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The debate over regulating hunting in Howard might not be over, despite passage of a County Council bill revising the rules. The council rejected proposals to require advance notice of hunting and to prohibit shooting toward playgrounds or recreation fields, but those elements could return as new legislation, said Chairwoman Mary Kay Sigaty, sponsor of the amendments. The council also revived and approved a separate bill last week meant to encourage faster construction of below-market priced homes for limited income families.

Thirty-five years ago, Maryland voters were given an opportunity to decide whether the state should run a lottery. At the time, choosing to conduct a lottery was considered momentous. States were just beginning to organize them, and skeptics fretted that it wasn't an appropriate activity for government. The measure passed the General Assembly by the necessary margin and voters went along. Now lawmakers are moving to pass another amendment to the constitution, one that would permit slot machine gambling at various locations around the state, and it, too, would require voter approval.

WASHINGTON -- Beginning July 1, anyone applying for a license for the first time in Maryland will have to complete at least 30 hours of drivers' education in the classroom and 6 hours on the road. Maryland's drivers' ed requirement currently applies only to 16- and 17-year-olds as do the rules in most states that have requirements.The new Maryland law is also bucking a national trend against drivers' ed. The number of high schools offering on-the-road training has fallen by about half since 1975, experts say. The new law will not restore those programs, but will send more young people to commercial training schools.

IS THE phrase "legislative ethics" an oxymoron? Low public esteem for the General Assembly and recent scandals of lawmakers profiting from their public office make reforms imperative.Legislators took a sensible step by naming a commission to revamp ethics standards. The panel seems committed to setting out clearer rules of conduct, proposing a sensible method for educating and sensitizing lawmakers to what's required, and stronger enforcement .Revising the ethics code will clarify for lawmakers the standards of conduct by which they must abide.

The Clinton administration is circulating proposed legislation on Capitol Hill that would, for the first time, impose strict controls on the manufacture and use of technology that scrambles electronic data for privacy reasons.The proposal would prohibit the manufacture, sale, import or distribution within the United States of any such technology unless it contained a feature for immediate decoding of any message by law-enforcement officials with a wiretap order from a court, known as a trapdoor feature.

Maryland education officials yesterday raised questions about the hiring of substitute teachers, who cost more than $25 million statewide each year -- but do not even need a college degree in most school districts.In a report that provided more questions than answers, the Maryland State Department of Education found wide variations in how the state's 24 school systems hire, pay and classify substitute teachers.For example, no district requires substitutes to be certified teachers, and only four counties -- Allegany, Garrett, Harford and Montgomery -- require them to have bachelors' degrees.

The next statewide election in Maryland doesn't arrive for more than two years, but the rush for campaign gold, lustily led by Gov. Parris N. Glendening, is on.And voters who may worry about the influence of money on government policy-making and regulations will have no idea who's giving how much to whom until late in the fall.Maryland's outdated election law requires only one report of contributions received in nonelection years, so only the politician who's raising the money can keep track.

WASHINGTON -- Signaling the end of a 60-year federal guarantee of aid to the poor, President Clinton announced yesterday that he would sign landmark legislation to shift responsibility for welfare to the states.The bill passed the House hours later by a vote of 328-101, more lopsided than had been expected before Clinton's announcement.Senate approval is expected today.The president said he believes the bill he is signing is flawed but much improved over two earlier, more stringent Republican versions that he vetoed -- and far preferable to the existing welfare program and its "cycle of dependency."

A sweeping anti-crime proposal that would crack down on repeat violent offenders won the unanimous approval of a state Senate committee yesterday.The bill, endorsed by the Judicial Proceedings Committee, would force violent criminals to serve at least half of their prison sentence before parole, rather than one-fourth.The measure also includes a "three-time loser" provision, an idea backed by President Clinton on the federal level. People convicted of a third violent crime in Maryland would receive life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

The centerpiece of the governor's legislative agenda this year, a multifaceted effort to assure that fathers make their child-support payments, got a boost yesterday from a state Senate committee.The Judicial Proceedings Committee unanimously sent to the full Senate a comprehensive child-support enforcement bill that includes among its provisions a measure to require unmarried fathers to acknowledge their paternity in writing within hours of the birth of their children.The House Judiciary Committee killed a similar proposal last month, but aides to Gov. William Donald Schaefer say they hope that committee will reconsider the issue if the Senate sends over its bill.

