20070726 News Clips

News Clips

July 26, 2007

STATE NEWS

Poll results back higher Md. taxes
Balancing budget with cuts rejected
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.poll26jul26,0,1916905.story?coll=bal_tab02_layout
A majority of Marylanders want state leaders to raise enough new tax revenue to fix the state's budget shortfall and increase spending on education, health care and other priorities, a coalition of labor unions, environmental advocates and liberal groups said yesterday. The Alliance for Tax Fairness released the results of a poll showing broad-based opposition to the idea of resolving Maryland's projected $1.5 billion budget shortfall by spending cuts alone. Respondents favored higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations, the coalition said. "We are increasingly concerned that the tax-a-holics in Annapolis are intent on getting their next tax hike fix," said Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell, the minority leader from Southern Maryland. "We believe that with some restraint in the growth of state government, there are ways to fix this problem without raising taxes."

Governor Opposes Increase in Property Tax
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/25/AR2007072502102.html
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley told lawmakers yesterday that a property tax increase should not be part of the solution to the state's budget shortfall next year.

Lawmakers have started talking about possible increases in the sales and income tax rates, but they said O'Malley was adamant yesterday about avoiding a property tax increase.

Chip Franklin leaving WBAL for job in Calif.
Departure comes amid slip in listeners
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/careers/bal-bz.wbal26jul26,0,1463827.story
WBAL is losing its highest-profile talk-show host, Chip Franklin, as well as another on-air personality, Rob Douglas - the latest of several changes for Baltimore's largest AM station in the last year.

The departures of Douglas and Franklin come during a downturn in the station's audience numbers since it lost Limbaugh's nationally syndicated show May 31 last year.
Franklin, who feuded on-air with Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley before he became governor, said he would like to persuade O'Malley to join him on the program one last time before he leaves. The man O'Malley replaced in Annapolis, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., was a regular guest of Franklin's while in office, and often called the program with news tips. The Sun was frequently in the crosshairs of Franklin's barbs.

5 schools in city labeled dangerous
Persistent student suspensions force state officials to act
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.schools26jul26,0,6957406.story
Maryland school officials labeled five Baltimore middle and high schools "persistently dangerous" yesterday, making the state one of only seven in the nation to apply the federal designation to any of its schools.
All five schools were on the list last year and did not make enough progress in reducing student suspensions to get off the list. Baltimore's new school chief executive officer, Andres Alonso, said yesterday that he plans to focus on school safety and suspensions during the next school year. He pointed out he has said he will refuse to sign off on any long-term suspension until he had heard the facts of the case. "I don't think schools can move an instructional program if students and staff don't feel safe," he said. "I am going to pay a lot of attention to this."

O'Malley to seek help for drought
http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070726/METRO/107260055/1004
Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to ask President Bush today for a disaster declaration for the state's worsening agricultural drought.

"Farmers have been particularly hard-hit in Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore," Mr. O'Malley said yesterday. "And the loss has been further exacerbated by the fact so many chose to raise corn because of forecasts of what that crop would yield."

"We need rain and some areas need it desperately," said U.S. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, a Republican who represents many of the Eastern Shore farmland hit by drought. "Farmers are once again in a situation that is beyond their control, but we should be prepared to help."

Court in session, but not on line
Cable slice in Annapolis cuts judiciary web, local phones
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/annearundel/bal-computer0725,0,5908911.story
Court employees across the state hand-wrote warrant, bail and case data all day Wednesday -- an unwelcome blast from the past thanks to damaged Verizon cables in Annapolis that shut down the Maryland Judiciary's computer system. The cables affecting the court system were to be repaired Wednesday evening, but cables providing phone service to about 6,300 businesses and homes in Annapolis and Parole might not be repaired until this weekend, a Verizon spokeswoman said. Affected businesses and offices along Jennifer Road included the county jail and the county school system. Darrell Pressley, spokesman for Maryland judiciary, said all District and Circuit courts were without access to computerized criminal records and case information.
"What this has done is slowed us down, but it hasn't stopped us," Pressley said. Courts are still operating as best we can under the circumstances."

State summit seeks a path to energy efficiency
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070726/METRO/107260050/1004
Gov. Martin O'Malley and Maryland lawmakers gathered yesterday with utility officials, nonprofits and academics to exchange ideas about how to resolve energy-conservation and power-supply concerns. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, called for the summit to bring together experts to talk about reducing Maryland's per capita energy consumption, which he hopes to reduce by 15 percent by 2015. Mr. O'Malley said other states with similar levels of growth have used energy more sparingly, and now Maryland has to focus on being more efficient.The governor asked Malcolm Woolf, director of the Maryland Energy Administration, to develop an energy plan in time for the next General Assembly session with specific policy solutions for affordable, reliable and clean energy.

