SCHAEFER FUNERAL, REMEMBRANCES: Dave Collins of WBAL-TV reports that Baltimore County has issued traffic advisories as former Gov. William Donald Schaefer is memorialized at Old St. Paul’s Church in downtown Baltimore this morning. His body then will we driven to Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens for interment.
Robert Lang of WBAL-AM writes about the procession. A link to watch the funeral live is also in the story.
You also can watch the funeral live at WMAR-TV. It is set to start at 11 a.m.
Schaefer would play the fool in the interest of erecting buildings or helping the downtrodden — the only two things he really cared about anyway, writes former Gov. Bob Ehrlich in the Sun.
Former state legislator Bob Neall writes in the Sun that a visit by Mayor Schaefer to the General Assembly was hard to forget. It was an orchestrated military maneuver.
Senate President Mike Miller writes in the Sun that Schaefer needs to be remembered for the Orioles and the Ravens.
Christian Schaffer of WMAR-TV also reports about Schaefer’s sports legacy.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who fought Schaefer early on, recalls that he had the verve and the vision to give Baltimore city a new self-confidence and a new economy.
STATE PENSIONS: There’s a new report from Pew Center on States about state pension liabilities that puts Maryland in the middle – not the worst off, but certainly not the best.
The Washington Post editorial page praises the recent pension changes made by the governor and legislature.
BUSCH’S LEAGUE: Marta Mossburg targets House Speaker Michael Busch in her column for the Frederick News Post, saying that when the rest of the state is crumbling around him, the 1-mile radius around his house will stay plowed in winter, leafy green in summer and artistically fulfilling.
TUITION REFERENDUM: State Sen. Victor Ramirez, who authored Maryland’s DREAM Act, which offers in-state tuition to qualifying undocumented students, said the money needed to overturn the statute is much more than was needed to put it in place, noting a referendum in the works would cost millions of dollars, reports Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Diamondback.
The internet might play a key role in the effort to overturn a new measure granting in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants in Maryland, writes Andrew Schotz for the Hagerstown Herald Mail.
Kathleen Cairns of WBFF-TV also reports on the controversy.
SCHOOL DISCIPLINE: In an attempt to tighten state regulations governing school discipline, the state school board will gather reaction on a proposal to limit the time a suspended student can be kept out of school during the appeal of a serious disciplinary action, reports Liz Bowie for the Sun.
BEFORE BROWN: Del. Adrienne Jones of Baltimore County recalls her Aunt Margaret Williams, who in 1935 was a seventh grader who, under the guidance of a promising young black attorney from Baltimore named Thurgood Marshall, asked to enroll in an all-white school. The attempt became a court case that was the precursor to Brown v. The Board of Education 20 years later, writes Kevin Rector of the Arbutus Times.
CHICKEN POLLUTION: The poultry industry helps drive the Eastern Shore economy, but chicken manure has been called one of the greatest contributors to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, writes Barbara Pash for MarylandReporter.com. Large producers, farmers and state initiatives are working together to lessen the industry’s environmental impact while preserving the businesses.
LEGGETT CONSIDERS SUIT: Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett says he would pursue legal action against the Obama administration if the federal government forces Montgomery to implement a deportation program for violent illegal immigrants, Hayley Peterson reports for the Washington Examiner.
BALTIMORE SLOTS: The Sun’s Julie Scharper writes that state and city officials are moving to revive Baltimore’s long-delayed casino, sweetening the rental terms as they seek new development proposals for the 17-acre site near Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium.
The site is envisioned as the second largest of the five authorized by Maryland voters in 2008, with as many as 3,750 slot machines, blogs the Post’s John Wagner.
The process of seeking a new developer, already ensnared in a legal challenge, could be pulled back into court as soon as today, reports Nick Sohr for the Daily Record.
RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT: For most people, home is not a “concept,” writes columnist Marta Mossburg in the Sun. Representative government also should not be a “concept” for the residents of Baltimore city. It should be a moral requirement, if not a legal one, for council members to live among the people who elected them to office.
DREDGE DISPOSAL: Tim Pratt of the Annapolis Capital writes that the former General Services Administration depot in Glen Burnie is no longer being considered as a dredge spoil disposal site, and some nearby residents are claiming at least a partial victory.
BGE BILL DROP: Electric bills are about to get smaller for Baltimore Gas & Electric customers as prices are set to dip just in time for summer, Ben Mook of the Daily Record reports.
Re Marta Mossburg’s column in the Frederick News Post, as usual, I wonder how this person qualifies as a publishable observer of Maryland politics. She works for the Maryland Public Policy Institute, an outfit that will NOT reveal anything about its funders, even after stating in its IRS filings that it would do so. Too bad the Frederick News Post has downsized its curiosity about an actual news story about one of it own columnists . . . What about the MarylandReporter ?