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C. Fraser Smith: Pain at the pump and elsewhere
“They tell me it’ll kill me, but they won’t say when.” -Old blues song Gov. Martin O’Malley has been trying to get legislators focused on the killing potential of delay, but he’s had about as much success as warnings about cocaine addiction. (See above) He wants the assembly to ratify his proposal to apply the […]
State Senate votes to hike judges’ salaries by 3 percent
ANNAPOLIS — The Senate rejected a floor amendment to freeze judges’ salaries at current levels Monday night as it cleared the way for final passage of a 3 percent pay raise over three years — an increase of up to $14,500 by 2016. Democrats shot down an amendment to freeze judges’ salaries by a 33-9 […]
U.S. auto sales rise in January, led by Chrysler, VW
DETROIT— It is already looking like 2012 will be a winner for automakers — just one month into the year. U.S. sales of new cars and trucks rose 11 percent to 913,287 in January. New models, low interest rates and better loan availability helped buyers overcome lingering worries about the economy and pushed the sales […]
Donald C. Fry: Myths, reality and transportation revenue
As lawmakers in Annapolis debate a proposed gas tax increase and other measures to boost long-stagnant revenue to pay for Maryland’s transportation infrastructure, they will be buffeted with information about transportation funding, some of it lacking in detail or credibility. Critics of proposals to increase Maryland’s gas tax — our state’s primary source of transportation […]
Miller tells group sales tax increase won’t happen
ANNAPOLIS — Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller is assuring an economic development group that a sales tax increase won’t happen. Miller spoke Thursday at the winter conference of the Maryland Economic Development Association in Annapolis. Miller was responding to Gov. Martin O’Malley, who told reporters on the first day of session on Wednesday that […]
Holiday sales rise 4.1 percent
NEW YORK — A major retail trade organization is announcing that holiday sales rose 4.1 percent, better than its forecast for a 3.8 percent gain. But the season was clouded by heavy discounting needed to get shoppers to spend, particularly in the final weeks before Christmas. The National Retail Federation said Thursday that retail sales […]
O’Malley says he would like sales tax increase
ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O’Malley said Wednesday he would prefer to raise the state’s sales tax instead of the one on gas to address the budget deficit and pay for road and highway repairs, but noted that revenue proposals are quickly changing. O’Malley said he believes an increase in the sales tax from 5 percent […]
Miller, Busch consider different approaches for transportation
Maryland’s top legislative leaders agree the state needs to spend more on transportation projects but they’re not willing to go along with the proposed 15-cent gasoline tax hike over three years. “I think that’s too much,” said Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince Georges, told The Daily Record. Michael E. Busch, […]
Suicides up by 3 last year on D.C. Metro
WASHINGTON— Three more people attempted suicide last year on Metro than the year before, and the agency says it is working to reduce suicides in the transit system. Spokesman Dan Stessel says nine people attempted suicide on Metro last year and seven died. In 2010, six people attempted suicide. Stessel says that because the numbers […]
Senior population boom hits Cecil County
ELKTON — Sixty-five years ago, young, confident and victorious American soldiers returned from Europe and the South Pacific to the home front ready to rebuild a nation. World War II would not only shape the way the world worked in the 1940s, but how it works more than six decades later with the aging of […]
Obama delays request for $1.2T debt limit increase
HONOLULLU — President Barack Obama is delaying his request for another $1.2 trillion increase in the nation’s debt limit at the request of congressional leaders. It’s basically because of a technicality. The White House had been ready to ask for the increase Friday because the government is within $100 billion of exhausting its current borrowing […]
Week in review: 12/30/11
720 furloughed at steel mill About 720 workers at the Sparrows Point steel mill south of Baltimore will be laid off until early March, according to the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. New owner RG Steel informed the department’s unemployment insurance division last Friday, a DLLR spokeswoman said. Marine Repair files suit Marine Repair […]
