Committee Members

Less than a year after being elected chairman of the Anne Arundel County Republican Central Committee, Michael Collins is facing a mutiny. The behind-the-scenes campaign is playing out publicly, however, through a steady chorus of statements and leaked memos posted in the blogosphere. Among those leading the charge is Brian Griffiths, a 27-year-old who lost a bid for a Central Committee seat last fall and has been blogging for more than two years at brian griffiths.com. He obtained and posted a letter sent by the Central Committee's vice chairman asking Collins to step down, and later displayed Collins' rebuttal.

Baseball writers received their Hall of Fame ballots recently, and some of them have sworn to do the job usually performed by custodians: They have promised to keep the hall clean. The housecleaning has become an issue because, along with worthy candidates such as Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr., the sportswriters must consider Mark McGwire. In 1998, Mr. McGwire hit a then-record 70 home runs, a feat that since has been tarnished by allegations that he used steroids. He had a chance last spring to refute those charges before a House committee investigating steroid use in Major League Baseball; he refused, saying, "I'm not here to discuss the past."

COLLEGE PARK -- Dressed in black, fans stormed the field, running and jumping and swirling about. All the bad that had dominated the first two months of the season was suddenly lost in the giant black hole, swallowed whole by a single win. Forget the lawn signs and the political commercials and all thetelevised debates you?ve seen over the past several weeks: Campaign season for the Terps didn?t really begin until last night. For the first time since 2003, with last night?s 27-24 win, the Terps can start talking about bowl season again.

Baltimore City Councilwoman Agnes Welch has quietly stepped down as chairwoman of the city's Democratic Central Committee after serving in the party-rallying post for 23 years. Welch announced her retirement from the position shortly after she was re-elected as a committee member in the Sept. 12 primary. In letters last week to other committee members and state senators, she wrote that she would not seek the chairmanship, which is decided by an internal vote by the panel's 42 unpaid elected members.

Advocates for expanded drug treatment in Baltimore say they are worried that a City Council committee could be blocking - for a second time - the passage of a bill that would make it easier for treatment centers to open. The city zoning code requires treatment providers to get council approval before opening centers, which advocates argue is unfair because medical clinics can open without such approval. Advocates have threatened to sue the city alleging violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which applies to drug addicts and prohibits discrimination against them.

A policy drafted by the Ehrlich administration that would allow the sale of water from state parks and other public lands was sharply criticized yesterday by a citizens advisory panel appointed by the administration. "There are concerns that this policy would effectively promote growth," said Frank L. Wise, a water quality specialist for Prince George's County who serves as chairman of the State Water Quality Advisory Committee. "There is no conservation" in the proposal, he said. The state should have a policy of denying requests from developers or towns that want to tap water from public lands unless it's an emergency and public health is at risk, Wise and other committee members told the Maryland Department of Natural Resources during a meeting yesterday.

Money is not a bad thing. And secrecy doesn't have to be, either. But when the two mix, you can bet someone is going to get bilked. Look no further than Congress' corruption scandals and corporate America's excessive pay packages to know this is the case. Though the situations seem unrelated, they revolve around the confluence of money and secrecy. Lawmakers and executives are making out like bandits while taxpayers and company shareholders are getting ripped off. In Congress, corruption is emanating from the appropriations committees - the panels overseeing federal spending.

Independent research led to vote Carroll County's delegation recently decided between two plans, Option One and Option Two, in setting five commissioner districts. The path to my decision was independent and deliberate in voting for Option One. Wanting to hear from the average voter, I conducted a survey of registered voters at two shopping centers in the Hampstead and Manchester area to find that only four out of every 10 even knew what I was talking about and most did not care how the districts were drawn.

A Maryland House of Delegates committee has heard testimony and reviewed a map that divides Carroll County into five new commissioner districts, but it may take several weeks to make a recommendation before sending the measure to the Senate. Although the county legislative delegation submitted the map as an emergency bill, the hearing process and an ensuing debate are delaying the campaign for the commissioner race and preventing candidates from filing for office. The map is critical to the expansion of the board of commissioners from three to five members this year.

After a closed-door meeting, the special committee investigating Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s personnel practices voted yesterday to subpoena five new witnesses to testify about whether the administration fired state workers for political reasons. To prevent leaks to reporters, the identities of the subpoenaed witnesses were kept secret even from committee members, who officials said were briefed before the vote on the nature of each person's expected testimony but not given their names.