Upper Marlboro is located at 38 48 59 N 76 45 12 W / 38.81639 N 76.75333 W / 38.81639 76.75333 (38.816488, 76.753454). 6

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.43 square miles (1.11 km2), of which, 0.40 square miles (1.04 km2) is land and 0.03 square miles (0.08 km2) is water. 1

Upper Marlboro is the county seat of Prince George’s County, 7 a large urban and suburban area of some 850,000 people adjacent to Washington, D.C. U.S. Route 301 and Maryland Route 4 intersect at the edge of town. The northern terminus of the Stephanie Roper Highway (Maryland Route 4) is in Upper Marlboro at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Water Street. Major features of the town include the courthouse, jail, county office building, board of education, and a lake with walking path. Just to the south of town is the Prince George’s Equestrian Center which is the location of the annual county fair, a major annual antiques show and The Show Place Arena on the former Marlboro racetrack grounds. This arena is used for events such as hockey games, circuses, rodeos, conventions, trade shows, and graduation ceremonies of many regional high schools, as well as daily overflow parking for county governmental employees, jurors, and visitors.

Although the surrounding area has many rural, pastoral features, including horse farms, housing developments are increasingly prevalent. However, except for supermarkets, an Amish market, car dealers, and a Home Depot, all outside the town limits, the town and surrounding area have only minimal shopping therefore, residents must travel to Bowie, Clinton, Brandywine, Waldorf, or Forestville to find department stores. Upper Marlboro is convenient to employees commuting to locations along Maryland Route 4 or US Route 301, such as Andrews Air Force Base and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Town of Upper Marlboro is often mistaken for the surrounding unincorporated area of Greater Upper Marlboro, with a population of nearly 20,000 in an area of 77 square miles (200 km2) (as designated by the post office).

Climate edit

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the K ppen Climate Classification system, Upper Marlboro has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated «Cfa» on climate maps. 8

History edit

The area of Upper Marlboro was first settled around 1695. It was named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, an ancestor of Winston Churchill. The land, which was to become the town, was part of several estates known as Grove Landing, Meadows, and Darnall’s Chance, owned by the Brooke, Beall, and Darnall families, respectively.

Darnall’s Chance, also known as the Buck House, was built between 1694 and 1712. The house can still be found across from the present day County Administration Building on Gov. Oden Bowie Drive. It was owned by the Darnall and Carroll families. The home may have been the birthplace of Daniel Carroll, a signer of the US Constitution, and his brother, John Carroll, the first bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in America.

In 1706, Marlborough Town was established as a port town by the Act for the Advancement of Trade and Erecting Ports and Towns. It was declared that the town would be constructed, «at the upper landing on the Western Branch, commonly called Colonel Belt’s landing.» County surveyor Thomas Truman Greenfield conducted a survey of 100 acres (0.40 km2) of the three estates from which the town would be formed. Streets, alleys, a meetinghouse, lots for small businesses, and 100 lots to be used for homes were laid out. Earliest plans showed the town being laid out in a grid pattern with an L shape.

Residents of the area were not happy with Greenfield’s initial layout and petitioned the General Assembly to have the town replatted. In 1744, the new survey was approved and the town was given a new name, Upper Marlborough. Upper was added to distinguish the town from the community of Marlboro (now known as Lower Marlboro) in Calvert County.

Early in its life, when the western branch of the Patuxent River was still navigable, the town served as a port town for tobacco ships. The town blossomed into an agricultural, social, and political hot spot. Farms, many of which raised tobacco, dominated the surrounding areas.

In 1721, a courthouse was constructed in the town. The county seat was then moved from Charles Town, on the banks of the Patuxent, to Upper Marlborough. The courthouse was built with money from a 12 pound tobacco tax imposed on county inhabitants. One of the first laws passed at the courthouse was the Public School Act, which established a public school system.

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, many prominent merchants, lawyers, and politicians lived and worked in the area. Horse racing came to the town around the mid 18th century and attracted many people from the surrounding areas. The Maryland Jockey Club sponsored spring and summer races at the race track south of town, and racing continued there until 1972, when they were moved to the Bowie Race Track. The race track is now part of the Equestrian Center owned by Prince George’s County.

In 1870, the town was incorporated by the Maryland General Assembly. A volunteer fire department was organized in 1886, and the Marlborough Fire Association was incorporated the following year.

In the late 19th century, the town’s name changed from Upper Marlborough to Upper Marlboro. The name change is linked to a postal clerk who felt the extra letters, ugh, didn t properly fit on the rubber stamps being used at the time. By 1893, postal guides were referring to the town as Upper Marlboro and the name stuck, despite a proposed ballot to have it changed back in 1968.

Since its initial conception the town has changed quite a bit. It initially boomed as a port town for tobacco trade, but the clearing and cultivation of land for farming would lead to erosion in the area. Over the years this erosion caused sedimentation, leading the Western Branch to become unnavigable. The fields of tobacco that once dominated the area have been converted over to residential developments, with the number of farms dwindling each year.

Today, the town is still the governing center of Prince George’s County. Located within the town are the Prince George’s County Courthouse, County Administration Building, and the Board of Education. The town’s atmosphere is remarkably different, depending on the time of day. During the day, people from all across the county flock in for court hearings and government affairs, but in the evening, the town is pretty much empty. 9

The courthouse edit

North korea ivory and contraband trade — business insider

North Korea has diversified its business model for earning hard currency, shifting from a reliance on manufacturing drugs and counterfeiting foreign bank notes to smuggling products from endangered species, fake pharmaceuticals and counterfeit cigarettes.

The details of Pyongyang’s methods of earning the funds it needs to pay for its nuclear and missile programmes are spelled out in a study released on Tuesday by the Washington based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

The 115 page report says Pyongyang has been producing narcotics and smuggling them abroad through the diplomatic bag and printing high quality forgeries of foreign currency since the mid 1970s, all part of the Kim regime’s «fundamental strategic objective» of self preservation.

There has been a shift in recent years, however, with the emergence of a privatized market economy that the authors describe as «a criminal one that is feeding off the suffering and deprivation of the population».

The smuggling by North Korean diplomats of rhino horn and ivory also appears to be a more recent development, the report says, with a North Korean citizen arrested in 2012 in Mozambique as he attempted to smuggle 130 pieces of ivory, with an estimated value of $36,000, out of the country.

Similar seizures in Kenya, Russia and France totaled more than 1.8 tons of ivory.

There has been a substantial increase in North Korea’s output of counterfeit cigarettes since 2002, with a container of fake Marlboro cigarettes impounded in Singapore after arriving from North Korea via the South Korean port of Busan.

Similar seizures took place in South Africa, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines, while in late 2006, 3 million cartons of counterfeit cigarettes with a street value of f3.5 million were found by Greek customs authorities aboard North Korean flagged ships.

North Korean officials were caught in 2004 smuggling 150,000 tablets of the sedative Clonazepam in Egypt, while embassy employees from Bulgaria were detained in Turkey carrying half a million tablets of the synthetic stimulant Captagon, with an estimated value of $7 million.

North Korea has also been accused of manufacturing fake Viagra pills.

The report claims that North Korean officials have also engaged in smuggling gems over international borders, trafficking in DVDs. smuggling used cars and even selling pornography in Finland.