DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Tonight the Wicomico Council adopted amended versions of two controversial measures:
Speed Cameras
The council passed an amended version of the proposed speed camera legislation. Under the amended bill, speed cameras would have to stay within a school zone – not within 1/2 mile as permitted by Maryland law. In addition, speed cameras would only be operable during school days and times.
Homestead Tax Credit
County Executive Rick Pollitt’s proposal to lower the homestead tax credit threshold from 10% / year to 0% was adopted after an amendment by councilwoman Stevie Prettyman was adopted to roll back the measure to 5%. Under the new bill, a homeowner’s assessment can now only go up 5% per year versus the current 10%. This is the same proposal that Prettyman proposed in the last council.
The 0% proposal was one of two cornerstones of councilman Bob Caldwell’s successful campaign in the last election.
Earlier in the meeting the council re-examined a bill to end the school construction fund. The resolution passed, also after an amendment proposed by Prettyman was adopted. Under the new proposal, the SCF would be abolished at the end of FY 2013.
Georgetown, Del. —Former pediatrician Earl Bradley’s fate now rests in Superior Court Judge William Carpenter Jr.’s hands after just one day of testimony.
Attorneys from both sides began the trial, Tuesday, with an agreement that consolidated the original 470 charges into 24. Those 24 consisted of 14 first-degree rape, 5 second degree assault and 5 sexual exploitation of a child charges.
The defense called no witnesses nor cross examined either of the two called by the prosecution. Defense attorney Dean Johnson’s only gesture was to note his objection to the video evidence.
“It’s a continued objection,” he said.
Prosecutor Paula Ryan’s chief witness – Delaware State Police Detective Scott Garland with the High Technology Crimes Unit – painted a gruesome picture of evidence obtained by warrant at both Bradley’s Baybee Pediatrics office and home. Some of the video evidence, Garland said, showed victims losing consciousness. Bradley picked one victim up by only the head and slung her on a couch four feet away after nearly choking her to death by forcing her to perform oral sex on him, Garland alleged.
Several in the crowd that began as nearly 60 people were in tears throughout the testimony, and even Garland admitted it was “something I was not prepared to see” when he referred to the video evidence.
PUBLIC NOTICE
SPECIAL MEETING
In accordance with §SC2-4 of the Salisbury City Charter, a majority of the City Council have called for a Special Meeting to be held on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 for consideration of overriding Mayor Ireton’s veto of Ordinance No. 2161 (FY2012 budget), Ordinance No. 2151 (water and sewer rates) and Ordinance No. 2152 (parking rates).
The special meeting is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. in Council Chambers (Room 301) of the
City/County Government Office Building (125 N. Division Street).
Dover, Del. —The House today approved legislation that would mandate the development of an accreditation process for facilities that perform “invasive medical procedures,” including abortions.
House Bill 144, sponsored by Rep. Bryon Short (D-Highland Woods), is a companion measure that dovetails with legislation passed earlier this year, also authored by Short, that allows the Department of Health and Social Services to investigate complaints regarding unsanitary or unsafe conditions at medical facilities.
According to the latest bill, DHSS would have the authority to require invasive procedure facilities to obtain independent accreditations in order to operate. If DHSS received complaints about an accredited facility, and the complaints were investigated and found to be valid, the department could shut down the facility.
House Minority Leader Rep. Greg Lavelle (R-Sharpley) attempted to add language to HB 144 that would broaden the complaint process established in the earlier bill, but the amendment was defeated.
Only one legislator voted against HB 144, Rep. Don Blakey (R-Camden-Wyoming).
Shortly after the bill passed, Sen. Michael Katz (D-Centerville) sent out an email to reporters accusing Short of plagiarizing the language used in HB 144, with copies of correspondence to House leadership asking for an ethics investigation.
According to Katz, Short lifted the language for HB 144 directly from Senate Bill 90, legislation Katz claims to have drafted first.
Katz, an anesthesiologist by trade, said he refused to place Short on his bill as a cosponsor because he wasn’t happy with how Short handled the earlier bill regarding unsanitary and unsafe conditions.
During a speech yesterday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke cited high energy prices as a key reason for the US economy’s week recovery. Yet, leftist politicians like President Barack Obama and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley continue to add fuel to the fire by halting or impeding domestic oil and gas exploration and production.
