O’Malley and Utech

I thought I would never see the Baltimore Sun report this:

After landing its most lucrative city work in early 2004, Utech and its president, Boyer, contributed $5,500 to O'Malley's campaign treasury between October 2004 and June 2005. The company and Boyer also contributed $1,500 to Dixon between October 2004 and November 2005, records show.

Full Article Here

My previous post Scrutinize O’Malley

$1,000 reasons…

The Howard County Police Department is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest of the person/s responsible for the recent spate of hate crimes in Howard County (specifically Ellicott City).

More information here

Also check out the Police Department reports and this one.

While you are at it you should check out the other information on the police department web site.  It has a wealth of important information and ways in which you can help solve a crime.

If you know anything please speak up.

Political Insurance – The General Assembly and BGE

Just absolutely nuts…

Political insurance

In their electricity bill, Democrats installed several wonderful booby traps in case Republicans try to attack the measure outside the legislature after it's passed.

1) Section 19, paragraph 5: "No State funds may be spent directly or indirectly by any officer or unit of State government to challenge any portion of this Act, in a State court or federal court." This would apply to an officer of state government with the name of — to pick a random example — Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

2) Section 19, paragraph 1. If any action is brought to challenge the constitutionality or legality of the act, "The action shall be filed in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City. That will keep Public Service Commission Chairman Ken Schisler from filing a suit with a friendly judge on his Eastern Shore stomping grounds, as he has already done

3) The new proposed method of naming PSC commissioners would have the governor choose from a list furnished by the legislature (Section 12). But this just might be unconstitutional! (It could be a separation-of-powers issue, giving the assembly too much control over the executive branch.) If so, not a problem. See Section 22, which lets the attorney general (who's elected separately from the governor) name the PSC if courts block the other plan. Jay Hancock is a business columnist for The Baltimore Sun.

Democrats back off on rezoning change

Update: What I said now in the Howard County Times

Complaints over timing of the County Council's vote on reforms lead to decision

The Baltimore Sun article

"the idea prompted some complaints, both about the concept of dividing the county and the timing of the proposal. A bill introduced July 3 would be voted on at the end of that month because the council doesn't meet in August.

Mssrs Guzzone and Ulman explained