Speaker

Johns Hopkins administrators scrambled Thursday to find a commencement speaker to replace Dr. Ben Carson, who stepped down from two engagements because of backlash from recent comments he made about same-sex marriage. Carson was scheduled as the commencement speaker for Hopkins' School of Medicine and School of Education on May 23 but voluntarily stepped aside. "The dean and his staff will work their contacts to identify a noteworthy speaker and are confident that one can be secured reasonably quickly," university spokesman Dennis O'Shea wrote in an email.

Expectations are high for this year's commencement speakers at Maryland universities - an august crew that includes the Obamas and their team of writers as well as funnyman Bill Cosby and Hollywood director Jason Winer. But to stand out - or simply be remembered - isn't a guarantee, no matter how high the profile of the speaker. "The commencement speaker has to perform. He or she has the responsibility to inspire both students and graduates to make something of their lives" without falling back on cliches, said Steven D. Cohen, managing director of the oral communication program at the University of Maryland.

Roy Felipe, executive director of the Howard County YMCA will be thefeatured speaker at the Columbia Business Exchange's March 6 meetingfrom 5-7 p.m. at the county YMCA on Montgomery Road.The meeting will begin with a networking mixer for exchange members and guests and a brief presentation about the YMCA and the programs it offers.Proceeds will benefit the YMCA's Financial Assistance Program. Cost is $15.Information: 381-7383.

John Hopkins professor Jon Lorsch will replace neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson as commencement speaker at the institution's School of Medicine. Lorsch will become director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences this summer. He has spent the last 12 years studying how cells make proteins, a process that can help look at why people get cancer. Carson voluntarily stepped down this month as commencement speaker for Hopkins School of Medicine and School of Education after making controversial comments about same-sex marriage.

The shock waves from House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell Jr.'s announcement that he is stepping down on Jan. 3 won't stop reverberating off the State House walls for months. Mr. Mitchell was a calming influence in Annapolis. His decision to quit in a hurry robs Maryland government of its equilibrium.Who will succeed the 57-year-old Kent County delegate? A compromise choice for the interim, 1994 session could well be Del. Gary Alexander of Prince George's County, who has been speaker pro tem for a year.

After staging a one-man filibuster for six months, House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell has endorsed higher transportation taxes. That is good news for the state's economy, for highway travelers and for the state's road-improvement program.There never was much doubt that Maryland faced a crisis in transportation. Eighteen months ago, state officials bluntly told legislators -- including Mr. Mitchell -- that the cost of expanding roads, repairing bridges and adding mass-transit options would require more revenue this year.

In an unexpected twist of legislative politics, Casper R. Taylor Jr., a former tavern owner from Western Maryland, emerged yesterday as heir apparent to R. Clayton Mitchell Jr. as speaker of the House of Delegates.After 24 hours of intense politicking and a little help from the governor, Mr. Taylor received the unanimous blessing of the House's inner circle of Democratic committee chairmen. The group included four potential rivals who agreed during a 90-minute private meeting yesterday afternoon not to challenge Mr. Taylor.

WASHINGTON -- Forced by circumstances beyond thei control, which all circumstances seem to be, to choose a new speaker, House Republicans, a proudly nonconformist and notably predictable crowd, thought long and hard, as thinking is measured here. After a few hours, they determined that the best speaker would be the man who praises the emblematic result of the last Congress, the $217 billion highway bill.Bike paths to the 21st centuryThat bill, with its more than 1,850 bicycle paths, "demonstration projects" and other acts of uncomplicated rapacity, strikes Rep. Bob Livingston as a splendid jobs program:"A lot of people are going to have highways because of that bill and a lot of people are going to have jobs because of that bill and a lot of people are going to be better off throughout America because of that bill.

