

The 14 wins in a row will rank the Capitals with the third longest winning streak in NHL history, which is quite an accomplishment. The Caps record is 41-12-7 and still the best in the NHL.

Like that, a "once in a lifetime" streak was over. "For a lot of us, it's a once in a lifetime thing," Capitals coach Boudreau said. "You think it's going to happen again. But those things don't come back again. But give our players a lot of credit for intestinal fortitude they had to put this thing together. There's a reason only two teams in the history of the National Hockey League have gone longer."

Best Books of 2009

1. The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

2. The Help - Kathryn Stockett

3. Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann

4. The Age of Wonder - Richard Holmes

5. The Next 100 Years - George Friedman

6. True Compass - Edward M. Kennedy

7. An Edible History of Humanity - Tom Standage

8. Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age - Kurt W. Beyer

9. A New Literary History of America - Greil Marcus

10. The Brothers Boswell - Phillip Baruth

11. Juliet, Naked A Novel - Nick Hornby

12. The Drawings of Gustave Dore - Gustave Dore

Virginia #1 with Princeton Review

1. University of Virginia (Charlottesville) 2. City University of New York - Hunter College (New York, N.Y.) 3. New College of Florida (Sarasota) 4. Florida State University (Tallahassee) 5. University of Colorado-Boulder 6. State University of New York-Binghamton 7. University of Georgia (Athens) 8. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg) 9. Texas A&M University (College Station) 10. University of Oklahoma (Norman)

Virginia and Maryland Colleges Best Value

Virginia has six schools in the top 100--including two in the top 10--and Maryland has five in the top 100, with one in the top 10.

The University of Maryland at College Park jumping from No. 28 in 2008 to No. 8 overall for 2010.

As has been true every year since Kiplinger’s began making these lists in 1998, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill won the top spot. It was followed by the University of Florida, the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary (Va.), Binghamton University (part of the State University of New York system), the University of Georgia, the University of Washington, the University of Maryland-College Park, SUNY Geneseo and North Carolina State University.

The Virginia schools were: University of Virgina - #3

College of William and Mary - #4 Virginia Polytechnic Institute - #16 James Madison University - #21 University of Mary Washington - #38 George Mason University - #64

Maryland schools were: University of Maryland - #8

St. Mary’s College of Maryland - # 37 Salisbury University - # 59 University of Maryland, Baltimore County- # 93 Towson University - # 97

Happy New Year 2010!!!