(NOTE: The documentary, “Citizen Schaefer,” will be broadcast on Maryland Public Television on Apr. 27 at 8 p.m.) Maryland flags are flying at half-mast this week in honor of William Donald Schaefer, mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland. Mr. Schaefer passed away on Monday at Charlestown Retirement Community, in Catonsville, Baltimore County. He was 89. His… [Read more…]
October 14, 2010
Everyone in Worcester, Wicomico, and Somerset Counties is a small business owner or a farmer. That’s the impression you would get, listening to the Maryland General Assembly District 38 candidates during a debate at Wor-Wic Community College on Wednesday night. Welcome to the Lower Eastern Shore, home to small business people and chicken farmers. All… [Read more…]
January 26, 2010
Ocean City will offer 84 town employees incentives to retire this year in a continuing effort to downsize the town’s work force and cut the budget. At budget time last year, Ocean City used many one-time savings measures and a hiring freeze to keep spending in line with falling real estate tax revenues. In addition,… [Read more…]
January 19, 2010
“O’Malley plans cuts to almost everything but schools,” reads a headline in today’s Washington Post. The Maryland budget that Gov. Martin O’Malley will submit this week will include real budget cuts of $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion, Post reporters estimate, on top of $600 million in cuts made last year. Very few Maryland agencies or… [Read more…]
November 16, 2009
No Loss of Life, No Major Property Damage The storm that hammered Ocean City for three days last week should remind people in Ocean City and Maryland not to take the resort’s sand-dune system and beach replenishment program for granted, Mayor Richard Meehan told the City Council Monday night. Despite the severity of the storm,… [Read more…]
July 12, 2009
Today’s Washington Post Op-Ed page features a column by President Barack Obama reviewing the steps his administration is taking to lead the U.S. out the deep economic recession. One paragraph in particular seems crucial to me: “There are some who say we must wait to meet our greatest challenges. They favor an incremental approach or believe… [Read more…]
June 28, 2009
Wordsmith George Will, the venerable arch-conservative newspaper columnist, has made some astute observations about the economics of health insurance. Note that Mr. Will is arguing against the proposed “public option” as an alternative to private health insurance. “Competition from the public option must be unfair because government does not need to make a profit and… [Read more…]
June 15, 2009
American health care: Public Option or Public Plan?? Yes. Please. Single payer would be even better. But a Public Plan competing with private insurers is acceptable. I don’t have time to write a post. But I’ll do a fragment of a post. Old saying in Montgomery County politics: You compromise on . . . “You… [Read more…]
April 25, 2009
I’ve got the book! “The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It,” by Joshua Cooper Ramo, published March 2009 by Little Brown. I’ve only just started to read Unthinkable, but it’s already reinforced my cynical conclusion that the Maryland General Assembly is an… [Read more…]
April 14, 2009
The Maryland General Assembly is an obsolete legislative institution. Its rules and procedures make it dysfunctional as a modern governing body. Fortunately, the General Assembly is also irrelevant; therefore, it can do little damage. The recent presidential election and the continuing economic crisis have clarified the following reality: In the United States of America, the… [Read more…]
April 19, 2011
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