Maryland And Virginia

REP. THOMAS M. Davis III of Virginia first floated the idea of charging Washington, D.C. college students in-state tuition at Maryland and Virginia public colleges last month.The idea is a good one. So good, in fact, that before the Republican congressman could fine-tune his proposal, President Clinton included it in his budget request to Congress last week.Never mind that the $17 million the president requested was $10 million more than Mr. Davis had envisioned in the program's first year.

Acknowledging that some might call it "corporate welfare," the Glendening administration's top business official yesterday defended the state's plan to offer Marriott International Inc. a multi-million dollar package of tax breaks, grants and transportation improvements to stay in Maryland.Appearing before a House committee in Annapolis, Richard C. Mike Lewin, secretary of business and economic development, said state and Montgomery County officials are "very close" to making an offer of financial incentives to keep the hotel giant from moving its Bethesda corporate headquarters to Northern Virginia.

ALL OF us at Marriott International Inc. are quite concerned about the characterization of our company's motives as portrayed in a front-page article that was published in The Sun on Saturday, regarding our decision to stay in Maryland.The key question raised in the article, and most notably in the headline, is: Did Marriott seriously consider moving to Virginia?Let me answer that by sharing just part of what Marriott did during our two-year search for a new headquarters' site. Among our first acts was to hire a respected real estate brokerage firm to help us with the search.

Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association Inc., the largest dairy cooperative serving the state's farmers, announced yesterday that it plans to merge with a competitor serving six Southern states.The proposed consolidation with Carolina Virginia Milk Producers Association would create a business that serves more than 1,550 dairy farmers in 11 states and markets about 3 billion pounds of milk a year.Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative, based in Reston, Va., serves about 1,150 farms in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Delaware.

Men's Wearhouse Inc., the men's discount clothier with more than 370 stores in 36 states, plans to expand in suburban Maryland and Virginia, the Houston-based retailer said yesterday.The company, which has opened 21 stores in the region since entering the market in 1996, plans to open about 10 more stores -- at least five this year.The retailer is considering sites in Frederick, Montgomery and Prince George's counties, said John Meyer, retail leasing specialist with KLNB Inc., the real estate brokerage firm assisting with site selection.

Roger Mason, a premier shooting guard prospect whose college choice was between Maryland and Virginia, made an oral commitment to the Cavaliers late Sunday night.Mason, 6 feet 4, has starred at Good Counsel High in Wheaton. During a visit by a Virginia assistant to his Gaithersburg home Sunday, he committed to the Cavaliers, the last-place team in the Atlantic Coast Conference last season. He is the first major recruit for new coach Pete Gillen."There's more of an opportunity for him to play at Virginia, but that's not the only reason he's going there," said Joe McCall, the coach at Good Counsel.

Facing a boycott by Maryland trainers that could have crippled Colonial Downs, the Virginia Racing Commission met by telephone in emergency session yesterday to eliminate disparities in the two states' drug regulations.The hastily arranged telephone meeting occurred after Maryland trainers threatened to hold their horses out of races at Colonial Downs, the track near Richmond that opened Labor Day. As part of a Maryland-Virginia racing circuit, the survival of Colonial Downs depends on the participation of Maryland horses.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Maryland and Virginia will have the same objective when they close out their respective Atlantic Coast Conference regular seasons in a 1: 30 p.m. game today at University Hall.But their agendas couldn't be any different.The 16th-ranked Terrapins need to win to build some momentum going into the ACC tournament Friday in Greensboro, N.C. Maryland (20-8, 9-6) also needs to rebuild some of the confidence it has lost in a stretch that has included six defeats in its past nine games.

When I was growing up, on Sunday mornings in the fall, my family would come home from church, change clothes and pile back in the car.Before most people had finished reading their morning paper, we'd be heading off to the great outdoors.My father would quietly nose his silver Mercury Cougar through what seemed like a suburban wasteland at that time of day, the streets and strip malls eerily empty at 8 a.m.The farther we got from Rockville, the more relaxed Dad became. We were never quite sure where we were going on those early morning jaunts or if he even had a destination in mind.

Health officials from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Delaware are trying to design a standard battery of tests to identify and evaluate potential Pfiesteria piscicida victims, said Dr. Martin P. Wasserman, Maryland's health secretary.He said yesterday that medical teams studying the toxic microbe met last week to review the available tests so they can reach an agreement on which ones to use.Maryland and Virginia officials have sharply disagreed about how to respond to reports of Pfiesteria-related illness.

