Secretary

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Democrats kept up their attacks yesterday on substandard care for injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as they prepared for hearings on the issue this week. "If it's this bad at the outpatient facilities at Walter Reed, how is it in the rest of the country?" Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on ABC's This Week. "Walter Reed is our crown jewel." In a letter sent yesterday to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Schumer called for the creation of an independent commission to examine conditions at all medical facilities treating military personnel and veterans.

NATO chief arrives in Texas for 2 days of talks with Bush CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush welcomed the NATO secretary-general to his home here yesterday for two days of meetings focusing on holding together the fragile coalition fighting in Afghanistan and on dealing with new tensions with an assertive Russia. Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer arrived at Bush's 1,583-acre property late yesterday afternoon for what aides said would be a working dinner with the president and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Mary E. Gott, a secretary and human resources worker, died Wednesday of lung cancer at her Stewartstown, Pa., home. The former Hamilton resident was 51. Born Mary Ellen Anft in Baltimore and raised on Westfield Avenue in Hamilton, she was a 1973 Northern High School graduate. She then worked as a secretary in the president's office at the Community College of Baltimore's Liberty Heights campus. In 1981 she became secretary to The Sun's composing room superintendent, Hugh Meadowcroft. She maintained personnel records for the department, which had 200 employees, researched and prepared information presented at employee arbitration cases, assisted with planning and preparing the department's budget, and was the department representative for the company blood bank and the United Way fund drive.

Gov. Martin O'Malley is to announce three more Cabinet appointments today, a day after a state Senate committee unanimously approved seven nominees and a new people's counsel for the board that regulates utilities. The picks require final approval of the full Senate. Thirteen of 21 positions have now been filled. Cathy Raggio, executive director of a suburban Washington nonprofit organization, said yesterday that she is to replace Kristen Cox as secretary of disabilities, an office with a budget of $6.8 million that drew attention last year when then-Gov.

Elizabeth Y. Deisroth, a retired steel company secretary, died Friday of complications from old age at the Oak Crest retirement community in Parkville, where she had lived for 10 years. She was 93. Born Elizabeth Young in Philadelphia and raised in Bustleton, Pa., she received a commercial education at a business school. She married Jack Deisroth, a Canton Railroad freight conductor, in 1945 and moved to Dundalk and later to Overlea. They moved to Rock Hall in the mid-1970s. Her husband died in 1994, and she moved from Rock Hall in 1997 to Parkville.

Ella M. Human, a retired secretary who enjoyed playing the cello and painting, died Monday of Alzheimer's disease at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. The Cockeysville resident was 83. Ella M. Uelsmann was born and reared in Cape Girardeau, Mo. An accomplished cellist in her youth, she earned part of her college tuition at what is now Southeast Missouri State University playing at faculty functions with a string quartet. In 1944, she moved to St. Louis and continued her education at Washington University.

Good morning -- Bart Scott -- In the line of Pro Bowl succession, are you sort of like the secretary of agriculture?

John R. Griffin has been in or right next to the hot seat at the state Department of Natural Resources since 1984, and through those years green space and recreational opportunities have been expanded, deer hunting seasons have been increased and rockfish populations have been restored."

WASHINGTON -- There was a certain irony in the fact that Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt was cleared by a special prosecutor while the Senate was debating whether to outlaw "soft money" in political campaigns.If soft money, meaning totally unregulated contributions to political parties, had not been part of the process, Mr. Babbitt would not have been the subject of the special investigation in the first place.The issue in the Babbitt case was whether the Interior secretary rejected a plan to operate a casino put forward by Indian tribes in Wisconsin because other tribes running competing casinos contributed $230,000 in soft money to the Democratic Party.

The executive boards for Maryland's horsemen and breeders have voted to recommend ratification of a revenue-sharing agreement between the state's thoroughbred and harness industries.The action culminates two years of intensive -- and sometimes bitter -- negotiations and provides for the thoroughbred side to receive 80 percent of all revenue produced at every Maryland pari-mutuel betting site, with 20 percent going to the harness group.The presidents of the state's thoroughbred breeders and horsemen's associations must approve the deal, but that is considered a formality.

