State Offices

Most state offices, with the exception of state parks, will be closed Friday and nonessential services curtailed because of a scheduled furlough day. Offices including the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation will be closed. Services related to public safety, such as state police and corrections facilities, as well as the Maryland judiciary, will be in operation, and the unemployment claims phone lines will be staffed during the furlough day. Gov. Martin O'Malley signed an executive order in July ordering the furlough days as a way of reducing costs to shore up a budget shortfall.

Since 1901, Annapolis residents and downtown workers have been dropping off letters and buying stamps at the brick Georgian Revival-style post office on Church Circle. But not for much longer. A vote by the state's Board of Public Works on Wednesday seals the eventual fate of the post office. The state is buying the office for $3.2 million, with eventual plans to use the building for government offices. "The state saw an opportunity to retain the historic value of the building, particularly because it's in the footprint of other state-owned facilities.

Less than a month after bruising top-of-ticket losses on Election Day, Maryland Republicans have quickly discovered life after Ehrlich, seating a new lineup of local elected officials on the party's bench and fielding a surprisingly diverse range of candidates for state chairman. The resounding defeat of Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who was seeking a return as governor, solidified Maryland's standing as among the most heavily Democratic states. Gov. Martin O'Malley coasted to re-election, and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski easily won a fifth term.

Leon Nelson, a retired state security officer assigned to the Department of Health and Human Services, died of cancer April 4 at Seasons Hospice in Randallstown. The Inner Harbor resident was 85. The son of John Leon Nelson and Rebecca Nelson, he was born in Sumter, S.C., and moved to Baltimore in 1935. He lived on Bradley Street in West Baltimore and attended Samuel Coleridge Taylor School. "He had to leave school in order to help support his mother," said his grandson, Kaon Nelson, a Gwynn Oak resident who was his caregiver.

In observance of the Martin Luther King holiday, the following offices will be closed Monday:* Carroll County government offices, which will reopen at 8 a.m. Tuesday.* Carroll County schools.* All Carroll County public library branches.* Westminster city offices.* Hampstead town offices. The Town Council meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.* Manchester town offices.* Union Bridge town offices.The county's landfills will be open normal hours, 7 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.Town offices of Sykesville, Mount Airy, Taneytown and New Windsor will be open Monday.

The state's 1,702 polling places open today at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Voters are reminded to bring proper identification.State courts, state offices and public schools are closed. Banks and U.S. government offices, including federal courts, are open.There will be no trash pickup in Baltimore City. Surrounding counties will operate on normal schedules.

"High Noon" it's not, but the saga of Sheriff Robert Pepersack, Anne Arundel's feisty, hot-headed lawman, has provided some of the best entertainment the county has seen in years.He's overspent his budget, stalked out of county council hearings, found himself on the wrong end of a subpoena and been accused publicly by the council chairman of "not being man enough" to face him. He's blasted county government in voluminous letters to local newspapers, making County Executive Robert R. Neall so mad that he sent the sheriff a note saying he was on the executive's "egg-sucking list."

This schedule will be in effect Thursday County offices Government offices and courts: closed in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Harford and Howard counties. Libraries: closed in Anne Arundel, Carroll, Frederick, Harford and Howard counties; open in Baltimore County. Public schools: open in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Harford and Howard counties. Trash: regular pick-up in Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Howard counties.

This schedule will be in effect tomorrow:BALTIMORECity offices -- openCourts -- openLibraries -- openParking meters -- must feedPublic schools -- openTrash removal -- no pickupHOWARD COUNTYCounty offices -- closedCourts -- openLibraries -- closedPublic schools -- closedTrash removal -- regular pickupOTHER SERVICES AND ATTRACTIONSBanks, S&Ls -- closedFederal offices -- closedFederal courts -- closedPostal Service no home delivery. Window service available atsome locations. Information: -- (410)

American Telephone & Telegraph Co. has won a three-year contract to provide long-distance services for state offices in Maryland, the governor's office said yesterday.The contract is expected to save taxpayers more than $4.1 million over the next three years, a 44 percent savings over current long-distance prices offered by AT&T, the state's primary long-distance provider.Savings at state facilities are expected to range from 20 percent to 80 percent over previous long-distance charges.Under the new contract, Maryland's annual long-distance bill should shrink from about $3.2 million to $1.8 million, said Martin W. Walsh Jr., secretary of the Department of General Services.

