The US Olympic team has performed well and needs to be congratulated for their hard work and dedication over the last four years of intense training.  Their preparation has paid off and they have represented the US with pride.

The United States is guaranteed 37 medals and Canada will finish with at least 13 gold medals. The Americans will leave with the most medals by any country at any Winter Games. They also will win the medal count for only the second time, the other being at Lake Placid in 1932.

There have been many individual efforts in speed skating, downhill sking, figure skating, freestyle sking, while the team efforts in the "Night Train" bobsled team, and the hockey team were the best.   We have a lot to be proud of in these Olympics and it demonstrates the quality of our sports programs in the US.

Congrats to all of the American citizens who have participated in the Olympics.

Below is an article in the Washington Times praising Brad Botwin of his efforts to force Montgomery County to book, process, and report illegal immigrants or fugitives to ICE.  Montgomery County has thousands of criminal activities per month and a recent string of murders.  The half-baked policies of reporting "only" violent criminals to ICE is dumb and does not protect the tax-paying citizens of Montgomery County.  It is time to RECALL and CHALLENGE Ike Leggett and the entire County Council.  Congrats to Brad Botwin on his efforts to make Montgomery County a safer place to live.

Brad Botwin of Help Save Maryland, for his Herculean efforts to force local officials in Montgomery County, Md., to take a more serious approach to dealing with criminal behavior by illegal aliens - efforts which have begun to bear fruit.

For years, elected Montgomery County officials have preened about their “progressive” political views, even making the county an official sanctuary for illegal aliens and banning county employees (most prominently police and corrections officials)) from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. But after several recent arrests of illegal aliens in high-profile murder cases of constituents, local politicians and police realized this sanctuary policy was politically (if not morally) indefensible. So, last week, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett and Police Chief Thomas Manger announced that county police will start providing federal immigration authorities with the names of all suspects they arrest for violent crimes and handgun violations.  How darn nice of them.

Other local jurisdictions like neighboring Frederick County, Md. have officers undergo special training on immigration enforcement and turn over the names of illegal immigrants arrested for any crime - violent or otherwise. Mr. Botwin and others ask very sensibly: Why shouldn't illegal aliens arrested for burglary or drug trafficking also be subject to deportation? And why shouldn't illegal aliens involved in embezzlement, credit-card fraud or receiving stolen goods be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement? And what about hoodlums carrying knives or machetes? (Illegal aliens arrested in the Nov. 1 murder of an honor student on a country transit bus had been arrested on charges linked to carrying a machete and carrying a switchblade.)

The new Montgomery County policy is just a modest step in the right direction, but even this might not have taken place if it weren't for the work of Mr. Botwin, a federal employee who spends much of his free time working to make Montgomery County's policies more sensible.

Last month, his group won a meeting with Mr. Leggett to discuss the county's permissive policies toward illegals - something that would have been unthinkable a year ago. To the extent that the county is making any progress in the right direction, the public can thank Mr. Botwin.  For working to change Montgomery County's absurdly permissive approach toward illegals, Brad Botwin is the Noble of the Week.