Southern Maryland

A winter morning view of the Patuxent River from the Thomas Johnson Bridge offers a palette of gray and indigo, water tumbling under overcast skies. During rush hour, commuters have ample time to take in the bucolic scene as they creep across the narrow, two-lane bridge to St. Mary's County and the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. At least 2,500 Calvert County residents commute daily to the base, a fraction of the 20,000 defense industry jobs pumping up Southern Maryland. They're the economic payoff of the base realignment and closure (BRAC)

ST. MICHAELS -- The Dibbs family was on a mission. The car was packed with snacks. The route was mapped out. The goal was clear: nine Maryland lighthouses - and one lightship - in two days. But while most of the hundreds of people aiming to complete the entire annual Maryland Lighthouse Challenge bunked in area hotels and inns during the weekend, Mike and Monica Dibbs layered one more obstacle onto their family's undertaking. They drove home to Lancaster, Pa., on Saturday night between the two legs of their tour.

WASHINGTON -- House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, already the highest-ranking congressman in Maryland history, became the longest-serving yesterday. "I guess if one lives long enough and stays put ... , " the Southern Maryland Democrat said with a chuckle over the telephone from New York, where he was helping a pair of freshmen raise money for re-election in 2008. "It's surprising because it doesn't seem that long to me." It was 26 years and a day, in fact, since Hoyer was sworn in to replace the ailing Rep. Gladys Noon Spellman.

Southern Maryland tobacco growers might receive as much as $40 million from a proposed $5.15 billion trust fund set up by U.S. cigarette makers to aid farmers, state Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. said yesterday.Curran made the announcement after returning from a meeting in Raleigh, N.C., with tobacco industry representatives and officials of other tobacco producing states.The exact amount coming to Maryland needs to be worked out, Curran noted, "but it may be in the area of $40 million."

WASHINGTON -- In the witching hours on Capitol Hill this week, as grand compromises were being reached on major bills, lawmakers -- including Marylanders -- eagerly slipped in big-dollar provisions, ranging from millions of dollars for farmers with parched land to $100,000 for a handicapped-accessible golf course in Prince George's County.The compromise legislation setting spending for much of the government required a section several inches thick just to list the earmarked projects. There were so many projects that many lawmakers did not have a chance to read the full legislation they were voting on."

Reflecting losses in its Medicare and Medicaid managed care programs, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield reported yesterday a 5.8 percent drop in second-quarter income to $20.5 million, compared with $21.7 million a year ago.Margins from commercial insurance products were "flat to slightly up," said G. Mark Chaney, executive vice president and chief financial officer for CareFirst, which operates the Maryland and District of Columbia Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.However,...

State tobacco farmers were celebrating a legislative victory yesterday that they say will go a long way toward stabilizing the Southern Maryland agriculture economy."

Tobacco farmers in Virginia stand to receive half of the $4 billion the state will receive from the nationwide settlement last year with cigarette manufacturers. Maryland leaf growers won't be nearly as fortunate.Gov. Parris N. Glendening is opposed to a plan -- which was drafted in part by the state Agriculture Department -- that would provide 4 percent of Maryland's $4.2 billion share of the settlement to assist tobacco growers and help stabilize the agriculture economy of Southern Maryland, state Agriculture Secretary Henry A. Virts said yesterday.

What made Bowie an attractive and profitable junction for the railroads back in the 1870s is what attracts homebuyers today -- location, location, location."

COLLEGE PARK -- The streak lives.Maryland's last loss in a nonconference basketball game at Cole Field House came 10 years ago today. The nation's longest such stretch got an uncommonly tough test last night, but it nonetheless grew to 69 games, as the 21st-ranked Terps topped No. 23 Kentucky, 72-66, behind Terence Morris and in front of a sellout crowd of 14,500.Maryland never trailed. It had a 59-48 lead with 6: 45 left, but Kentucky kept coming and got within two with 1: 15 left. The Terps staggered home, but their eight-man rotation held up against a foe deeper in bodies and tradition.

