All Articles Tagged "maryland"
D.C., MontCo to Join Federal Illegal Immigrant Crackdown
(Washington Examiner) — The District and Montgomery County will soon be part of a federal program that targets jailed illegal immigrants for deportation, despite ongoing objections from a D.C. councilman. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has let jurisdictions know it is now mandatory that they join Secure Communities, a program that runs inmates’ fingerprints through an immigration database. Earlier this month, ICE canceled agreements it had signed with individual jurisdictions, saying the agreements were confusing and gave the impression the program was optional. It’s not, and the remaining jurisdictions will be required to join Secure Communities by 2013.
Va., Md. May Ask for No Child Waiver
(Washington Post) — School leaders in Virginia and Maryland said they are likely to seek exemptions for the most stringent requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law after an announcement Monday that the Obama administration will offer flexibility to states willing to modernize their accountability systems. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is exercising rarely used executive authority by inviting states to apply for legal waivers. The move comes after efforts to update the federal law stalled in Congress this year, frustrating educators across the country. “I applaud the secretary for recognizing that relief is necessary” said Patricia L. Wright, Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction.
In Maryland Race Complicates Redistricting
(Washington Post) — Few states’ delegations in the House of Representatives pack the political punch of little blue Maryland. Among its eight members is a Democratic juggernaut: the House minority whip and ranking members of the powerful budget, intelligence and oversight committees. The eight also stand out as collectively far more white than the Maryland they have come to represent, the 2010 Census showed. Just a quarter of the state’s representatives are African American even though minorities, most of them blacks, now make up nearly half of the state’s population. As Maryland’s redistricting process begins, African Americans in and out of state government are increasingly split over whether their top priority should be to push to redraw lines to ensure better representation for blacks or to protect Maryland’s white incumbents because of the coveted positions of power they have attained on Capitol Hill.
Mediation Push Does Little to Stop Foreclosures
(MSNBC) — On a hot summer evening, two second-year law students are trudging through the leafy neighborhoods of suburban Prince George’s County, knocking on doors. Toting stacks of fliers, the young women are going house to house, making sure that delinquent homeowners know about the state’s mortgage mediation program. Tonight, only two people answer the door. One, like 11 others the students have contacted during previous outings, insists she already has gotten her loan modified and doesn’t need mediation, despite a foreclosure notice on record. Another homeowner, in default after taking off work to care for a sick relative, takes the mediation information and says she’ll consider it. The students leave fliers at a house with a “for sale” sign in Hyattsville and an empty condo in a nearby neighborhood. They will try again another day.
Pr. George’s Bill Cracks Down on Dance Halls
(Washington Post) — The Prince George’s County Council passed an emergency bill Tuesday that would impose stringent requirements on dance halls and give police and other officials broad authority to shutter them should they be deemed a threat to public safety. The bill, which must be signed by County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) to become law, is intended to help stem nightclub and dance hall violence that police and other officials say has been especially problematic this year. Six of the county’s 64 homicides in 2011 have had a link to nightclubs or dance halls, compared with three in 2010 and four in 2009, police officials said.
Black Voter Suppression Case Gets Underway
(Washington Post) — When campaign aides to former Maryland Republican governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. were indicted last month on charges that they sought to suppress black voter turnout last year, the allegations against Ehrlich’s right-hand man drew the biggest headlines. But as the case moves to court Monday, the lesser-known defendant and his often controversial, behind-the-scenes work for Maryland political campaigns are poised to take center stage. Julius Henson, an African American political consultant, has made a specialty out of getting people to the polls, most often black voters and most often for black Democratic candidates. Nearly an entire generation of local and state lawmakers in Prince George’s County and Baltimore owe at least one of their ballot-box successes — or failures — over the past 15 years to his no-holds-barred approach to campaigning.
Edwards Emerging as Liberal Leader in House
(Washington Post) — Rep. Donna F. Edwards had a clear message for the small group of constituents who gathered Saturday at an auto-glass store in Lanham: “Protecting Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are incredibly important, more now than ever before.” It was the same message she had delivered to multiple audiences over the preceding 48 hours. Last Friday night, Edwards sent a letter to President Obama signed by 69 fellow House Democrats urging him to keep the programs “off the bargaining table” in the ongoing debt-ceiling negotiations. The day before, on July 7, Edwards surprised colleagues at a closed-door meeting in the Capitol basement when she publicly chastised her Maryland neighbor, House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer, over entitlement reform. The quick succession of events illustrated what Edwards has become just three years into her congressional tenure — an increasingly prominent voice among liberal House Democrats. Most recently, she has been pressing the White House not to compromise on core party principles for the sake of a debt deal.
Prince George’s Businesses May Get an Edge in County Contracts
(Maryland Gazette) — Prince George’s council members are calling for county-based companies to receive preferential treatment when they seek government contracts. County Bill 17, known as the Jobs First Act, would require the county government to weigh in favor of county-based and minority-owned businesses when taking bids for new equipment, supplies, construction or services. The bill calls for the county to award 50 percent of all contracts to county-based businesses, which last fiscal year would have equated to $149 million. Since the 2008 fiscal year, about 12 percent of Prince George’s $1.3 billion in procurement spending has gone to county businesses. Any company that gets county funding for a new shopping center, office park or community must agree to a 51 percent hiring goal for residents as workers under the bill, which also sets hiring and contracting goals for minority-owned and small business firms.
Police Investigating Hate Crime In Cloverly
(WAMU) — About two dozen residents of the Spencerville neighborhood in Cloverly, Maryland got a rude awakening this morning when they woke to find their cars vandalized. Several dozen vehicles and a park were targeted by the vandals. Montgomery County police are investigating it as a hate crime. “Slashed tires, and wrote profanities and made rude pictures all up and down the street,” said a victim who did not want to be identified. The victim had two of her cars vandalized and says the vandals also spray painted street signs and a nearby park with racist and homophobic slurs.
Md. Gay-Marriage Bill ‘On the Table’
(Washington Post) — Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is weighing whether to sponsor a same-sex marriage bill during next year’s legislative session and is likely to make a decision soon, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Supporters of the measure, which fell short in this year’s session, have been pushing O’Malley (D) to play a more visible role next year in the wake of the passage of a gay-nuptials bill in New York, where Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) played an instrumental role. O’Malley has had recent discussions with lawmakers who would like him to make a bill part of his formal legislative package next year, spokeswoman Raquel Guillory said. “It’s definitely an option that’s on the table,” Guillory said. “We are in discussions as to what steps we might take next. . . . We’re looking at all options to ensure success.” During this year’s session, O’Malley expressed support for the bill, but his lobbying efforts were largely limited to private conversations with lawmakers. He made no mention of the legislation in his agenda-setting State of the State speech.
