Happy Halloween

Be safe tonight, and remember there are children on the streets tonight, so drive especially carefully tonight.

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Free flu shots – comming to a traffic jam near you?

From the Baltimore Sun, Howard County offers free flu shots. The Howard County Heath Department is going to hold another flu shot clinic at Gateway Business Park on Sunday Nov 4th from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM.

I participated in this “emergency-preparedness” exercise last year. The article quotes waiting times last year were 90 minutes. Although I didn’t time it, I’d swear that I waited longer than that. The county is going to try to improve on that this year:

To cut waiting time, which last year was about 90 minutes, the county has separate vaccination sites for adults and families.

Police will direct traffic around Gateway Drive in the Gateway Business Park, off Route 175, which usually is empty on Sundays. Vehicles with adults will be directed to a parking lot at a building containing eight vaccination stations. Vehicles with families will be directed to another office building lot with 15 vaccination stations.

I really support using events like this as preparedness exercises. Last year showed they had some problems and it sound like they are going to address them. In the event of an true emergency like an avian flu out break or other biological event, the experience gained from these types of events could make a difference.

I’ve already received my shot this year, but I you haven’t received yours yet you may want to give this a try. You can’t beat the price and you get to help increase the county’s preparedness to boot.

Nonpartisan Demonstration

Now here’s a committed group of activists who have managed to avoid the common land mine of waffling on their supposed beliefs depending on which party is espousing action — the anti slots crowd.

It may be due to the coincidental overlapping of religion and morality based objections with the bipartisan goal of generating revenue without actually asking the big players to dig deeper – although I have seen many other instances when “morality” issues have taken a back seat to economic and partisan concerns (but that would be another post)

In the case of objections to slots, even though many of the consistent organizers are “faith based” organizations and their objections ultimately based on particular religious tenets, they are joined by many social scientist types who point to non-religion based research that purports to link legalized gambling to myriad social ills and economically catastrophic impacts on families, communities, businesses and industry.

While I happen to find the evidence that certain unfortunate patterns follow the inclusion of a legal gambling establishment in a community persuasive, ultimately I am a free choice for adults kind of chick and don’t believe a big brother of government ought to be telling me that I cannot engage in a friendly wager or a game of chance.

The arguments that these establishments frequently attract criminal elements strikes me as yet another problem of enforcement of existing laws against whatever other illegal or criminal activity may be taking place – but putting aside that argument for a moment, I think I may have a compromise.

First, acknowledging the significant economic potential for the state coffers by offering this lucrative taxable source of commerce and also acknowledging the real potential for peripheral criminal activities perhaps one answer would be for the state to operate the gambling establishments.

Not just “license” the activity to some kind of sub-contractor – but actually be the operator of the business. Then all economic incentives would flow to the state, not just the tax revenue. Food and drink concessions? Same thing.

Sure, that would mean expanding government – but not in the usual way. It would be expanding the operations of government to include generating income instead of only spending.

All the costs associated with policing, prosecuting, jailing convicted offenders, and liability issues arising from illegal or otherwise actionable events would be paid out of the operating revenue from the gambling activities.

That way, eventually we would have a definitive answer to whether or not gambling is the economic boon some insist — or whether other increased costs are absorbed by other revenue streams as others insist.

Of course there will still be some economic and social costs that don’t get billed directly to the source – but that happens with other already legal activities that desimate families and communities —  such as alcohol, tobacco and firearms.

So lets give it a whirl – state owned and operated gambling —- if we are going to get stuck with the bills we should get ALL the income.

Cindy V

Ulman Administration Does Something Right

I am not so naive as to believe we can all agree on this – but I am very pleased that the Ulman administration has taken decisive action on the proliferation of illegal sign litter in the county.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-ho.signs24oct24,0,6894155.story

The scofflaws who plant their commercial enterprise signs on public and private property offend me on many levels.  Not only are they unsightly and a litter problem, and the periodic cleanup a waste of community resources  – but this illegal, uncompensated use of other people’s property provides an unfair business advantage to the offenders.

For those who are not engaged in business in HoCo, you may be surprised to learn that permits are required for most signs – and there are fairly stringent rules about how big, how many,  what materials, and where they can be placed.

