Tag: Joanne Benson

Senators object to bill that would force most legislators to commute

Sen. Allan Kittleman’s colleagues on a Senate committee were clearly unhappy with his legislation that would force most of them to commute and no longer reimburse their lodging in Annapolis during the session.

Kittleman, R-Howard and Carroll, has again introduced legislation that would restrict the housing stipend legislators are permitted during session – a maximum $101 per day – to those living more than 50 miles from Annapolis.

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Bottle bill seeks to boost recycling rates

Under a proposed new state program, retailers would be required to pay the state comptroller 5 cents per bottle as a deposit that consumers would get back when they returned the bottles. Counties would need to set up statewide bottle reclamation centers. The centers would likely be reverse vending machines, allowing people to return bottles for the 5 cent deposit.

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Maryland Dems insist conventions are worth all the fuss and bother — and money

Hoopla, hooch and horse manure are all in abundance at conventions of either political party.

But why do thousands of people spend all that time, effort and millions of their own money and taxpayer dollars to come together every four years for an extended infomercial? Experienced Democratic politicos from Maryland who’ve been to as many as a dozen national political conventions say they’re worth the expense.

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Blog: Slaves and Indians: Senators share history in immigration debate

During hours of testimony and discussion about a bill that would allow illegal immigrants living in Maryland qualify for in-state tuition to state colleges and universities on Wednesday, two senators gave brief lessons in history and genealogy.

Sen. Joanne Benson, a Prince George’s County Democrat and retired educator, took on the role of a teacher once again. After a panel of community college administrators and clergy had finished testifying, she quizzed them on the settlement of Jamestown, Va. in 1607, and Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of the Americas in 1492.

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