June 02, 2009
Motorcyclist dies, another injured
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One motorcyclist was killed and another was seriously injured Saturday afternoon when their cycles collided with cars in Annapolis, Anne Arundel County police said. John S. Vansickler, 51, of La Plata and Teresa A. Stecker, 48, of Mechanicsville were riding their Harley-Davidson motorcycles north on Solomons Island Road about 3:15 p.m. when they failed to stop for a red light and crashed into separate cars at Aris T. Allen Boulevard, according to an initial police investigation. Vansickler was pronounced dead on arrival at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. Police said Stecker is in serious but stable condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. No one in either car was injured, according to police.
Roscoe Bartlett going for 10th congressional term
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Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, the lone Republican in the state's congressional delegation, confirmed Monday that he is running for a 10th term in 2010. Bartlett, also the oldest Marylander in Congress, said through an aide that he wants to keep the seat he first won in 1992. A formal announcement will come "some time in the future," said spokeswoman Lisa Wright. Bartlett has been raising money for a re-election run. He is considered a heavy favorite to win the largely Republican district, which extends along the Mason-Dixon line from Harford and northern Baltimore County through all of Western Maryland. The Frederick congressman confirmed his plans in response to an expected announcement Monday evening by Andrew Duck, a Democrat, that he wants a rematch with Bartlett. In 2006, Duck drew 38 percent of the vote after getting outspent two-to-one by the incumbent. Bartlett had $325,939 in his campaign account as of March 31, the most recent date for which data is available, according to the Federal Election Commission.
- Paul West
Shortfall in state revenue may cut into city plans
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A state budget analyst delivered a message Monday of fiscal gloom to the Baltimore City Council and mayor, as the council members work to pass the city's 2010 budget. Warren G. Deschenaux, the General Assembly's chief fiscal analyst, said actual state revenues are about $2.4 billion less than the projected number used in June 2008 to plan the 2010 budget. He told city leaders to brace themselves for no growth in state aid in 2011 - and possibly for further aid cuts in the 2010 budget. Some council members have suggested tapping city rainy day funds to keep several pools and recreation centers from closing this year, which Mayor Sheila Dixon proposed in her budget. Dixon, who has been discouraging using that money, invited the analyst to Monday's lunch meeting. She asked Deschenaux to repeat aloud a phrase he had muttered at the end of his presentation: "Leave as much cash as you can."
- Julie Bykowicz
Attorney asks to be removed from teacher's lawsuit
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The attorney for a Howard County teacher who won a racial discrimination lawsuit against the school system two years ago has filed a motion to have herself removed from a second lawsuit, claiming that her client's actions have "blindsided her." The motion filed May 22 by Dawn Martin, a lawyer based in Washington, to have herself removed as Michelle Maupin's lawyer has been granted. In July 2007, a jury awarded Maupin, who is black, $237,000 in compensatory and punitive damages for racial discrimination she suffered while teaching at Centennial High in Ellicott City. Maupin, 40, who is now an English teacher at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, said she was placed on paid administrative leave in September because she filed a lawsuit for $1 million claiming she has received several reprimands, including one after telling administrators that a fellow teacher used a racial slur in front of students. Martin, who did not represent Maupin in her 2007 suit, requested to be removed from the current case because of "irreconcilable differences which literally make continued representation impossible," she wrote in the motion.
