Monday, February 4, 2013
New law went onto effect Jan. 27 and could raise your bill by 4 percent.
Stores can now pass along their credit card transaction fees -- typically between 1.5 and 4 percent -- to consumers, thanks to a settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by retailers, including Safeway. The suit alleged that banks and credit card companies worked together to keep the transaction fees high, according to a recent story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. While it is not mandatory for stores to charge the fees, a spokesperson for Consumer Action told Bloomberg that "smaller, independent stores may be more willing to levy the fees because they pay higher charges to banks for credit card transactions and don’t have the bargaining power to negotiate lower ones." Ten states already have banned the fees, but as of the time of this …
Big changes proposed for 42-year-old local landmark.
The Kennedy Center has announced plans for a $100 million expansion to its now 42-year-old complex that stands as a landmark along the Potomac River in Washington, DC, according a Washington Post story. The current facility hosts 2,000 events annually, drawing crowds from the city, its suburbs and far beyond, and it is "pressed for space," according to the article. The new architectural plan seeks to connect the current complex with the waterfront with public green spaces, a video projection wall, classrooms, rehearsal facilities, multipurpose rooms for educational programs and most notably, a floating stage on the Potomac. Half of the funding will come from Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein, marking the largest single gift in …
"People are suffering every day" and need medical marijuana, delegate says.
By Ethan Rosenberg Capital News Service Despite coming up short the last two years, several House legislators are trying again to legalize medical marijuana, while others are attempting to tighten restrictions on its synthetic counterparts. Delegate Cheryl Glenn, D-Baltimore, plans to reintroduce the Maryland Medical Marijuana Act to the House Judiciary Committee. The bill would allow the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to regulate the distribution of medical marijuana through compassion centers for patients who have an ongoing relationship with a physician. “People are suffering every day in the state of Maryland, and they are being subjected to going out on the streets to get the relief we should be providing,” Glenn said. The …
The headlines you may have missed from the Free State, home of the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens.
By Patch Staff Ravens Win Over 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII In one of the most unusual games in Super Bowl history -- one that included a power outage in the New Orleans Super Dome -- the Baltimore Ravens took the Super Bowl 34-31 over the San Francisco 49ers. Check out all the Maryland Patch coverage, including profiles of the Harbaugh family, here. O'Malley Pushes for Wind, Gun Legislation In his seventh State of the State speech, Gov. Martin O'Malley urged lawmakers to pass his offshore wind bill and find more money for transportation projects—an address seen by many as a prelude to an expected run for president in 2016. Leopold Resigns, Acknowledges 'Serious Errors in Judgment' The Anne Arundel County Council no longer needs to vote on …
The T&E committee also will take up Leggett's $13.9 million request to replace 60 Champion buses taken off the roads following fire safety concerns.
Improved transportation for seniors and the county executive’s $13.9 million request to replace 60 Champion buses will be on the agenda for a Montgomery County Council committee Monday. The council’s Health and Human Services Committee and Transportation, Energy, Infrastructure and Environment Committee will hear recommendations on ways to improve mobility for Montgomery County seniors. “The work session will stress that even in a county that is considered to have very good public transportation options, those services, in many cases, are not adequate for some seniors,” reads a county news release. Recommendations include creating a county “mobility manager” administrative position to coordinate transportation services offered through the …
Sunday, February 3, 2013
The shift is no surprise and, in fact, was part of a key political move.
By Jeremy Barr, Capital News Service Maryland’s redrawn congressional map, which paved the way for a Democratic victory in November, significantly altered the makeup of two of the state’s eight congressional districts, as expected, according to recently released demographic estimates. The 6th Congressional District, which was reshaped to include a swath of heavily Democratic Montgomery County, is now 69 percent white, down from 87 percent in 2010, according to census data. The shift stems from 7 percentage-point increases in each of the populations of African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American residents. The 8th District, represented by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Kensington, experienced a countervailing shift. The district’s share of …
Maryland gets extremely high grade.
Maryland ranks among the Top 5 for government transparency -- so says a 2013 report released by the Sunshine Review non-profit group, cited in a recent article in the Baltimore Business Journal. Alongside California, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington state, Maryland received a grade of B+, the highest grade any state earned in the report. Broken down, Maryland earned an A- for its state website, while county, city and school district sites earned a B. Only 26 percent of county websites earned higher than Maryland's, and 60 percent earned a B grade for school district sites. Conversely, the five worst-ranked states for government transparency are Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Dakota. Sunshine Review bases its …
Saturday, February 2, 2013
The president is seen skeet shooting at the presidential retreat in Maryland.
The White House Saturday released an official photograph of President Obama skeet shooting at Camp David in Catoctin Mountain Park in Frederick County, MD. The photo, taken last August, shows a jeans-clad Obama firing at clay targets on the grounds of the presidential retreat, the White House said. It was released after skepticism surfaced about Obama's statement quoted in The New Republic that he participates in skeet shooting regularly. "If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this? Why have we not seen photos?" Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said earlier this week. "I think he should invite me to Camp David, and I'll go skeet shooting with him. And I bet I'll beat him." The flap came as the president mounted a push for …
District Department of Transportation pushes launch date to 2014.
On Jan. 28, 1962, car number 366 entered the Navy yard Car Barn, marking the last time a streetcar traversed the streets of Washington, DC. In August of 2011, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced a plan to bring the nostalgic cars back to the nation's capital no later than mid-2013. Now, NBC 4 is reporting that the launch date has been pushed back to 2014 at the earliest. The report quotes DDOT spokesperson John Lisle as saying "the streetcars system has been planned for a lot of years, and obviously there have been a lot of details to work out and a lot of things to fine tune." The plan calls for the first cars to begin traveling H Street in Northeast Washington, an area that has recently seen an influx of new …
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Parent and civic groups to take a 'chapter-by-chapter' look at the $2.2 billion proposal.
With the Montgomery County School Board’s budget hearings complete, parent and civics groups are hosting their own forum on the proposed budget for the 2013-2014 school year. The forum, dubbed a “Book Club Budgetpalooza”—a name borrowing from the “book club” discussions hosted by MCPS Superintendent Joshua P. Starr and calling to mind the alternative rock festival founded by Perry Farrell—will be held 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in the first floor meeting room of Rockville Memorial Library, at 21 Maryland Ave. in Rockville Town Square. It is hosted by the Montgomery County Civic Federation, the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, MD, and the Montgomery County Taxpayers League. “We will go chapter by chapter through the proposed MCPS FY14 …
Becky Pugh
6:45 am on Monday, February 4, 2013
Gov. O'Malley- Medical Marijuana is a no brainer - legalize it. more ›