Despite Beretta's threats that the company would leave Maryland if new gun laws were passed and signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, Beretta USA has no current plans to abandon its headquarters in Prince George's County. (Balt. Sun)
The Maryland Department of General Services has selected a site in New Carrollton to be the new home for the state's Department of Housing and Community Development under a lease proposal to be considered for approval later this month. (Wash. Bus. Journal)
Maryland's counties and Baltimore face a collective loss of more than $40 million a year and some taxpayers could get refunds if a decision by the state's highest court isn't reversed on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Balt. Sun)
Gov. Martin O'Malley's communications director and long-time aide Raquel Guillory will leave the governor's office at the end of the month for another job in state goverment. O'Malley, who has made job-creation a consistent theme of his public remarks, said in a statement he was "thrilled" Guillory will an assistant secretary at the Department of Business & Economic Development. (Balt. Sun)
Freshman Congressman John Delaney on Wednesday plans to roll out his signature legislative initiative for his first term — a plan for a national infrastructure bank that requires no federal appropriations. The proposal is an innovative financing measure that relies on the sort of economic opportunities Delaney exploited when he founded two publicly-traded financial services firms that have helped make him one of the richest members of Congress. (Md. Reporter)
Anne Arundel Republicans are questioning the timing and motives behind the retirement of longtime county State's Attorney Frank Weathersbee. (Capital)
With the state legislature adjourned and county budget deliberations all but complete, Montgomery’s 2014 political season is starting to heat up. Former county executive Doug Duncan, seeking to reclaim the office he held for three terms (1994-2006), held his first major public event Sunday, a picnic fundraiser where he received the endorsement of Rep. John Delaney (D-Md). (Wash. Post)
Anne Arundel County's stormwater fee hasn't been collected yet, but the County Council has already changed it. By a 7-0 vote Monday night, council members agreed to reduce the maximum fee that commercial property owners would pay and to phase in the fee for some property owners. (Balt. Sun)
Gun owner and Carroll County Commissioner Richard Rothschild said he wants to stand up for people’s right to own firearms, but is not yet prepared to release information on a county resolution that would aim to do just that. (Carroll Co. Times)
A Frederick County panel has cleared Commissioner Kirby Delauter of ethical wrongdoing for allowing his construction company to work on projects supervised by county staff. (News-Post)
Anne Arundel County's Circuit Court judges have begun the process to select a new top prosecutor to replace Frank R. Weathersbee, who is retiring to take a position on the state Parole Commission. (Balt. Sun)
A former Republican congressional candidate wants Montgomery County elections officials to investigate reports of voting irregularities and change election procedures to reduce the risk of tampering. Kenneth Timmerman, who challenged Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D) for the District 8 seat in 2012, said the county’s practice of delivering voting machines to polling places as much as a week before voting begins leaves the touchscreen voting machines vulnerable attacks such as the uploading of programs that could manipulate vote totals. (Gazette)
A hunter, a mother and a minister are featured in new advertisements touting Maryland's new gun law, which was signed last week and represents one of the nation's most sweeping pieces of gun-control legislation passed this year. (Balt. Sun)
An eerie fog hung over Montgomery County for most of the day Sunday, the kind that makes you think of ghosts and spirits and raising the dead. A too-simple metaphor, perhaps, but an unavoidable one, for Doug Duncan’s comeback attempt, on the day he happened to hold the first big public event of his 2014 campaign for county executive.
Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger gives Center Maryland his take on Maryland’s upcoming race for governor, including speculation that he might run. Other subjects include Ruppersberger’s reaction to recent news about the IRS. Center Maryland: Inside Out is a video politicast featuring Lisa Harris Jones and Damian O’Doherty.
Frustration on the part of well-intentioned Baltimore City Council members seeking to promote local hiring by businesses performing city contracts boiled over recently when Council President Jack Young reportedly chastised the city’s Law Department for not cooperating with council efforts. Young and other council members want to pass a bill mandating that 51 percent of new hires working for private-sector contractors on city projects be city residents. In fact, the bill is poised for final consideration as soon as June 3 at the next council meeting.
