State Address

Here are selected excerpts from Gov. Martin O'Malley's first State of the State address to the Maryland General Assembly: Overview "Fourteen days into the four years the people of our state have given to us to make progress, I am glad to join you today and report that thanks to the hard work of our fellow citizens for decades, maybe indeed centuries past, and despite the drift of recent years, the state of our state, today, is strong. "Today Maryland is the second-wealthiest state in the union.

As he delivers the State of the State address Thursday, Gov. Martin O'Malley reaches the midpoint of his term. On the morning the General Assembly opened its 2009 legislative session, I sat down with him in Annapolis to take stock of the state of his governorship at the two-year mark. As he munched a bacon-and-egg-on-rye sandwich in the specially designated governor's booth at Chick and Ruth's Delly on Main Street, I asked him to rate his performance. He rattled off various policies, assigning mostly A's and B's on everything from public safety to energy conservation.

As Muhammad Ali once observed, "It's not bragging if you can back it up. " Thus, even his most caustic critics will have to concede that Gov. Martin O'Malley's State of the State address may have been the most heavily footnoted piece of braggadocio in Maryland history. Here's the CliffsNotes version of what Governor O'Malley had to say this afternoon: In the economic downturn, Maryland had to make tough choices, but they were good decisions - better than made elsewhere - and now things are looking pretty good.

Gov. Martin O'Malley charted a course for the state through a national recession yesterday, pledging to protect safety net programs, freeze college tuition and eradicate childhood hunger. The Democratic governor laid out the vision in his third State of the State address before a joint session of the General Assembly, which must approve many of his plans. In a 30-minute speech, O'Malley said he "never felt more energized" despite bleak economic times, and repeatedly invoked President Barack Obama's name, drawing applause in the overwhelmingly Democratic legislature.

Gov. Martin O'Malley used his State of the State address Wednesday to make his case for his most ambitious legislative agenda since taking office. Now comes the hard job of selling it. In an upbeat, 33-minute speech to both chambers of the General Assembly, the governor issued a spirited call for an aggressive program to invest in jobs and honor the "human dignity" of families, whether the parents are gay or straight. But O'Malley said that generating jobs, improving transportation and cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay would require additional revenue in the form of taxes and fees.

Here are excerpts from Gov. Parris N. Glendening's State of the State address, delivered yesterday to a joint session of the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates: Today it is my unique privilege as governor to deliver the first State of the State address of the new century. And it is my great honor to present a vision of our state's future to all of you. To you who are the leaders who will help determine the path Maryland will follow in this new era. I know that all of you share the tremendous excitement and enthusiasm that I feel at the dawn of this new century.

Here is a partial text of Gov. Parris N. Glendening's State of the State address:Last Monday, like most Monday mornings for the last 12 years, I was at University Park Elementary School. That is where Raymond attended school. And that is where I have volunteered in the library several times a month stacking books, reading with children and working with small groups of students.Besides having the pleasure of watching the professionals at University Park Elementary School do a very good job well, I get to see really eager, earnest faces of Maryland's future and each time I am reminded of the real purpose of why you and I are here: for our children.

RUNNING time for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s State of the State speech yesterday was 30 minutes. Walking-out time was about 15. The 30 minutes included introductions of friends, scattered polite applause, attempts at humor. Example of humor: The weekly Board of Public Works meetings, deprived of the legendary Glendening-Schaefer scraps, are "no longer the No. 1-rated TV show," the governor declared. More wit has gone into Chamber of Commerce speeches, and more effort, too. The governor was big on platitudes, short on detail.

LISTENING to Gov. William Donald Schaefer deliver a state of the state speech is like visiting a good psychiatrist: Nothing very much happens, but it sure makes you feel better.Mr. Schaefer's seventh and last oration lacked the goofy theatricality of some of its predecessors, but like the bride at the altar it contained portions of something old, something new and mainly something borrowed. All it lacked was something blue.Even its Schaeferian thematic title -- "One Maryland: Safer, Healthier, Stronger" -- had the uplift and energy of a superhuman gene pool.

Ventilation systems are being installed by the state in three homes in Baltimore's Westport neighborhood, according to state officials, after tests found toxic vapors seeping into the dwellings from long-abandoned industrial sites nearby that had been the focus of an emergency hazardous-waste cleanup decades ago. In addition, said James Carroll of the Maryland Department of the Environment, efforts are under way to treat potentially cancer-causing solvents...