Amendments

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold vetoed amendments Wednesday that were key to the approval this week of a bill that alters the binding arbitration process between the county and its public safety employees The move quickly garnered criticism from some members of the council and union leaders, who argued that Leopold's decision could upset a delicate compromise among members. The County Council unanimously approved the bill Monday giving the council final authority over whether to honor independent arbitrators' decisions in labor disputes between the county and its public safety workers.

Foreclosure protections would expand for service members, their widowed spouses and certain disabled veterans under an amendment that overwhelmingly passed the House last week. For U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings of Baltimore, it was a sweet victory. He offered the amendment with two co-sponsors and has made foreclosure prevention a key focus in recent years, pressing for investigations of mortgage servicer abuses , holding massive foreclosure-prevention workshops and putting together a document trail that calls into question claims that principal reduction would be a financially bad move . He was heartened that his proposed amendment to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act passed 394 to 27 in the sharply divided House, and the Democrat said Tuesday that he expects the Senate to follow suit with a similar proposal.

Anne Arundel County residents will have an additional opportunity to weigh in on proposed land zoning changes — a move made in response to community complaints. The Planning Advisory Board will hold public hearings on any amendments to pending rezoning bills, a new step in the county's once-in-a-decade comprehensive rezoning process. County Executive John R. Leopold called for the change in a letter to the board's chair, after residents complained they hadn't had a chance to voice opposition to several amendments affecting their neighborhoods.

The Anne Arundel County Council passed a resolution Monday night commending the county police department — but not its chief — for decreasing crime in 2011. The council passed the resolution only after approving an amendment specifically removing Police Chief James E. Teare Sr.'s name from the language. The councilmanic move follows another council resolution last month expressing no confidence in Teare. The council said it is concerned with Teare's ability to lead the police department in light of certain allegations in the March indictment of County Executive John R. Leopold.

In the wake of the great Republican victory three weeks ago, Rep. Newt Gingrich and his colleagues have been whooping it up for constitutional amendments. I wish they would quiet down.2 James J. Kilpatrick is a syndicated columnist.

A bill that could drastically increase the number of video poker games, pool tables and other amusement devices in Baltimore bars and convenience stores has been sent back to committee for amendments. City Councilman Robert W. Curran asked that the legislation be remanded to the Land Use and Transportation Committee on Monday. In a memo obtained by The Sun, Curran said he wanted the committee to add amendments that would increase licensing fees for the games. The bill was amended once before to increase such fees from $180 to $350.

Only two community groups spoke out last night to object to amendments the Anne Arundel County school board has made to a plan that will change school boundaries starting next fall.Shelly Shaplin, of the Eastport Elementary School Citizens Advisory Council, wanted to know why the board still wants to transfer 75 more students into the school.The additional students will mean that rooms now used for before- and after-school day care will be pressed into use as regular classrooms."For two years, whenever the redistricting issue comes up, Eastport always shows up with a group of parents to show that I'm not just speaking for myself," Ms. Shaplin said.

The Maryland Association of Counties says it would support a Schaefer administration bill to protect Chesapeake Bay if the measure were amended to ban restrictions on development only in environmentally sensitive areas.In presenting the alternative, William V. Riggs, president of MACO, said yesterday the group would support the growth management bill "but only with amendments.""This is a major piece of legislation" that is in need of a "simpler and more workable framework," Riggs added.MACO had earlier opposed the measure, saying it would usurp local planning authority.

ANNAPOLIS -- If Maryland had once had its way, America's First Amendment rights to free speech, a free press and freedom of religion would be known today as "Third Amendment" rights.Nearly 203 years ago, Marylanders approved 12 amendments to the newly ratified U.S. Constitution, the last 10 of which ultimately became the new nation's Bill of Rights.But neither of the first two amendments proposed by the first U.S. Congress, then sitting in New York, made it -- not until yesterday, that is, when Michigan rather belatedly ratified the second one, which would prohibit Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises.

The County Council amended a proposal to regulate adult bookstores last week, lowering the annual fee for a license from $500 to $200.The council must vote on the amended version of the bill at its nextsession, May 5, or the proposal will automatically die. The bill would affect stores whose principal business is selling or renting sexually explicit films and published material.At their meeting Tuesday, council members spent about 40 minutes debating the merits of 28 proposed amendments, many of which were minor wording changes that did not significantly alter the bill's effects.

