NEWS
January 11, 2007
In between his swearing-in and attending receptions, S. Saqib Ali was changing diapers and preparing baby bottles. For his first legislative session, the Democratic delegate from Montgomery County has moved his wife and 8-month- old daughter to Annapolis, and the 31-year-old software engineer said he thinks that being part of a young family can help him connect with many of his constituents. S. Saqib Ali But Ali's distinction as the first Muslim to serve in the General Assembly has garnered the most attention, somewhat to his chagrin.
NEWS
By Danielle Ulman | December 25, 2007
LANGLEY PARK -- Tara Harden made it halfway across University Boulevard on a recent afternoon, stepped off the median into the crosswalk and immediately jumped back when several cars barreled by her. When the cars passed, Harden hesitantly made her way to the other side of the street, looking slightly defeated. Harden, in her 50s, said she rarely sees drivers yield to pedestrians when she crosses the particularly dangerous stretch of University near New Hampshire Avenue in Montgomery County, where the crosswalk is not at an intersection.
NEWS
By Larry Carson | December 28, 2007
Baltimore's property values are growing faster than anywhere else in Maryland, while the rate of increase in wealthy Montgomery County trails the state, according to 728,185 reassessment notices to be mailed today by state officials. The topsy-turvy results showed the smallest percentage increases in the state's most prosperous places -- such as Montgomery and Howard counties -- while areas that often lag economically saw much greater gains, despite a sluggish real estate market. "Anyone who's been paying attention to the city of Baltimore has watched it become a much more desirable place to live," said Sterling Clifford, a spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon, referring to recent news of a slight increase in the city's population after decades of population declines.
NEWS
By June Arney | October 3, 2007
Records turned over to a federal grand jury investigating municipal tax-sale auctions show that two of Maryland's largest tax-sale investors didn't bid against each other for properties during the past four years in Montgomery County. Bidding lists were among documents demanded in the subpoena, which also sought any records from 2002 to 2007 that would show whether bidders communicated with one another about what properties they would bid on and prices they would pay, or about any inducement not to bid on certain properties or not bid at all. The subpoena is part of an investigation being coordinated by the Justice Department's antitrust division in Washington.
NEWS
By Madison Park | November 18, 2007
Ten years after a failed incorporation attempt, leaders in Edgewood are reviving efforts to make a town out of the area that is home to 23,000. About 40 people gathered to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of incorporation at an Edgewood Community Council meeting last week. For a lesson from the past, they watched an hourlong video of a 1997 Harford County Council meeting during which community activists proposed incorporating Edgewood and council members overwhelmingly rejected their proposal.
NEWS
By David Nitkin | October 17, 2007
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has edged past former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in campaign donations from Maryland, but the Republican presidential candidates lag far behind Democrats in contributions coming from the state. According to the latest campaign finance reports, nearly one of every two Maryland dollars given to a presidential campaign between July 1 and Sept. 30 went to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who widened her local money advantage over her nearest rival, Sen. Barack Obama.
NEWS
By Andrew A. Green | April 5, 2007
Negotiators from the House of Delegates and state Senate have deadlocked over what to cut from Gov. Martin O'Malley's budget proposal, setting up a last-minute showdown over funding for stem cell research, the University System of Maryland and the Intercounty Connector. The key to the impasse is O'Malley's plan to delay a $53 million payment for the ICC, a long-awaited road connecting Interstates 270 and 95 through Montgomery County. The governor has said the payment, which is required by law, is not needed this year, and he asked the legislature to authorize a delay so the money could be used for other needs.
BUSINESS
By Jay Hancock | March 14, 2007
Maryland has become the second-richest state in the country, Gov. Martin O'Malley said in a speech a few weeks ago. But he never said why. Why is our unemployment rate only 3.8 percent? How, in only two years, did income for a typical household shoot up 16 percent to $60,512? Why did we blow the doors off Connecticut, the former No. 2? And why, while we're thinking about it, haven't housing prices collapsed? Economist James Galbraith, son of the late John Kenneth Galbraith, has answers.
NEWS
By C. FRASER SMITH | November 18, 2007
You're a relatively small landscaping company, a computer repair outfit or the local muffler shop. You may think you have little leverage in Annapolis, where the fat cats frolic. You are so wrong! You rocked. You and a legion of tax resisters - from Montgomery County and elsewhere - tailored and reshaped Gov. Martin O'Malley's tax reform proposal. Instead of taking even modest steps toward broadening the base of the sales tax, legislators left it alone almost entirely. There had been hope that modernizing the system - extending the sales tax to cover services and making the income tax more progressive - might be a byproduct of the effort to erase a $1.7-billion budget deficit.
NEWS
By Stephen Kiehl | December 1, 2007
Landlords in Howard and Montgomery counties cannot turn away low-income renters who pay for their housing with federal vouchers, Maryland's highest court ruled yesterday. The unanimous ruling upholds fair-housing laws in those counties and, housing advocates say, provides momentum for a drive to pass a statewide law requiring landlords to accept rental vouchers. Such a law, advocates say, would make it easier for poor people to live in affluent communities with better jobs and better schools.