State House

The State House is reopening after an eight-month, $10 million renovation, though planners are far from completing the wholesale redesign - and a more visitor-friendly experience - they envision for the historic building. Construction crews have repaired an aging heating and cooling system, updated a plumbing system that was in danger of rupturing and replaced unsafe electrical wiring. With that work in the final stages, moving trucks pulled around State Circle to unload boxes and furniture yesterday, and Gov. Martin O'Malley was in the building.

Maryland's State House always undergoes a drastic transformation in April, when all the adrenaline that flowed through the halls during the General Assembly session is replaced, overnight, by silence. But with the national historic landmark closed to visitors and workers until January, the mood this year is almost funerary. Moving trucks surround the centuries-old building as workers clean out their offices, exhuming a sea of paper, the detritus of frenzied lawmaking built up year after year, to be boxed up or recycled.

ANNAPOLIS -- Photographs taken of gun-control opponents during a State House protest last month were not meant as an intimidation tactic, state officials said yesterday."

It may not be as prestigious as the White House, but the State House has better acoustics for bell ringers.A last-minute official function for 1,400 at the presidential mansion forced the abrupt change of venue for the Carrolltowne Elementary Handbell Choir, which had been scheduled to perform Wednesday on the White House lawn.To make up for the loss of their much-anticipated performance, a parent and a state delegate hastily organized an Annapolis trip as a consolation prize for 23 fifth-grade students.

The two teachers from Anne Arundel County joined 20,000 other State House protesters calling for an end to state budget cuts. But they disagreed on how to do it."I'd pay 1 percent more sales tax," one said last night."No taxes," her co-worker argued. "Once you get taxes, they're never taken away."The two views represent the dilemma facing lawmakers who returned to Annapolis for the 404th session of the Maryland General Assembly yesterday.Pressed by some constituents who want more services and taxes, and others who want neither, they'll be looking for guidance from Gov. William Donald Schaefer, who delivered his State of the State message to a joint session today.

As the workers began cutting down the giant white ash, dismembering the oldest tree on the lawn of the oldest statehouse still used by lawmakers, the pieces crashed with a thud that shook the ground and startled onlookers who had gathered somberly to watch. The tree had soared 100 feet into the air on a trunk that was 4 feet across at its base. Estimated to be 150 years old, it was a mere sprout when lawmakers gathered under the dome of the State House to debate the coming Civil War. In later years, it stood as a silent sentry as they voted to free the slaves and save the bay. Bridges and beltways and stadiums and schoolhouses were conceived as the seasons passed and buds turned to leaves and the leaves then fell.

The scribe briefly became the story yesterday as the General Assembly honored a reporter who quietly but diligently covered 43 legislative sessions. Senators and delegates rose to give Associated Press reporter Tom Stuckey standing ovations - a legislative first - honoring a man who because of his longevity was called "dean of the press corps" and whose work earned their respect. Because Stuckey, 67, plans to retire this year, this will be his last time documenting the harried, 90-day stretch that is lawmaking in Annapolis.

Lucille Maurer left an indelible mark on Maryland's history -- and now everyone can see it.Yesterday, the state unveiled a 28-by-30-inch portrait of the late Maurer, the first woman to become treasurer of Maryland. The portrait will hang in the State House Calvert Room, then join the paintings of her predecessors in the state's treasury building.The portrait depicts Maurer in a red suit with a state flag and state seal in the background. A plaque recognizing her leadership among Maryland's women and her commitment to education also is seen.

Maryland's countdown to the millennium began yesterday with drum rolls, trumpet blasts and a big Oriole Bird smooch on former Gov. William Donald Schaefer's head as a digital clock ticked away the remaining seconds to 2000.With 485 days, 11 hours, three minutes and 29 seconds left until the big date, state officials unveiled Celebration 2000 plans, a temporary 9-foot clock erected in front of the State House in Annapolis and an as-yet-unnamed female mascot dressed in a tunic and star-spangled top hat.The state will sponsor millennium events involving the arts, education, the environment, historic preservation and, naturally, New Year's Eve celebrations across Maryland.

In Annapolis, where lobbyists represent every special interest from the oil industry and the Chesapeake Bay to casino companies and the Roman Catholic Church, only Deborah Povich lists her client as "the People."One of the State House's resident altruists, Ms. Povich pushes bills each year to curb the influence of moneyed interests and open up the political process to average citizens.And each year, the General Assembly kills most of her proposals. Instead of becoming discouraged, Ms. Povich, who serves as executive director of Common Cause/Maryland, the self-proclaimed citizens' lobby, keeps bouncing back like a duck in a boardwalk shooting gallery.