Free Republic

**SNIP** “One of the things that does not appear to work, or has had a hard time even getting off the — off the floor, getting started, is the president’s healthcare plan,” Schieffer began. “There’s no other way to look at it: this roll out was a disaster. Where are you on that, and how much do you think that’s going to hurt Democrats?” **SNIP** The reporter later asked whether O’Malley thought many Democrats would ask President Barack Obama to campaign with them this election cycle. “I hear a lot of them don’t want him in their states now,” Schieffer...

One person has died and three newborns have become ill in an outbreak of listeria linked to Hispanic-style cheese. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that the death occurred in California. Seven additional illnesses were reported in Maryland.

The road most traveled: Most of the settlements Marcin photographed were by waterways, railway tracks, Walmarts, gas stations and liquor stores. (Daily Mail) As America suffers through its worse recovery on record, a homeless camp has cropped up on the outskirts of Baltimore. Daily Mail reported: A sheet of plastic laid over a clothesline. A mini-fortress of milk crates stacked under a tree. A thin mattress on a flimsy crate lying in a dark tunnel. On the edge of Baltimore’s woodlands, dozens of the city’s transients live in makeshift homes which they consider safer than homeless shelters. Photographer Ben...

My family has operated our business from the same small town in northern Italy for 500 years. This means that when we make a commitment to a local community, our hope is to do so for decades, if not centuries, to come. We apply this same philosophy to all of our factories and locations throughout the world. Such a commitment is not a one-way street, though. In return for our investment in jobs, facilities and assistance to the local economy, we ask for respect and a supportive business climate. We deserve such respect. We make the standard sidearm for the...

Deacon George Sisson jumped from issue to issue, trying to squeeze a stuffed folder’s worth of information into the short time he had his lawmakers’ attention. He made a case for raising the state’s minimum wage and mandating paid sick leave, efforts to build immigrants’ trust of law enforcement, and banning abortions after a fetus can feel pain. A permanent deacon at Holy Family in Middletown, Deacon Sisson, 67, was the clear leader of the four-person, Frederick County contingency at the annual Catholic Lobby Night, held Feb. 17 by the Maryland Catholic Conference. He spoke with confidence and ease; he...

Rules for voting, firearms, and government services should all be heavy — or light.Insofar as it is a case at all, and not merely a political cudgel, the brief against voter ID is simple. Minorities and the poor, advocates charge, disproportionately lack government-issued identification documents, and, as a result of the allegedly arduous process that is required to obtain them, they may struggle in perpetuity to remedy this. In consequence, laws that make presentation of ID the price of exercising a fundamental right are unacceptable — disenfranchising the marginalized, removing their voices from the public square, and imposing obstacles to...

The two little girls [Katherine and Sheila Lyon] vanished nearly 40 years ago, their disappearance long faded from the public consciousness, their names etched in a stone marker their hope-sapped parents placed in a local cemetery. But Maryland police have been tenacious about solving this cold case. And on Tuesday they breathed new life into it, when they announced a possible breakthrough. Convicted sex offender Lloyd Lee Welch Jr., 57, who's been serving a prison sentence in Delaware since 1997, was near Sheila and Katherine Lyon on that March day in 1975 when they went missing, Montgomery County Police Chief...

Elisabeth Smith is not a navigator hired by the Maryland's health exchange. She can't help anyone sign up for health insurance. Please stop emailing her. Smith isn't sure who is handing out her personal email address, a Gmail account, and she asked exchange officials to stop months ago. But the messages kept coming, peaking in December at up to a dozen a day. Similar pleas for help have finally stopped at the pottery supply business run by Sue Lunz in Seattle. She also was pressed into serving frustrated insurance shoppers in Maryland when her phone number was inadvertently listed on...

Laura Bailey said she used to make $60,000 a year in a government job. Now the 45-year-old makes about $15,600 working fulltime at a fast-food restaurant. A tragic series of events – job loss, her husband’s death, a serious illness – sent the mother of two spiraling from a comfortable life in Crownsville to homelessness and joblessness. After countless attempts to find clerical work, Bailey took a position in the Arundel Mills outlet mall for $7.80 an hour. In her off-hours, she’s been an advocate for raising the $7.25 minimum hourly wage, a proposal gaining momentum in the Maryland General...

The second ranking House Democrat predicted his party was in good position to retake control of the House of Representatives in the 2014 midterm election. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer pointed to a fundraising advantage for Democrats, lower poll numbers for congressional Republicans, divisions inside the GOP ranks, and a good recruiting class of Democratic challengers, and said "all of those combined in my view give me great optimism that we're going to win back the House." Democrats need to pick up 17 seats to regain the majority in the House, and most political handicappers say that with the narrow...

