State Roundup, December 30, 2009

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Attorney General Doug Gansler is proposing to eliminate contested elections for Circuit Court judges, Scott Daugherty reports in The (Annapolis) Capital.

Four of the full-body scanners that could detect explosives hidden under garments are used on a limited basis at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, Michael Dresser reports in The Baltimore Sun.

Five jurors from Mayor Sheila Dixon’s trial are being brought back to court for a hearing on their out-of-court discussions, Julie Bykowicz reports in The Sun.  WJZ has a video report from Kai Jackson and the AP version of this story. Brendan Kearney in The Daily Record Writes that one of Dixon’s lawyers is denying that he knew in advance about a juror’s potential conflict.

The federal EPA threatens Maryland and the other Chesapeake Bay states with sanctions if they fail to take actions to clean up the Chesapeake, Tim Wheeler reports in The Sun.

At least nine candidates have applied to the Frederick County Republican Central Committee to fill the delegate seat of Rick Weldon, who resigned, Meg Tully reports in the Frederick News-Post as does Andy Schotz in the Hagerstown Herald-Mail.

Marta Mossburg in the Washington Examiner says state actions are not doing much to forestall foreclosures.

Jesse Jackson and black community leaders are planning protests of banks who are not modifying mortgages to prevent foreclosures, Hamil Harris reports in The Washinton Post.

Michael Laris at the Post has a rundown on new laws taking effect in 2010.

It shouldn’t be a hanging offense when people put their clothes out to dry, according to Del. Galen Clagett. Alan Suderman at the Examiner says the Frederick County delegate wants to prohibit community associations from banning clotheslines altogether.

Deficits from plowing after the big storm continue to snowball, this time in Prince George’s County, the Post blog reports.

The Sun editorial writers ponder what legislators should do to toughen Maryland’s sex-offender statutes in the wake of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old in Wicomico County last week.

Patti Borda of the Frederick News-Post has a long and warm obituary for Jean Brinkley, the mother of Sen. David Brinkley.

About The Author

Len Lazarick

len@marylandreporter.com

Len Lazarick was the founding editor and publisher of MarylandReporter.com and is currently the president of its nonprofit corporation and chairman of its board He was formerly the State House bureau chief of the daily Baltimore Examiner from its start in April 2006 to its demise in February 2009. He was a copy editor on the national desk of the Washington Post for eight years before that, and has spent decades covering Maryland politics and government.

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