The folks quoted in the Sun article who say they didn’t know about the laws, or just did what they saw other people doing have got to be kidding.   If they really don’t have enough sense to know that you can’t just conduct your business affairs on other peoples property, then we should question what other laws they don’t understand.   I therefore am making the following suggestion:

Not only should the businesses whose signs have been collected in this sweep be fined according to the law – but the they should also be referred to the enforcement divisions of all the other permit, licensing, taxing, zoning and compliance offices that would normally be required for their posted businesses.

Sound harsh?  I suppose.

It is very hard to be a small business person.  The paperwork will kill you.   However, as long as the laws and rules are in place and the rest of the businesses are spending their time and resources complying with them – then everyone must.

Now, if these folks want to put some time and effort into changing the rules to make it easier for small businesses to thrive without being run out of business by government paperwork …..

Cindy Vaillancourt

ps – while they are cleaning up the illegal signs – let’s not forget the huge commercial real estate signs erected on sites where no property is available.

MRSA

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

What the 4377 is that? You may be asking.  Well you should be.  It has been all over the news lately and it is very serious. 

I think our officials in Howard County, starting with Ken Ulman, should take the lead in bringing awareness of this issue to the public.  Most of all he should not put any, especially some of our most vulnerable, citizen in a situation where they may be exposed to MRSA. 

MRSA is a staffph infection that is highly resistant to antibiotic medications and there has been a rise in the occurance of this strain of staff infection.

The Centers for Disease Control says that MRSA infections are more prevalent and invasive than previously thought.  Additionally, the CDC says the overall incidence rate is an “astounding” 32 invasive infections per 100,000 people.  Finally, older adults and people who are ill or have weakened immune systems, ordinary staph infections can cause serious illness called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureusor MRSA.

Older adults….  Lets get back to that.

WBAL reports:

Howard [County] is the latest Maryland county

HoCo Board of Public Works

What?  Didn’t know we had one?  I don’t mean the Department of Public Works or the Public Works Board either.

The Maryland State Board of Public Works consists of the Governor, the Comptroller, and the Treasurer. 

In order to protect and enhance the State’s fiscal integrity, the Board of Public Works ensures that significant State expenditures are necessary and appropriate, fiscally responsible, fair, and lawful.

Apparently Howard County has a Board of Public works modeled after that of the State except it consists of one member – Ken Ulman.  Their web site is here. 

Ken was the “Director of the Board of Public Works” so he knows how things are done.

According to the Howard County Times Mr. Ulman decided, all by his lonesome:

…to buy a floor in a proposed Columbia office building for $4 million…

County Councilman Greg Fox obviously thought that is was odd that the Executive would by pass the County Council on such a large sum of money so he asked the question and received an answer.

…an Oct. 15 opinion … from the county Office of Law states that the purchase must be added to the county’s budget through the approval of the County Council.

Mr. Ulman’s response:

Ulman, a Democrat, said this week that he did not originally believe it necessary to amend the budget to spend the $4 million on the project, but added that he would send such an amendment to the council soon.

Well Mr. Ulman must think he can spend County money anyway he chooses.  Seriously, why would he not want to run this by the County Council or even his own legal advisors?  He served on the County Council – he fully understands the role and responsibilities of the County Council.  Yet…

To boot why would he not want a public hearing on the matter?  It is the law after all.  Wasn’t it Ken who wanted more transparancy in County Government?

Thankfully Mr. Fox forced the point and County Council will now be able to ask, why the County needs this particular piece of yet to be constructed property?

Peter Khalaf, a spokesman with the building’s developer, the Baltimore-based MetroVentures/USA Inc….expects to break ground on the project in October or November and finish it by fall 2008, Khalaf said.

I would like to know why the County can not use currently available office space.   Would it have anything to do with the fact that MetroVentures/USA Inc. contributed $3,000.00 to Ken Ulman’s campaign for County Executive?  Just asking. 

Perhaps this is a question best left for the Howard County Board of Public Works. 

I am sure that their are other developers in the County that Mr. Ulman could have done business with and many of them contributed to his campaign.  However, this just looks bad.  Trying to spend $4M of the County’s money with a large campaign contributor without vetting it through the County Council is simply questionable and a tad arrogant.