Obama has infamously cut off new exploration in the Gulf. Obama has even been willing to defy a judicial order to prevent new domestic sources of energy from being discovered.
O’Malley has been attempting to slow or halt exploration for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale. His latest go has promised to, at least, stall any attempts to find natural gas within Maryland’s borders.
Jobs, energy, building wealth. Those things have no place in Maryland if it means offending the elitist tree huggers who play a key role in keeping Democrats in power in the Once Free State.
Dog in need of good home -
3-year old Mastiff and Staffordshire Terrier mix.
He is in good health, has his shots, and has not been neutered. He is good around children, and is a great watchdog....loves to run and is kennel trained.
Please help keep this dog from being put down as we fear he will be if taken to the Humane Society.
For more information, please call: 410-546-4135
Thanks for your consideration.
Local elections boards have now counted 31,000 valid signatures on the petition drive to overturn the law granting resident tuition to illegal immigrants, over 12,000 more than than needed to meet the first goal, according to the State Board of Elections website Tuesday evening.
“It’s really encouraging to see that the counties and Baltimore City are jumping right on this,” said Del. Neil Parrott, the Washington County Republican leading the petition drive effort.
Mary Wagner, head of the voter registration division at the state board, said Anne Arundel and other counties who had not reported any results as of Monday were doing pre-processing and training. Under the law, the local boards have until June 20 to process the petitions and validate the returns.
The opponents of the new law had to have 18,577 valid signatures by May 31, and a total of 55,736 by June 30.
All told, the petitioners submitted 58,596 signatures last Tuesday evening, and the 85% validation rate “was about what we expected it to be,” Parrott said. The number of signatures thrown out by local boards is often much higher, but the process has been aided by the number of people using online petition forms that fill in their voter registration data and by close review of the petitions before they were submitted to the secretary of state.
Parrott said they expected to have 40,000 to 45,000 valid signatures after this round of counting, and “people are still going to the website.”
“Everybody knows this is a sprint now to the end of June,” Parrott said. The goal is to get far more valid signatures than required by state law – 3% of the number of registered voters who voted for governor in the last election.
“We know there are going to be lawsuits” by the groups that support the law, he said, “and they’re going to throw out as many signatures as they can.”
It's been 122 years since Johnstown, PA, was nearly wiped off the face of the planet by a flood that killed more than 2,000 people. And it's been 75 years since even more damage was done to the down by the St. Patrick's Day flood of 1936, spurring the commonwealth to enact a tax on alcohol sales to help rebuild the town. Luckily, that tax was only needed for a few years, so it's obviously long since been repealed... right?
"By 1942, they had sufficient funds to rebuild the city," State Rep. Jim Marshall tells CBS Pittsburgh. "And yet the tax continued."
The tax adds around 18% to the cost of booze in PA, a state already well known for its byzantine and arcane approach to the sale of alcohol.
Marshall says that there have been "about 13 bills to repeal or reduce the tax," since 1997, but it's easy to see why the tax hasn't been repealed when you see that it brings in around $200 million each year to the state's general revenue fund.
Former congressional candidate Ben Loyola announced Tuesday he will run for the state Senate 6th District seat now held by first-term Sen. Ralph Northam.
Loyola, 49, is a Navy veteran and proprietor of an engineering and technical firm that does government contract work.
A Virginia Beach resident who recently moved into the district, Loyola came to this country from Cuba when he was 2. He is a naturalized citizen and a self-described conservative.
He finished second to Scott Rigell in last year's GOP primary for the 2nd Congressional District. He had support from the Hampton Roads Tea Party board and the head of the Virginia Beach Taxpayer Alliance.
The 6th District includes the Eastern Shore - Accomack and Northampton counties - Mathews County, a chunk of Norfolk and a piece of Virginia Beach.
Dover, Del. —Delaware Senate President Pro Tem Anthony DeLuca this evening provided reporters with details about how he divides his time between his work as a lawmaker and his duties as an administrator with the Delaware Department of Labor.
The Varlano Democrat released copies of unpaid leave requests filed with his departmental supervisor dating back to January of 2010 and covering each day the Senate was in session, as well as other days where he participated in off-session legislative meetings.
