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Board Docs - Feb 07, 2012 - Charles County Commissioners’ Meeting
3.04 [10:00 a.m.] Work Session/Introduction: Small Local Business Enterprise Legislation (Mr. Gene Lauer, Acting Interim Director of Economic Development/Ms. Barbara Holtz, County Attorney)
2012-03 SLBE Resolution and procedures 2.2.12.pdf (81 KB)
Bill 2012-05 Purchasing and Procurement_Small Local Business Enterprise.pdf (90 KB)
county employers by the numbers Jan 2012.pdf (175 KB)
SLBE Preference MatrixFINAL.pdf (252 KB)
Small Local Business Enterprise Prog Concept Pape.pdf (321 KB)
Board Docs - Feb 07, 2012 - Charles County Commissioners’ Meeting
3.03 [9:45 a.m.] Work Session/Introduction: Bill Number 2012-02 Erroneous References to Parcels Rezoned by Bill No. 2009-09 (Chapter 297)(Ms. Liz Theobalds, Deputy County Attorney)
Bill 2012-02 correction to Bill 2009-09 PEP Zoning(Chapter 297).pdf (69 KB)
Bill 2009_09 and Dec and Order.pdf (2,976 KB)
IHS&TP Exhibit_revised_2.pdf (3,595 KB)
Board Docs - Feb 07, 2012 - Charles County Commissioners’ Meeting
2.04 Resolution Number 2012-04 - Ethics Commission Member Staggered Terms (Ms. Barbara Holtz, County Attorney)
Ethics Commission Resolution.pdf (195 KB)
Back on track
The railroad industry is picking up steam again, after losing ground decades ago to the nation’s trucking industry. And Pittsburgh’s expertise and history in the business—Andrew Carnegie and the city’s other industrialists needed good ways to move their steel a century ago—has put the region on track to benefit from rail’s resurgence.
Western Pennsylvania is home to companies that build railroad cars, make parts to run the cars and fix the tracks beneath their wheels. Railroad signalling—a key element in helping trains avoid running into each other—keeps engineers busy on the South Side, while a company in Sharon refurbishes train wheels and couplers for reuse.
“Go to any railroad or any subway or transit station in North America and you will see that we have [products] in every locomotive, every freight car, subway car or transit bus,” said Albert Neupaver, president and CEO of Wabtec, a Wilmerding-based rail equipment supplier with nearly $2 billion in revenue last year.
Research into Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases would win a boost under a bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Barbara Mikulski.
The bill is designed to spark innovative research by allocating money to find cures for these ailments. Mikulski, D-Md., was joined at the Capitol Hill announcement by USAgainstAlzheimer’s founder George Vradenburg, as well as the bill’s co-sponsors: Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., are also co-sponsors, but did not attend the news conference.
After Gov. Martin O’Malley proposed a 6% sales tax on gas to pay for infrastructure projects, Sen. Rob Garagiola and 21 other senators moved to make the tax more salable with a proposed constitutional amendment to safeguard the Maryland Transportation Trust Fund, which governors have repeatedly raided to balance the general fund budget.
“In recent years, the Transportation Trust Fund has been depleted,” Garagiola, D-Montgomery, said in an e-mail. “This legislation proposes a constitutional amendment to create a firewall for current and future Transportation Trust Fund monies. It is critical that we act now to address our infrastructure needs.”
The amendment aims to stop transfers out of the fund and mandate gas tax revenue go specifically to transportation projects — essentially creating a lock box.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) recently named Felicia Dillard, a Westlake High School senior, as a finalist in the National Achievement Scholarship Program. As one of more than 800 national finalists, Dillard will receive a one-time $2,500 scholarship award.
Dillard was selected as an award finalist from a nationwide pool of more than 1,300 semifinalists for high academic performance, student and community leadership activities, principal recommendation and SAT scores. Dillard was recently accepted to attend Johns Hopkins University in the fall, and plans to study Biology and neuroscience.
This is the University of Washington’s new math: 18 percent of its freshmen come from abroad, most from China. Each pays tuition of $28,059, about three times as much as students from Washington State. And that, according to the dean of admissions, is how low-income Washingtonians — more than a quarter of the class — get a free ride.
With state financing slashed by more than half in the last three years, university officials decided to pull back on admissions offers to Washington residents, and increase them to students overseas.
That has rankled some local politicians and parents, a few of whom have even asked Michael K. Young, the university president, whether their children could get in if they paid nonresident tuition. “It does appeal to me a little,” he said.
The United States’ plan to wind down its combat role in Afghanistan a year earlier than expected relies on shifting responsibility to Special Operations forces that hunt insurgent leaders and train local troops, according to senior Pentagon officials and military officers.
These forces could remain in the country well after the NATO mission ends in late 2014.
The plan, if approved by President Barack Obama, would amount to the most significant evolution in the military campaign since Obama sent in 32,000 more troops to wage an intensive and costly counterinsurgency effort.
They look harmless enough. And, so far, they have been – just the same old shipping containers we’ve seen rumbling along our highways for decades. The one rattling by in the lane next to you could be loaded with anything from fruit to furniture.
Mark Laria dwells on the tiny chance that it carries the next 9/11.
Laria is port director at the Norfolk field office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In the 10 years he’s been here, roughly 10 million containers have come and gone.
None has been the dreaded “boom box” – the one security experts warn could be rigged with a terrorist bomb.
An Army officer has ordered a court-martial for a low-ranking intelligence analyst charged in the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history.
A Military District of Washington spokeswoman says Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington on Friday referred all charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning to a general court-martial.
According to Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler, the public’s right to information lies at the heart of a democratic government.
Unfortunately for some residents, the pursuit of public information has not been easy, and some have taken their cases before a judge due to push back from local agencies.
[...]
Exceptions
Not all government records can be made public, as the PIA attempts to balance the public’s right to access these records with other policies that respect the privacy or confidentiality of certain information, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
[...]
To date, roughly one-third of the 67 major sewage plants have been upgraded and work has started on nearly 20 more. According to most estimates, however, there won’t be enough in the till to finish the job. Maryland and other bay states are on the clock set by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandate to have pollution reduction measures in place by 2025 with at least 60 percent of the actions complete by 2017.
[...]
Last week state Senator John Astle (D) and Delegate Wendell Beitzel (R), co-chairs of the bi-partisan Maryland Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, announced they want a state Constitutional Amendment to halt any transfer of funds from the bay-saving accounts. In a released statement, Senator Astle said, “Senate Bill 65 would say no more such transfers, the dedicated monies must stay in these Funds for the purposes they are intended.”
[...]
Taxpayers agreed to the flush tax with the understanding that monies raised would be used to help restore the Chesapeake, not as a rainy day stash to paper over poor fiscal planning. A deal is a deal. For years, recreational fishermen’s dollars have been use to prop up a dysfunctional commercial fishery. And now this?
Since Frederick’s Tilco Drive mail processing plant was shuttered Nov. 18, the U.S Postal Service has said customers can expect the same level of service as before, even though local mail now travels to Baltimore to be sorted before being delivered.
But employees who were moved from Tilco Drive to the Baltimore plant say consolidating the operations was a mistake and has come at the price of timely, efficient service.
Three former Tilco Drive workers spoke to The Frederick News-Post on the condition of anonymity. The News-Post agreed to the request because of the compelling nature of the information and its widespread implications.
«A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.» — Kahlil Gibran
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