State House

Gov. Martin O'Malley and dozens of others who work out of the nation's oldest operating capitol will begin moving back into the Maryland State House early next week, as a more than $10 million renovation project to the stately building ends in the days before the legislature convenes for its 426th session. "I never thought we'd move back," O'Malley joked, brandishing an oversized golden key given to him by the Department of General Services at yesterday's Board of Public Works meeting.

HERE IN civilized Maryland, we do not fly the flag of the Confederacy over our State House. We look with disdain upon those South Carolina rednecks who fight the Civil War 135 years after its alleged conclusion. Outside our State House here in civilized Annapolis, instead of a flag that symbolizes enslavement of human beings, we display a marvelous statue to honor one man. His name was Roger B. Taney. He was chief justice of the United States. OK, so he did help spark the Civil War. In South Carolina, those thousands of people who gathered this week to protest the Confederate flag flying over the statehouse in Columbia have now made their way home.

Marvin Mandel is returning to Maryland's historic State House, this time on canvas.Twenty-four years after Mr. Mandel replaced Spiro T. Agnew as Maryland governor, 16 years after he was convicted of mail fraud and racketeering and sent to federal prison and four years after he was exonerated of his crimes, his official portrait is finally being painted.Unlike the paintings of most other high state officials, however, the $25,000 painting of the former governor by Southern Maryland portraitist Peter Egeli is being paid for entirely with private funds.

Gov.-elect Parris N. Glendening and some Maryland lawmakers say top state lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano should not return to Annapolis next month because of his recent mail-fraud conviction.If Bereano insists on continuing his lobbying practice, "I think it's obviously going to add to the mistrust that many voters have of the way the governmental process works currently," Mr. Glendening said."Were I in his position, I certainly would not be involved in any lobbying activity at this time."The General Assembly's most powerful members, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., declined to take a position on the issue.

Marvin Mandel, backed by a generation of political figures who dominated the government of Maryland for decades, returned to the State House yesterday evening for an event many of those present called long overdue.Mr. Mandel, 73, the convicted, imprisoned, pardoned and legally exonerated former governor, sat quietly by, a look of melancholy playing across his features, as his portrait was finally hung in a place of honor, along with the portraits of most of his predecessors.He brightened considerably when his turn came to speak.

The most polite guys in the State House these days wear black combat boots and light blue uniforms and go to bed behind prison bars.As members of 1st Alpha Company -- part of the state prison system's experimental boot camp program for young inmates -- the 11 men are assigned to sweep the halls, polish the brass door plates and generally keep things tidy inside the State House.Although visitors to the State House have been accustomed for years to seeing prisoners perform custodial duties, the appearance this week of the boot camp inmates caught many people by surprise -- first by their appearance and then by their courtesy.

It was late in the afternoon on July 13, 1699, when the doors and windows of the first State House in Annapolis were suddenly shattered by a massive, violent bolt of lightning. James Crawford, a Calvert County member of the House of Delegates, was killed instantly, and several of his colleagues were injured. The lightning also sparked a fire in one of the upper chambers of the building. The royal governor of Maryland, Nathaniel Blackstone, assisted in putting out the fire before further damage could be done.

ANNAPOLIS -- Chanting "Pro-Choice Teen-Choice" and "one-four-six," abortion rights advocates gathered in front of the State House last night to show their support of Senate Bill 146, which seeks to preserve the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision.Annapolis police estimated the crowd at 1,200 people. But Bea Poulin, the executive director of Marylanders for the Right to Choose, which organized the rally, said that about 3,000 supporters made the march from the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium to a grassy area across from the State House.

ANNAPOLIS -- More than 2,500 anti-abortion activists rallied in front of the Maryland State House yesterday and vowed to fight pro-abortion bills, even though they may not have enough votes to win.Police estimated the crowd numbered between 2,500 and 3,000 people. Rally organizers said more than 3,000 attended the candlelight demonstration, which began with a march from Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium about half a mile from the State House.Steve Shaneman, director of the Family Protection Lobby, said his group had not decided exactly what its strategy would be this year, but that he hoped to see the introduction of legislation that would be "reasonably restrictive."

James Edward Chambers, who became a discreet confidant of Maryland legislators and lobbyists while operating a shoeshine stand in the State House for more than half a century, died yesterday of congestive heart failure at the Genesis Spa Creek Center in Annapolis. He was 86. "To know the State House, you had to know Jimmy," said former Gov. Marvin Mandel. "He was really a fixture. He knew everyone and everyone knew him. When I first came into the legislature, he was there and he's been shining my shoes ever since.