After six years as the Superintendent of the Baltimore City Schools—a title that is still more descriptive than CEO—Andres Alonso has announced his resignation. The early reviews—please don’t call them a Report Card—are almost universally positive even as the many challenges ahead are also noted. It’s clear that Alonso has made a real difference. The quality, real and perceived, of the school system is one of the key indicators of the health of Baltimore City and, although it gets less attention, of the economic competitiveness of the entire region.
Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger talks with Center Maryland about the importance of passing the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act to help protect against the significant amount of cyber attacks our nation faces on a daily basis. Center Maryland: Inside Out is a video politicast featured on Center Maryland.
Admirers of Anthony Brown are frequently pointing out what an asset his wife, Karmen Walker Brown, is going to be in his campaign for governor. Warm, vivacious, beautiful and poised, great at a podium and in one-on-one situations, she’s someone who humanizes this rigid lieutenant governor with the military background, the theory goes. They had a sweet mid-life courtship that they enjoy talking about, and they look GQ-perfect together. But based on Brown’s announcement event in Largo Friday night and his swing through Silver Spring Saturday morning, there’s another woman poised to play just as big a role in Brown’s campaign. In fact, it’s hard to imagine anyone else making his case as forcefully and effectively. We’re talking about Congresswoman Donna Edwards, who was the warm-up act to Brown in both Largo and Silver Spring.
On Wednesday, Greater Baltimore Committee Chairman Brian C. Rogers put his finger on the nature of the disconnect between state lawmakers and business advocates on the issue of Maryland’s competitiveness for business location and growth.
A major power in Montgomery County politics is stepping aside this campaign season. Jon Gerson, the longtime – and controversial – political director of the county teachers’ union is no longer serving in that capacity. While he remains employed by the union, serving on its School Assistance Team, focusing on new teachers, he will no longer be part of the political operation.
Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz returns to Center Maryland to outline his tax neutral $2.8 billion operating budget for 2014. He discusses his proposed investments in Baltimore County’s growing school population, cost-saving public safety technology, county park improvements, and social services.
If nothing else, Anthony Brown will learn just how many truly committed supporters he has when he announces his candidacy for governor late this Friday afternoon at Prince George’s Community College. After all, it’s asking a lot of people to navigate D.C.’s rush hour on the Friday before Mother‘s Day, when there will be the usual pre-weekend traffic along with motorists heading out of town to visit Mom. So it’ll be instructive to see who turns up in Largo (Brown will also have events Saturday in Silver Spring, Frederick and Baltimore). The timing of Brown’s announcement is just one of the puzzling things his campaign has done recently. All that said, Brown enters the campaign as the frontrunner to succeed Martin O’Malley. Polls say it’s so, and so do many of the fundamentals of the Democratic race.
An axiom about life is: in order to know how to get somewhere, you need to know where you are in the first place. The Baltimore Development Corporation, Baltimore City’s economic development agency, is seeking a consultant to help it do just that in order to craft a much-needed strategic plan for strengthening the city’s business climate and economic development.
This past General Assembly session was by almost any measure a monumental one. Maryland underscored its standing as one of the most progressive states in the nation by passing a strong gun regulation law, abolishing the death penalty, and deciding to stop kicking the can down the road on transportation infrastructure funding. Following the previous year’s enactment of Marriage Equality and the Dream Act, there’s no doubt that you’re not in Kansas.
President and CEO of the Howard County Economic Development Authority Larry Twele announces 100 businesses will be visited during the week of May 6 as part of Howard County’s Business Appreciation Week. Twele also discusses the arrival of new business and the different ways Howard County is working to attract and help companies expand.
WINNERS: Annapolis stalwart Devon Dodson details the significance of the recent win for wind energy. Abby Hopper, Acting Director of the Maryland Energy Administration; Governor O’Malley; Mike Tidwell, Director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network; and Jim Lanard of the Offshore Wind Development Coalition are just a few of the big winners that put Maryland on the map for renewable energy.
Now that state lawmakers have passed legislation to raise an estimated $3.4 billion in new revenue during the next five years to address the state’s crisis in funding transportation infrastructure, the next transportation funding challenge looms not in Annapolis, but in Washington, D.C.
