20070720 News Clips

News Clips

July 20, 2007

STATE NEWS

GOP: Tax cut not to blame for budget deficit
http://www.gazette.net/stories/072007/polinew222448_32364.shtmlRepublicans are objecting to Gov. Martin O'Malley's recent statements that the state's fiscal woes are, in part, a result of a tax cut in 1998. The GOP said Thursday that blaming a projected $1.5 billion deficit on the tax cut is ''patently false."
At several recent events, O'Malley (D) has said the income tax cut and the Thornton education aid reforms, approved with bipartisan majorities, have led to the cash shortfall.
The real culprit to Maryland's budget is years of excessive spending," Senate Minority Leader David R. Brinkley (R-Dist. 4) of New Market said in a statement. ''If you agree with their argument that tax rates need to be increased, then why did Maryland bring in more revenues AFTER the tax rate reduction than before?" Brinkley asked.
''The Annapolis tax and spend crowd is trying to suggest that if we had not cut the tax rate, all of that revenue would have been locked up in a piggy-bank and we would have all of this money to fix the deficit," Sen. E.J. Pipkin (R-Dist. 36) of Stevensville said in the statement. ''When we all know that money would have been spent as fast as it came into that Comptroller's office. Our state government has a spending problem, not a tax problem."


State gets a 'D' on financial disclosure
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.disclose20jul20,0,5262784.story
Maryland gets a grade of "D" when it comes to the information governors are required to provide about their fin ances, according to a national watchdog group. The Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based nonprofit dedicated to making the nation's institutions more transparent, gave the state a marginal rating of 62.5 on a 100-point scale measuring how extensively governors are required to report their personal finances and how accessible those records are to the public.Leah Rush, the center's director of state projects, said full disclosure allows people to know whether elected officials are acting in the public's interest or in their own.
"Getting this information out in the public domain is an important function as far as gaining the public's trust in their government to be open about all the different hats public officials wear," she saidMayor's decision to oust may pay off politically

Hogan's departure leads to scramble
Committee seats, vice chairmanship in play following senator's resignation
http://www.gazette.net/stories/072007/polinew222436_32358.shtml
Patrick J. Hogan's decision to resign his Senate seat could set off a long line of political dominoes, lawmakers said this week. Now, state legislators are preparing for a scramble to fill several key positions that Hogan will leave vacant - most notably the vice chairmanship of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller will likely topple the first domino by naming a new vice chairman. And he might not wait for Hogan to be replaced in District 39, he said Tuesday.

Mayor's decision to oust may pay off politically
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.md.ci.dixon20jul20 ,0,5135124.story
While the political consequences of firing a police commissioner two months before an election remain unclear, several experts predicted yesterday that the potentially risky decision may ultimately pay off for Mayor Sheila Dixon's campaign.
She is already ahead in the polls, and her ouster of Leonard D. Hamm seemed to have an instant effect on the tenor of the race, neutralizing criticism by her leading opponents and presenting the image, at least, that the mayor is taking decisive action.

On a mission to help trace missing kids
Police Department arms families with bracelets in pilot program
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-ho.lifesaver20jul20,0,5273108.story
Roger Miles called for his 10-year-old son, Harrison. He looked in every roo m of his Clarksville home, but could not find him. "We started frantically searching our neighborhood," said Miles, recalling the October 2004 incident. "I felt panicked. ... It was a very chaotic situation. We were totally blindsided. We didn't know what to do." Howard County police searched for Harrison, who has autism, finding him 45 minutes later.
Harrison now benefits from Project Lifesaver, which outfits a person who is prone to wandering with a bracelet that emits an assigned radio frequency. The bracelet, which can be worn on the wrist or ankle, allows law enforcement officers to find a missing person quickly and easily. "You're using one to two people for 30 minutes instead of your search escalating to hundreds of people and days," said Gene Saunders, chief executive officer of Project Lifesaver International.

Report links farmers, the bay
Group says they need help to fight global warming
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/bal-md.warming20jul20,0,392450.story
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation says the agricultural community is on the front lines of the fight against global warming and needs to do more. Farmers across the bay watershed and their political leaders have only implemented a fraction of the "conservation agriculture" practices needed to reduce the flow of nutrients into the bay, said Beth McGee, the bay foundation's senior water quality scientist.

Chesapeake Bay will 'never be perfect'
http://www.examiner.com/a-837970~Chesapeake_Bay_will__never_be_perfect_.html
William Baker is the president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which began in 1967 as an advocate for creating strong and effective laws and regulations to protect the Bay, according to the foundation's Web site. The state could stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money for the Chesapeake Bay if we do not meet federal environmental standards by 2010. It is incumbent upon our elected officials to act and to act fast.
The Examiner interviewed Baker on Thursday in Annapolis and questioned him about the Bay's health, efforts to work with farmers and the Bay's future.

