Work Program

They are picking up trash, cleaning bathrooms and distributing lunches, milk and juice to preschool children. To 13 East Baltimore high school students with developmental disabilities, these summer jobs present a significant opportunity. They're learning how to use a paratransit service, earning minimum-wage paychecks, and gaining experience and connections in the working world they will enter when they turn 21. But the students, most of whom have mental retardation or brain damage, need on-the-job supervision from teachers and aides.

Vehicles for Change, a Baltimore-based nonprofit, and Harford County Wheels for Work joined forces to award their first vehicle, a 2005 Subaru Impreza, to a Harford County family. The organizations partnered together in October 2012 to provide automobiles to participants of residential programs for people in crisis in Harford County. The Subaru will be awarded to a single mother with three children, including one son with special needs. "Vehicles for Change is excited to award our first vehicle with Harford County Wheels for Work," Steve Sullivan, assistant director of Vehicles for Change, said in a press release.

Vehicles for Change, a Baltimore-based nonprofit, and Harford County Wheels for Work joined forces to award their first vehicle, a 2005 Subaru Impreza, to a Harford County family. The organizations partnered together in October 2012 to provide automobiles to participants of residential programs for people in crisis in Harford County. The Subaru will be awarded to a single mother with three children, including one son with special needs. "Vehicles for Change is excited to award our first vehicle with Harford County Wheels for Work," Steve Sullivan, assistant director of Vehicles for Change, said in a press release.

By invoking executive privilege, President Obama has changed the welfare to work program that had been a rousing success and enabled many people to improve the quality of their lives. What Mr. Obama has done is unconstitutional and should be immediately overturned. This is just the latest example - the "Fast and Furious" cover-up, fighting states that want to have an "honest" election, etc. - of this administration's disregard and contempt for America. The economy is in the tank and well over 23 million Americans are either unemployed or underemployed.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's pledge to make welfare recipients work could require a much larger public jobs program than previously acknowledged, according to a confidential paper that is the subject of sharp dispute inside the administration.A preliminary estimate prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services suggests that 2.3 million people could be subject to the work requirements when the program is fully implemented. To put them all to work would require three to four times the number of jobs the administration appears willing to create.

By invoking executive privilege, President Obama has changed the welfare to work program that had been a rousing success and enabled many people to improve the quality of their lives. What Mr. Obama has done is unconstitutional and should be immediately overturned. This is just the latest example - the "Fast and Furious" cover-up, fighting states that want to have an "honest" election, etc. - of this administration's disregard and contempt for America. The economy is in the tank and well over 23 million Americans are either unemployed or underemployed.

&TC Carroll County's School to Work program will be presented as a model for the state during the "Maryland's Workforce Strategies for the '90s" conference in Baltimore next week.Diane Massey, head of the county Job Training Partnership Administration, has been invited to speak about the Carroll County program, which guides "at-risk" students through high school and into employment.Ms. Massey, along with Katherine Myers and Gayla Martin of the JTPA office, will also offer what local officials have learned during the four years the School to Work program has been used in Carroll County.

Charlotte Salamone of Joppa became bored with retirement. So did Abingdon resident Vera Leyhe.After being out of the work force for about five years, both women felt a yearning to get busy again. But neither senior citizen was sure how to go about getting a job. And neither woman was even sure if anyone would hire them because of their age.But a visit to the Open Doors Career Center Inc. at 432 S. Main St. in Bel Air for both women landed them jobs through the private non-profit center's Seniors at Work program.

WASHINGTON -- After a campaign in which voters rewarded a barrage of anti-welfare attacks, both parties are calling the issue a top priority, and both are repeating promises to make recipients work.As the smoke clears from the new political landscape, Democrats and Republicans each appear ready to cut benefits, increase work obligations and provide fewer protections for the 14.3 million people who rely on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the main federal welfare program. More than 9 million of the recipients are children.

Michael Henderson's job ended two weeks ago, but he continued showing up for work anyway.Michael, a Glen Burnie Senior High freshman,participated for the first time in the county's Summer Youth Work Program, which offers hands-on job experience for disadvantaged youth.During the seven-week program, he worked at Freetown Elementary School under the supervision of Andre Green, a custodian at Freetown. Each weekday, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., the two washed chairs, desks,lockers and tables as they prepared the building for the new school year.

