State Officials

William Arthur Urie, a former FBI special agent who later was secretary of the state Department of Licensing and Regulation, died of cancer Monday at his Silver Spring home. He was 92. The son of a store owner and a beautician, he was born and raised in Rock Hall. After graduating from Rock Hall High School in 1935, he earned a bachelor's degree from Washington College in 1939. He attended law school at George Washington University. He served as a military policeman and later an Army provost marshal from 1941 to 1945, when he was discharged with the rank of captain.

As President Barack Obama proposed a new round of military base closures and reorganization, Maryland's political and business forces already are working to protect installations here and position the state to benefit from any future moves. Maryland still is growing from the last round of the base realignment process known as BRAC, which brought new commands, new missions and tens of thousands of new jobs to Fort Meade, Aberdeen Proving Ground and other military installations around the state.

Maryland is on track to reduce climate-altering greenhouse gases 25 percent by the end of the decade, according to a state environmental official. In a preview of the state's overdue plan to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, George S. "Tad" Aburn Jr., head of air management for the state Department of the Environment , told members of the House Environmental Matters Committee Wednesday that Maryland should exceed the goal set in a 2009 law if all 65 control programs laid out in the draft blueprint work as planned.

As elected officials in Baltimore and Annapolis seek to address the debacle that was the city's voter turnout during the mayoral primary and general election last year, it's clear that the thing they care about the most is what voters care about the least: what's in it for the politicians. State House leaders (in particular, Senate PresidentThomas V. Mike Miller) don't like the fact that the current system allows city officials to run for governor or the legislature without giving up their seats - in essence, allowing them a free shot at higher office.

Baltimore was in danger of losing many of its most precious documents several years ago. A rented building near Druid Hill Park that was used to house the city's historic archives failed to meet even minimal standards for proper records storage. It was damp and moldy. It lacked air conditioning. The roof leaked. Water got on the floor. Snakes crawled around the building. Few of the documents were available online, and there was no equipment to scan them in. But the state stepped in, and the city's valuable papers, maps and photos have been moved to a sturdy, climate-controlled storage facility in East Baltimore.

The assessed value of Jack Becker's three-bedroom split-level home in Reisterstown dropped nearly $90,000 in the past five years. But in a bad economy, Becker still thought his assessment — and property taxes — were too high. He filed an appeal to the state Department of Assessments and Taxation. It was denied. Then, Becker waited more than nine months for a hearing with a local appeals board, finally getting one in November. He still hadn't gotten the results of the hearing when he paid his tax bill in December.

The state Board of Physicians Tuesday suspended the license of a Salisbury pain doctor, who the board said had not been using proper safeguards in prescribing opiates. Separately, state health officials had suspended Dr. Brent R. Fox's authority to write prescriptions for opiates and other controlled dangerous substances last week after their own investigation showed he was prescribing drugs in amounts outside of standards and was not conducting thorough exams of patients. The new action means the doctor can't practice medicine in Maryland for now. The doctor had been referred to the state by a managed-care organization with which Fox was affiliated, and the state has become more aggressive in tackling abuse of highly addictive painkillers.

Maryland Health Secretary Joshua M. Sharfstein told two Senate committees Wednesday that the state has hired an outside consultant to help figure out how Maryland's Developmental Disabilities Administration failed to spend $25 million that had to be returned to the general fund. State officials told the Finance and Budget and Taxation Committees that there doesn't appear to be any criminal wrongdoing in the matter and that an employee appeared to be rolling over small surpluses over several years, although it is unclear for how long.

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued a warning Tuesday about skin creams that may contain mercury.  One of those creams, Crema Aguamary, has been linked to one case of mercury poisoning in the state. It was purchased in Mexico and used by somebody in Maryland. Mercury in skin creams can cause memory problems and problems with the nervous system, kidneys, skin, blood pressure, and digestive tract, according to state health officials. Unborn babies, infants and children are especially sensitive to the effects of mercury.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration prohibits the sale of skin-bleaching products containing mercury in the United States.  Products that contain the ingredients mercury, mercurio, mercuric, mercurous, or calomel should not be used, DHMH cautioned.