When a similiar situation came up – relative to campaign contributions and alleged favors – there were a lot of comments.  Check it out.

Outing Tom Berkhouse

Sometime ago I was accused of outing Mary Smith on this blog when Mary really outed herself.  See the blog post here.  Only one person ever came forward to tell me they knew who Mary Smith really was after that post – and that was after repeated challenges.  Never the less lots of people who have no idea who Mary Smith is to this day came out to bash me and accused me of outing Mary.Here is an example of what some people wrote after that infamous incident.

I do want to say that I strongly disagree with David Keelan’s decision to expose the true identity of a commenter he doesn’t like, and one with whom I disagree (and am frustrated by) regularly. Regardless of how you feel about her, David’s decision sets an ugly precedent. Commenter’s can be held to different standards depending on their views and the threat of tracing identities through IP address (which are available for all to see by looking at the Site Meter reports — see bottom of the page) looms over all. Such things help stifle diverse debate and might prevent many worthy commenter’s from participating.

Ian “Hayduke” Kennedy October 26, 2006

Ian is entitled to his opinion and clearly indicated he had set a higher standard.

Now someone on Ian’s blog is trying to out a frequent commenter and critic of Ian’s thought process and positions.  To date Ian is silent on the developments even though the post is 2 weeks old.  See Hayduke’s blog in which he comes out favoring Big Box retail stores (although I am not clear on whether he favors them on the Crescent).

The frequent critic is Tom Berkhouse.  The people trying to out Berkhouse are treating Tom as if he did something terrible like threatened a county employee for trying to shut off his water for non-payment or something when in fact all Tom does is forcefully and at times very forcefully expresses a strong difference of opinion with Ian.  At times Tom will criticise Ian for what Tom perceives to be a twisting of the facts in order to reach a desired conclusion.  Tom is often (not always) rather enjoyable to read and makes good points but often (if not always) fails to elicit a reaction from Ian.  So in fairness to Ian perhaps Ian is just simply ignoring all commenter’s.  Perhaps Ian is too busy with his new job which is perfectly understandable.  I have a full time job too, a family, and I just started an MBA program (which is going great so far)  so I understand finding time to stay up on the local scene and one’s blog isn’t easy.

Fiscal Discipline in DC

This morning I was reminiscing and licking my wounds once again over GOP local losses in the last election.  I began to wonder had I read anything about how deeply cut to the bone the grassroots GOP was last November.  I don’t think I have.  But I wondered if Howard County was cut that deeply surely other counties across the country were too.

Remember the Red and Blue map that shows by county how red and blue the country is?  I wonder how many shades of red we lost almost one year ago.

Then I got angry that the GOP leadership in Congress appointed the same clowns who ran amok on spending to the leadership positions again.  If I had a chance to ask the GOP presidential primary candidates a question it would be this.  What are you going to do to clear the party of numb skulls like those so the GOP can once again claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility.

Then I read this…  Bush raps Democrats on spending bills and thought to myself.  Isn’t it a little to late GW?  Granted Pelosi and Reid make it easier but even with those two in charge of the House and Senate not even GW is going to look fiscally conservative.

We need more than rhetoric.  We need action.  A lot of Republicans I speak to are just fed up and figure we can’t do any worse than the Democrats at this point.  While I agree with the sentiment and that our leadership has a lot to be desired we at the local level need to spur change.  We need to take control of the party.  Every GOP leader in DC is still sitting their asses into nice cushy warm chairs while thousands of dedicated, hard working, scandal free Republicans got tossed from office or lost a race because of those DC jerks.

Mr. President, I like you.  I don’t agree with everything you do.  And I do give you credit for allowing the GOP congress to run amok with my money.  If you think this is your chance to show your conservative fiscal credentials I have to say you are wrong.  You and the current GOP leadership have no credibility so don’t try to convince me.  It is too late.

