Maryland Senate

THE MATTER is one of fairness and justice: Everyone should be treated equally, regardless of race, age, gender -- or sexual orientation.Everyone should have the same right to apply for a job or to rent an apartment without fear of discrimination. Yet gays and lesbians do not have that right under Maryland law.A bill seeking to ban prejudicial treatment on the basis of sexual orientation is one of Gov. Parris N. Glendening's prime objectives in the legislative session.He has devoted more effort to passing this bill than any other.

The Maryland Senate gave final approval last night to a bill that would require public schools to teach children about the Irish potato famine.The bill passed 26-20 with no debate and goes to the House of Delegates, where its prospects are uncertain.The legislation sponsored by Sen. Perry Sfikas, a Baltimore Democrat, would require public elementary and secondary schools to teach children about a tragedy that killed 1 million of Ireland's 8 million people and set off a historic wave of immigration to the United States.

It just would not be the Maryland Senate without Larry Young.Suharto agrees with whoever pounded his table last. There is nothing sick or senile in that.Britain and Ireland have no problem agreeing on Northern Ireland. The people who have to live there won't have it.Explain again how it was really global warming that froze Canada.Pub Date: 1/14/98

Worried that Baltimore lawyer Peter G. Angelos stands to make a fortune from the state's multibillion-dollar litigation against tobacco companies, the Maryland Senate voted yesterday to cut his fee in the case by half.The attempt to reduce Angelos' fee -- from 25 percent to 12.5 percent of any recovery -- came as the Senate gave preliminary approval to a bill aimed at improving the state's chances of winning the tobacco lawsuit.The bill, which was proposed by Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., seeks to undo the effects of a decision last year by the judge in the lawsuit -- a ruling that crippled the state's case.

FEW FIRST-TIME candidates for the Maryland House of Delegates get the kind of high-powered support as is being thrown behind Mary-Dulany James.James, 38, is running for one of two open seats from Harford County's 34th legislative district, and her list of supporters sounds like a Who's Who of the Maryland Democratic Party.A former U.S. senator, two former governors, four past presidents of the Maryland Senate and the current one are playing host to James' $100-a-head fund-raiser July 8. And House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., who ordinarily remains neutral in such races, blessed her candidacy at the campaign kickoff Sunday at Old Bay Farm, the James family home in Havre de Grace.

In an article Tuesday, Sen. Verda F. Welcome was misidentified as the first black person elected to the Maryland Senate. In fact, Welcome was the first black woman elected to the Senate. The first African-American elected to the chamber was Harry A. Cole in 1954.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 1/17/98

Union-issued voting records can mislead, senator saysRecently, I was criticized for having a poor voting record on a limited number of issues evaluated by the Maryland State Teachers Association ("It's time to send state official home," June 21, letters). The conclusion reached by one individual was that the evaluation indicated a lack of support for education.I want to make it clear that the score in question indicates support, or lack thereof, of a political agenda for a specific group, not of education overall.

Residency flap shows Clarence Blount isn't Senate's conscienceI do not know Sen. Clarence W. Blount. His legislative record may be superlative. However, if he is the "conscience of the Maryland Senate" it should be the "guilty conscience."How can he maintain with a straight face while giving that Copley Road address as his residence?Isn't a residence a place where a married man and his wife reside together? He doesn't need a phone at the Copley Road location? Why does he need one at his Pikesville "home"?

MESSAGE TO LARRY YOUNG: You can't go home again. At least, you can't return to reclaim your former seat in the Maryland Senate. You were expelled by your colleagues last month and barred from the Senate for the duration of this term, which ends in January. The attorney general says you don't qualify as a replacement candidate. The governor concurs.Yet Mr. Young persists in using pressure tactics to try to have his way. He got the state central committee, which he controls, to submit his name to the governor for the Senate vacancy in his West Baltimore district.

In the end, it was an unlikely character who successfully defended the legislature's ethics committee report on Larry Young through an emotional, hours-long exchange on the floor of the Maryland Senate.Not a lawyer, not one of the Senate's inside players, not one of its shining stars -- Sen. Michael J. Collins is an at-times prickly, 57-year-old retired high school history teacher from Essex who rarely, if ever, in his three terms has been called upon to lead the Senate through such a weighty matter.

Efforts to reduce the influence of big-money special interests in state elections suffered a setback late last week with the decision of a federal judge to throw out Connecticut's landmark campaign finance law on the grounds it put third-party candidates at a disadvantage. The ruling has significant implications for Maryland, where legislators have been seriously considering a similar approach to publicly financed state-level political campaigns for the past five years. The proposal has won support in the House of Delegates and has gotten as far as the floor of the Maryland Senate - until a procedural move late in this year's legislative session forced it back into committee.

