Shutdown gives Obama unlikely ally: big business
WASHINGTON — Business leaders are taking sides with Democratic President Barack Obama after failing to persuade their traditional Republican allies in Congress to avert a government shutdown. Obama, whose health care and regulatory agenda they have vigorously opposed, is embracing the business outreach, eager to employ groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Wall […]
Maryland legislators earn better-than-average money
Members of the Maryland General Assembly earn more than your average state lawmaker, but they're not exactly diving into vaults full of state money when they go home.
Lawmakers concerned over U.S. surveillance programs
WASHINGTON — The former spy agency contractor who fled to Hong Kong to leak U.S. secrets said he’s not there to hide from justice and has faith in “the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate.” “I am neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American,” Edward Snowden declared to the South China […]
C. Fraser Smith: Inner Harbor transformation in offing?
The Harbor Point project could be another uplifting chapter in Baltimore’s cycle of decline and rebirth.
C. Fraser Smith: Bridge collapse last warning, not wake-up call
Now comes the cliche “wake-up call.” That phone’s been ringing in the matter of bridge repair for years. Catastrophes aren’t waiting to happen.
Md. lawmakers meet with jail officials
The Baltimore City Detention Center, built in the Civil War era, needs to be demolished and replaced, a lawmaker who toured the jail with a small group of Republican legislators said Friday. The lockup has been under scrutiny since last month when federal officials announced the indictment of 25 people — including 13 female correctional […]
C. Fraser Smith: Alonso and enduring promise
Dr. Andres Alonso, who resigned this week as Baltimore schools superintendent, turned his alchemist’s hand on the trust issue in Annapolis.
C. Fraser Smith: All the comforts of home — and more
An investigation by federal authorities tended to validate his claims. He was, according to the authorities, turning the jail into a criminal enterprise.
Maryland lawmakers attending economic summit
Bloomberg LP, a global financial news and business information company, is hosting an economic summit in Washington on April 30, and the only two current lawmakers to speak at the meeting are both from Maryland.
Does Mike Miller still rule Annapolis?
As state lawmakers took a last look at Baltimore’s 30-year plan to pay for school renovations last month, members of the Budget and Taxation Committee joked that 47-year-old Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. would be president of the Senate by the time the projects were paid for.
GOP lawmakers subpoena nominee Perez’s emails
WASHINGTON — GOP lawmakers have subpoenaed the private emails of Labor secretary-nominee Thomas Perez, a possible sticking point ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing next week. The subpoena, issued Wednesday by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrel Issa, R-Calif., to the Justice Department, seeks the emails as part of an investigation into an agreement Perez brokered […]
C. Fraser Smith: Locking out funds removes flexibility
If you’re wondering how the governor and assembly leaders got legislators to approve a really unpopular gas-tax increase, think “lockbox.”