For some people, "The road goes on forever and the party never ends," as Robert Earl Keen sings. But for government, the party is clearly over as tax revenues plummet across the country. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley must cut about $1 billion from the current budget because of falling tax revenue. And the most recent economic outlook from the Board of Revenue Estimates shows the state expects less revenue next year than originally anticipated. Mr. O'Malley repeatedly stresses that things could be worse, and are much worse in other states.

Top officials from Maryland, Virginia and Washington met Tuesday to coordinate plans for fighting the swine flu, taking advantage of a structure set up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to try to sharpen the region's response to outbreaks expected this fall. The governors of Maryland and Virginia joined District Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on a day when President Barack Obama said "every American has a role to play in responding to this virus."

At the risk of being the killjoy at the next crab feast, let us suggest some restraint over the comeback of the blue crab is in order. While the winter dredge survey results released last week by Maryland and Virginia officials suggest the number of blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay has rebounded over the past year, it appears the number of young crabs has only held steady. The lesson here is that restrictions imposed last year on crabbing have made a difference, but the long-term impact isn't entirely clear.

The U.S. Commerce Department declared the Chesapeake Bay's blue crab fishery a federal disaster yesterday, marking the first time the industry has received the designation and making the state's watermen eligible for millions of dollars in aid. Blue crab stocks in the bay have declined 70 percent since the early 1990s, according to state officials. The sharp decline prompted Maryland and Virginia to curb the harvest of female crabs by a third this year to bolster the bay's crab population - a move that is expected to significantly hurt watermen's ability to earn a living.

Tolls help recoup the cost of driving Before citizens get up in arms over the potential $200 per week cost of new high-occupancy toll lanes (HOT), it's important to remember that driving is not a cost-less transaction ("Driven away?" Sept. 7). From wear and tear on the roads and damage to the environment to added sprawl and added consumption of finite resources, the cost to the world of highway driving is much greater than the cost of a gallon of gas. HOT lanes help people to understand the true cost of driving.

In the Chesapeake region, the blue crab is king. But uneasy rests the crown. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is predicting that harvests of female crabs will need to be reduced 20 percent to 40 percent to ensure a sufficient spawning population. The science behind the proposal is clear enough: Surveys show blue crab stocks are down and in danger of falling much lower. Crabs have been at risk for much of the decade despite conservation efforts. If further action is not taken, the species could go the way of once-abundant oysters or yellow perch.

Chesapeake Bay blue crabs are in serious danger of being over-fished this year and are not reproducing well enough to rebound from the kind of pressure being placed on them, Maryland natural resources officials say. Rather than impose regulations to deal with the possible crisis, the Department of Natural Resources is asking watermen for their help in figuring out a solution. Officials say they want to find a way to sustain a healthy population of the Maryland crustaceans and a robust crabbing industry, one of the state's last viable fisheries.

GIRDLETREE -- Under the briny waters of this rural Worcester County hamlet, Maryland's fledgling aquaculture industry is getting its sea legs. Here, along the sandy bottom of Chincoteague Bay just south of Ocean City, Steve and Christy Gordon have planted millions of clams on beds leased from the state. The couple hope to take a piece of an industry that, in neighboring Virginia, produced close to $30 million for clam farmers during the past year alone. The Gordons' plan to eventually grow and sell enough clams to become a significant supplier to East Coast businesses might seem like a pipe dream in a place where the waters are known more for rampant pollution and shellfish diseases.

A Maryland Home Improvement Commission investigator was recognized yesterday for her role in uncovering a $2.5 million home improvement scheme in Maryland and Virginia. Jennifer Grimes, an eight-year employee of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, received one of 200 awards presented in Alexandria, Va. The U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia gave awards to people who made significant contributions to major cases. Grimes' 1 1/2 -year investigation aided an FBI probe of Craig Oliver, who was convicted in federal court in Virginia of defrauding 68 Maryland and Virginia homeowners from 2002 to 2005.

Maryland and Virginia will spend about $1 million each on two 18-month traffic studies to help determine how to alleviate congestion on Washington metropolitan area roads, state officials announced yesterday. "What's the best solution for the entire region?" Virginia Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia said to reporters in Annapolis yesterday. "Maryland and Virginia have to agree on the answer." Warner, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Washington Mayor Anthony Williams were meeting yesterday to discuss matters affecting the mid-Atlantic region.