Crofton in the Money
Town makes magazine's Top 100
http://www.capitalonline.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/07_19-06/CCR
Money magazine just declared something that Crofton residents say they already knew: the community is one of the 100 best places to live in the nationma."I'm very pleased. Crofton has matured nicely," said County Councilman Ed. Reilly, a Crofton resident for 30 years. Crofton was the smallest of Maryland's five communities to make the list with 21,600 residents. It was joined by Olney, ranked 17th; Elkridge, 42nd; Catonsville, 49th; and Eldersburg, 56th.


Farmers await possible drought disaster designation
http://www.capitalonline.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/07_20-06/OUD
The federal Department of Agriculture has already designated most of Maryland as having moderate to severe drought. Now Maryland officials are waiting to see whether federal authorities designate the region as a drought disaster, which would open up federal aid for farmers who have suffered from the drought.
A spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley said state officials are considering asking the federal Department of Agriculture to declare a droug ht emergency for parts of Maryland. The federal designation would free up federal aid for farmers who have lost crops, said O'Malley spokesman Sasha Leonhardt.




LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Editorial and Opinion page of The Frederick News-Post has made a hard turn to the left. I was hoping that with the departure of Joe Volz the paper would again provide unbiased and thoughtful commentary. Unfortunately, Katherine Heerbrandt has taken his place as the spokesperson for the far-left.
In her commentary "Dream on, congressman," Heerbrandt repeats a familiar piece of liberal propaganda that the war in Iraq was started by President Bush in order to steal that country's oil. This type of nonsense belongs in a left-wing magazine rather than in the pages of a legitimate newspaper.
Heerbrandt's columns along with those of Elizabeth Cupino have tilted the paper to the far left. Furthermore, the paper's editorials a re usually nothing more than endorsements of liberal policies.
I certainty don't mind reading the opinions of liberals, but I would like to see The Frederick News-Post offer a balanced editorial page that doesn't consistently tilt toward the left. I would also like to see a stop to the use of ridiculous propaganda by the columnists of this paper. This type of rhetoric does nothing to further political debate and instead only continues to disgrace The Frederick News-Post.
MICHAEL HOUGH
Frederick

EDITORIALS
Bring in a police chief from outside
http://www.examiner.com/a-837936~Editorial__Bring_in_a_police_chief_from_outside.html
Mayor Sheila Dixon can undo damage done by then-Mayor, now-Gov. Martin O'Malley when she replaces Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm with a law enforcement leader with national credentials and armor-clad character. Averaging a commissioner a year is incontrovertible evidence of a systemic problem that certainly does not start with dedicated, hard-working police on the beat. The problem starts at the top and extends into the upper command ranks, where senior positions are political instead earned.

NATIONAL NEWS
She brings home the bacon
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/reporters_notebooks_display.htm?StoryID=62741
The Citizens Against Government Waste targeted Maryland U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski this week for earmarking one of the "most egregious pork-barrel projects" in fiscal 2008 Senate Economic Development Initiative grants.

Warming Poses Threats To Chesapeake, Group Says
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/19/AR2007071901112.html
Climate change has already begun to alter the Chesapeake Bay, warming and raising its waters in a way that could unbalance delicate ecosystems and doom low-lying islands, according to a report released yesterday by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The report, citing scientific research from around the bay, sketched a prognosis that was troubling even by the standards of the Chesapeake -- a beautiful but polluted estuary that environmentalists have spent decades trying to save.
On low-lying Smith Island, in the Maryland section of the bay, waves are now just a quarter-mile away from the village of Rhodes Point, said Rick Edmund, the minister of Smith Island's three Methodist churches. He said residents are hoping Congress will approve a $9.4 million plan, proposed by Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), to build artificial breakwaters offshore.

Overhaul Plan for Vote System Will Be Delayed
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/washington/20vote.html?hp
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are slowing their drive to revamp the nation's voting systems, aides said yesterday. Under pressure from state and local officials, as well as from lobbyists for the disabled, House leaders now advocate putting off the most sweeping changes until 2012, four years later than planned. State and local election officials, weary from all the changes they had already made, argued that it is already too late to make such significant changes without creating chaos next year. Advocates for the bl ind and the disabled also threatened to oppose the bill if it went too far in discouraging the use of touch-screen machines before the optical scanners were made easier for them to use. And House officials - led by the majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, who is trying to broker the deal - said they wanted to avoid another buying spree if better equipment might be available later.