The debate over regulating hunting in Howard might not be over, despite passage of a County Council bill revising the rules. The council rejected proposals to require advance notice of hunting and to prohibit shooting toward playgrounds or recreation fields, but those elements could return as new legislation, said Chairwoman Mary Kay Sigaty, sponsor of the amendments. The council also revived and approved a separate bill last week meant to encourage faster construction of below-market priced homes for limited income families.

One death every 40 hours. That's the reality of crashes involving alcohol or drugs on Maryland roads. Since 2004, an average of about 220 people are killed each year by drunk or impaired drivers while nearly 5,000 are injured. The numbers reveal other constants: Young drivers are more likely to be involved, and so are men. Saturday and Sunday evenings and early mornings are the deadliest hours. More than 24,000 will be arrested for driving under the influence. But here's one of the most troubling numbers of all: Maryland ranks a miserable 35th among states when drunken driving deaths are compared with total vehicle miles traveled.

Lawmakers in Annapolis are moving to tighten up campaign reporting requirements for the November referendum on legalizing slot machines, as both sides gird for what's expected to be a free-spending battle to win voters. The Senate heard two bills last week that would expand and clarify the mandates for groups and businesses to report their expenditures on either side of the slots debate. When legislators decided in last fall's special session to put the question of legalizing slots to a referendum, they also took a step to give voters more information about how much was being spent, and by whom, to influence the outcome.

Cyclocross -- As part of its "Step Up to Health" campaign, Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks will join forces with the Baltimore-based Lateral Stress Velo's cycling club and team to sponsor an inaugural "Rockburn Cross." The event, which is to begin at 10 a.m. Sunday at Rockburn Branch Park in Elkridge, is a hybrid between high-speed bicycle racing and technical mountain-bike racing, and includes man-made hurdles and natural obstacles that require riders to sometimes dismount and run with their bikes.

Thirty-five years ago, Maryland voters were given an opportunity to decide whether the state should run a lottery. At the time, choosing to conduct a lottery was considered momentous. States were just beginning to organize them, and skeptics fretted that it wasn't an appropriate activity for government. The measure passed the General Assembly by the necessary margin and voters went along. Now lawmakers are moving to pass another amendment to the constitution, one that would permit slot machine gambling at various locations around the state, and it, too, would require voter approval.

WASHINGTON -- Consumer advocates say better disclosure of fees for 401(k) plans will lead to bigger retirement nest eggs for millions of Americans. But business groups last week made clear they will fight legislation that would require a comprehensive listing of all such expenses. Too much disclosure, they argued, would overwhelm employees with unnecessary detail, raise expenses for plan administrators and ultimately fail to benefit retirees. The requirements "are numerous, burdensome, complex and likely to increase participant confusion rather than enhance ... knowledge," said Lew I. Minsky, an attorney testifying in Congress on behalf of major business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

So you're arriving home after a hard day of work, pulling into the driveway, and what do you find - your wife and children waiting to shower you with affection? A cold six-pack with your name on it? Free cable? No, it's a bunch of trespassing animals milling about, blithely unconcerned that the landowner has returned. And not just any kind of animal. It's a herd with attitude. Five or six of these reprobates are lazily chewing the landscape you spent a fortune on just last week, and they're dropping off a few Lyme disease-carrying ticks for good measure.

Confused about passports? With shifting reports, rules and regulations, more than a few travelers remain befuddled. And with a backlog of at least 2 million passport applications, federal officials are not faring much better. The State Department estimates that the number of Americans seeking passports this year will reach 17.5 million, up from 12 million in 2005 -- the result of new rules requiring such documentation for air travelers returning from Mexico, Canada, Bermuda and the Caribbean.

A bill that would require middle-school girls to get a new vaccine against a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer is being withdrawn over concerns that children already have a tough time getting all the required immunizations. Sen. Delores G. Kelley, a Baltimore County Democrat, said yesterday that she plans to pull a bill she sponsored that calls for all sixth-grade girls to be vaccinated by September 2008. She said some parents and educators were worried about an added requirement after thousands of students, in grades six through nine, were turned away from school this month for failure to get immunized against chickenpox and hepatitis B, as recently required.

Newly installed County Executive Ken Ulman wants to know what's on the public's mind. The answer can be summed up in a word: Everything. That was evident after almost three hours of public testimony this week. What is less apparent is what the new administration will do with it all as it shapes short- and long-term strategies and priorities, because what the public is thinking is often conflicting, sometimes costly, and in other cases would require a reversal in county policy. But Ulman asked, and residents answered unambiguously.