20080417 News Clips

NewsClips 04-17-2008

STATE NEWS

Rhetoric heating in slots battle

O'Malley, Franchot exchange barbs

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-te.md.slots17apr17,0,4162453.story

The statewide battle over a November referendum that would legalize slot machine gambling in Maryland heated up yesterday with sniping between Gov. Martin O'Malley, the ballot measure's chief proponent, and Comptroller Peter Franchot, an outspoken opponent.
The rhetoric is a preview to what is shaping up as a debate that will span the next seven months until voters decide on a constitutional amendment that would authorize slots. Not only are O'Malley and Franchot staking out sides, but so are a host of other politicos, clergy and business leaders who are casting the slots fight in broad terms and as one of high stakes. Both sides traded the "hypocrite" label. Slots opponents noted that O'Malley once called gambling a "morally bankrupt" way to fund education, although he campaigned for governor on a plan allowing limited slots at Maryland racetracks. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a longtime supporter of slots, warned that without the added revenue the state would be forced to make deep budget cuts in education and public safety, because "there is no political will whatsoever to raise any additional taxes between now and the next election." Miller also lambasted Franchot for not being "a team player." "Franchot knows he's not going to be the one to have to make the cuts, so he can look back and say, 'Tsk, tsk,'" Miller said. "He'll always be on the outside throwing gas on the flames." The anti-slots camp organized under the ballot committee Marylanders United to Stop Slots held a rally yesterday at an Annapolis church. The group's steering committee includes Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey, a Democrat; Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, a Republican; Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; and more than a dozen state lawmakers.

Justices uphold lethal method

Republican leaders urge O'Malley to act on Md. executions

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.lethal17apr17,0,4586454.story

In a decision expected to clear the way for states to resume executions by lethal injection, the Supreme Court upheld yesterday Kentucky's execution procedures, which are used by nearly every state with a death penalty law, including Maryland. Within hours of yesterday's ruling, the governor of Virginia announced that he was lifting his state's moratorium on executions, while several prosecutors and governors around the country said they would seek execution dates as quickly as the courts can set them. Gov. Martin O'Malley has made no move to order new procedures, but after the high court decision, Republican leaders urged him to do so. In a sharply worded letter to the governor, Republican leaders of the House of Delegates accused O'Malley of engaging in "a de facto suspension of the law" and called on him to immediately issue new execution procedures to begin the approval process. "To take those [Division of Correction] procedures and put them into the format of a regulation and run them through the process is a relatively easy thing to accomplish," said Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell, the House minority leader. "But if we have a governor who decides to casually pick and choose what he's going to adhere to in the Constitution, we're all at great risk. We feel strongly about that."

Debate over slots spins on economy

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080417/METRO/174017526/1004

Both sides in Maryland"s slots debate are going for voters" pocketbooks. As the campaigns for and against allowing slot-machine gambling start up, the economy will be a theme for both sides. A group of about 30 slots opponents gathered at an Annapolis church yesterday to begin their public campaign urging voters to reject a November referendum to allow up to 15,000 slots machines at five locations. A major talking point was to reject arguments that slots are needed to prevent tax increases. Maryland"s top slots supporter — Gov. Martin O"Malley — said before the opponents" announcement yesterday that defeating slots means school construction and other important state programs would be put in danger. "Hopefully, the opponents have a suggestion as to where else the people of Maryland, the state of Maryland will get these important dollars that are currently building schools and addressing public needs in Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia," the governor said, citing neighboring states where slot machines are in place. Bishop John R. Schol of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church, who attended the announcement, said he is telling pastors to promote alternative solutions to a bad economy, "Many states don't have slots, and they can figure it out," Bishop Schol said.

General Assembly Expands Dental Care for Poor Children

New Funding Increases Medicaid Rates Paid to Dentists

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/16/AR2008041601365.html

Advocates for children's dental care were biting their nails through much of Maryland's recent General Assembly session. But despite a flurry of spending cuts, millions of additional state dollars aimed at expanding dental care for poor children made it into the state's budget for the coming fiscal year. The added funds, which will be used to boost rates paid to dentists who treat Medicaid children and help expand public dental care in underserved areas, are part of a long-term strategy to provide more dental care to poor children throughout the state. The barriers to dental care are complex, but one contributing factor has been the shortage of dentists willing to accept Medicaid patients. Many have cited the state's historically low Medicaid reimbursement rates as a deterrent to providing services.