Maryland is home to the nation's best-educated and most technologically skilled work force. Such a dynamic and knowledge-based population reaps many benefits. In recent years, Maryland has enjoyed periods of job growth that outperformed nearly every other state and economic prosperity that has positioned the state to survive and pull out of the current economic recession more quickly than others. Still, new ideas and approaches are required to protect the state's highly competitive work force, especially as Maryland prepares for economic expansion, job growth and population increases.

Two to head U.S. attorney's team on violent crimes 3 Two men have been named heads of the Maryland U.S. attorney's office's Violent Crimes Section, which oversees prosecutions and investigations of violent repeat offenders and gangs. Michael Hanlon, deputy chief since the fall, is now chief of the section, replacing Jason Weinstein, who left the office to join the U.S. attorney general's office as a deputy assistant in the Criminal Division. Kwame Manley, who is a prosecutor in a federal death penalty trial that went to the jury Tuesday, will become deputy chief.

A few observations from the first sentencing of a waterman who was part of the black market that stole millions of dollars worth of striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River. It was nice that U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte recognized that his decision on prison time, fine and restitution for Thomas Hallock would be watched by officials, recreational anglers and watermen along the East Coast. He called it a "serious crime" that "deserved time." What a breath of fresh air when compared with state district court judges - especially those on the lower Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland - who don't seem to mind seeing the same bad actors again and again because the puny penalties are just the cost of doing buinsess.

The thorny questions of granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants and how aggressively to regulate electricity markets await the Maryland General Assembly as it enters its final week of the 2009 session. And there's still a budget to balance amid the country's worst fiscal crisis in decades. Senators and delegates have yet to resolve several fiscal disagreements, such as funding to buy land for preservation and how much to cut aid to local governments. Still, the discord could have been worse.

I've had a lemon tree growing by my driveway in Southern Maryland for at least five years. It's 20 feet tall and bore fruit for the first time this summer. Obviously it can withstand snow, freezing temperatures and drought. The lemons are mostly large and delicious. Isn't this unusual in Maryland? Lemon trees are classified as tropical. They normally need to be placed indoors as protection against Maryland's winters. However, a couple of cultivars are hardy down to 17 degrees, namely, Meyer and Lisbon.

Deer stripped a lot of bark off my magnolia 2-3 feet from the ground. I fenced the magnolia, but should I wrap the damaged branches to protect them from winter cold? The living part of trees is located immediately under the bark. This cambium layer is only about 1/4 inch thick but is where the trees' vascular system is located. When the bark is damaged or removed, the cambium layer is usually destroyed also. Deer rub their antlers on trees in the fall, and if bark is stripped all the way around the trunk, the tree will die above the damage.

Avoiding the purgatory that is Interstate 95 on a holiday weekend is not all that difficult if you're heading from Baltimore to the Northeast. Pennsylvania offers a wide choice of routes to scoot to the west of Philadelphia and invade New Jersey. Going south is more difficult. There aren't that many great options when you're heading to Richmond or beyond at peak travel times. The obvious route is to take the Capital Beltway to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and follow I-95 south. But I-95 in Northern Virginia frequently makes the New Jersey Turnpike look like a quiet country road.

Seeking to boost Maryland's fledgling aquaculture industry, the O'Malley administration plans to introduce legislation to make it easier for people and businesses to raise oysters or other shellfish in the Chesapeake Bay. The administration has drafted a bill that would overhaul the state's law that now limits leasing of the water and the bay bottom to private entities that want to raise oysters or clams. The measure was presented last night at the state's Aquaculture Coordinating Council meeting in Annapolis.

Republican Andy Harris and Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. were locked in a battle that was too close to call in Maryland's 1st Congressional District this morning, while the state's seven congressional incumbents all won re-election. Harris, an anesthesiologist from Baltimore County who has spent 10 years in the state Senate, and Kratovil, the state's attorney for Queen Anne's County, have been fighting for the seat now held by nine-term Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest. With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Kratovil was leading by less than 4,000 votes of nearly 300,000 counted.

Public forums on growth set across state Marylanders will have an opportunity to air their views about future growth and development in a series of "listening sessions" scheduled across the state next month, the Maryland Department of Planning said yesterday. The six forums are planned to provide public input to a task force appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley to review Maryland's Smart Growth laws and policies. Officials say the forums are planned as "town hall" meetings, with open discussion among attendees.