Session

Drug `gold mine' a plague on city I was horrified, appalled and scared to death reading The Sun's article "Defendant says drug `gold mine' lured him to city" (April 4). "Pennsylvania Avenue is a freaking gold mine," says a 35-year-old drug merchant. Now Baltimore is really on the map. But the question that jumped out at me was: What in the world is Baltimore doing about this drug problem? This issue lies at the root of the problems that plague the city. Crime, poverty, homelessness, education, etc., are all manifestations of the drug problem in Baltimore.

Panel to discuss security in Howard The League of Women Voters of Howard County and Howard County Public Library will present a panel discussion, "Homeland Security in Howard County," from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Miller library, 9421 Frederick Road, Ellicott City. The program will focus on the status of security in Howard County. Panelists include Fire Chief Joseph A. Herr and representatives from the Howard County Police and Health departments, the American Red Cross, the Community Emergency Response Network (CERN)

Goodbye to the reams of paper and the dusty binders stacked under the desks in the nation's oldest working State House.Welcome to the Cyber-Senate.The Maryland Senate is now wired. When they return Wednesday for the 194th legislative session, 22 of the 47 senators will go about the ancient business of lawmaking with the help of a quintessential modern convenience: laptop computers."I'm pretty computer illiterate," acknowledged Sen. Leo E. Green, 66, a Prince George's Democrat, as he started up his laptop during a training session this week in the Senate chamber.

Maryland's budget situation is even rosier than previously reported, as revenues are expected to exceed forecasts by more than $200 million by the end of the month, a spokesman for Gov. Parris N. Glendening said yesterday.Legislative analysts had said last week that the surplus would top $100 million, but Glendening spokesman Michael Morrill said that figure was too conservative.Morrill said Glendening was likely to use much of the unexpected revenue on one-time needs such as building or renovating schools and working on the backlog of construction projects at state colleges.

Carroll County lawmakers will go to Annapolis this month with a full agenda, seeking to keep plans for a state police training center on track, toughen criminal laws and resolve the dispute over a $300,000 expansion of the Carroll County Agricultural Center.This session, they don't want to return disappointed.At the end of the 1998 session, members of the Carroll delegation complained that the needs of their fast-growing county were largely ignored. Though the county benefited from extra school-construction funding and an accelerated statewide income tax cut, the delegation found that mid-size and relatively well-off Carroll was overlooked in the rush to help larger or poorer counties.

THE color of money is the story of this year's General Assembly session, which winds up its 90-day stay in Annapolis tomorrow night.Thanks to a strong economy, state coffers are flush. So the operative color for legislators and the governor in 1999 has been surplus black, not deficit red.The scramble for greenbacks dominated the past 89 days, with Gov. Parris N. Glendening going to extraordinary lengths to buy success.He has linked dozens of budget items to passage of a higher tobacco tax.Racing pursesHe has held up $10 million in needed racing purse money to get lawmakers to authorize a new thoroughbred track in hopes of hurting Laurel-Pimlico owner Joseph De Francis, who opposed the governor's re-election.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski checked herself into the emergency room at Baltimore's Mercy Medical Center yesterday for persistent flulike symptoms, which forced her to miss yesterday's session of President Clinton's Senate trial.Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, expects to be released from the hospital in time for a scheduled vote today on the House prosecutors' proposed witness list, a spokeswoman said."She's had trouble fully shaking it over the last couple of weeks," Mona Miller, Mikulski's spokeswoman, said yesterday.

AS FAR AS some Howard countians are concerned, the Maryland General Assembly really begins in earnest after the confetti falls on the session's last night -- when the state announces awards for school construction.To accommodate one of the fastest growing enrollments in the state, Howard seeks $19 million for school projects, up from $13 million last year. A more realistic hope is about $15 million.Other than that, Howard's highlight in the legislative session was a $340,000 appropriation for an incubator facility for start-up small businesses in information-technology.

IMAGINE SPENDING the summer swirling neon-colored washable paints across paper, smoothing wet gooey pulp to make papier-mache puppets, and painting your face like a clown's.Ah, to be totally absorbed in endless summer days at the the Howard County Arts Center's summer camp.Sixteen students are participating in the two-week class called "Come Join the Circus."The camp is one of five offered in Session I, which began July 6 and has attracted 68 students ages 4 to 14.Coleen West, executive director of the Howard County Arts Council, says the camps are designed to be a "fun, artistic experience to start children off early, in learning how to enjoy and interpret the arts."

The Sun will offer weekly hearing schedules for the 1998 General Assembly session through SunFax. You must have a fax machine to use this service.If your fax machine can answer the phone at any time, you may have schedules delivered automatically from The Sun's free broadcast service. To sign up, call 410-783-1800 and enter code 6105 when the attendant answers. If you signed up last year, you must call this year to reconfirm.You can also retrieve hearing schedules by calling directly from a fax machine.

