I know I haven't posted in a while. I've been very busy designing and building a web site for the Democratic Club of Worcester County. I hope to get back to posting regularly in about a month.
[...]edited by: G. A. Harrison,
Delmarva Editor
I know I haven't posted in a while. I've been very busy designing and building a web site for the Democratic Club of Worcester County. I hope to get back to posting regularly in about a month.
[...]
There's been a lot of public hand-wringing and breast-beating over the small number of bids received to operate slot machines in Maryland - only a total of six bids were received for the five possible sites. Two of the bids came without the required deposit, suggesting that [...]
Opponents of nuclear energy frequently cite the problem of 'waste disposal' as their rationale for opposing this energy source. And it's true that, for various reasons, including political infighting, this problem has not been completely solved. But the primary alternative to nuclear power doesn't look so good [...]
The hits just keep on coming for the Maryland State Police. Yet more embarrassing revelations surfaced the other day in their long running spying scandal. The State Police can't seem to make this problem go away and there's a good reason for that. They still won't admit [...]
I've been busy on other projects, but it's time to get back to posting. The 426th session of the Maryland General Assembly begins on January 14th and runs until April 13th, 2009. The session will be, as always, in the historic State House which is reopening after [...]
The most recent commission to examine the death penalty in Maryland released their report today. The final report of the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment can be found here. The Commission voted 13 to 7 to recommend that capital punishment be abolished in the State of [...]
In my last post I took a look at the election results on the Eastern Shore where the Democrat Frank Kratovil ended eighteen years of Republican success in the First Congressional District by narrowly beating Republican Andy Harris. I also pointed out that, despite Kratovil's win, [...]
Thanksgiving is over, Christmas shopping has begun, the hunters are out in full force and it's cold here on the Eastern Shore. So I guess this is as good a time as any to take a closer look at results of the recent election, particularly here on [...]
It's good to hear that President-Elect Obama is planning on more fiscal stimulus for the American economy and even better to hear that he plans to stimulate the economy by investing in infrastructure rather than just sending out checks to everyone. We have been ignoring our infrastructure' [...]
The opening of the 2009 session of the Maryland General Assembly is less than two months away and, of course, the maneuvering has already started. As expected, the early action is all about money.
Over at the Maryland Politics Watch, Adam Pagnucco reports that Rich Madaleno has [...]
As the national and global economies continue to deteriorate, we're fortunate that Maryland is in a better position than most states. We're relatively wealthy, our economy is largely service based and a steady stream of Federal government expenditures supports much of the state economy.
Nevertheless, we're definitely [...]
Well, it looks as thought the bid by the Club For Growth to put their man, Andy Harris, into Congress, may have been sidetracked. After the first round of counting absentee ballots, Democrat Frank Kratovil's lead has increased to 2,003 votes. Tomorrow the election boards will look [...]
It was an exhausting campaign that seemed to go on forever, but the voters have spoken (although it's not clear in some cases what they say) and it's time to look ahead.
Slots
After many years there is finally a clear decision that we will have slot machines in [...]
The Maryland State Board of Elections has released the final voter registration numbers for next week's election and the numbes are encouraging.
With strong voter registration efforts by both parties this year, the number of voters registered in Maryland has increased by 320,247 this year to a total [...]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Maryland's unemployment rate rose in September to 4.6% from a rate of 4.5% in August. More than 138,000 Marylanders are looking for work but unable to find it - an increase of about 33% since the beginning of the year.
Yet, [...]
The Maryland Board of Public Works (pictured above), consisting of Governor Martin O'Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp, met last week to make cuts to the state's budget.
The cuts total either $300 million, $297 million, $348 million, $345 million or $280 million depending on where [...]
Voter registrations continue to surge in Maryland and most of the surge is going in the Democrats' direction as recent numbers from the Maryland State Board of Elections confirm.
As of October 15, there were 3,360,846 registered voters in Maryland of which 1,898,571 were registered as Democrats [...]
We know both from the calendar and from the changes in the weather that winter is on the way. On top of the economic problems we already face, the Energy Information Administration has already issued warnings that the cost of many heating fuels will be higher this [...]
With just about a month until election day, there are a few things that seem clear.
In the Presidential race, Obama/Biden will win in Maryland and win big. Of course, this was a foregone conclusion from the beginning and neither party has mounted a presidential campaign here because [...]
The financial resuce bill which was introduced in the House today represents a compromise that was negotiated between the Rebublican and Democratic leadership and which addresses most of the objections to the administration bill which I raised here earlier.
Well, we saw more clowns today in [...]
The Federal Election Commission posted the August fundraising reports from the presidential candidates and, at least here in Maryland, it's not really much of a horserace. Let's go to the numbers.
