20070719 News Clips

News Clips

July 19, 2007

STATE NEWS

State leaders look at Md. income taxes
First new brackets in 40 years are a progressive plan, advocates say
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.taxes19jul19,0,6067557.story?coll=bal_tab01_layout
State leaders are considering the first changes to Maryland's income tax brackets in 40 years to make them more progressive - and to help erase the state's projected $1.5 billion budget shortfall. Gov. Martin O'Malley said this week that he wants to find ways to make the state's tax structure more progressive, and key legislators, including Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, have expressed support for at least a temporary tax increase on top earners, such as one that helped Maryland weather its last major fiscal crisis, in the early 1990s. Maryland will find itself at a disadvantage if it raises its rates on top earners, said Del. Gail H. Bates, a Howard County Republican who is an accountant. "Wealthy people do pay more," Bates said. Sen. David R. Brinkley, the minority leader from Frederick County, said Republicans are not going to go for the idea. Brinkley, who attended the governor's Chamber of Commerce speech, said the impression he got was that O'Malley is less committed to making the income tax fair than he is to finding a way to sell a tax increase to people.

Hamm resigns
Rising homicides, low police morale help end tenure
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-te.md.ci.p olice19jul19,0,5307598.story
Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm, hired to stabilize a department in turmoil but recently under fire as the city's homicide count soars, has resigned, sources close to the decision told The Sun yesterday. Mayor Sheila Dixon is expected to make the formal announcement at City Hall today. Dixon asked for Hamm's resignation during a City Hall meeting Tuesday night after some in the administration felt that the public had lost confidence in him and that his tenure had become a distraction, sources said. Frederick H. Bealefeld III, the deputy commissioner of operations and a 26-year police veteran, is expected to serve as acting commissioner. O'Malley officials declined to comment last night, but the governor -- at a political event in Baltimore on Tuesday -- said he thought that the transition of power this year and the nonstop state and city political campaigns of the past two years are at least partl y to blame for low police morale and crime.

Md. loses bid for U.S. biodefense laboratory
The proposed site was in Beltsville
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.lab19jul19,0,7698731.story
Maryland has been eliminated from a national competition to land a $450 million laboratory for research dedicated to protecting the country's agriculture and food from disease and terrorism threats. The 520,000-square-foot lab is expected to play a critical role for the country in assessing bioterrorism threats over the next five decades. It could have helped the state boost its already growing presence in the biodefense research field and created hundreds of new jobs. Sources close to the selection process said yesterday that one reason Maryland was nixed is because the proposed site in Beltsville is too close to Washington - an d that other applications near major urban areas were also turned down. The project was launched by DBED officials when Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was in office. Aris Melissaratos, Ehrlich's DBED secretary, said he is disappointed. "Obviously I'm not happy, I thought we put together a great partnership," he said. "It would've been a major investment from the federal government.

Best Places to Live: State's growth pulls it in
http://www.examiner.com/a-835983~Best_Places_to_Live__State_s_growth_pulls_it_in.html
Business is the heart of a community. At least that's what seems to be the case with the five Maryland communities that made Money magazine's Best Places to Live: Top 100 list. Focusing on areas with populations of 7,500 to 50,000, the magazine judged communities on a "combination of economic opportunity, good schools, safe streets, things to do and a real sense of community."

Seafood event hooks politicians
http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070719/METRO/107190056/1004
Even during an election off-year, Maryland"s top crab feast is all about the politics.The 31st annual J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake yesterday drew more than 5,600 visitors to the southern tip of Maryland"s Eastern Shore to talk politics and feast on such Eastern Shore favorites as clams and hard-shelled crabs. Candidates for the House seat held by U.S. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest came to the feast even though the Feb. 12 primary election is still more than six months away. Queen Anne"s County prosecutor Frank M. Kratovil Jr. and private lawyer Christopher Robinson, both Democrats, joined state Sen. Andrew P. Harri s, Baltimore County Republican. All brought entourages to help Eastern Shore voters learn more about their candidates.

State awards $3 million grant to Carroll Creek Park
http://www.gazette.net/stories/071907/frednew43139_32360.shtml
Frederick's Carroll Creek Linear Park project has received a $3 million grant from the state's Transportation Enhancement Program. The Transportation Enhancement Program is run by the State Highway Administration. The funds will be used to construct pedestrian and bicycle paths and visitor amenities throughout the 1.3-mile park.

