Licenses

As an older American I find the thinking behind the Sunday's editorial supporting driver's licenses for illegal immigrants truly puzzling ("Driver's licenses for all drivers," Mar 31). I was raised to understand that if you violated the law, you could expect to go to jail. Now we rationalize that it is better for society to provide a license that is a privilege not a right to lawbreakers. We also notify the lawbreaker that the license will not be accepted at the airport, where you may be arrested.

MARYLAND residents are all too familiar with the frustration that can accompany a visit to the Motor Vehicle Administration. Long lines. Surly clerks. Interminable waits. Most folks expect and accept it. But for immigrants seeking driver's licenses - even those here legally - the experience is compounded by cumbersome identification rules that not only test their patience but also threaten their livelihoods, forcing them to wait months for the licenses, and then often in vain. Thirteen immigrants struck back this week and filed suit against the MVA, charging it with creating illegal barriers for immigrants wanting licenses.

Hunters, anglers and those hoping to drive off-road vehicles will need a COMPASS to get their respective licenses and registrations. A pilot program recently implemented at seven regional service centers and 27 sports license locations will soon be accessible at home on the computer or over the phone with a live operator. A new online registration program called COMPASS will be available at the end of the month, according to a spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources.

With Maryland's crabbing season getting under way Friday, the state is making a new bid to buy back commercial fishing licenses, particularly from the 650 license-holders officials estimate are no longer active on the Chesapeake Bay. The Department of Natural Resources mailed buyback offers last month to all 2,258 people with unlimited tidal fishing or crab harvester licenses. The amount offered ranges from a base of $4,000 for the crab harvester license, which allows the holder to fish with up to 300 crab pots, to $12,000 for a tidal fishing license with authorization for 900 crab pots in the bay. State officials say the buyback is intended to keep pressure on the bay's rebuilding crab population from soaring if all the holders of unused licenses were to go back on the water.

Pet owners who live in Prince George's County can now apply for county pet licenses at the Laurel Municipal Center, in a move city officials said they made to make licensing a pet more convenient for Laurel residents. The law in Prince George's County, which includes the city of Laurel, requires all dogs, cats and ferrets at least four months old to wear a current Prince George's County license. The county licenses are valid for one year. Licenses can be purchased at the permit/license counter at the Department of Community Planning and Business Services, located at the Laurel Municipal Center, 8103 Sandy Spring Road.

Just sitting down at a desk at the marriage bureau at D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday was too much for Angelisa Young. She cried so hard that she eventually had to bury her face in her fiancee's chest. About a half-hour later, Young and her partner, Sinjoyla Townsend, who met 13 years ago in a constitutional law class at the University of the District of Columbia, became the first same-sex couple to apply to be married in the district as the city officially joined five states in allowing gay marriage.

Saddle up those mouses, gang, we're riding into the 21st century. Seventeen of your state lawmakers - men and women, Democrats and Republicans, representing Baltimore and 18 counties - have decided it's time to let anglers and hunters in Maryland do what the hook-and-bullet crowd in the majority of states can: buy a license online. The Department of Natural Resources got behind HB 654 at a hearing last Wednesday. If approved by both houses and signed by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, it would take effect Oct. 1. What a vision.

At its first meeting last night, the commission that will award licenses to run slot-machine casinos in Maryland approved a 150-page request for bids that is expected to be sent to potential operators today. The bureaucratic step ushers in what state officials hope is a bidding war for the licenses that could bring more than $600 million to state coffers to ease future budget shortfalls, and more than $400 million to casino operators when the program is fully implemented in five years.

RICHMOND, Va. -- The Virginia Racing Commission licensed the state's first off-track betting parlor yesterday and a new guardian angel -- Jeff Jacobs of the Richard Jacobs family that owns the Cleveland Indians baseball team who said he is developing a $60 million casino near Denver -- showed up to help fund it.Jacobs told the commission that he is contributing $1 million to help Arnold Stansley renovate a 17,000-square-foot deserted grocery store in...

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.