May 12, 2013
A 14-mile reservoir behind the Conowingo hydroelectric generating dam in northern Maryland stops two million pounds of sediment every year from flowing into the Chesapeake Bay. But another one million pounds get through, burying underwater grasses that support sea life and adding to the bay’s myriad pollution problems.
The reservoir that stores the sediment is expected to reach capacity within 20 years, after which all of the sediment will get through the dam, putting the bay’s health further at risk. The dam's owner, the state and environmental groups are seeking solutions to the problem. [...more]
May 10, 2013
Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown made it official Friday, and announced he was running for governor at Prince George's Community College. He was introduced by Congresswoman Donna Edwards and his wife Karmen. Here's a five-minute video of Edwards' introduction and Brown's speech to a large crowd estimated at over 1,000. [...more]
May 9, 2013
The OpenGov Foundation just released MarylandCode.org, a user-friendly, searchable and downloadable publication of the Maryland Code of law. The project unpacks the dense, inaccessible code on the state website and encourages citizen participation through transparency. “The state site is a good start, but it’s not intuitive, and it’s locked in PDF so you can’t do anything with the data,” explained OpenGov's Seamus Kraft. “We spent the last six to eight weeks really reworking the Maryland code data into a form that is useful to both coders and everyday people.” [...more]
Maryland House Republicans were surprisingly complimentary of Public Safety Secretary Gary Maynard at a Thursday news conference about the pervasive gang activity in state prisons revealed in a federal indictment of 13 correctional officers at the Baltimore City Detention Center. The Republicans described the secretary as a reformer whose efforts had been thwarted by the inaction of others, and said that they admired his willingness to uncover corruption. [...more]
With a report Monday by CEO magazine ranking Maryland among the 10 worst states to do business, the Greater Baltimore Committee said it's going to renew its push to improve the state's competitiveness. “I'm always struggling with why we think we're so good and others think we're not,” said Brian Rogers, chairman of the T. Rowe Price Group who chairs the Greater Baltimore Committee's board. [...more]
May 7, 2013
A panel of five reporters, moderated by Len Lazarick of MarylandReporter.com, analyzed the recent 90-day session of the Maryland General Assembly at a luncheon put on by Maryland Business for Responsive Government. In this video of the first 10 minutes of the program, the topics included John Leopold's poetry, how the new campaign finance law impacts free-spending political slates, the military veterans employment bill and the racial dimension of the death penalty. [...more]
The John J. Leidy Foundation of Baltimore has awarded an unrestricted grant of $10,000 to MarylandReporter.com Inc. "in support of its coverage of state government and politics in Maryland." In its fourth year of operation, MarylandReporter.com is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation; it depends on grants from foundations, and donations from sponsors and contributors. [...more]
May 5, 2013
Montgomery County government may soon be paying close to $1 million a year in rent -- $31 per square foot and above the market rate according to one expert -- for a domestic abuse center in downtown Rockville that on average sees less than four clients a day. The innovative center celebrates its fourth anniversary Thursday. [...more]
May 2, 2013
Democratic Del. Guy Guzzone has decided not to run for Howard County executive as many expected, but instead to campaign again for the legislature, possibly for the state Senate. Republican Del. Steve Schuh fulfilled everyone’s expectations Thursday night by announcing a race for Anne Arundel County executive, even though he will likely face new county executive Laura Neuman in a Republican primary as well as County Councilman John Grasso. [...more]
May 1, 2013
The Board of Public Works reluctantly approved a request by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to provide $40,000 in settlement to inmate Michael Smith, who was brutally assaulted multiple times while in state custody.
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