Cabinet

The issue of state government hiring and firing is back in the news again thanks to an administrative law judge's ruling in favor of Gregory J. Maddalone, the former figure skater most recently turned Department of Transportation homeland security expert. He was a central figure in the squabble over the Ehrlich administration's personnel policies, so the irony was too obvious to miss: Mr. Maddalone used to help fire people for allegedly political reasons and now the O'Malley administration is having trouble firing him under what may be similar circumstances.

Gov. Martin O'Malley is to announce three more Cabinet appointments today, a day after a state Senate committee unanimously approved seven nominees and a new people's counsel for the board that regulates utilities. The picks require final approval of the full Senate. Thirteen of 21 positions have now been filled. Cathy Raggio, executive director of a suburban Washington nonprofit organization, said yesterday that she is to replace Kristen Cox as secretary of disabilities, an office with a budget of $6.8 million that drew attention last year when then-Gov.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening's plan to give Maryland's 530,000 veterans a state Cabinet department received a warm reception yesterday from a Senate committee led by one of their own.The administration's bill to create a Department of Veterans Affairs fulfills a promise made by the governor during last year's campaign. It would combine three commissions under a single Cabinet secretary, at a cost estimated at $84,100 next year.Sen. Clarence W. Blount, a World War II Army veteran who chairs the Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee, volunteered his strong support for the measure.

In a continuing enforcement sweep against properties owned by slum speculator James M. Stein, the city Health Department cited his Pick'n Chick'n real estate company yesterday for failing to correct lead paint hazards in a rental house where a child was poisoned in 1997."

JERUSALEM -- In what may mark the end of rogue Jewish settlement outposts, the Israeli government plans to begin removing hilltop encampments erected illegally over the past couple of years in the West Bank, officials said yesterday.Prime Minister Ehud Barak received the go-ahead from a special Cabinet committee yesterday to order the dismantling of the small settlements."The government is on the verge of telling the military which caravan outposts should be removed," a government source said last night.

After a resounding election win Tuesday, Baltimore Mayor-elect Martin O'Malley wasted little time yesterday introducing a 20-member committee to help him pick key Cabinet members and begin working to "change and reform" city government.About 100 people crowded into a City Hall hearing room to get a glimpse of the city's 47th mayor, who at 36 will be the youngest in Baltimore history.O'Malley was all business as he unveiled a transition team that contains a mix of races, ages, genders, interests and occupations, from banker to soup-kitchen operator.

MOSCOW -- Loyalty to Boris N. Yeltsin exacts its toll, as Russia's new prime minster, Sergei Stepashin, has been finding out. Stepashin may be in charge of the Cabinet, as he felt it necessary to point out earlier this week, but that doesn't mean he has much of a say in how it's put together.Stepashin has been burdened by Yeltsin with a deputy premier, Nikolai Aksyonenko, who acts as though he didn't hear the "deputy" part when he was offered the job. The other deputy premier, Mikhail Zadornov, was Stepashin's man, and the thinking was he might balance Aksyonenko.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Political leaders worked furiously into today to rescue the Northern Ireland peace agreement, trying to pull it back from the brink of failure just as the landmark accord reaches its first anniversary.Negotiators from major factions and the British and Irish prime ministers held around-the-clock talks without notable progress on the dispute that threatens to sink the deal: when and how to disarm the Irish Republican Army.Unless the dispute is resolved in the next few days, observers say, the peace process risks losing so much credibility that it may not recover, prompting a new cycle of violence that could escalate and cause the peace talks to collapse.

THE END IS in sight -- literally -- for Dick and Nancy Councill, who've been enduring a major construction and renovation project on their home. The exterior is 99 percent complete, most of what is going on now is inside. The trim is finished, the painter is almost done, and the ceramic tile is nearing completion.But the big moment came when Ron's crew removed the plywood from the doors that enter the existing house and replaced it with plastic. Now you can see into the new space from the house, and it really opens things up.There is still a lot going on. Ron has been working with Nancy on selecting finishes and fixtures for a couple of weeks.

PRETORIA, South Africa -- President Thabo Mbeki appointed a down-to-business Cabinet yesterday, shuffling some portfolios and leaving others in the hands of key ministers from the administration of former President Nelson Mandela."