We look for free enterprise to create our national wealth and employment opportunities. However, free enterprise eliminated 3 million jobs in the 2000's while creating 2.4 million jobs overseas. Those lost jobs are not coming back. Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney agree that the today's principal economic problem is jobs and that the nation's infrastructure needs repair. Repairing a leaking roof is not a partisan issue. The nation's infrastructure is in crisis, and we need action now to rebuild and maintain the nation's port, road, bridge, water, sewage treatment, rail, and air systems.

As many as 58,000 Marylanders could be eligible next week for a new federally funded extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, state labor officials said Friday. The Extended Benefits program, which takes effect Sunday, provides an extra 13 weeks of payments to Marylanders who have run out of their 26 weeks of state benefits plus the 47 weeks of federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation. Employers will not be charged for the benefit, state officials said.

Reef balls are made of concrete and pocked with holes. They don't come alive until you add water. And then, as if by magic, they take on a life all their own. Dropped into the Chesapeake Bay, reef balls become home to little fish, oysters and mussels, and a cafeteria for bigger fish looking for a quick snack. Susan Slattery understood numbers and formulas and all the other things that make up mathematics. As a professor at Stevenson University, it was her job to help students grasp those concepts.

With no federal stimulus money available this year, participation in a key summer employment program for city youth has fallen to the lowest level since before the recession began. About 5,400 young people have been placed in jobs this summer through the city's YouthWorks program. That's down from last year's peak of 7,000 jobs, when about $2 million in stimulus funds was pumped into the program. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake preserved the city's contribution of $1.6 million to the program, despite the city's bleakest budget in recent memory.

Gov. Martin O'Malley announced yesterday that state agencies employed more students than ever before as part of Baltimore's YouthWorks program, which gives students work experience and keeps them off the streets. The state government's investment of about $300,000 in the YouthWorks summer program allowed state agencies and offices to hire nearly 400 young men and women, including about 200 at the Department of Natural Resources. The state's participation helped Mayor Sheila Dixon fulfill her goal of not turning away anyone who applied to the program, which could not place about 1,200 youngsters last year.

A pioneering homebuying assistance program that was once part of Maryland's anti-sprawl Smart Growth initiative has been revived by the Ehrlich administration, but with changes that critics say weaken the original intent and may contribute to suburban sprawl. Live Near Your Work Plus is the name of the new program. It offers qualified buyers grants worth up to 3 percent of their mortgage to help cover closing costs - a significant benefit in a state where fees and taxes required to purchase a home are among the highest in the country.

Citing concerns that money might be wasted, the Baltimore County Council last night delayed a vote to spend $10,000 for an experimental program designed to encourage workers to buy homes near their jobs.The bill was withdrawn by Councilman Stephen G. Sam Moxley, a Catonsville Democrat, who wanted to address concerns by several council members about how the money is spent."I asked that it be withdrawn at this point in order to discuss it further with the other council members," Moxley said.

A pioneering homebuying assistance program that was once part of Maryland's anti-sprawl Smart Growth initiative has been revived by the Ehrlich administration, but with changes that critics say weaken the original intent and may contribute to suburban sprawl. Live Near Your Work Plus is the name of the new program. It offers qualified buyers grants worth up to 3 percent of their mortgage to help cover closing costs - a significant benefit in a state where fees and taxes required to purchase a home are among the highest in the country.

They are picking up trash, cleaning bathrooms and distributing lunches, milk and juice to preschool children. To 13 East Baltimore high school students with developmental disabilities, these summer jobs present a significant opportunity. They're learning how to use a paratransit service, earning minimum-wage paychecks, and gaining experience and connections in the working world they will enter when they turn 21. But the students, most of whom have mental retardation or brain damage, need on-the-job supervision from teachers and aides.

Baltimore's 2006 YouthWorks Summer Jobs Program is taking applications through April 28 to employ about 5,500 young people this summer. Students, ages 14 to 21, will participate in a five- to six-week summer job program. Job placements include city agencies, nonprofit organizations, hotels, restaurants, health institutions, summer camps, retail stores and other companies in Baltimore. The annual work force development program is an opportunity for students to learn about six high-growth industries, as defined by the Baltimore Workforce Investment Board: health care, bioscience, business services, computer-Internet-software services, construction and hospitality/tourism.