Saul Ewing LLP Partner Joseph “Max” Curran, III explains how Maryland is making progress encouraging renewable energy. Some of the specific subjects discussed in the interview are solar power, STRIDE legislation, offshore wind and smart meters. J. Joseph “Max” Curran III is vice chair of the firm’s Project and Resource Development Practice and a member of the Energy and Utilities Practice.
Jimmy Malone and Steven DeBoy are just the tip of the iceberg. When the House of Delegates convenes in 2015, there could be as many as 50 new members. That’s right, more than a third of the chamber could — could — turn over. Malone and DeBoy, conservative Baltimore County Democrats, were part of the first wave of retirements, signaling their intentions just after Sine Die. Del. Liz Bobo (D), a Howard County liberal, announced her retirement plans months earlier. Others are planning to seek higher office.
The second half of Towson President Maravene Loeschke’s interview focuses on Towson University’s commitment to Innovation to Teacher Preparation, STEM Education, a new Leadership Program and the important role the University has in the Towson community.
Towson President Maravene Loeschke comments on Towson University’s ability to work with the Governor to allot $300,000 out of the state budget to allow time for the university’s baseball program to become self sufficient by 2015. Part of the initiative was tackling Title IX requirements head on by assigning an additional $2 million for a new women’s softball field. Inside the Headlines is a video politicast featured on Center Maryland. Damian O’Doherty brings guests on the show to have in-depth conversations on major news happening in Maryland.
Maryland Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas said plans for a $100 million renovation of the 143-year-old Pimlico Race Course will be unveiled in “mid to late summer” and may include tearing down the barns behind the track’s grand stand. (Balt. Bus. Journal)
The state plans to submit a bid this summer that it hopes will fulfill its vision of making Baltimore a "semi-permanent" home of the NCAA lacrosse championships. (Balt. Sun)
The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore and the Maryland Department of Business of Economic Development announced Monday that they created a new program to help companies that have moved beyond the start-up phase to continue to grow. (Balt. Sun)
Comcast Corp. is beefing up its Montgomery County job base at the expense of Prince George’s County and Northern Virginia. The Philadelphia broadcasting and Internet services giant will add dozens of call-center employees in Silver Spring while cutting 145 call-center jobs in Largo and more than 100 others in Northern Virginia by Sept. 7. (Gazette)
The city's Board of Finance on Monday approved more than $100 million in taxpayer assistance to help fund a massive, waterfront development project that will host energy giant Exelon Corp.'s regional headquarters. (Balt. Sun)
M&T Bank Corp. executive Atwood "Woody" Collins III has succeeded Edwin F. Hale Sr. as chair of the Baltimore Convention and Tourism Board, city officials said Monday. (Balt. Sun)
The price to play a Baltimore Ravens-themed Maryland Lottery game may soon be cheaper. The Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency is seeking state permission to reduce Ravens’ instant ticket prices from $5 to $2 starting in July. (Balt. Bus. Journal)
Spike Gjerde is coming to Belvedere Square. Gjerde will move his Woodberry Kitchen's canning and preserving operations into the Belvedere Square restaurant space that was most recently Crush. (Balt. Sun)
WJZ reporter-anchor Adam May is leaving the Baltimore station at the end of the month to join Al Jazeera America as a national correspondent. (Balt. Sun)
Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc.'s top executive, R. Neal Black, earned $2.9 million last year, a decrease from the $4 million in compensation Black earned in 2011, the Hampstead-based men's apparel retailer said. (Balt. Sun)
Annapolis will host a December bowl game whose average economic impact was $12 million in its previous locale. (Capital)
White Marsh Mall has permanently extended its Sunday hours and will open at 11 a.m. instead of noon, with the 6 p.m. closing time staying the same. (Balt. Sun)
Shoe and apparel retailer Johnston & Murphy has opened in Towson Town Center in Towson. (Balt. Sun)
The Baltimore County school system has hired a local architecture firm to help document its long-term school facilities needs, following a similar strategy the city school system used to generate a $2.4 billion plan and secure some of that funding from the General Assembly. (Balt. Sun)
The Naval Academy will host its first-ever bowl game this year, as organizers announced Monday the move of the 2013 Military Bowl from RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis in December. (Balt. Sun)
