Policy Issues

Former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley will head a new University of Maryland College Park think tank dedicated to finding solutions to public policy issues, the senator and campus officials said yesterday."

Even as he campaigns for re-election to Congress, Rep. Chris Van Hollen has been tapped by the Obama campaign to help lead the Democratic rebuttal to Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan — a role that is taking him to battleground states around the nation. When Ryan hit the campaign trail last month with presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney, Van Hollen was giving national interviews criticizing the Wisconsin lawmaker's budget proposals. The Montgomery County Democrat has traveled to the swing states of New Hampshire and North Carolina to speak against Ryan's plans to cut taxes, slash spending and overhaul entitlement programs — turning Medicare, for example, into a voucher program.

WASHINGTON -- As if liberated by the dismissal of Paula Corbin Jones' sexual harassment case, President Clinton has returned to the detailed policy issues that he believes are the key to his appeal.Pretending for the moment that independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr doesn't exist, the president's schedulers have reinstituted the event-of-the-day strategy they were employing before Monica Lewinsky all but overwhelmed Washington's political system.On Monday, Clinton moved to ban more cheap assault rifles.

In response to the letter from Gail Householder ("Obama fails VP test," July 18), it is surprising that anyone is still questioning President Barack Obama's experience and qualifications as the chief executive of the United States. Enough! It is an antiquated argument and it is insulting to recite his resume prior to becoming president and pretend that it is not impressive. Since coming to office, he has enhanced his qualifications even further. He passed necessary health care reform which makes it impossible for pre-existing conditions to bankrupt people who should be able to concentrate on healing rather than hoping their insurance company will cover their condition and not impose unfair lifetime limits on benefits.

R. Richard Geddes, senior staff economist of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, will present "The Application of Property Rights to Current Policy Issues" at 3:30 p.m. today in Room 312, Stephens Hall, at Towson University. Geddes, a Towson University alumnus who also serves as associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University, will discuss Social Security reform, environmental economics and other policy issues. Admission to the talk is free. For more information, call Jim Dorn, professor of economics, 410-704-2956 or e-mail jdorn@ towson.

In response to the letter from Gail Householder ("Obama fails VP test," July 18), it is surprising that anyone is still questioning President Barack Obama's experience and qualifications as the chief executive of the United States. Enough! It is an antiquated argument and it is insulting to recite his resume prior to becoming president and pretend that it is not impressive. Since coming to office, he has enhanced his qualifications even further. He passed necessary health care reform which makes it impossible for pre-existing conditions to bankrupt people who should be able to concentrate on healing rather than hoping their insurance company will cover their condition and not impose unfair lifetime limits on benefits.

Ehrlich administration official Dilip Paliath's run for the state Senate does not violate a law prohibiting partisan electioneering by state government employees who administer federal funds, according to an advisory opinion the candidate released yesterday. Paliath, who is counsel to the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention, requested the opinion after another official in Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration, Phillip D. Bissett, resigned as commuter rail chief so that his campaign for Anne Arundel County executive would not run afoul of the federal Hatch Act. Erica N. Stern, an attorney in the Hatch Act Unit of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, wrote June 8 that because Paliath's job duties deal with state legislative and policy issues - not the federal grants the crime control office administers - the Hatch Act doesn't apply to him. Paliath is seeking the Republican nomination in the Towson-area 42nd District, which is represented by Sen. James Brochin, a Democrat.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and President Clinton met at Clinton's invitation at the White House yesterday for the first time in 16 months, and a White House spokesman wouldn't say whether they talked about the possibility that the Fed may raise interest rates.Greenspan's last formal meeting with Clinton had been Jan. 8, 1997, according to White House spokesman Barry Toiv and Fed spokesman Joe Coyne. That came 19 weeks before the Fed last raised the overnight bank lending rate, by a quarter point to 5.5 percent.

Calling for immediate help for an East Baltimore neighborhood flooded by a recent pipe break, Gov. Parris N. Glendening said the devastation underscores the need for the state to address its aging infrastructure.The governor also said he was shocked to learn that property owners across Maryland could face the same predicament as those residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed and have discovered that insurance will not pay for their worst losses."What we have to do is focus the resources to help homeowners devastated in the immediate case and then get the facts and look at the greater policy issues," Glendening said.