Top Gilchrest aide to join Kratovil campaign

http://www.politickermd.com/kevinagnese/1822/top-gilchrest-aide-join-kratovil-campaign

Lynn Caligiuri, a longtime aide to Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Kennedyville) has been hired by the congressional campaign of Frank Kratovil (D-Stevensville) to assist in fundraising matters, according to Erik Gulbrandsen, the campaign’s communications director. “She will be helping us to go after some of the Republican money and some of the national money,” Gulbrandsen told PolitickerMD.com. Tony Caligiuri, Lynn’s husband and Gilchrest’s chief of staff, has already pledged his support to Kratovil. Gilchrest has not endorsed a candidate.

Fort Meade plans laid out

Defense agency will move workers there as part base realignment

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.meade17apr17,0,3077857.story

Nearly 4,300 workers will work out of the new headquarters of the Defense Information Systems Agency, the biggest of the new tenants moving to Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County as part of the Pentagon's base realignment and closure process. The Arlington, Va.-based agency, established in 1960, handles the military's communications network. Yesterday, at a ceremony attended by more than 150 people, including Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, officials laid out the plans for a 1-million-square-foot office building on 95 acres that are now a golf course. Officials said yesterday that they are working to ensure that roads and schools can handle the influx of new workers. Interstate 175 is to be widened, but not until after many workers have moved in, said Robert Hannon, chief executive of Anne Arundel County's economic development arm.

Special Election Bill Among Those To Be Signed

http://wjz.com/local/omalley.election.bill.2.702018.html

A bill to allow a special election to replace Congressman Albert Wynn will be signed into law Thursday, along with dozens more bills. Governor Martin O'Malley will sign the Wynn bill, which changes state law governing special elections to allow the Wynn seat to be filled without a special primary, too. Wynn lost a Democratic primary in February and then announced he would retire before his term ends. Wynn is leaving in June to take a Washington law firm job. His term was to run though January.

EDITORIALS/OP-EDS

Today's catch: Fewer crabs

Our view: Bistate efforts help, but harvest restrictions just a start

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bal-ed.crab17apr17001521,0,4580670.story

While the Chesapeake Bay's fish and shellfish populations have long been in decline, our elected leaders have seldom taken sufficient measures to protect them. This week's announcement that Gov. Martin O'Malley and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine will direct their respective regulatory agencies to reduce the harvest of female crabs by 34 percent is a welcome development. The prospect of real partnership between the states on this issue is noteworthy. The southward fall migration of mature female crabs makes this very much a shared enterprise - and one that Maryland's southern neighbor has often been reluctant to restrict. Maryland and Virginia need something equivalent to industrial cap-and-trade rules: Set strict individual harvest quotas (based on the annual survey) and grant watermen the right to trade or sell their allocation to others. That would leave fewer watermen on the bay, but the ones left behind would be able to earn a living.

Clawing for Life

Facing disaster, two governors act to save the Chesapeake Bay's crabs.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/16/AR2008041603281.html

THE MOMENT that Chesapeake Bay watermen had been dreading arrived Tuesday. Faced with a dire drop in the blue crab harvest, the governors of Maryland and Virginia announced sharp new limits on the volume of sooks (as female crabs, the ones generally used to make crab cakes, are known) that can be taken from the bay's waters. The new rules mean that inevitably, and through little fault of their own, some watermen will be driven out of business and out of the only way of life they have known. The governors are ordering state agencies to cut the harvest of female blue crabs this year by a third. But it is really more of a stopgap designed to avert utter catastrophe than a lasting solution. Assuming no dramatic foreseeable improvement in the bay's ecology, the states must do what they have pointedly failed to so far: Devise a long-term strategy for the revival of the crab population. Part of the problem may have been competition or a lack of coordination between the two states; part of it may have been political cold feet by politicians loath to deliver bad news to the bay's 1,000 watermen and the thousands of others whose jobs depend on the crab harvest. But muddling through is no longer an option; to do so could mean extinction for a fishery that is synonymous with the Chesapeake Bay.

On the map

Visit by state leaders may be first for city

http://www.times-news.com/editorials

It what may be a first for Cumberland, Maryland's governor, lieutenant governor and entire Cabinet will spend a full day here as part of the state's "Capital for a Day" program.
More than just a social call, the visit will feature a regular Cabinet meeting and will enable the state's top elected leaders to see firsthand the good things that are happening in the Queen City, as well as focusing on what needs to be improved. Cumberland Mayor Lee Fiedler, who was on hand in Annapolis Monday when the Oct. 11 visit was announced, said the city is honored that it will be one of the cities to be visited. "It's a chance we have and we'll do a lot of work and hard planning for this. We're going to showcase what we're doing and the problems. We're going to work with them ... There's going to be a lot of planning going on to make sure we bring important things in our area in front of them," he said.