Lobbying

A bill that would have banned convicted felons from working to influence legislation in Baltimore County was withdrawn Monday after concerns that it appeared to target one particular lobbyist, Bruce C. Bereano. "We want something more comprehensive to include other aspects of government," the bill's sponsor, Councilman Vince Gardina, said. "We want to extend it beyond lobbying to anyone dealing with government business or any general involvement with government." Gardina said there was a perception that his bill targeted Bereano — who had lobbied against the councilman's efforts to broadly restrict the indoor tanning industry — but that was never his intent.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has interceded with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of Carnival Cruise Lines after the company threatened to pull its business from Baltimore over a pending air-quality regulation that would require large, ocean-going ships to burn cleaner fuel. O'Malley spoke twice with Bob Perciasepe, acting EPA administrator, since late May to support Carnival's request for what the governor's press secretary called a waiver from the agency's cleaner-fuel mandate.

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Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's close friend Lisa Harris Jones and her husband, Sean Malone, made almost $150,000 last year lobbying the city on behalf of business clients, according to reports filed with Baltimore's ethics board.  The forms show Lisa Harris Jones earned $77,000 while Malone, her husband and business partner, made $71,750 lobbying at City Hall in 2012, the forms show. While the money is significantly less than the couple makes lobbying at the state level, the city forms show the firm, Harris Jones & Malone LLC, is busy throughout the year advocating for clients' interests in Baltimore.

A Democratic blogger is stirring an online discussion over whether Maryland's main Tea Party group is operating out of bounds by pushing for state legislation without having registered as a lobbying organization. It's not unusual for small, new groups to run afoul of the state Ethics Commission by failing to file required paperwork, but the issue has captured attention in this case because members of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity rail against "registered lobbyists" in their pitches to supporters.

WASHINGTON -Nonprofit and public interest groups are scrambling to adapt to President Barack stringent new ethics guidelines, which are so sweeping that they have blocked the ability of many sympathetic activists to get hired by the new administration. Many of the groups are rushing to terminate or curtail their lobbying activities as a result of the rules, which bar new officials from making policy on any matter involving their former employer or clients for a period of two years or from working at an agency they lobbied within the past two years.

WASHINGTON -- As the Jack Abramoff scandal arouses scrutiny of Washington lobbying, China is cashing into the game of political influence on Capitol Hill. Beijing is spending millions of dollars to secure its U.S. interests, improve its image and counter skepticism of Chinese intentions and values. This is a new development, and it will come under scrutiny today at a hearing of a House International Relations Committee panel. For years, Beijing enjoyed a low profile in Washington, allowing the U.S. business community to lobby for the bilateral economic relationship; both benefited.

The Baltimore Teachers Union and the Baltimore Education Network are sponsoring a free workshop tomorrow for parents on strategies for lobbying the General Assembly on behalf of city schools. The training session, which will offer lobbying techniques, will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the fourth floor of City Hall. Information and registration: 410-225-7152, Ext. 5.

State Sen. James C. Simpson, the latest outgoing legislator to turn to lobbying, delayed the start of his new career yesterday after learning that his original timetable would violate ethics law.Senator Simpson, a former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, said he would postpone joining a well-known Annapolis lobbying firm until he officially leaves office Jan. 11.The firm of Manis, Canning & Associates announced yesterday that the senator would...

When President Clinton unveiled an energy tax proposal in his speech to Congress last month, shock waves rolled through the offices of Washington's energy lobbyists. But for some of Washington's hottest lobbying shops -- ones that specialize in orchestrating grass-roots mail and phone blitzes to members of Congress from the hinterlands -- the proposed tax has generated barrels of money.The American Energy Alliance, a coalition of more than 1,300 companies and trade groups including the American Petroleum Institute, has ponied up a million dollars to Burson-Marsteller Inc., the public relations giant, to nurture protests in 20 states against the tax, which Mr. Clinton wants to base on the energy content of fuels.

The tattoo on Zach Fisher's left arm tells all. "One family," it reads - a nod to the synergy he feels with his brethren on Towson's unsinkable baseball team. "Me and couple of other guys got the tattoo in December, when the program was on the ropes," said Fisher, the Tigers' third baseman. "If baseball got cut [by school funding], I wanted something to remember these guys by. " Sure enough, in March, Towson baseball got axed. Then the state stepped in to save the program.

