Task Force

The Columbia Association is seeking community members to serve on its Aquatics Master Plan Task Force. The master plan, still in its preliminary stages, will determine the future of Columbia's 23 indoor and four outdoor pools, as well as an indoor hot water therapy pool, over the next 10 to 20 years. Members of the task force will review and discuss alternatives, recommendations and priorities for the pools. For more information on the plan, visit columbiaassociation.org/aquaticsmasterplan, and to apply for the task force, visit columbiaassociation.org/aquaticsmasterplan/application.pdf.

Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman is asking law enforcement professionals from other jurisdictions to examine the county's troubled police department. Since she took over in February from disgraced former executive John R. Leopold, Neuman said Friday, her office has received a steady stream of anonymous notes alleging problems in the agency. Leopold was convicted of criminal misconduct in office for directing his police protection detail to perform political and personal tasks.

Editor: During the legislative session of Oct. 18, the Harford County Council acting in both its capacity as the Board of Health and the legislative body unanimously approved Resolution 28-11 establishing a Harford County Obesity Task Force.  According to our most recent data, the health of Harford County adults and children has declined from 1996 to 2010 with respect to numerous chronic diseases including, diabetes, heart disease, high...

A lawyer for Baltimore City says a task force appointed by the mayor to study the city's speed camera program did not hold an illegal closed-door meeting during a March visit to a contractor's headquarters. But a prominent member of the task force called the city's version of events "not true. " Assistant City Solicitor Hilary Ruley told state officials this week that a presentation to the task force was stopped once members realized the public had been barred from attending by Brekford Corp., the city's new camera vendor.

As The Sun recently reported ("Task force rejects having elected Baltimore Co. school board," Sept. 10), the legislative task force considering alternatives to the board selection process "abruptly decided Friday to rule out recommending the addition of elected board members. " According to the legislation establishing the task force, the charge they were to carry out was: "to make recommendations on how many members should constitute the Baltimore County Board of Education.

A task force studying Baltimore's troubled speed camera program will urge the city to increase oversight, change the way camera sites are selected and create a website containing maps and other information of interest to the public, according to draft recommendations released Wednesday. A final report is expected to be presented in the next two weeks to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who formed the task force last summer. "It's going to help us make a better program," acting Transportation Director Frank Murphy said.

Maryland could become the first state in the nation to ban the sale of bumper pads that line the inside of cribs after a state panel recommended Friday that health officials declare them a hazard because they can suffocate or strangle babies. The recommendations made by the four-member task force of mostly pediatricians will now go to Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, secretary of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, who will decide whether to write them into regulation. The recommendations would not prevent parents from using the crib bumpers — which have been attributed to at least two dozen infant deaths nationwide — or buying them in other states.

Maryland's legislative leaders today appointed a bipartisan panel to study the impact of recent court ruling that labeled pit bulls as 'inherently dangerous' for liability purposes and to make recommendations about possible legislative fixes. Five members from each chamber have been named, including three of the five delegates who introduced legislation aimed at overturning the court's ruling during the May special session in Annapolis. The 4-3 decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals came in April after the General Assembly's regular session expired, and drew outrage from dog owners who fear that thousands of pit bulls will be put down.

New details about planned redevelopment of the Rotunda have emerged, including a possibly quicker timetable for moving a new grocery store into the struggling mall in Roland Park. "One of the (grocery retail) groups we're working with has expressed a desire to move in as soon as possible. We're hoping the logistics work out," Al Barry, a local land-use consultant to mall owner Hekemian & Co., told a neighborhood advisory task force Tuesday. "Retailers like parking and access. That's going to be a challenge.

Baltimore County police are announcing today a new task force to combat the growing problem of metals theft that his hitting homeowners and businesses throughout the region. The Metal Thefts Team is being called the area's first law enforcement group dedicated to investigating the thefts, which include everything from ripping copper gutters off homes to breaking into Baltimore Gas and Electric facilities and taking electronic devices. The president of BGE, Ken DeFontes, is expected to join Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and Police Chief Jim Johnson at the announcement, at a BGE training center in White Marsh.