To my GOP brothers and sisters.  A lot of people are telling me that the best thing that can happen to the GOP is to coalecese around an unpopular democratic presidential candidate – preferably Hilary.  Yeah, that would be nice.  Do you know what.  Forget Hilary for now.  What is necessary is to get our house in order first.  Get rid of the current leadership that put us here in the first place.  With these folks in charge we won’t be able to take back our party nor claim the mantle of fiscal conservatism.  On top of that the GOP candidate for President will not be able to fully claim the mantle of fiscal conservatism if these men remain in power.  Give the next Republican President a chance to act as a fiscal conservative by giving him leaders who will help him and not hinder him.

Minority Leader: Mitch McConnell (Kentucky)

Assistant Minority Leader (Minority Whip): Trent Lott (Mississippi)

Counselor to the Minority Leader: Robert Bennett (Utah)

Republican Conference Chairman: Jon Kyl (Arizona)

Republican Policy Committee Chairman: Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas)

Republican Conference Vice Chair: John Cornyn (Texas)

Republican Campaign Committee Chair: John Ensign (Nevada)

Minority Leader: John Boehner (Ohio 8th)

Minority Whip: Roy Blunt (Missouri 7th)

Chief Deputy Minority Whip: Eric Cantor (Virginia 7th)

Al Gore for President

OSLO, Norway – Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and lay the foundations for counteracting it.

I have lost all respect for the Nobel Peace Prize.  I guess once they lowered their standards and awarded a Peace Prize to Yasser Arafat that they decided to aim higher.  For you progressive liberals — I am not comparing Gore and Arafat.  That is a criticism of the Nobel committee for awarding a prize to Arafat and lowering their standards.

I would like Gore to debate this issue with people who actually know what they are talking about.  His hype and hysterics are not worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.

Now the speculation.  Will Al Gore (Nobel Peace Prize and Academy Award Winner) step into the Democratic Presidential Primary or is it too late?  Maybe all these prizes are just consolation award for loosing in 2000 to GW?

There is actually some speculation that he might do it.  There is a lot of speculation that he won’t and that it is too late to stop Clinton.

“I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize,” Gore said. “We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity.”

Al is a phoney. It is political because he made it political.  He is trying to get the Government to step in and implement cap and trade policies.  You don’t think it is political?  BS.  This is not a moral and spiritual challenge either because he will use all his political capital to get the next President (especially a Democratic one) to implement cap and trade so he and his friends can rake in the cash.

“His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change,” the Nobel citation said. “He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.”

What measures would those be?  Cap and trade measures like the Europeans are using and preparing to walk away from?  They don’t work.  It has been tried before and it failed.  The Europeans can’t make it work.  But Al Gore can?  Please.  Al is seeing dollar signs.

Wegmans must be one amazing store or somebody may be exaggerating.

I have never been to a Wegmans (I grew up with Giant Eagle and Thorofare.) So when I heard that Wegmans was looking to come to Columbia along Snowden River, my first reaction was “a what”, followed quickly by the general traffic concerns. However, the more that I read about the store and the reaction of the labor unions that are opposing it, the more I’m looking forward to it opening.

My goal when shopping is usually to get in and out as quickly as possible. I even try to gage the length of the lines when I walk in to decide if I need to keep below 15 items. And it really does not matter if its a Giant or a Safeway, whatever happens to be closest. So, the idea of a 160,000 sq. ft., multiple floor grocery store probably will not fit into my general shopping pattern.

The Baltimore Sun story Panel decision on Wegmans is appealed got me thinking how wonderful can this store really be? Well, according to Ellicott City resident and union leader Buddy Mays, it must be some store:

“What happens with these size stores, they draw from as much as a 25-mile radius. They can destroy any store in that path,” said Mays, president of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 27, which represents grocery workers.

Really? That good? A 25 mile radius – in this area?

According to the Maryland Department of Planning, in 2000 the population density of Howard county was 983.4 per square mile (Anne Arundel – 1177.2, Baltimore county 1,260.1, Montgomery – 1,762.5 and Prince George’s – 1,651.1), so being conservative, let’s just use the numbers for Howard county. The area of a circle with a 25 mile radius is ~1963 square miles. That’s a population of ~1,930,414!

With nearly 2 million people that would be ~605,145 families (MD average family size in 2000 was 3.19). And a single Wegmans can destroy any store within that path? That is either (a) a really great store, (b) the other stores really stink, or (c) someone is over-stating things a little.