Expansion

Health care advocates implored Gov. Martin O'Malley yesterday to continue a planned expansion of the Medicaid program even as he is expected to severely cut the state's budget to fill a huge budget shortfall. O'Malley, a Democrat, indicated he may not be able to fully fund the health care expansion in the budget he submits to the General Assembly next week, though he noted that a federal stimulus package in the coming weeks could change his plans. Congress is working on a package that includes additional Medicaid dollars for states.

A last-minute appeal from residents opposed the expansion of Harford's only county-run solid waste landfill will halt the process to issue permits for the project. "The permit cannot move forward," said Horatio Tablada, waste management administrator at the Maryland Department of the Environment, the permitting agency. The county must have the permit to commence with expansion of the Harford Waste Disposal Center, a 60-acre facility in Street that is expected to reach capacity by the end of next year.

Expansion, an idea whose time finally may have arrived for the ever-cautious National Football League, leaped off the drawing board yesterday.Next week it will land squarely in the laps of the league's 28 owners.In what amounts to the NFL's strongest stance yet on the subject, the league's realignment and expansion committee will recommend to the full ownership next Wednesday in Minneapolis to expand by two teams for the 1994 season.If the recommendation is ratified, it would signal the first expansion of the league since 1976, when it took in Tampa and Seattle as its 27th and 28th members.

Hard as it is to believe, no one is planning a parade down Charles Street to celebrate the pending NFL labor agreement, which is supposed to lead to expansion, which is supposed to lead to the return of football to Baltimore.Don't put two and two together. The NFL never does, except when it's computing all those spine-tingling playoff possibilities. The Baltimore angle is this: The Colts are 8-7 and can't make it, while Denver is 8-7 but can. Another good year.Anyway, the expansion derby -- the sporting equivalent of the 100 Years' War -- is about to resume.

The $55.6 million expansion of the Anne Arundel County Circuit Courthouse in downtown Annapolis is a step closer to reality after the city's planning commission unanimously approved the project last night.No one from the community spoke against the proposal, and commission members said the 274,000-square-foot expansion is long overdue."I hope we will see a new courthouse sooner than later," said Richard Hillman, a commission member and former mayor. "The county deserves a lot of credit for sticking with us."

Marada Industries Inc. can go forward with the expansion of its Westminster operation now that Maryland and Carroll County officials have confirmed they will contribute $2 million to the project.The auto-parts maker plans to add 100 to 150 jobs and double the size of its plant on Route 97 across from the Air Business Park.Jack Lyburn, the county's economic development director, said last week that the expansion is "a great deal" for Carroll. "It's a great home run for us. Marada's made a real statement here" by expanding, he said.

PARIS -- Controversy has suddenly vanished in the U.S. Senate over NATO enlargement, where a few weeks ago NATO seemed likely to provide the long-overdue great debate on U.S. foreign policy.The debate has been swept away by convenient hypocrisy over NATO expansion's costs, and by the Clinton administration's successful re-launch of the enlargement issue as a choice between "appeasement" of Russia and solidarity with the brave Poles and Czechs.The Pentagon's steadily shrinking estimates of the cost of expansion have been accompanied by ever-firmer assurances that the Europeans will pay for nearly all of it anyway.

The Blast was not at all hospitable when the expansion Norfolk SharX made their first visit to 1st Mariner Arena on Friday night. Stung by an upset loss to the last-place SharX last week in Virginia, the Blast parlayed crisp teamwork and on-target shooting into a 18-2 victory before an announced crowd of 4,718. "I thought we had a great response coming off a loss where we didn't play very well," said Blast coach Danny Kelly, whose team's 17-12 loss at Norfolk on Jan. 12 snapped a five-game winning streak.

PASADENA, Calif. -- This time, it may not be a false alarm.When commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Friday that the NFL will name two expansion teams in October to play in 1995, it had the look of the real thing.L Of course, Tagliabue has been overly optimistic in the past.In the spring of 1990, he said in a conference call that the league would expand "possibly by 1992, certainly by 1993."It didn't reach that target, and then in May 1991, the league passed a resolution calling for the naming of two teams in the fall of 1992 to play in 1994.

Keith Lupton was named general manager of Aberdeen's expansion franchise in the independent Atlantic League yesterday. Lupton also was general manager of the Double-A Bowie Baysox and Single-A Frederick Keys and Delmarva Shorebirds in their first seasons and has been voted Executive of the Year in the Eastern, Carolina and South Atlantic leagues.