Gov. Martin O'Malley suggested Towson University form a task force to study how better to deal with meeting Title IX rules on gender equity. The governor, who proposed giving state money to save the university's baseball program, told a group of reporters Monday that all his questions about the decision to eliminate some men's sports had been answered. But he suggested that perhaps the public would benefit from a task force. "I think a lot of us have trouble with the idea that to create more sports opportunities for our daughters, we have have to eliminate opportunities for our sons," O'Malley said.

Three members of an anti-speed camera group have filed an open-meetings complaint against a task force appointed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to study Baltimore's troubled automated enforcement system. The complaint, filed April 1, alleges seven violations of the state Open Meetings Act. Several stem from a closed-door session March 20, at which task force members were briefed by the city's new vendor, Brekford Corp., inside the company's Anne Arundel County headquarters. The head of the task force, Transportation Department lobbyist Barbara Zektick, referred questions about the complaint to an agency spokeswoman, who declined to comment.

Doctors and patients alike are often uncomfortable talking about sexual health and sexually transmitted disease. But a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report shows that this squeamishness costs society millions of dollars spent trying to treat or cure diseases that could have been prevented, vaccinated against, screened for or detected at an earlier stage of development. According to the CDC, about 19 million Americans each year are affected by sexually transmitted diseases and infections.

Members of the task appointed to oversee Baltimore's beleaguered speed camera program are distancing themselves from a recommendation that the panel "restrain media access" to its deliberations. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the regional head of AAA both said they disagreed with the proposal, unveiled on the same day that Baltimore Sun journalists were barred from the Anne Arundel County headquarters of the city's new speed camera contractor, Brekford Corp.  The moves come as the city has limited the amount of public information about the speed camera program since the transition to Brekford Jan. 1, saying only that “several thousand” tickets have been issued from an undisclosed number of working cameras.

A task force studying Baltimore's troubled speed camera program will urge the city to increase oversight, change the way camera sites are selected and create a website containing maps and other information of interest to the public, according to draft recommendations released Wednesday. A final report is expected to be presented in the next two weeks to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who formed the task force last summer. "It's going to help us make a better program," acting Transportation Director Frank Murphy said.

In Howard County, we are determined to provide an open forum of discussion on bullying so that no teen has to suffer in silence. With the Council's passage of Resolution 16-2013 designating Voices for Change Youth Coalition as the designated organization to facilitate discussion among youth coupled with the county's anti-bullying task force, we are already beginning to see progress.  For those not already aware, the students members of Voices for...

A task force charged with strengthening Maryland policies regarding head trauma in student athletes called Tuesday for more staff training, parental notification of concussions and further study of ways to limit such injuries. The state school board voted Tuesday to accept the recommendations and field public comment on them. The majority of the proposals are designed to beef up a set of emergency regulations the board approved in July. Edward Sparks, co-chair of the task force and executive director of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, called the group's report "a working document" that was produced after months of research on practices in other school districts across the nation, the Ivy League and the National Football League.

Members of the task appointed to oversee Baltimore's beleaguered speed camera program are distancing themselves from a recommendation that the panel "restrain media access" to its deliberations. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the regional head of AAA both said they disagreed with the proposal, unveiled on the same day that Baltimore Sun journalists were barred from the Anne Arundel County headquarters of the city's new speed camera contractor, Brekford Corp.  The moves come as the city has limited the amount of public information about the speed camera program since the transition to Brekford Jan. 1, saying only that “several thousand” tickets have been issued from an undisclosed number of working cameras.

Members of the public and most employers would be unable to look up the records of some people convicted of nonviolent misdemeanor offenses under a proposal before the state legislature. The recommendation, under which people could ask the state to shield such information from the public eye after they complete their sentences, was a key recommendation of a task force that examined how best to integrate ex-offenders back into society. But it has faced a tough fight; a similar proposal failed last year amid arguments that citizens are entitled to information about the actions of the legal system.

Varsity boys basketball Gilman seeks to join MIAA A Conference Gilman has petitioned for its basketball team, which has been competing in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference, to make the jump to the A Conference. The school has applied to the conference's competition committee, which will consider the petition at a meeting set for March 18. After capturing the B Conference championship in the 2011-12 season, the Greyhounds went 16-15 and advanced to the title game this year.