The Baltimore school board unanimously passed a $1.2 billion budget Monday that essentially remained intact since it was presented. The last budget of outgoing schools CEO Andrés Alonso includes cuts to per-pupil funding and high schools but retains spending power for principals and adds academic programs. (Balt. Sun)
A state investigation into the alleged discrimination of students in the New Windsor Middle School autism program is set to occur as community members petition in favor of the program’s former teacher. (Carroll Co. Times)
Mike Waddell, whose 2 1/2-year tenure as Towson's athletic director was marked both by the tremendous growth in its football and men's basketball programs and by the controversy surrounding the elimination of men's soccer and the proposed dropping of baseball, is leaving to become a senior associate athletic director at Arkansas. (Balt. Sun)
Maryland residents who dropped out of college shortly before getting their degrees may be getting an assist over the finish line from the Maryland Higher Education Commission. (Balt. Bus. Journal)
More than 100 parents and other community residents are fighting plans for a wireless tower to be constructed on the grounds of a public elementary school, one of the first to stem from a master agreement signed last year by the Anne Arundel County Board of Education. (Daily Record)
Carroll County Public Schools will no longer have instructional assistants designated as kindergarten assistants in county elementary schools. Starting next school year, those assistants will support all grade levels in the elementary school buildings. (Carroll Co. Times)
A familiar face is about to take the reins of the Harford County public school system. Barbara Canavan, a seasoned educator, will replace Dr. Robert Tomback, who's retiring this year. (WBAL-TV)
The Montgomery County Board of Education is seeking to fill a vacancy on its five-member ethics panel. The vacancy is for a three-year term beginning July 1. Applicants must be Montgomery County residents and there is no compensation. (Gazette)
It started with a simple question on Tuesday, May 14: Why is the line item for "Summer Learning" in the Baltimore City school system's budget blank? The Sun had published several stories about the program and its successes over the years, so to see that it had no number attached naturally piqued our interest. (Balt. Sun)
Today, 23 years after Montgomery County spent $8 million to buy the land for the Silver Spring Transit Center, two decades after the federal government provided the first $1.5 million to design it and more than six years after construction finally began, the Silver Spring Transit Center sits behind chain-link fencing, its new bus benches still shrink-wrapped. Although the facility is supposedly 95 percent finished, it is crippled by major structural flaws. Dangerous cracks in the building are warning signs that chunks of concrete could fall onto pedestrians, and all sides agree that complex lawsuits lie ahead for the worst building fiasco in county history. (Wash. Post)
Tiger Woods on Monday affirmed his desire to continue having his signature Professional Golfers Association event, the AT&T National, at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda past 2014, but he added in a news conference that “there are certainly options out there, whether it’s in Philly or the D.C.-Baltimore area.” (Gazette)
More people live in poverty in Baltimore's suburbs than in the city itself, part of a nationwide shift that is challenging the largely urban assistance network built up over decades. (Balt. Sun)
Customers of Baltimore's water system would see their water bills go up 15 percent — more than expected — under a proposal the Department of Public Works announced Monday. The projected rate hike follows years of increases and will bring a typical customer's annual bill to nearly $800, up from about $500 a decade ago, city officials said. (Balt. Sun)
A pair of Baltimore residents filed suit Monday accusing the city of breaking the law by allowing toxic chemicals to leach into the Patapsco River from the South Baltimore site where a casino is now under construction. (Balt. Sun)
Marylanders soon will be ticketed for texting or talking on a mobile phone while driving under a new law, but studies show such crackdowns on phone use do little to prevent traffic accidents. (Examiner)
The summer season kicks off this weekend when 718,200 Marylanders are expected to leave town for the beach or mountains, 1.2 percent fewer than a year ago, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. Ninety-one percent of those surveyed planned to drive, while 48,100 were flying, a drop of 9.5 percent. (Balt. Sun)
While the Blue Angels have canceled all shows in light of sequestration, the Ocean City Air Show will happen as scheduled. (WTOP)
Baltimore Gas & Electric certainly isn't likely to win any popularity contests. It secured a rate increase from the Public Service Commission in February — its second in the last three years — and turned around and filed a request for another one on Friday. And at the same time, the utility is asking the PSC for what may be unprecedented in Maryland: a surcharge on customers' monthly bills to pay for improvements to the electrical grid in advance. But as little as we may like it, the truth is that failing to make investments in maintaining the grid and improving its reliability is costing us dearly, too. (Balt. Sun)