Shifting Migration Patterns Alter Portrait of Pr. George's
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/25/AR2007072502384.html
Prince George's, a county that underwent a seismic population shift a generation ago as it became the nation's wealthiest majority-black suburb, might be on the cusp of another demographic change. In the past decade, Prince George's has become a destination for many working-class and foreign-born families because of its relatively affordable housing. At the same time, thousands of middle-class people, many of them African American, have left for neighboring counties in search of better schools, less crime and bigger houses. The population swings -- documented in a recent report by the Brookings Institution and in census data -- have not made a significant difference in the overall socioeconomics of Prince George's, which has a population of 840,000. And county officials say a recent surge in commercial and residential development will continue to bring amenities that will attract affluent residents.

PSC seeks utilities' records
BGE-Constellation links are target of subpoena
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-te.md.psc26jul26,0,1258103.story?page=1&coll=bal_tab01_layout
The Public Service Commission has subpoenaed documents from utility executives that it hopes will shed light on how much money Constellation Energy Group makes selling electricity to its BGE subsidiary and on whether there is anything improper in the dual roles that some executives play at both companies.
The demand yesterday follows a May ruling by the commission that raised questions about possible conflicts of interest between the two companies that could b enefit Constellation to the detriment of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers. Constellation executives deny any conflicts of interest and say BGE customers benefit from its being part of a larger corporation.

Bid to raise transfer tax comes up short
http://www.examiner.com/a-847306~Bid_to_raise_transfer_tax_comes_up_short.html
A bid to raise Harford County's transfer tax and eliminate impact fees failed Tuesday to win support from state lawmakers. Councilman Dion Guthrie argued for increasing the transfer tax a half a percentage point, to 1.5 percent, while wiping out the impact fee on every new home built. He said doing so would bring in $8 million more a year for school construction. But General Assembly members did not budge at a meeting of county and state lawmakers.

Del. J.B. Jennings, R-District 7, called impact fees fair and necessary. "Why do we need to build new schools? Because we have more children," he said. "Why do we have more children? Because we have more homes. It's the explosion in construction that's causing all the schools to be built."

Lawyer Questions State Charges For Election Records
http://wbal.com/news/story.asp?articleid=61155
The Maryland Board of Elections has begun charging fees of up to $100 for campaign finance information that's been previously available for free on its website. A state elections official confirms the board removed the addresses of individual campaign donors from its website, in order to protect the privacy of donors.
A WBAL News review of campaign finance records for Governor Martin O'Malley and former Governor Robert Ehrlich confirms that an individual donor's name is listed on the board's website, along with the donor's city, state and zip code, as well as the amount of the donation.


EDITORIALS

Average, and getting worse
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bal-ed.kids26jul26,0,4960370.story
Maryland, one of the wealthiest states in the nation, ranks only 24th in the well-being of its children, according to the latest Kids Count report. That's a notch below last year and a drop of five places in two years, pointing to a continuing, shameful gap and a need to reorder state priorities.

NATIONAL NEWS

O'Malley to ask for emergency declaration for drought
http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=a4198cc3-6317-4de3-9bdf-b563d90a1a76
Governor Martin O'Malley plans to ask the federal government tomorrow for a disaster declaration because of the ongoing drought. Today, Congressman Wayne Gilchrest met with U-S Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns to discuss the drought in Maryland. Corn crops have been especially hurt by the dry weather. In some areas, there has been NO significant rain since May, and some farmers say their corn crops are nearly all gone.

'Offshore Missile Defense: Where are the Submarines?'
http://www.americandaily.com/article/19707
Expertise in Congress occasionally manifests itself from an unlikely source. One of the unduly lesser heralded, but remarkably brilliant and versatile, Members of Congress is Roscoe G. Bartlett(R-MD). Who else in Congress is an experienced working farmer, a college and university lecturer on diverse subjects, a Ph.D. in human physiology - and a self-made man, working his way out of relative poverty! Now Ranking Minority Member of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces, Representative Bartlett has developed an exception al military and defense-needs knowledge. Not surprisingly, he is among the (unfortunately, too few) Members of Congress who advocate greater submarine construction.

Cardin supports former Maryland official for FEMA post
http://www.wmdt.com/wires/displaystory.asp?id=64023030
Senator Ben Cardin is supporting a former Maryland homeland security official for a top job in the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Dennis Schrader was Maryland 's first director of Homeland Security for Maryland under former Governor Robert Ehrlich.Today, Cardin voiced his support for Schrader's confirmation for the FEMA job. Cardin says Schrader worked across all levels of government and across party lines in Maryland.
Schrader has been nominated by the Bush Administration to be FEMA's deputy administrator for national preparedness.
Schrader appeared with the senator today at a hearing before the Homeland Security and Government Oversight Committee.