Ban

I greatly appreciate that Larry Carson mentioned two of my most important campaign issues in his Sept. 30 article ("Candidates face off for general election at forum"). However, the drug "spice" is not "likened to marijuana. " It is in fact synthetic marijuana equal to the real thing in terms of the effect on the mind — yet legal and readily available to children. Cases of respiratory problems have also been reported by users of this product. And it is believed that exposure to high dosages can cause unconsciousness, short-term memory loss, damage to the heart, liver, kidney, lungs and brain.

In addition to the 10 measures outlined in the article, "Injury-prevention laws save lives, study says," (May 23), I believe a ban on smoking in Maryland is also a no-brainer. You can't walk anywhere in Maryland without having to inhale toxic cigarette fumes. It seems more people than ever are smoking in front of buildings everywhere with no concern about the effect on others who need to go in and out of buildings or who simply want to take a walk. People are even smoking in front of children near the schools in our neighborhood.

Albert Lord doesn't like to wait - not in business or on the golf course. The colorful chairman of student loan behemoth Sallie Mae, who's embroiled in a nasty fight over the failed sale of the company, has spent 40 years in the accounting and banking industries. He said that experience should have instilled in him a measure of patience, but it hasn't. Whether in traffic, at the office or on the links, Lord said, he just doesn't like to wait. He can't do much about the first two, but he's got a sure-fire solution for the last one: He's building his own, an 18-hole golf course on land he's acquired amid shuttered tobacco farms and grazing horses in southern Anne Arundel County.

There is a saying that "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. " That seems to sum up the Republican approach to all issues. The latest example is the GOP-controlled House, which just passed a budget bill that bans the use of military facilities for gay marriages. Gay discrimination in the military has ended. Gay marriage is legal is many states. Yet the Republicans have used a religious approach to everything and now have applied it the budget. There is medical condition in which fluid builds up in the wrist, causing swelling that looks like a small knot on the skin.

Wow, so Baltimore City and Howard County are going to ban drinks with alcohol and caffeine that are sold in a single can already mixed together ( "Alcohol with caffeine is banned," Dec. 1). That's sure to stop anyone from drinking something that has alcohol and caffeine in it — forever! Or at least as long as no one figures out you can mix vodka and Red Bull together in a glass. Or coffee and Irish whiskey. William Smith, Baltimore

When will the people of Baltimore stand united together and demand that guns of all descriptions be banned from the city? After witnessing eight murders over Memorial Day weekend in a city of this size population, this is incredible. When is the elected political leadership going to have the will and verve to really stand up for the citizens of Baltimore? Guns kill, and guns in the wrong hands of felons and erratic drug addicts kill multiple people. It is plain & simple, other countries that have banned guns don't have this problem.

It appears Sen. Jamie Raskin, the Montgomery County senator who is sponsoring legislation that would ban minors from using commercial tanning beds, does not have much faith in American teenagers, their parents or the proprietors of tanning salons. Tanning booths are all timed for 10, 15, or 20 minutes depending on the chosen tanning booth and are set by the proprietor. There are even instructions for setting the bed for 2 to 3 minutes to enable one to work their way up to the longer times.

A May 2, 2011 letter to the editor mischaracterizes a bill awaiting Gov. Martin O'Malley's signature on the chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA). The bill does not, as stated, ban infant formula infant formula and baby food packaging that contains more than 0.5 parts per billion (ppb) of BPA. Instead, the bill calls for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to deliver a report to the General Assembly next year on federal research and regulatory activities related to BPA, specifically addressing the availability and safety of substitutes for BPA used in containers for infant formula.

Maryland health officials proposed Tuesday a ban on the sale of crib bumpers, which have been linked to the asphyxiation of at least two dozen infants across the country — a move that would make it the first state to prohibit the bumpers. The pads have little safety benefit and pose a small, but potentially deadly risk, according to members of a state task force formed this year to advise state health officials. "Crib bumpers are not part of the safe sleep ABCs — babies should sleep alone, on their backs in a crib," Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, secretary of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said at a news conference announcing the proposal.

