State Offices

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.

A special state bomb disposal unit is on standby across Maryland while State Police intelligence officials confer daily with local and federal groups in light of a potential threat of Iraqi-supported terrorism.Meanwhile, the state's emergency medical apparatus is reviewing procedures on how to respond to any attack and how best to handle mass casualties in a terrorist situation.Bob Thomas, deputy chief state fire marshal, said four groups of bomb-disposal officers are on 24-hour alert. The teams are from Baltimore, Prince George's and Baltimore counties, and Thomas' office.

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- From a suite of offices in the leafy suburbs of Brussels, four Belgians, a German, a Scot and a Dutch woman are selling Maryland across Eu rope and beyond.The seven-member team works for Maryland Center Europe, an arm of the state's Department of Economic and Employment Development (DEED). The office searches for foreign companies invest in Maryland and helps state companies export and sell products abroad.Maryland Center Europe is often the first port of call for 350 to 400 Maryland companies interested in doing business overseas.

Murder suspect Terrence Tolbert has been charged with dealing crack cocaine from the Annapolis street on which he lived while he was released during a pretrial appeal by prosecutors in the murder case. Tolbert, 21, was seen by police and videotaped selling crack cocaine Jan. 15, according to allegations in the charging documents. Police did not seek an arrest warrant until Feb. 18, a day after Tolbert was jailed on an unrelated drug charge, because his bond had been revoked in that case.

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.

OCEAN CITY - C. William Knill, a Mount Airy dairy farmer, was elected vice president of the Maryland Farm Bureau at the group's annual meeting here.Knill will serve a one-year term as one of three state vice presidents, said John F. Butler, field services director for the organization.He was elected unanimously during a voting session Wednesday at the Sheraton Ocean City Resort and Conference Center, Butler said.Carroll County sent about 40 people, including 28 voting delegates, to the meeting.

Maryland spent at least $200,000 on bottled water for its government offices, according to a report released Tuesday called Getting States Off the Bottle, issued by Corporate Accountability International, a watchdog group. The group has been seeking to pressure state and local governments to curb use of bottled water and redirect funds to public water infrastructure - for which there is a $22 billion need nationwide.

After almost 14 years as the voice of the Baltimore County police, Bill Toohey will leave the department on Friday, take a week off and start a new job on Feb. 1. Toohey, a former radio reporter and spokesman for two U.S. senators, is to be the communications director for the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention, which coordinates programs, grants and research for public safety and corrections agencies. "It's a great expansion of my professional world and I'm really looking forward to that," said Toohey, 64, who was informed in November that he was being let go from the Police Department to make way for a uniformed officer.

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.

The Maryland Chiefs of Police have named Howard County police Officer Gabriel Arias as the state's police officer of the year for 1998, eight months after he was recognized as the county's officer of the year. Arias has been on the force since April 1993.Officials looked at a number of criteria, but focused on community policing, said county Police Chief Wayne Livesay.Arias -- who usually patrols west Columbia -- was recognized locally for his work in community policing initiatives in Harper's Choice.