OXON HILL -- The Republican National Committee approved a watered-down resolution Wednesday evening that called on President Barack Obama and the Democrats to stop "pushing our country towards socialism and government control." The action, at a brief and rare special session of the RNC in Republican National Chairman Michael S. Steele's home county, spared the party the potential embarrassment of the more strident language of the original resolution. An earlier version of the measure would have called for the opposition to "rename themselves the Democrat Socialist Party."

Illegal immigrants would be stripped of Maryland driver's licenses by 2015 under a last-minute legislative compromise that seeks to end the state's status as a haven for foreigners seeking government-backed credentials. Adopted in the final moments of the 426th General Assembly session, the new policy was designed to bring the state into compliance with a federal security law known as the Real ID Act. The plan narrowly passed the House of Delegates, where many members had sought greater protection for immigrants, after intense pleas by House Speaker Michael E. Busch and under the threat of a special session or the possibility that Maryland licenses would soon be rejected at airports.

Maryland consumers who buy new cars will receive state and federal tax breaks, lawmakers decided Saturday - a reversal from their position a day earlier. With just one day left of the General Assembly session, the reinstated car benefit was part of the state's nearly $14 million budget given final approval Saturday evening by the House of Delegates. The Senate will take up the budget on Monday, the last day of the session. Meanwhile, the Senate signed off on an emergency bill giving the state the eminent domain authority to keep the Preakness and other horse racing assets in Maryland as their Canadian owner prepares to liquidate in a bankruptcy proceeding.

WASHINGTON - House Democratic Leader Steny H. Hoyer said yesterday that Congress could come back next month to deal with an auto industry bailout, even as he conceded that action this week looks unlikely. At a question-and-answer session with reporters at the National Press Club, the second-ranking member of the House called a December session of Congress a possibility. "The year has not ended," said the Southern Maryland Democrat, who was formally re-elected yesterday to his leadership post.

HCPSS TV airs NASA educational programs NASA's science and math educational programming is available on HCPSS TV. The addition of the NASA Education Channel makes available Destination Tomorrow, NASA Connect, SCIence Files and other programs designed specifically for teachers and students. The NASA Education Channel will be simulcast live on HCPSS TV using new digital satellite technology. The programs can be seen at various times Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays on Comcast Channel 95 and Verizon Channel 42. For specific broadcast dates and times go to www.hcpss.

Shelters secure refuge from cruelty Kevin Lindamood and Jeff Singer got it right when they urged our community, including city leaders, to "Stick to the plan" (Commentary, April 3) to end homelessness. Members of our community who find themselves without a home of their own, whether as a result of foreclosure, eviction or violence, are undeniably vulnerable. The National Coalition for the Homeless reports that fatal attacks on people without homes have increased every year since 2005, totaling almost 30 in 2007.

Montessori International Children's House is hosting a series of informational sessions on Montessori education at its Annapolis campus, 1641 Winchester Road. This seminar series, part of the celebration of the centenary of the Montessori movement, includes the following: Session 1: Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work -- 9 a.m. Thursday Session 2: Expectations: The Partnership Between Home & School -- 7 p.m. March 6 Session 3: Montessori in the Home -- 9 a.m. April 3 Session 4: Doorway to Lifelong Learning -- 9 a.m. April 17 Nancy Anselm, MICH's educational director, will host the sessions.

Legislative leaders, embarrassed by reports of lawmakers raking in a half-million dollars in contributions during last fall's special session, said yesterday they would push to close any remaining loopholes in the law forbidding fundraising whenever the General Assembly is meeting. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller reminded senators during the morning's brief legislative meeting that they should not be depositing any campaign checks during the 90-day legislative session that began Jan. 9 - even if the funds were raised before the session started.

Howard County School Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin will present his proposed fiscal 2009 operating budget at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 3 in the boardroom at the Department of Education, 10910 Route 108, Ellicott City. Information: 410-313-6682. School board to meet Jan. 10 The Howard County Board of Education will hold a regularly scheduled meeting at 4 p.m. Jan. 10 in the boardroom at the Department of Education, 10910 Route 108, Ellicott City. The afternoon session and an evening session, which begins at 7:30, will start with a forum during which members of the public can address the board on topics that have no formal hearing process.

The Maryland Center for the Book, a program of the Maryland Humanities Council, is promoting the 2008 Letters About Literature contest, a national program for children and young adults who are invited to write a letter to an author whose work changed their lives. More than 55,000 students participated in last year's contest. Teachers are invited to incorporate the program into their curricula by downloading a free copy of a teacher's guide. Entries, which must be postmarked by Dec. 14, are judged according to age groupings: grades four to six (Level 1)