The balance of power between the White House and Congress may have officially tipped toward the Capitol when Newt Gingrich was featured last weekend in a television skit on "Saturday Night Live."Already we had a Gingrich 100-day agenda, a Gingrich transition team and plans for two days of gala Gingrich swearing-in festivities. But now the chief architect of the Republican takeover of Congress has earned himself such cult figure status, he's considered great material for popular entertainment.

The speaker of the House of Delegates, Casper R. Taylor Jr., was hospitalized yesterday after complaining of chest pains. The Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., reported Mr. Taylor, 60, in serious but stable condition yesterday evening.The speaker, who just last week had completed the grueling 90-day legislative session in Annapolis, complained to his family of chest pains over the weekend, said Dan McMullen, a family friend.When the pain returned yesterday after a midmorning walk around his Cumberland neighborhood, Mr. Taylor and his wife, Polly, drove to the city's Memorial Hospital and Medical Center, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson stepped down Wednesday as commencement speaker at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine after complaints from students about controversial comments concerning same-sex marriage. The withdrawal came less than a week after medical school Dean Paul B. Rothman chastised Carson for his comments and met with graduating students concerned that the famed physician was an inappropriate commencement speaker. Carson sent Rothman a letter saying that he didn't want to "distract from the celebratory nature of the day. " "Given all the national media surrounding my statements as to my belief in traditional marriage, I believe it would be in the best interest of the students for me to voluntarily withdraw as your commencement speaker this year," he wrote in the letter to Rothman, which the dean shared with the Hopkins community.

- Gov. Martin O'Malley took the stage Saturday at a high school in this early presidential primary state, telling an auditorium of South Carolina Democrats that his principles worked in Maryland - and they'd work elsewhere. "We're investing more to improve public education, to hold down college tuition, to spur innovation and job creation," O'Malley said to a crowd of 150 party faithful. But he also said Maryland has "cut state spending big time," casting himself as a pragmatist who makes tough choices.

Authors Bill Bryson and Doris Kearns Goodwin are among the headliners for the 2013-14 Baltimore Speakers Series, part of a lineup that is sure to delight book lovers. Bryson, whose "In a Sunburned Country" is one of my favorites, will appear Sept. 30 to start the series sponsored by Stevenson University. His humorous style has won him a loyal folllowing, and his travel books are must-reads. Among his other gems are "Neither Here Nor There" -- which is on my nightstand right now -- "A Walk in the Woods" and "A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Humorist Dave Barry, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak are among those taking part in the 2013-2014 Baltimore Speakers Series. The seven-speaker series, sponsored by Stevenson University, kicks off Sept. 30 with author and humorist Bill Bryson, whose books include "A Short History of Nearly Everything" and "At Home: A Short History of Private Life. " Other speakers scheduled for 2013 are George Papandreou, prime minister of Greece from 2009 to 2011 (Oct.

Nearly 400 people packed a conference room Thursday to hear conservative leaders argue that Maryland is in critical need of a better business climate as big federal spending cuts loom. Change Maryland, a group started by a businessman who contemplated a run against Gov. Martin O'Malley in 2010, timed its first event well. The day before, the Pentagon warned that it would be forced to furlough most of its civilian defense employees, including 45,000 in Maryland, one day a week if the federal "sequestration" budget cuts begin March 1. State Del. Steven R. Schuh, an Anne Arundel County Republican, told the crowd at the Westin Annapolis hotel that Maryland has reaped years of benefits from high levels of federal employment and contracting, "but this policy of extreme dependence on federal spending has consequences.

The Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. announced yesterday that former Speaker of the House of Delegates R. Clayton Mitchell Jr. will oversee the company's efforts to lobby the Maryland General Assembly, in which he served for more than two decades.The announcement comes a little less than a year after Mr. Mitchell resigned as speaker of the 141-member House. The job of speaker is one of the three most powerful in Maryland government. As manager of BGE's public affairs department, Mr. Mitchell, 58, will oversee the company's three lobbyists in Annapolis as they try to influence some of the legislators that he presided over as speaker.