Morning News Headlines

Brandywine Crossing Thrives in Prince George's County

Will That Maryland Road Make You Sick?

State's new DUI laws called insufficient

Afternoon News Headlines

Montgomery County Graduation Rate Sinks Lowest in a Decade

Maryland Board Issues Toll Recommendations for ICC

Dixon details $12 million in spending cuts

Md. to get $6 million in stimulus money for port, transit security

The State of the Arts District? What Arts District?

News Headlines

With Ehrlich Decision in Play, Md. GOP Faces Election Doubts

Deal With Private School in Environmental Dispute Criticized

D.C. Area Transit Agency to Fund Fix for Faulty Train Doors

Department of Natural Resources Seeks Law Requiring Those Under 13 Wear a Flotation Device.

The End of the Hoff? Plans to Reopen the Hoff Theater as Auditorium

Montgomery County Recycling More Items than Before

Franchot to run for second term as Comptroller

News Headlines

Md., Calif. sign agreement on stem-cell research

Dixon inquiry notes 'unexplained cash'

Md. Near Awarding First Slots Gambling License

Skills Set Drafted For Students Nationwide

Top Stories for Wednesday, August 12, 2009

College Park City Council Extends Rent Stabilization Ordinance.

Another Man Dies in Metrorail System

Samuel L. Dean to Run for Prince George's County Executive?

Closer Watch Needed on Anne Around Group Home

MD Chamber of Commernce is Opposed to Health Care Reform

The first top story on Friday, with the current health care debate rages on, even though the actual reform proposal is a joke because it merely strengthens the private health insurance industry (even though that joke proposal may be replaced with an amendment that effectively gets us a single payer system). The Maryland Chamber of Commence has voiced their opposition for a government run insurance system. Basically saying that if the bill is passed, it will further increase health care spending on their end.

In plain english: Even if this bill is passed, we will lose profit"The Maryland Chamber of Commerence practically sides with the health insurance industry in the Health Care debate. Again, I'm opposed to universal health care if it has a forced private insurance mandate, like Massachusetts. I rather prefer universal health care that a single-payer (The Federal Government), pays for. No deductables, no co-pay, any and every medical procedure is covered. That is single-payer health care. The American people want it, and I would want it too.

But I doubt even the MD Chamber of Commence would support single payer either.

News Headlines For Friday, August 7, 2009.

Maryland Chamber of Commerce Opposed to Health Care Reform Proposals

Questions Remain on Purple Line Proposal and Purple and Red Lines Being Built

Maryland Plans to Boost Math and Science Learning.

Maryland Regulators to Approve Deep Coal Mine

Random Youtube Video

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.