Would it surprise you to learn that Fast Company magazine just ranked Maryland the third-most innovative state in the nation? Or that Maryland took the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's No. 1 spot for both innovation and entrepreneurship? It's a fact: In our state's dynamic mix of world-class universities and professional schools, institutes for advanced research, teaching hospitals, think tanks, hubs for start-up businesses and more, there exists this mysterious, economically essential activity known as innovation. (Balt. Sun)
Just as the international supremacy of the dollar let Americans be spendthrift, the international supremacy of English made Americans lazy about learning other tongues. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan noted in 2010 that only 18 percent of Americans reported being able to speak another language, while 53 percent of Europeans could do so. But as we get our kids ready for a globalized economy, those comfortable days are at an end. The Anne Arundel County school system is rising to the challenge. (Capital)
Given the traffic that already clogs Md. 140 during the morning and evening commute times, motorists should take advantage of tonight’s meeting to find out more about a bridge project that is going to reduce lanes beginning in the spring of next year. (Carroll Co. Times)
Letter: Last week the National Transportation Safety Board proposed lowering the national benchmark for the blood alcohol content of drivers. Currently, the nation’s standard for adult drivers is 0.08. (News-Post)
Letter: While what Uber Technologies says is essentially true that they own no vehicles and do not have drivers, they are clearly providing transportation through their app ("PSC to decide if Uber must comply with taxi rules," May 16). (Balt. Sun)
Letter: It's very tempting to address each point of The Sun's editorial that suggests Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake reject the local hiring bill ("Noble but flawed idea," May 15). But to do so would miss the larger and more important point that lies at the root of the bill's purpose. (Balt. Sun)
Despite Beretta's threats that the company would leave Maryland if new gun laws were passed and signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley, Beretta USA has no current plans to abandon its headquarters in Prince George's County. (Balt. Sun)
The Maryland Department of General Services has selected a site in New Carrollton to be the new home for the state's Department of Housing and Community Development under a lease proposal to be considered for approval later this month. (Wash. Bus. Journal)
Maryland's counties and Baltimore face a collective loss of more than $40 million a year and some taxpayers could get refunds if a decision by the state's highest court isn't reversed on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Balt. Sun)
An eerie fog hung over Montgomery County for most of the day Sunday, the kind that makes you think of ghosts and spirits and raising the dead. A too-simple metaphor, perhaps, but an unavoidable one, for Doug Duncan’s comeback attempt, on the day he happened to hold the first big public event of his 2014 campaign for county executive.
Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger gives Center Maryland his take on Maryland’s upcoming race for governor, including speculation that he might run. Other subjects include Ruppersberger’s reaction to recent news about the IRS. Center Maryland: Inside Out is a video politicast featuring Lisa Harris Jones and Damian O’Doherty.
Frustration on the part of well-intentioned Baltimore City Council members seeking to promote local hiring by businesses performing city contracts boiled over recently when Council President Jack Young reportedly chastised the city’s Law Department for not cooperating with council efforts. Young and other council members want to pass a bill mandating that 51 percent of new hires working for private-sector contractors on city projects be city residents. In fact, the bill is poised for final consideration as soon as June 3 at the next council meeting.
Maryland Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas said plans for a $100 million renovation of the 143-year-old Pimlico Race Course will be unveiled in “mid to late summer” and may include tearing down the barns behind the track’s grand stand. (Balt. Bus. Journal)
The state plans to submit a bid this summer that it hopes will fulfill its vision of making Baltimore a "semi-permanent" home of the NCAA lacrosse championships. (Balt. Sun)
The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore and the Maryland Department of Business of Economic Development announced Monday that they created a new program to help companies that have moved beyond the start-up phase to continue to grow. (Balt. Sun)