EDITORIAL

BRAC process must be open
http://www.examiner.com/a-835979~BRAC_process_must_be_open.html
Harford lawmakers and county officials did all of Maryland a favor when they raised some - well, let's call it heck - over Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown's BRAC subcabinet meeting in secret. Secrecy and credibility are mutually exclusive. If the subcabinet is going into closet mode routinely as it meets in affected areas around the state, Maryland voters and local government officials will lose confidence in the process of preparing for the biggest economic impact here in decades.
Harford delegates and county officials are intensely focused on Brown's BRAC performance because that sylvan, rural area is home to Aberdeen Proving Grounds which gets the most direct jobs.

O'Malley must find a way out of state' s power dilemma
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/07_12-37/OPN
Now is the summer of Marylanders' discontent, as they contemplate their swollen power bills and wonder if getting relief from the oppressive heat will empty their bank accounts.
Their mood isn't brightened by recalling one of last year's most effective campaign ads. That's the one about energy bills that intoned, "The special interests already have their governor. We need one of our own . Martin O'Malley - taking on BGE to stop the rate hikes." At the time, Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. argued that Mr. O'Malley's pugnacious attitude didn't matter. The rate hikes, Mr. Ehrlich insisted, flowed directly from the state's 1999 utility deregulation plan and couldn't legally be averted. Since then, events have vindicated Mr. Ehrlich.


NATIONAL NEWS

Homeland security funds for state rise
$56 million total more than doubles last year's grant
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.security19jul19,0,716504.story?page=1&coll=bal_tab01_layout
Baltimore and Maryland will receive a total of more than $32 million in U.S. homeland security grants, the federal government announced yesterday. The amount represents a major increase over last year but falls short of the nearly $40 million in 2005.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski cautioned that the federal grant for communications systems was not guaranteed and that Maryland must formally apply for the money. Mikulski said Maryland should have gotten more. U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, a Baltimore County Democrat, called the announcement "a step in the right direction," adding that most of the money will go to "building infrastructure and supporting people at the local community level, which is exactly where it needs to be to make sure that you respond to any kind of disaster or incident in a comprehensive way." Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, another Baltimore County Democrat, said he was "very pleased" to see funding to improve public safety communications.

Challenger gears up for Democratic House primary
Realtor aims to oust incumbent Wynn
http://www.gazette.net/stories/071907/prinnew145738_32358.shtml
George Mitchell has no intention of being the also-ran candidate in his race for Congress.''There's a need to run. I didn't just wake up one day and decide to run for Congress. This district - we need help," Mitchell said. District 4 spans parts of Prince George's and Montgomery counties.Mitchell, 52, quietly filed as a Democrat to challenge eight-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Albert Wynn of Mitchellville in April, around the same time Fort Washington attorney Donna Edwards launched her second bid for Congress. Edwards came within three points of beating Wynn last year and is widely viewed as the challenger with the best chance of unseating Wynn, but Mitchell says he's just as capable of energizing voters' discontent with the incumbent.

National Petroleum Council hides the hard truths about energy instead of facing them
http://www.energybulletin.net/32221.html
Congressmen Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) and Tom Udall (D-N M), co-chairmen of the Congressional Peak Oil Caucus, held a Capitol Hill news conference to discuss the scheduled release today of an embargoed report by the National Petroleum Council (NPC), "Facing the Hard Truths about Energy." "Instead of 'facing the hard truths about energy,' the NPC report hides them," said Congressman Bartlett. Congressman Bartlett added, "The issue is not the report's touted headline that 'the world is not running out of energy resources,' it's whether the ability exists to deliver supplies of oil and natural gas to meet rising world demand."

Federal Bill Includes Funding to Stem Local Gangs
More Than 1,000 People Are in Montgomery Police Database of Active Gang Members, Officials Say
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/ 2007/07/18/AR2007071801299.html
Federal lawmakers will soon vote on a bill that includes grants totaling $600,000 to fight gangs in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) announced this week.
The funding includes $275,000 for the Montgomery and Prince George's gang task force; $200,000 for CASA de Maryland, an immigrant advocacy group; and $125,000 for the City of Gaithersburg.The grants are part of the Commerce, Justice, Science funding bill, which recently passed the appropriations committee.