The taxi cab industry in the Prince Georges County.

1.Silver Cab: Owned by Badi “Bob” Nabley-(Also owns Taxi-Taxi) controls 125 medallions-(dominant player in the market)
2.Blue Bird: Owned by Scott Bretner, but his son Scott Bretner is the president of Blue Bird-controls 186 medalions (reportedly controlled as many as 400 of the Taxicab operating certificates then in existance)
3. Paramont Cab/Paramount Cab-owned by Hashmatullah Haider-controls 102 medallions

Source: Dispatching Injustice: Cab Driver's Struggle in Prince George's County. Advancement Project. July 2009.

Daily Youtube Video

Repelling UMD Students?! Clash Over College Park's Rent Control Extention.

With the economy finally starting to recover, even though the real economy will not see a recovery anytime soon, it's still important for people to keep or to be able to afford a home, even if it means renting an apartment. This is especially true for students studying in the University of Maryland. Problem is that apartments will be more expensive if the landlords get their way to abolish rent control.

Many landlords accused the city of having an ulterior motive behind the ordinance — to rid neighborhoods of students from the University of Maryland, College Park.

"You can't come out and say, ‘We don't want students living here,'" said Bryan Mack, a College Park landlord who lives in Mount Airy. "But I think that's what's lying underneath everything."

While many landlords favored the outright abolishment of the ordinance, students at Tuesday's hearing spoke in favor of extending rent control to apartments as well as houses.

"The new [apartments] that are being built have an unfair advantage. They can charge rents that are artificially high," said Bob Hayes, a UM junior. "The only reason that I can afford to live in College Park is because I'm able to rent a single-family house with a group of people."

People should be able to rent rooms to other people, as long as they pay their share of the rent and don't disturb the community. The vote is scheduled on August 11 and this blog will cover it.

Morning Note

When you have classes on Monday and Wednesday, you tend to focus on Monday through Wednesday concentrating on that day. Then you take a day off on Thursday, then you start to slowly continue your studies on Friday to Sunday, taking small breaks throughout the day until the assignment is done.

That's why I'm study during the summer.

No More Adult Court Waivers or Not!?

What's really a bad idea, sending serious child offenders to adult court to do adult time. Doing that actually defeats the purpose of Juvenile Courts. The United States have done this bad idea for about two decades. But the state legislators are thinking of ways of reforming Maryland's juvenile justice system.

Source: http://www.gazette.net/stories/07272009/polinew173445_32533.shtml

What Free Market?! The Taxi Cab Cartel in Prince Georges County!

According to a report entitled "Dispatching Injustice: Cab Drivers' Struggle in Prince George's County", a cartel of cab companies which control taxi business in prince georges county hinders competition, leading to long hours and low pay to those that you hire to take you wherever you need to go. What even worse, is that there are many companies who still have taxi cab licenses, but never reliquished them when they gone out of business. What's interestingly is that Silver Cab and Taxi-Taxi, the county's central taxi dispatching service, share the same owner.

I'm watching this story as it develops, and I need to read the report to see what is going on.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/29/AR2009072902528.html

What is the Modern Day Prophet? (Part 1)

The Modern Day Prophet is a news and commentary blog reporting on events in the state of Maryland. When I mean news, I mean hard news. No celebrity news, no crime blotter news that our local TV news reports every day, no fluff consumer or health pieces. Just hard news: News about social issues, politics, the economy, government, civic and cultural events.

Why hard news? Because local TV news in Baltimore/Washington area, rarely report hard news, because doing hit-and-run crime blotter stories is just too profitable. Newspapers? They just either too focused on Washington or too focused on Baltimore. So why not a regular person, a regular African American, to report hard news? And probably do its own investigations as well. Probably even better than the various consumer story laden investigative reports that our local TV station “I-teams” trot out once in a while.

The Free State Still in the Red?! 700 Million Dollars Must Be Still Cut!

The Government of Maryland is still 700 million dollars in the red. This is despite salary freezes, cuts to road aid, and taking advantage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Governor O'Malley is planing this week to present a package of cuts to the Board of Public Works.

This is a bit of old news because it was reported on July 10. But what cuts is the Governor planning to propose?

Morning Note

It's unbelievable, but I'm back in College Park. I'm about just to begin my 2009-2010 year in Leonardtown for the summer. I just need to cook breakfast for myself and be on my way to class. The thing is that why the University of Maryland likes to house students in Old Leonardtown? Because I have been in the same housing complex like the time I got housed there in Summer 2007. Amazingly, I'm across the street of where I was when I was in summer 2007 in Leonardtown.

O'Malley Will Run Again! Governor and Lt. Governor to Plan for 2010 Re-election!

Current Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown will be planning for their re-election next year in 2010. He announced his plan in a meeting with Fredrick County Democrats. Anthony Brown told 130 people in attendance in the meeting that "their administration is focusing on job creation, providing education funding and eliminating childhood hunger."

He also mentioned about the current recession that Maryland is doing a lot better than in other states "but that doesn't mean that people aren't struggling in our communities".

Interestingly Republicans still outnumber Democrats in the county. While the Governor were elected with about 53 percent of the vote in 2006, defeating incumbent Republican Robert Ehrlich voters in Frederick county however, favored Ehrlich by a wide margin.

But the real question remains: What will be their priorities for next year election?

Sources:
Brown: we're running for re-election
Lt. governor says he and O'Malley will run in 2010

North American Influenza Update

Now for current updates for the so-called "Swine Flu" in the Maryland region which is really should be called the North American Influenza, since this flu did not came from pigs.