When Howard County's transportation chief looks at a flow chart of mass transit service in the suburbs south of Baltimore, he sees a tangle of "spaghetti mesh" that ill serves the region's workers, senior citizens and handicapped. John Powell Jr. hopes to bring order to that chaos next year by uniting Howard and Anne Arundel County bus services under a single entity that would eventually morph into the state's first regional transit authority. Annapolis and Laurel officials are considering joining the effort.

Commentator Peter Morici says it is impossible to prevent further gun atrocities through laws limiting firearms ("The false security of gun control measures," April 16). But I suspect he is hiding his real agenda. Mr. Morici is a conservative eager to defeat gun control laws that, he fears, might reduce their availability. That's proof in itself that laws banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and those requiring universal background checks will have exactly the effect intended: They will make it harder for people to obtain such weapons in order to wreak havoc on society.

The sales pitch to 46 uniformed men was simple: Welcome to Baltimore. Next time, bring a tall ship. City and state officials and the nautical community have begun a marketing drive aimed at filling the Inner Harbor with majestic sailing vessels and gray-hulled warships for the War of 1812 commemoration finale, Sept. 6-14, 2014. On Wednesday, they pitched military attaches from 40 countries, including Canada, Mexico, Turkey and Sri Lanka. Navies begin planning their sea exercises and courtesy calls about a year in advance, and there's a lot of jockeying among East Coast seaports to secure the biggest and best ships for summer events.

I would counter the headline on Maria Santo's criticism of pro-choice advocates ("Dishonesty underlies abortion law," March 5) with one of my own: "Extreme sanctimony underlies pro-life argument. " Anti-abortionists - please, can we call them what they really are? - can make a cogent argument for their cause, and I agree with them that "killing babies" is a crime. However, I find it ironic that the same folks who think it is reprehensible for a mother to abort a baby she can't afford, hasn't the skills to raise or simply can't abide how the child was conceived - rape, for instance - never offer any solutions to those problems.

Sandra Richardson and Bonnita Spikes have much in common. Both live in Upper Marlboro and are churchgoing Christians who have worked in nursing. Both have dealt with the pain of losing people they loved in murders. When it comes to the death penalty, however, the two women are on opposite sides of one of the most divisive issues facing the General Assembly this year. Richardson, 74, hopes to go to Annapolis this week to testify against Gov. Martin O'Malley's effort to end capital punishment in Maryland as she did when the governor made a similar effort four years ago. She'd like to tell lawmakers about her 38-year-old daughter, Lisa Richardson, who was strangled at her Charles County home in 2001 by a man who received a life sentence in a plea bargain.

The Baltimore Teachers Union and the Baltimore Education Network are sponsoring a free workshop tomorrow for parents on strategies for lobbying the General Assembly on behalf of city schools. The training session, which will offer lobbying techniques, will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the fourth floor of City Hall. Information and registration: 410-225-7152, Ext. 5.

The state Republican Party accused Democrats yesterday of engaging in the same lobbying tactics that the Democratic Party is alleging are illegal. The Democratic Party asked the state prosecutor's office to examine radio advertisements launched by the Republican Party last week. The ads constitute an illegal lobbying effort because they seek to influence the outcome of legislative votes on veto overrides, Democrats say. The Republican Party is not registered as a lobbyist. Democrats also filed a complaint yesterday with the Maryland State Ethics Commission, which regulates lobbyists.

Moments after Gov. Martin O'Malley urged lawmakers that "it is time to repeal the death penalty in Maryland and replace it with life without parole" during his State of the State speech Wednesday, a Roman Catholic nun famous for her repeal work resumed the effort to secure the votes. Sister Helen Prejean, whose autobiography "Dead Man Walking" detailing her work with death row inmates was made into a movie, planned to meet Wednesday with undecided lawmakers. She said she was pleased that O'Malley had created a simple framework that cast the death penalty as an ineffective tool that isn't worth using.

State Sen. Allan Kittleman is torn. When lobbied by the ACLU and the NAACP to repeal Maryland's death penalty, Kittleman asks how he can ensure the most heinous murderers will never kill again. When approached by fellow senators or state's attorneys who want to keep capital punishment, Kittleman questions whether there can be a foolproof way to ensure the state doesn't kill an innocent person. "My mindset on this has always been divided," said Kittleman, a Howard County Republican who hopes to skip his own committee to listen to another panel's death penalty hearings before the legislation reaches the Senate floor.