Statewide, McCain has raised $2,475,320 from Marylanders through the end of August - certainly an impressive sum. [...]
I have to depart today from my usual practice of focusing on Maryland politics and issues to comment on the financial debacle unfolding in Washington and New York. Once again the taxpayers and citizens are being taken for a ride by the Paulson, Bernanke, Bush and the [...]
Unemployment in Maryland increased again last month. And while we don't have unemployed standing in bread lines as shown in this 1910 photo, things could be better.
According to the Labor Department, unemployment in Maryland increased to 4.5 % from 4.3% in July. The increase in unemployment [...]
The Maryland state budget is facing a shortfall and it's not just pennies, nickels and dimes, either. According to the latest estimates, revenue in this fiscal year will be $432 million below projections and next year could see a $1 billion shortfall. The shortfall reflects economic conditions [...]
Recent incidents on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge have renewed interest in an additional bridge to ease traffic congestion and provide an alternative route between Maryland's Western and Eastern Shores. There are really only two problems holding back the construction of a third span - money and political [...]
Many people are expressing surprise that Republican representative Wayne Gilchrest has endorsed Democrat Andy Kratovil to succeed him in representing Maryland's First District, but it doesn't surprise me because this race is not about party politics.
Andy Harris, you see, is one of a few individuals hand-picked by the [...]
There's a lot of enthusiasm for wind energy these days, and rightly so. It's an enormous untapped energy source and wind energy is basically pollution-free, once the turbines are built and installed. There are a couple of problems, though that need to be addressed.
The New York [...]
Some 100 college presidents, including six from Maryland have again raised the question of what is the proper age to allow legal consumption of alcohol. Predictably, their proposal to revisit the issue has raised a storm of protest from those who don't want to even debate the [...]
I just got back from some travel and ran across these items in the news.
Energy Governor O'Malley has recognized that the solution to Maryland's energy problems lie not just in conservation but also in the construction of new generating facilities in the state. With brownouts or [...]
In the last post we looked at the issue of global warming and discussed the factors that contribute to the phenomenonand potential effects. Today we'll look at some actions that we can take on an everyday basis to help combat global warming. I want to [...]
Having taken a look at fundraising by the congressional candidates in Maryland's first district, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at how the two major party presidential candidates are faring in their fundraising in Maryland. As before, all data [...]
In my last post I looked at the individual contributions that each of the candidates in Maryland's First Congressional District had reported and contrasted the source of contributions for Frank Kratovil, which were almost 95 percent from Maryland residents vs. the source of contributions for Andy Harris, [...]
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has reported the results of fundraising by Congressional Candidates in the First District for the quarter ending June 30. Not surprisingly, Andy Harris continues to lead. The Republican raised avout $432,000 during the quarter and lent his campaign $100,000 of his [...]
The Baltimore Sun, Washington Post and a host of other newspapers report today that the Maryland State Police have repeatedly spied on groups opposed to the death penalty or opposed to the war. Despite the fact that the police spies reported no plans for illegal activity [...]
It seems that the project proposed by Bluewater Wind to place wind turbines off the Delaware coast is heading toward approval and may well be expanded and extended to the Maryland coast off of Ocean City. Governor Martin O'Malley expressed his support for the Delaware project yesterday [...]
I thought, with all the progress being made, it would be a good idea to post an update of the energy/electricity situation in Maryland.
So what's happened? Actually, not much. While there has been some slight progress, we are mostly standing still as demand continues to grow. Let's [...]
Several newspapers and TV stations, including the Daily Times here on the Shore, recently carried an article discussing the increased use of 'performance pay' in Maryland schools. According to the article, Prince George's County schools are instituting a series of 'performance bonuses' for teachers while Harford and [...]
As I write this the price of crude oil is somewhere near $145 a barrel - a sum that would be unimaginable a couple of years ago. As I wrote earlier, it is a classic supply and demand situation - the demand continues to rise, driven by [...]
Energy prices are high. For all intents and purposes, they are going to stay high - maybe get higher. While the price of oil might fall back to a previously unimaginable $100 per barrel, the long term trend is going to be for it to increase. Why? [...]
Bernie Hayden, over at Maryland On My Mind, writes a nice post about jobs and education questioning whether our education system is preparing people for the jobs that are available. There are plenty of careers where there are far more jobs than qualified people to fill them. [...]
The Milken Institute recently released their 2008 State Technology and Science Index recently. The Index ranks states in their ability to succeed in the technology-driven information age. Maryland was ranked number two, just behind Masschusetts. The author of the study pointed out that states that [...]