Four schools in the State of Maryland are being closed for an extended period to isolate cases of the influenza. Those schools are Rockville High School in Montgomery County, Montpelier Elementary School in Prince Georges County, Milford Mill Academy in Baltimore County, and Folger McKinsey Elementary in Anne Arundel County. Those schools will be closed for a period of two weeks to prevent the spread of this season's influenza.

These schools are closed are based on new guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and discussions with other State Governors on a conference call today, the Maryland State Government will close any public or private school and cease all extracurricular activities for up to two weeks in the event a student is deemed "probable" for the H1N1 influenza virus.

So what to do to prevent getting this virus. Surprisenly simple things you can do: Wash your hands after touching possible containmiated surfaces and cover your mouth when sneezing.

Sources:
Governor Martin O’Malley Declares Public Health Emergency
Md. Schools Hit by Flu Staying Shut For a While

News You Should Know About

A limited ID for illegal immigrants is the lesser of two evils.

COBRA benefits extended to Maryland small businesses

Plans for non-native oysters in Cheseapeake bay dropped

PSC tells staff, Verizon to try again on customer service settlement

Domestic Violence Bills Forwarded to O'Malley.

Screwed-up Priorities?

With all the budget cut mania the State Governments are forced to do due to the recession (and possible depression), every legislature is doing budget cuts on health care, education and such. But are they're cutting from other parts of the budget such as tax cuts, prisons, and other subsidies?

Top Stories for Tuesday, Janurary 27 2009

Office of Thrift Supervision to Suburban: Sell or Takeover, Your Choice!

New Laws to be introduced in the Maryland General Assembly 2009.

Two! Yes Two More Prisons Coming To Your Community.

Plus: The Analysis of the Maryland State Budget 2009 (If I have time)

UPDATE: University of Maryland Closed Due to Snow

Well history has repeated itself again. UMD has decided to close for the
remainder of the day at 12:30pm. All afternoon and evening classes has
been canceled. However the basketball game will continue as scheduled.

If you are not a dorm resident in the university I suggest you leave now
and go back home for the rest of the day. You don't want to get frostbit
don't you?

Morning Update

If you are living in the Maryland area you are already aware that the first snowfall of 2009 in our area has arrived. Problem is that unlike most schools in the Maryland area, university's such as the University of Maryland does not easily closedown. So I get the "pleasure" of going to the first week of classes in this weather. The same thing happened in 2007, even though another winter storm successfully closed down the school for two days.

Also in analog deathwatch front, the US Senate has voted to delay the digital changeover to June 12, 2009. The House has to vote for their own bill, and then reconcile it with the Senate. The President Obama has supported a delay in the digital changeover for sometime because the coupon program has ran out of funds. The problem is that the legislation will not actually solve the actual problems. One there are areas where no matter what they do, even if they have to get an outdoor antenna, they can't get any digital reception at all. Forcing them to pay more in monthly fees to satellite and cable television companies. While the FCC advised them licensees that they can install relays to transmit the signal to dark reception spots, they do not have to.

Another big problem with the digital changeover is that it has there is really no actual change in the content. Aside with crappy weather radar, sport archives (NBC's Universal Sport), and bowdlerized movies broadcast in 4x3, they are not really taken advantage of digital television revolution, except for broadcasting High Definition programs. What worse, is that there is no talk of re-regulating the airwaves to ensure that they use the new frequencies for the public interest, becuase they will not. Come on Obama, do I have to demand change in order to see it!?

Although I did see a special on the digital changeover on MPT, and as a concerned citizen I called their toll-free number and asked this question: What if I have a converter box, and I can't get any signal even if I use an outdoor box. Short answer: You should consider subscribing to cable or satellite service. Other questions include that cable companies may not service the area or the satellite may get a clear view of the southern sky. The represenative said that you may petition that cable regulation authority to service the area, and as for satellite, they can hook the dish in such a way so that you can recive satellite serivce. They even say the signal goes through trees.

(If you can prove the last few sentatives wrong, please contact me ASAP.)

Anyway that was your morning update for Tuesday Januray 27, 2007.

News Headline Summary

Here are the top stories for the blog for October 27, 2008.

Slots in Baltimore City?!

Maryland Education Bureaucracy Discovers Long Lost Subject

and...

Maryland Incumbent Serves a Long Political Career.

Your Silence Will Not Protect You.

Remember the Stop Snitching campaign brought to you by Baltimore drug dealers? Yeah these people did not snitched to you,but they eventually don't want to risk them snitching to you. So you get to pay with your lives anyway.

It's truly a sad story, good kids who have a bright future. Yet their silence did not protect them. The code of silence only protects the strong and perpetuates crime. If you see a crime, talk to the police, you can remain completely anonymous, even if you are in a witness protection program.

Great, more budget cuts.

O'Malley (D) predicted an "extraordinarily difficult budget next year" if his administration does not start to pare spending during the current fiscal year. "While these cuts will not be easy, it is clear that the economic crisis our nation is experiencing will have a dramatic impact on next year's budget," he said in a statement.

No comment. Except for one: Tax the corporate pigs more next fiscal year, because I'm getting sick of the word "Budget Cut".

News summary for September 2, 2008.

You pay your sales taxes and property taxes so public schools are supposed to be free. Yet, in the days of perpetually cash-strapped schools, they're charging fees.

I thought all prisons in Maryland I have a protective custody unit, then how come former Howard County teacher Alan Meade Beier was assaulted by five immates inside his cell? Not to mention after he recovered from the hospital, he was in 24 hour segregation.

Did I mention I'm so glad to be back at the University of Maryland, without dealing with economics or math?