I found Dan Rodricks ' commentary regarding DNA testing and the recent Maryland Court of Appeals ruling ("DNA: Why wait for an arrest?" May 3) to be quite interesting. He states at the end that he can't think of a good argument against his position that we should all give DNA samples to the authorities whether we have been accused of a crime or not. Well, Dan, I've also thought about how useful having a large repository of DNA can be. Unsolved crime and a city mayor on your back?

For almost a decade, the Maryland business community has urged the legislature to raise revenue to invest in our state's clogged transportation infrastructure. And for good reason. The Baltimore area is the fifth most traffic-congested in America - and the Washington area is No. 1. As nations like China build high-speed rail and cities from Portland to Dallas expand light rail, Maryland continues to fall behind even in repairing potholes and bridges. Building the Red Line in Baltimore, the Purple Line in the D.C. suburbs, and the kind of MARC commuter rail Maryland needs remain aspirations, not financed projects.

Call your state senator and delegates today. A bill (HB 579) pending in the General Assembly would add an open-ended training requirement to those seeking a handgun carry permit in Maryland. This denial of civil rights appears to be a reaction to the recent ruling by a federal judge that state law requiring such applicants to have a "good and substantial reason" was unconstitutional. This is a naked attempt to enact restrictions after the federal court already ruled existing state law unconstitutional.

Sen. C. Anthony Muse is drawing attention in the Senate this morning because of a stack of amendments 18 inches high on his desk. The Prince George's County Democrat has also used his senatorial privilege to hold a series of Gov. Martin O'Malley's departmental bills until Monday, the final day of session. Each time he holds one of the bills, he stands, taps the stack of paper and tells his colleagues that he has amendments for it. Muse hasn't yet explained what he's up to -- but staffers have occasionally entered the chamber to add new amendments to his stack.

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, the governor's point man on legislation governing public-private partnerships, said Wednesday that the administration will not risk the measure's defeat over a controversial amendment that could change the rules for appeals in a lawsuit challenging the State Center redevelopment plan in Baltimore. Brown said the amendment, tacked on the  bill in the House Environmental Matters Committee, did not come from the administration. "We neither oppose it nor promote it," he said.

In arguing the First Amendment right of employers to choose what coverage they should be exempt from providing based on conscience, the Republicans who supported the Blunt amendment (and the three Democrats who sided with them) are guilty of short-sightedness and an absence of humility. The essence of the First Amendment is the right of all to their own interpretation of religion, not just the right to their own convictions. To maintain that order of tolerance, the First Amendment mandates that the government must not establish religion, but rather allow the practices of all people.

Maryland state's attorneys said yesterday that they would no longer support legislation to strengthen gang prosecution approved by the House of Delegates unless the Senate reinstates key provisions of the bill. "With the current language, to say that the bang isn't worth the buck, is putting it mildly," said Frank M. Kratovil Jr., the state's attorney for Queen Anne's County and president of the Maryland State's Attorneys' Association. "Without the amendments we are proposing, it's not a reasonable compromise.

In its final budget before city elections this fall, the Annapolis city council has approved a spending plan significantly altered by a faction of the council to include a 4-cent decrease in the property tax rate. Aldermen Sheila M. Tolliver, Louise Hammond, Herbert H. McMillan and Samuel Gilmer led a late-night coup, persuading Alderman Cynthia Carter to join them in pushing through their priorities in a marathon council meeting that began Tuesday night and stretched into yesterday morning.

Transgender people would be protected from discrimination in Baltimore County under a measure approved by the County Council Tuesday, making the county the fourth local government in Maryland to adopt such protections. Council members did not add a heavily debated amendment proposed last week that would have specifically exempted bathrooms, locker rooms and dressing rooms. Instead, the council left the bathroom issue open to interpretation in the legislation, amending the measure so that the protections do not apply to "distinctly private or personal" facilities.

Maryland's constitution calls for the removal from office of any elected official, state or local, who is convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanors. That would seem simple enough, but we have, sadly, at least three examples from recent years in which Article XV didn't quite work out the way one might hope. Despite being found guilty by a jury or pleading guilty in court, former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, former Prince George's County Councilwoman Leslie Johnson and former Anne Arundel County Councilman Daryl Jones managed, at least for a time, to hold onto office while under the darkest of legal clouds.