It's Christmas in June for state house reporters in Albany. In the waning days of the legislative session there, Senate Republicans staged a coup and, with the help of two Democratic defectors, threw control of that chamber into such confusion that it went on literal lockdown. With no lieutenant governor in New York for the moment, the Senate president is next in line, making Gov. David A. Paterson unwilling to leave the state while the Republicans might or might not be able to take over.

Maryland is fortunate to be a state with a long history rich in traditions - including the horse racing industry, which dates back to the Colonial era. The Maryland Jockey Club is almost 250 years old. In 1771, George Washington wrote that he came to Annapolis to watch and bet on the Maryland horse races. Saturday, the Preakness Stakes will be run for the 134th time. As other professional sports have evolved and prospered in our state, we have slowly started to lose this tradition upon which much of our agricultural heritage is founded.

Senate approves capital budget The Maryland Senate gave final approval Wednesday to the state's $1.1 billion capital budget, authorizing borrowing to replace the state's aging medevac helicopter fleet, fund land preservation programs and launch more than $200 million in school construction. Senators voted 40-7 in favor of the plan, which is $265 million larger than last year's capital budget and required a $150 million increase in the state's borrowing limit. Sen. Allan H. Kittleman of Howard County, one of seven Republicans who opposed the budget, said the state "needs to have fiscal sanity."

A day after the Maryland Senate gave a hearty preliminary approval to expanding the use of speed cameras in the state, the controversial measure failed by a single vote Wednesday night - a turn of events that shocked proponents and opponents alike. Gov. Martin O'Malley backs speed cameras, and his aides say he will work to persuade some senators to change their minds as the House of Delegates nears approval of similar legislation. "The governor is disappointed, as speed cameras represent a significant tool for law enforcement to improve safety on Maryland's roads and in our neighborhoods" said Shaun Adamec, an O'Malley spokesman.

Health fraud bill deserved defeat The Baltimore Sun's editorial "The defrauders win" (March 27) unfairly criticized state Sens. Nathaniel J. McFadden, Catherine E. Pugh and Nathaniel Exum along with the majority of members of the Maryland Senate who rightly voted to reject legislation that would have increased the number of lawsuits against Maryland health care providers. The so-called False Health Claims Act would not have rooted out Medicaid fraud or provided a windfall of revenue to the state treasury.

Steele chides GOP for infighting Embattled Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele lashed out at GOP infighting Tuesday and urged the party faithful - some of whom have criticized his erratic statements - to be more like him: "unconventional, unpredictable ... to do from time to time the unexpected." At a fundraiser for the Anne Arundel County Republican Party that raised $36,000, the former Maryland lieutenant governor jokingly acknowledged the rough road he has traveled since taking over the national party this year.

SWAT-reports bill gets Senate approval The Maryland Senate has unanimously approved a bill to require law enforcement agencies to issue monthly reports to the attorney general on SWAT team deployments. The bill, passed on a 43-0 vote yesterday, would require reports on the number, purpose, general location and results of Maryland SWAT team deployments. The House of Delegates is considering similar legislation. Last summer, police raided the home and killed the dogs of an innocent Berwyn Heights mayor after drug smugglers sent a package containing 32 pounds of marijuana to his residence.

Greenhouse gases bill gains in Senate Legislation setting ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gases in Maryland cleared a hurdle in the Maryland Senate yesterday. Senators gave preliminary approval to the measure, which calls for a 25 percent reduction in climate-warming pollution by 2020. A final vote is planned early next week. Republicans tried to insert a guarantee that pollution-reduction efforts wouldn't increase consumer electricity bills but were unsuccessful. Sen. Paul G. Pinsky, the Democratic sponsor, argued that electricity rates have gone up for unrelated reasons and that the bill would promote conservation, thereby lowering bills.

For Granville "Sonny" Wehland, the election of Barack Obama vindicated his efforts in the name of civil rights four decades ago. In the 1960s, Wehland worked with the late Sen. James Clark Jr. to garner support for anti-discrimination legislation that would allow blacks to enter public places in Maryland. A lifelong Democrat and ardent Obama supporter, Wehland said he didn't understand then - just as he can't comprehend now - why anyone cared about the color of someone's skin. "Obama wasn't the right minority for the job - he was the right candidate," the 74-year-old Howard County native said.