The IRS may be coming for the Maryland unemployment office's offices. The federal tax collection agency filed a legal claim called a tax lien last month against the unemployment office's property. The Internal Revenue Service claims that the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation's Office of Unemployment Insurance owes the federal government about $850,000 in unpaid taxes, according to court records. The tax lien was filed in order to encourage the debt to be paid - even though DLLR filed an appeal of its tax assessment in August and claims it does not owe the money the IRS has billed, said Dennis Morton, the unemployment office's director of contributions.

The Office of the State Prosecutor subpoenaed eight Baltimore County agencies this week for records on a planned Catonsville medical office development, county officials confirmed Thursday. The subpoenas sought "information and correspondence" regarding the Southwest Physicians Pavilion planned by Whalen Properties, a Catonsville-based developer, county spokeswoman Ellen Kobler said. The county declined to release the subpoenas, and Kobler said officials "would not begin to speculate" on why the state was seeking the information.

This schedule will be in effect Monday: Government offices, courts and libraries Closed in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard and Frederick counties, and in Baltimore City and Annapolis. Public schools Closed in all jurisdictions. Trash No pickup in Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Howard counties, and in Baltimore City (landfills and transfer stations closed) and Annapolis. Harford waste disposal center is closed. Check with contractor in Carroll, Harford and Frederick counties.

Citing the "bravery of two" but noting the "valor of all" their colleagues, the state's governor and city's mayor lauded Thursday the workers who helped save an infant being stabbed at a social services office in East Baltimore. William Purnell Short III hit the suspect with a chair, forcing her to drop the infant, and Dana Hayes screamed for help, prompting a flurry of 911 calls that got police and paramedics quickly to the social services complex on Biddle Street on April 24. Short held the suspect — who police said bit him on the hands — until police arrived.

When Thiru Vignarajah left the Maryland U.S. attorney's office to lead a new unit of the city prosecutors, there was the matter of putting together a new team of lawyers to pursue major crimes, bolstering relationships with police and other law enforcement agencies, and identifying the city's most violent criminals. There was also another matter: painting the office. To help create a sense of ownership over their work, he encouraged his new prosecutors to pick out their offices and paint the walls with the color of their choice.

We'll hear endless tirades on the subject of business regulation between now and the 2012 election. Republicans will be against it. Democrats will favor it. Here's a discussion that is heard much less often but which is just as important: How can government best deliver the regulation that both parties agree is necessary? It's a subject on which both Democrats and Republicans often stumble. Only puritan libertarians would argue that government shouldn't control the way developers of offices, stores and housing tracts connect their projects with public highways.

The O'Malley administration has decided to stop buying bottled water for state facilities where tap water is available, saying it's striking a blow for frugality and the environment at the same time. The state's "Green Purchasing Committee," formed last year to steer the government toward buying more healthful and environmentally friendly goods and services, voted Thursday to phase out the use of bottled water in state offices and other facilities, officials said. The move was hailed by environmentalists, who said Maryland's was the sixth state government to "kick the bottle," as they put it, joining Connecticut, Vermont, New York, Colorado and Illinois.

A lawyer who joined the U.S. Army Reserve says the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office declined to rehire him after he finished his training - which he alleges is a violation of federal law. Capt. Andrew Gross, 28, of Columbia filed suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore against the city and the prosecutor's office, claiming the office discriminated against him because of his military service. The suit seeks unspecified damages, back pay and other costs. "It really blows my mind that they did this," said Baltimore-based attorney Steven D. Silverman, who represents Gross.