Licenses

Applicants for new Maryland driver's licenses would have to prove they are in the U.S. legally under a pair of competing and contentious plans up for votes Monday in the General Assembly. Both measures would take Maryland off a short list of states that allow illegal immigrants to become licensed drivers and would bring the state into at least partial compliance with "Real ID," a federal security act passed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Lawmakers and other officials hope that revising the state's licensing policy would reduce the pervasive problem of fraud and end the state's status as a magnet for undocumented immigrants looking for government-validated credentials.

A Gaithersburg truck driver who authorities say was in the country illegally was arraigned this week outside of Pittsburgh on charges of vehicular manslaughter, an incident that advocates of tighter restrictions on Maryland's driver licenses said reinforces a troubling trend. Since November, at least three people have been killed by illegal immigrants who were issued driver's licenses in Maryland, authorities say. For the fifth year in a row, lawmakers are set to debate whether the state should continue to issue driver's licenses to those who are in the country illegally.

NATIONAL President visits Ford bier President Bush, joining thousands of Americans who started the new year by saying goodbye to a former president, stopped yesterday at the U.S. Capitol after returning from his Texas ranch to pay his respects to Gerald R. Ford. pg 3a Democrats list agenda When Democrats take power on Capitol Hill this week, House leaders will kick off their legislative campaign with a lightning-fast, 100-hour agenda. But there won't be a revolution. pg 4a MARYLAND Gun licenses targeted The federal government has ratcheted up the number of licenses it has taken away from gun dealers over the past five years, according to newly obtained statistics.

Supporters of a proposal designed to expand the number of tow-truck drivers authorized to respond to accident scenes in Baltimore County told the County Council yesterday that the plan would reduce problems such as late responses and illegal overcharges. At a council work session in Towson, supporters of Councilman Kenneth N. Oliver's proposal also said it would make it easier for small companies, particularly those owned by minorities, to obtain licenses. Tow-truck drivers seeking licenses must establish a "need" for their service in a geographic area, a requirement that county officials say has prevented many companies from obtaining licenses.

With little fanfare, the federal government has substantially increased the number of licenses it has taken away from gun dealers over the past five years, according to newly obtained statistics. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives pulled federal firearms licenses from 22 gun dealers across the country in 2001. That number increased almost six-fold last year when ATF revoked 131 licenses, statistics show. Despite the increase, license revocations remain exceedingly rare and the number pales in comparison with the roughly 105,000 people and businesses nationwide permitted to sell firearms and ammunition.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission imposed a one-year moratorium yesterday on new commercial crabbing licenses and on license transfers as part of a number of measures aimed at reducing the pressure on the Chesapeake Bay fishery.The moratorium comes at the request of Virginia watermen, who have said they are worried the blue crab is being overfished and is in need of protection. It marks a reversal for Virginia officials, who historically have not been as aggressive as Maryland in regulating watermen.

In a show of continuing discontent with managed health care, the Maryland Senate approved a bill yesterday that would give the state authority to revoke the physician's licenses of HMO medical directors whose decisions harm patients.The measure now goes to the House of Delegates, where it faces near-certain defeat.The Senate's 30-17 vote for the medical directors' bill, coming a year after a similar measure's narrow defeat, reflects the pressure lawmakers feel to respond to consumer complaints about abuses by cost-conscious HMOs.

Baltimore police officials have decided to delay awarding lucrative towing licenses for two months after a published report showed city and police towing policies were being ignored.Police Department spokesman Robert W. Weinhold Jr. said new towing licenses would not be issued until July 31. The 15 existing licenses, which were to expire June 1, have been extended until then, he said."The reason for the delay is to allow for an appropriate and thorough investigation for each of the license applicants," Weinhold said.

Anne Arundel County prosecutors have quietly opened a criminal probe into how $4,375 in payments came to be missing from the licensing division of the county land use office.The state's attorney's office investigation was prompted by an audit in March that found no record of the money going into the county account after it had been taken from customers in exchange for one-day Planning and Code Enforcement licenses for roadside stands, hucksters and parades.A criminal inquiry into a county office in the Republican administration in an election year is a touchy matter.

On Wednesday, the federal government will throw open the doors on a new technology that many experts say could reshape the telecommunications industry and alter the way Americans receive telephone, television and Internet services.In its largest-ever auction of airwave space, the Federal Communications Commission will parcel out licenses for LMDS, an abbreviation for local multipoint distribution services.The communications marketplace may never be the same.LMDS "has a larger potential to impact competition than any other technology," said Daniel Ernst, a senior consultant for the Strategis Group, a Washington telecommunications research firm.