Most of the documents show that on a typical Senate session day, DeLuca clocked in at his labor department job in the Carvel building in Wilmington at 7 a.m., then clocked out around noon—presumably when he left for Dover.
The rest of the afternoon spent at Legislative Hall, up until DeLuca’s scheduled eight-hour shift at the DOL ends at 3 p.m., is listed as unpaid leave.
The records appear to show that DeLuca has not been getting paid for his labor department job while he has been working on Senate business.
In 2010, DeLuca logged 252.5 hours of unpaid leave for legislative business. He’s recorded 154.5 hours through May 31 of this year.
DeLuca was not available for comment when the documents were released, said Senate Democratic caucus spokesman Patrick Jackson, who was instructed to give the leave records to reporters late Tuesday.
For the last six months, DeLuca has been the subject of press probes seeking documents substantiating his work habits at both jobs.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry's latest call for a day of prayer is being met by a chorus of boos from critics who say the potential presidential candidate is showing favoritism toward Christianity and violating the separation of church and state.
Perry has ordered a day of prayer and fasting on Aug. 6 to “seek God’s guidance and wisdom in addressing the challenges that face our communities, states and nation." It is part of what is being described as a non-denominational, apolitical, Christian prayer meeting hosted by the American Family Association at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
Perry will participate in the all-day event that encourages people to bring a Bible and a notebook. Perry has invited every governor in the country to attend, and he is urging them to issue similar proclamations.
"Given the trials that beset our nation and world, from the global economic downturn to natural disasters, the lingering danger of terrorism and continued debasement of our culture, I believe it is time to convene the leaders from each of our United States in a day of prayer and fasting, like that described in the book of Joel," he said in a written statement.
"I urge all Americans of faith to pray on that day for the healing of our country, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of enduring values as our guiding force," he said.
Virginia is launching a program to assist regions in creating and sustaining economic-development opportunities.
Gov. Bob McDonnell said Tuesday that the Building Collaborative Communities program will promote regional economic collaborations in economically distressed areas to stimulate job creation and economic development.
"Collaborative efforts represent the best opportunity for economic growth and prosperity, and this investment demonstrates the commonwealth's commitment to supporting those areas of Virginia most in need of an economic development spark," McDonnell said in a news release.
The program combines state entities such as the Department of Business Assistance, Virginia Tourism Corp., Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Department of Housing and Community Development and the Virginia Community College System.
It will involve the lieutenant governor's office and economic advisers in the governor's office.
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who has been tapped as Virginia's chief jobs-creation officer, said research shows that economic competiveness is enhanced in areas across the country where localities work together.
The state is providing $200,000 to support the program in fiscal year 2012.
The suspect in the murder of American University Professor Sue Ann Marcum is "hiding in plain sight within a few miles of the U.S. Border," say Montgomery County law enforcement officials, frustrated that Mexican authorities have not yet apprehended him.
The suspect, Jorge Rueda Landeros, "hasn't gone underground. He's working as a yoga instructor in a coffee shop," in Ciudad Juarez Mexico, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation.
Police secured an international warrant charging Landeros with murder more than three weeks ago.
WTOP has learned Montgomery County police, working with El Paso, Texas police, obtained a DNA sample from Landeros during his last visit to the United States, approximately two months ago.
"We got a buccal swab, by wiping a Q-tip along the inside of his cheek. It was consensual," says the source.
Soon after submitting to the DNA test, Landeros went back to Mexico. He has not returned.
A top gun control group has filed suit against a recently passed Florida law restricting doctors from asking patients about whether they own firearms, claiming the policy tramples on First Amendment rights.
The first-in-the-nation law, signed last week by Gov. Rick Scott, would prohibit doctors from recording information about whether a patient owns a gun. It also restricts them from asking about whether patients own a gun unless that information is relevant to their medical care.
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, along with another law firm and groups representing doctors, filed suit Monday asking a U.S. District Court judge in Florida to strike down the law.
Maryland health officials say a recent heat wave contributed to the first two heat-related deaths in the state this year.
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced Tuesday that a Cecil County man and an Anne Arundel County woman, both over 65 years old, died in the past 10 days from exposure to excess heat. Officials say both were over 65 years old and had underlying medical conditions.
Health officials warn that more high temperatures are expected Wednesday and Thursday.