A state judiciary committee decision on recommending a statewide policy that could ban electronics such as cell phones from Maryland courthouses, was postponed Friday. The committee wants to redraft the policy to allow cell phones, but their use would be "very controlled," said Sandra F. Haines, the reporter for the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, an arm of the state court system. The move raises issues of inconvenience for the public and access for journalists, but proponents say it would protect witness identities by preventing cell phone pictures of them, and minimize disruptions.

Gov.Martin O'Malley will sign bills doing everything from raising income taxes to banning arsenic from chicken feed Tuesday as he closes out the business of the 90-day General Assembly session and the special session that followed it. Joined by House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, O'Malley will hold a marathon ceremony during which he will sign hundreds of bills into law. They include the two budget-related measures...

Maryland is set to become the first state in the nation to outlaw chicken feed additives containing arsenic - but it won't be the last, if environmental activists have their way. Gov.Martin O'Malleyis scheduled to sign into law today legislation that bars sale or use of any chicken feed containing Roxarsone, which has been widely used since the 1940s by the poultry industry. It would become effective Jan. 1. Environmental and food safety advocates say they hope to push for similar legislation in other states, including neighboring Virginia.

Want to express yourself on a license plate? Go ahead. The state will gladly take your $50 per year. You can't say any old thing, though. The Motor Vehicle Administration has cataloged more than 4,000 words, phrases and letter-number combinations it won't put on a tag. The agency's Objectionable Plate List, as it's called, is a compendium of vulgarities, obscenities and other no-no's aimed at keeping tags out of the gutter. The Baltimore Sun requested the information last week, hoping to share what the MVA doesn't want you to see on the road.

If local pharmacists could write the regulations, Marylanders probably wouldn't ever have been allowed to get their prescriptions filled at chain stores like Walgreens and Rite-Aid. Independent video stores probably would have liked to outlaw Blockbuster, just as small bookstore owners probably would have been just as happy if the state had a ban on Barnes & Noble. (For that matter, Blockbuster might like an injunction against Netflix and Barnes & Noble on Amazon.com.) And most of all, Main Street merchants everywhere would probably love a world where Walmart was illegal.

Unlike most other states, Maryland shoppers have to make one extra stop for a cabernet to go with that steak they bought on sale at the supermarket —grocery stores in the state are generally banned from selling alcohol. Increasingly, though, grocery chains like Wegmans and Harris Teeter are trying to find ways around the prohibition, drawing pushback from Maryland's powerful liquor lobby and package goods stores but support from consumers hoping for easier food-and-wine pairings.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and some County Council members accepted thousands of dollars' worth of tickets to sporting events from developers and others last year, a practice the county has continued to allow in violation of state ethics standards. The county overhauled its ethics law late last year under legislation introduced by Kamenetz but did not bar elected officials from taking sports tickets from people who do business with the county. The State Ethics Commission decided in February that the county's reform effort had fallen short.

After reading "Oysters vs. oysterman" (Feb. 7) I can't help but feeling dismayed that we still have not totally banned the commercial harvest of a once plentiful shellfish. The fact that the bay contains less than 1 percent of its previous oyster population tells me that this one is a no brainer. Maryland's oyster population has been decimated not only from disease but from severe overharvesting both legal and illegal. Gov. Martin O'Malley's got it right. Let's save this important species now or the oyster and the waterman will be a thing of the past.

Finally, the description of Maryland as a "nanny state" could actually apply — and it's a good thing. Late last week, a state task force recommended that crib bumpers, the padded liners used on the inside of baby cribs, be declared a hazard. They have been associated with cases of asphyxiation where infants may have accidentally wedged their faces between the soft liner and crib mattress or become tangled with the strings that attach the bumpers to the crib slats. If Maryland Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary Joshua M. Sharfstein accepts the proposed regulations, Maryland could be the first state in the nation to ban their sale.

Had you heard that the Kenyan Keynesian socialist Muslim sleeper agent in the White House is trying to kill off the nation's sparrows? At HeadsUp , FEV examines a Washington Free Beacon article that makes such a claim, which turns out (you did see this coming, didn't you?) to be entirely bogus. How do we know that it is bogus, apart from the surface improbability of the mere assertion? FEV took the trouble to read the links in the story itself and discovered that they completely undermine the assertion: "The most fun of all, though, is the chutzpah -- the charge-for-the-guns testiculosity involved in flat-out cold lying, then linking to the documents that show beyond doubt that you're making it up as you go along.