Yesterday, Tracey Halvorsen published a post on medium.com called “Baltimore City, You’re Breaking My Heart: This is why people leave.” In it, she talks about her struggles living in Baltimore, in which she reels off a litany of things she’s “tired of,” mostly the crimes and perils of city life, for example: “I’m tired of answering the question, ‘Is Baltimore really like The Wire?’ Answer: ‘Yeah it’s a complete shit-hole war zone depending on what street you turn down’.” She describes what she loves about Baltimore and concludes by weighing the “Likes” and “Don’t Likes” of living in Baltimore City:...

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, running for the Democratic nomination for governor, proposed Friday that the state give commuters a break on the tolls on the Intercounty Connector in the Washington suburbs. Gansler's campaign issued a statement and a video in which the candidate asserted that ICC traffic and revenue are well below projections because of high tolls. According to the Gansler camp, usage is 20 percent lower than expected and revenues are 20-45 percent below projections. The attorney general said his plan for a 50 percent discount for commuters who make at least 15 trips a month on the...

The National Security Agency’s headquarters in Ft. Meade, Md., will go dark if a cohort of Maryland lawmakers has its way. Eight Republicans in the 141-member Maryland House of Delegates introduced legislation Thursday that would deny the electronic spy agency “material support, participation or assistance in any form” from the state, its political subdivisions or companies with state contracts. The bill would deprive NSA facilities water and electricity carried over public utilities, ban the use of NSA-derived evidence in state courts and prevent state universities from partnering with the NSA on research.

Maria Carmen's 6-year-old daughter last spent a morning at home with her father on a Wednesday in October before he went to work. On the way to his construction job, he was pulled over for speeding on Eastern Avenue — a routine traffic stop that revealed he was in the country illegally. As a result, and despite his having no prior criminal record, the husband and father within weeks was led by federal agents onto a chartered plane in handcuffs and deported to his native Ecuador. By the time he is eligible to return, his daughter, a U.S. citizen, likely...

My family has operated our business from the same small town in northern Italy for 500 years. This means that when we make a commitment to a local community, our hope is to do so for decades, if not centuries, to come. We apply this same philosophy to all of our factories and locations throughout the world. Such a commitment is not a one-way street, though.

Senseless and Deadly– Two black teens were arrested today following the brutal attack of an 86 year-old man in Alabama. They beat him in the face and stabbed him several times. (VIDEO-AT-LINK)In Maryland on Sunday two young teens were arrested for killing a 51 year-old woman. A 14 year-old and 16 year-old teen were arrested this weekend for the murder of 51 year-old Kimberly Leto.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)ABC2 reported: Two teenagers have been arrested after police say they burglarized 51-year-old Kimberly Leto’s home and killed her. “That it was a 14 and 15-year-old is unimaginable. There is a loss of life and two...

In an FDA office building in suburban Maryland, the bureaucrats gather over coffee to draft rules meant to squeeze the trans fat out of snack foods. Four blocks from the White House, in an EPA conference room: more bureaucrats, more meetings, more drafting of rules, these aimed at forcing industrialists to spend billions cutting carbon to fend off global warming. Congress? Who needs Congress? Americans heard President Barack Obama declare this week that he intends to bypass the gridlocked Hill to get things done on his own. What they didn’t hear: just how far he’s actually pushing his executive authority....

Two Baltimore women are being held without bail after being charged with torturing and sexually assaulting another woman in Reservoir Hill, police said. According to a police charging document, a 23-year-old woman told police that a longtime friend, Shameka Davis, 29, invited her to an apartment on Lennox St. on Jan. 23. At the apartment, the woman said Davis tied her to a chair and duct tape was placed over her mouth, and a knit hat was pulled down over her eyes, police said.

<p>CAMBRIDGE, Maryland--House Republicans responding to President Obama's State of the Union vow to move forward on a “year of action” with or without Congress say they agree – and want to partner with him.</p>

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A transgender candidate has announced she will run against an openly gay state senator in Montgomery County in the Democratic primary. Dana Beyer, who is the executive director of Gender Rights Maryland, made the announcement Thursday. Beyer says Maryland residents have waited too long for economic fairness and equal opportunity. Beyer is running against Sen. Richard Madaleno, who has been in the state Senate since 2007. He served in the House of Delegates from 2003 to 2007. Madaleno has been an advocate for gay and transgender rights in Maryland