When U.S. leaders go overseas, the ideal scenario is to come away with “deliverables,” concrete accomplishments for the trip to show it was more than a junket. That’s what Gov. Martin O’Malley did Thursday in Shanghai when he announced that a Chinese pharmaceutical company, Tasly Group, would invest $40 million in Montgomery County.
Len Lazarick
Taxi contract at BWI airport held up again after contentious hearing
After hours of hearing about taxi drivers afraid of losing their jobs, past labor disputes, and companies feeling shut out of the bidding process, the Board of Public Works on Wednesday tabled a four-year $7.1 million contract to run the taxi concession at Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport.
The contract has been highly controversial since it first came to the board March 23.
UPDATE: 62,000 signatures on petitions against immigrant tuition
Opponents of granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, who are trying to bring the issue to referendum, said they submitted 62,496 signatures on petitions late Tuesday night, far higher than their estimates.
Opponents of immigrant tuition file petitions with over 40,000 signatures
Opponents of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants submitted over 40,000 signatures on petitions to put the measure on the November 2012 ballot, more than twice what they needed for Tuesday’s first deadline.
They needed to have at least 18,579 by Tuesday and Washington County Republican Del. Neil Parrott said, “We know that some of them are going to be thrown out.”
Maryland advocates eye Missouri model as juvenile justice solution
Ask some Maryland leaders interested in juvenile justice what they think of the state’s system, and they say it’s not working. Ask them how they’d reform it, and many point to the model used in Missouri. In Missouri, less than 10% of delinquents return to the Division of Youth Services within three years after release from a treatment facility. In Maryland, 56% are rearrested within three years.
Maryland pushes ahead on implementing health care reform
Maryland continues to press ahead with aggressive implementation of federal health care reform. Gov. Martin O’Malley appointed the members of the board of the new Health Benefit Exchange, a key component of the Affordable Care Act, and named the head of the new Office of Health Care Reform on the governor’s staff.
New Baltimore arena could be privately built if state kicks in $400 million for convention center
The Greater Baltimore Committee Wednesday unveiled a grand, $900 million plan for Baltimore’s Inner Harbor that will include a new, privately financed 18,500-seat arena topped by a 500-room hotel, both attached to an expanded Baltimore Convention Center. The $325 million arena and $175 million hotel would be built on the site of the Sheraton Hotel at Conway and Charles streets owned by Willard Hackerman of Whiting Turner Contracting Inc. and would be privately financed. But the project is dependent on being attached to a convention center that would double in size if the state will kick in bonds for the $400 million expansion.
Proposal for pension funding change draws criticism
A proposal to change the funding method for state pensions that will reduce state contributions to the system and delay reducing the state’s unfunded liabilities was criticized by two private sector representatives on the special commission studying retirement benefits. “The pension plan will never get to 100% funding,” said George Roche, former chairman and president of mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price, at a hearing Monday. “The workers are really exposed to a lot of risk and I don’t like it.”
O’Malley’s Asian trip can build important relationships, experts say
Marylanders familiar with Asian cultural dynamics all agree: Gov. Martin O’Malley’s 10-day trade mission to China, South Korea and Vietnam that begins next Tuesday will be worth the time, effort and money spent, because the trip will reap both economic rewards and “guan-xi.” “In simple terms, ‘guan-xi’ means relationships, but it’s more than that,” TowsonGlobal Business Incubator Director Clay HicksonHickson said. “It means reciprocal relationships. Not relationships made on the fly, but made over time. That’s what it’s all about.”
Opponents of immigrant tuition say they have enough signatures for first deadline
With a week to go, the group leading the effort to repeal in-state tuition for illegal immigrants said they have enough valid signatures to meet the first benchmark of 18,579 signatures by May 31. Plus there are 10,000 to 15,000 more where it is asking voters to fix minor problems with the petitions.
Recent Comments