Anne B. Scheffenacker, a retired caregiver who earlier had been a secretary for a Baltimore investment firm, died Sunday of kidney failure and cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. She was 79. Anne Beverly Cooke was born in Baltimore and raised in Roland Park. Family members said she received her education at several boarding schools. During the 1960s, Mrs. Scheffenacker worked as a secretary for Head Ski Co. in Timonium and later for Investment Counselors of Maryland in the 1970s. A licensed caregiver, she cared for the elderly until her health began to fail about 20 years ago, said a daughter, Gina Brown of Anneslie.

WASHINGTON - -President Barack Obama nominated yesterday as secretary of the Army a nine-term Republican congressman whose upstate New York district is home to the 10th Mountain Division, which is said to lead all other units in overseas deployments. Rep. John M. McHugh, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, becomes the second Republican that Obama has selected for a senior Defense Department post. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, appointed to the top Pentagon post by President George W. Bush, was asked to stay on in the new administration.

I think Rick Abbruzzese, spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley, was kidding when he suggested I apply for the job of Maryland secretary of transportation. After all, the job calls for a master's degree and experience in public administration, things I don't have. But, hey, the governor can make an exception and when the pay range is $124,175 to $166,082 a year, it's worth a shot. After all, I figure I know a little about the job. Since taking over the transportation beat five years ago - and during a previous stint in the State House - I've covered two very different occupants of that office.

Gov. Martin O'Malley named Deputy Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley as acting secretary of transportation Thursday, replacing John D. Porcari, whose nomination by President Barack Obama as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation was confirmed last week. Swaim-Staley, a veteran Maryland transportation official, will take over Monday, when Porcari will be sworn in as the No. 2 official in the federal department. Swaim-Staley became deputy in 2007 after Porcari was named to the secretary post for his second go-round.

Margaret M. "Marge" Cannington, a retired secretary and avid boater and dancer, died of Alzheimer's disease May 15 at an assisted-living facility in Jennersville, Pa. The former longtime Gardenville resident was 88. Margaret Mary Tenley was born in Baltimore and raised on Washington Street. After graduating from Eastern High School in 1939, she went to work as a secretary at the old Glenn L. Martin Co. plant in Middle River. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, she was married to Gordon Eugene "Ken" Cannington, a Marine.

When 2-year-old Bryanna Harris was found dead two years ago of a methadone overdose, the outcry was as much against the state child protective services division, which had left Bryanna in the care of an irresponsible parent, as against her drug-addicted mom. To its credit, the agency launched an investigation of what went wrong and made its report public. The head of Baltimore's Department of Social Services resigned, and two caseworkers were later fired; another supervisor was disciplined.

Janet G. Healy, a retired secretary and former Edmondson Village resident, died in her sleep at an assisted-living facility in Columbia. She was 88. Janet Gardner was born in Baltimore and later moved with her family to Houston, where she graduated in 1938 from Milby High School. She returned to Baltimore and attended Mount St. Agnes College in Mount Washington. In 1946, she married Marion E. Healy, an engineer with the Maryland Box Co., who died in 1992. After her children were grown, Mrs. Healy returned to work as a legal secretary with the Baltimore law firm of Wonneman, Styles & McConkey.

WASHINGTON - The Senate, acting within hours of President Barack Obama's inauguration, confirmed six of his Cabinet secretaries and his budget director, but postponed for one day a vote on the nomination of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, had objected to approving Clinton's nomination by voice vote - as the other nominees were yesterday - because he said he had continuing concerns about potential conflicts arising from foreign donations to the foundation of her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

In their current production of Out of Order, the Bowie Community Theatre folks have moved British playwright Ray Cooney's 1990 comic farce about Parliament member Richard Willey's arranging a weekend tryst with secretary Jane Worthington from the British Parliament to today's U.S. Congress, where Richard now is a Republican senator and Jane a member of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's secretarial pool. Cooney's familiar formula of exaggerated characters dealing with mounting confusion, mistaken identities, and interruptions of slamming doors and windows and misdirected phone calls travels well.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama plans to announce six experienced hands to fill top administration posts today, moving at record speed to name the leadership team that will guide his presidency through a time of war and recession. His selections include longtime advisers and political foes alike, most notably Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and President George W. Bush's defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, staying in his current post. The two were among six Obama planned to announce at a news conference in Chicago, Democratic officials said.