When Baltimore's liquor board commissioners were sworn into office in April 2007, they took over an agency reeling from threats, lawsuits and internal backbiting. Charged by Gov. Martin O'Malley with restoring public trust, the three-member panel has virtually cut out the infighting. But some observers argue that the commissioners have also taken a heavy-handed approach to their oversight responsibilities, dishing out substantial fines and suspensions and revoking more licenses than is necessary.

Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer and a majority of the City Council appear poised to lift restrictions on the number of bars that can stay open until 2 a.m. in the city's Historic District, a move sure to upset nearby residents who already feel besieged by drunken rowdies from the 45 city taverns - most of them in the downtown area - that now have that privilege. This is a perennial fight, one that's probably been going on since George Washington was hoisting tankards in the capital city, and those who buy homes in the Historic District need to accept that night life has been a part of Annapolis much longer than they have.

Maryland's pioneering effort to conserve Chesapeake Bay blue crabs by buying back commercial crabbing licenses has come up short, state officials say. Too few crabbers were willing to sell, they say, and too many of those who were asked for too much - up to $425 million in one case. "We didn't get the participation we wanted, so we're well short of the goal we wanted to achieve," said Lynn Fegley, assistant fisheries director at the Department of Natural Resources. So state officials have decided to reject all 494 bids they received in the state's first-ever Priceline-style "reverse auction."

Close to 500 commercial crabbers bit on the state's offer to pay them to surrender their right to catch crabs for sale, according to Lynn Fegley, assistant fisheries director of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. DNR had mailed buyback offers last month to 3,676 Marylanders holding "limited crab catcher" licenses, and they had until July 31 to respond. The licenses allow holders to deploy up to 50 wire-mesh "pots" or an unlimited amount of baited line to catch crabs for sale.

The Motor Vehicle Administration has taken steps to revoke more than 150 driver's licenses - issued before a new law barring illegal immigrants from obtaining licenses took effect - in connection with a federal investigation into fraud. Civil liberties and immigrant rights groups have raised concerns about the process for canceling the licenses as well as the potential use of racial profiling in the decisions. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland wrote state lawmakers Thursday addressing those concerns and others, including whether the intent of the new law might have been violated.

A bouncer at an Annapolis restaurant and bar was charged with possession and counterfeiting of fake identification cards after he offered to sell a forged Maryland driver's license to an 18-year-old, police said. Matthew Ryan Stangle, 20, of the 500 block of Bay Hills Road in Arnold was charged with two counts each of possession of forged public documents and counterfeiting public documents, according to police. About 8:30 p.m. Friday, a man told an Annapolis officer on Main Street that he had overheard a young woman inside Buddy's restaurant talking about buying a fake driver's license for $150 from a bouncer at another restaurant, police said.

Ken Bower of Edgewood writes: "As a Maryland fisherman, I am wondering why [the Department of Natural Resources] wastes so much paper in printing the fishing licenses. ... With everyone going green to save the trees and environment, I think Maryland should change the format and make the license smaller." Hunting licenses also come in the large format, so I asked Paul Peditto, head of DNR's Wildlife and Heritage Service, to explain. He replies: "It's cheaper [and therefore greener in the larger context]

Gov. Martin O'Malley signed several of the state's most contentious new laws Thursday, including legislation that will eventually deny driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and limit the application of the death penalty. A measure affecting all drivers also became law - beginning in October, it will be illegal to write or send text messages while on the road. In addition, the governor signed a raft of labor and environmental legislation, such as a commitment to reduce greenhouse gases 25 percent by 2020, and a bill to make Maryland the first state to extend hate-crimes protection to homeless people.

The chairman of a commission charged with awarding Maryland's five casino licenses said Tuesday that "there's more optimism" these days for a gambling-related windfall to state coffers despite a recession and lackluster initial interest from the private sector. Donald C. Fry, a former Harford County delegate who heads the politically appointed panel, said he based his hopeful prognosis on new expectations that a full-scale casino will come to downtown Baltimore and on preliminary feedback from consultants hired to advise the commission.

Illegal immigrants would be stripped of Maryland driver's licenses by 2015 under a last-minute legislative compromise that seeks to end the state's status as a haven for foreigners seeking government-backed credentials. Adopted in the final moments of the 426th General Assembly session, the new policy was designed to bring the state into compliance with a federal security law known as the Real ID Act. The plan narrowly passed the House of Delegates, where many members had sought greater protection for immigrants, after intense pleas by House Speaker Michael E. Busch and under the threat of a special session or the possibility that Maryland licenses would soon be rejected at airports.