JERUSALEM -Benjamin Netanyahu, taking office as Israeli prime minister Tuesday amid heckling by leftist and Arab lawmakers, offered to seek a "permanent arrangement" for limited Palestinian self-rule. "We do not wish to rule another people," the conservative leader declared in a speech to the Knesset, Israel's parliament. Without endorsing the goal of sovereignty for the Palestinians, he said he favored an accord giving them "all the powers necessary to rule themselves, except those that would threaten Israel's existence and security."

At a time of financial crisis, Gov. Martin O'Malley has chosen as the state's new economic development chief a thirtysomething Baltimorean whose private-sector experience includes a failed dot-com, two companies based out of his mother's home and a year at a consulting firm. O'Malley's choice of Christian S. Johansson to lead the state Department of Business and Economic Development might seem risky for a Cabinet post recently held by men decades his senior with far more experience in business and government.

Schools still failing African-Americans I share the pride other Marylanders feel in our school system's success in helping high school students pass Advanced Placement exams ("Md. seniors rank No. 1 in passing of AP exams," Feb. 5). I also share the concern of The Baltimore Sun's editors that this could be used to fuel arguments to reduce funding for education ("Another gold star," editorial, Feb. 5). The editors also correctly point out that the lack of success by African-Americans on AP exams is a signal of how far Maryland still has to go. Last week's report of success is proof that Maryland schools can get the job done.

WASHINGTON - The Senate, acting within hours of President Barack Obama's inauguration, confirmed six of his Cabinet secretaries and his budget director, but postponed for one day a vote on the nomination of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, had objected to approving Clinton's nomination by voice vote - as the other nominees were yesterday - because he said he had continuing concerns about potential conflicts arising from foreign donations to the foundation of her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama suffered the first blow to his Cabinet yesterday as Commerce Secretary-designate Bill Richardson withdrew from consideration amid a federal investigation into how one of his political donors won a lucrative state contract. The withdrawal deprives the incoming Obama administration of its most prominent Hispanic member, the governor of New Mexico. It also creates a new disruption for a presidential transition that started smoothly but lost some momentum after the distracting arrest of the president-elect's home-state governor on federal corruption charges.

CHICAGO - Of all the titles that Bill Richardson has held in his storied political career, the one he seems to like most is memorialized in Guinness World Records. He brags about it often: the time he shook 13,392 hands in an eight-hour period to break a nearly century-old record. When President-elect Barack Obama announced yesterday that he will make Richardson his commerce secretary, Obama noted all of the most relevant achievements: Richardson's stints as U.N. ambassador, congressman, U.S. energy secretary and his current post, governor of New Mexico.

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown refused yesterday to confirm or deny reports that he is being vetted by President-elect Barack Obama's transition team for the leadership of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. "My focus is really on the work of the transition," Brown said after serving a Thanksgiving meal to homeless veterans at the downtown Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training. Brown, a Democrat from Prince George's County, is co-chairman of the president-elect's committee overseeing veterans policy.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's Cabinet overwhelmingly approved a proposed security agreement yesterday that calls for a full withdrawal of American forces from the country by the end of 2011. The Cabinet's decision brings a final date for the departure of American troops a significant step closer after more than five years of war. The proposed agreement must be approved by Iraq's parliament, in a vote scheduled to take place in a week. But leaders of some of the largest parliamentary blocs expressed confidence that with the backing of most Shiites and Kurds they had enough support to ensure its approval.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's Cabinet asked for changes in a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement yesterday, once more casting doubt on the document's speedy passage with less than three months to go before the U.N. mandate authorizing the presence of American troops in Iraq expires. The first Cabinet session reviewing the document revealed what a divisive issue the security agreement has become. The country's Kurdish bloc is publicly backing the current accord, while Shiite Muslim and Sunni Arab allies of the United States remain wary of endorsing the draft, which had been described by both Americans and Iraqis as in its final form.

BAGHDAD -- The main Sunni Arab political bloc announced yesterday that it was ready to rejoin the Shiite-led Cabinet, a step that could boost reconciliation efforts and help shore up Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's faltering government. Rashid Azzawi, a parliamentary representative for the Iraqi Accordance Front, said the Sunni alliance expects to submit its nominees for the Cabinet within days. The bloc ordered six members to leave the Cabinet last year, accusing al-Maliki and other Shiite politicians of ignoring Sunni interests, a reflection of the feeling among Iraq's Sunni minority that it is being sidelined by the majority Shiites and the Kurds, who dominate parliament and al-Maliki's government.