The Baltimore County Council held its first public confirmation hearings for county department heads yesterday, but in contrast to the sometimes heated rhetoric that has accompanied Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s personnel moves so far, the discussions were cordial and focused on policy issues. The council interviewed Smith's appointees to head five departments - Arnold J. Eppel, acting director of the Department of Aging; David A.C. Carroll, director of the Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management; Fire Chief John J. Hohman; Health Officer Michelle Leverett and acting Recreation and Parks Director Robert J. Barrett.

The messy situation at the University of Virginia, which recently saw its president forced to resign by the school's governing board, only to be reinstated two weeks later after faculty and student protests, highlighted problems of institutional reform and financial sustainability that are not unique to the school founded by Thomas Jefferson. Maryland confronts many of the same challenges, which are affecting public colleges and universities across the country, but it has done so in ways that, fortunately, have allowed it to avoid many of the missteps Virginia made.

The Supreme Court's health care decision gave a boost to President Barack Obama and Maryland Democrats on Thursday but left the political landscape unsettled as Republicans doubled down on threats to undo the landmark law, either in Congress or by way of the election in November. The 5-4 decision to uphold most of the law was a resounding victory for Obama, who made the Affordable Care Act a centerpiece of his first term, but it also meant that a full-throated debate on the controversial law will likely continue in coming months, even as Obama and Republican Mitt Romney try to focus on the economy.

Voters will decide in November if they want to allow in-state tuition for some illegal immigrants at Maryland's public colleges and universities, an Anne Arundel County judge ruled Friday. Circuit Judge Ronald A. Silkworth rejected arguments by immigrant advocacy group Casa de Maryland and others that the law adopted by the General Assembly last year cannot be the subject of a referendum. The group's attorneys had argued that the law was an appropriations measure and therefore could not be put before voters.

I have to take issue with Susan Reimer 's recent column ("Are they running for president or pastor?" Sept. 19). One particular statement is such a stretch it reminds me of the blatantly biased columns in my college paper many years ago. Ms. Reimer states: "Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry said in a speech at the Christian-based Liberty University last week that he believes God has a plan for everyone, and God's plan for him...

With Democratic lawmakers in Maryland largely unaffected by the Republican tide that swept the rest of the country, and no one facing re-election for another four years, the General Assembly is looking forward to a busy legislative session. Gov. Martin O'Malley and the legislature will spend much of the 90-day session that begins Wednesday in Annapolis grappling with the $13 billion state operating budget — and the $1.6 billion gap in it. But they'll also take up hundreds of policy issues, some of them so contentious that they could end up on the ballot during next year's presidential election.

Don't look now, but the U.S. is experiencing something unusual in its recent history: a moment of bipartisan consensus on foreign policy. Over the last month, President Barack Obama has launched initiatives in areas that were flash points of contention only a year ago: winding down the war in Iraq, escalating the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, negotiating with Iran, renewing efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and seeking...

WASHINGTON - Three decades after the height of the civil rights movement, fewer than 10 percent of African-American churches can be considered activist congregations, deeply involved in public policy issues including education, welfare reform and affirmative action, according to a national survey released yesterday. Black clergy are also sharply divided over such issues as welfare reform, school vouchers and government grants to faith-based institutions for charitable work, the survey showed.

MOSCOW -- His European hosts may not see it, but as his ambitious, eight-day trip wears on, President Clinton is fraying a bit around the edges.Mr. Clinton appears to be saying all the right things to European leaders on delicate policy issues -- and he seems to be personally pleasing to the European public.On his first European trip as president, he has sold his "Partnership for Peace" plan across the continent. He has charmed shopkeepers in Brussels, swigged beer and played jazz in Prague, complimented the Ukrainians on their food and cheerfully walked the streets of Moscow amid throngs of admiring Russians.

In Israel, some people want to know if Barack Obama will visit Jerusalem on his way to Tehran. It's shorthand for concerns about the president-elect's interest in engaging Iran rather than continuing to isolate the Islamic Republic. In the Arab world, some might well complain that Mr. Obama doesn't need to stop in Jerusalem; he's been there. That telegraphs a different concern, that as president, Mr. Obama will favor the Jewish state over the Palestinians, as did his predecessors in the White House.

With two announcements in two days and more on the way, Gov. Martin O'Malley has elevated state energy policy to the top tier of his administration's priorities -- a move that could help him blunt political criticism over the electric rate increases he failed to stop. With the 50 percent BGE rate increase that took effect June 1, the governor faces the possibility of a hot and cranky electorate as Marylanders are forced to think twice before turning on the air conditioning. Political friends and foes alike say O'Malley is wise to focus on the electricity rates.