Free Republic

A bill bringing possible relief to Maryland motorists who face thousands of dollars in fines from unpaid E-ZPass tolls passed the Senate unanimously last Thursday and gets a hearing in a House committee next week.Bill sponsor, Sen. Roger Manno, D-Montgomery, made fixes to his bill that died last year in committee, conf0rming it to a bill that passed the House last year.Senate Finance Committee Chairman Thomas “Mac” Middleton, D-Charles, told Manno at a March 7 hearing that he spoke with transportation officials last year and requested improvements. The Maryland Transportation Authority had a year to evaluate how it handles escalating...

A summons has been issued to President Trump in a lawsuit alleging he is violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution. The lawsuit — filed by the attorneys general in Washington, D.C., and Maryland — alleges that Trump is violating the clause, which prevents elected officials from receiving gifts or benefits from foreign governments without Congress’s approval, WAMU reported. The lawsuit is filed against Trump in his "official capacity and in his individual capacity," according to the Washington, D.C., radio station. The lawsuit also argues that businesses in Maryland and D.C. have been hurt because groups instead choose to stay...

Over the last decade, short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, HomeAway, and VRBO have expanded and provided an economic boom to many communities. Yet several localities are pursuing onerous zoning rules and other regulations that would restrict short-term rental activity. For many homeowners, short-term rental provides a critical source of additional income to help them pay their mortgages and to meet other financial obligations. States can protect their residents from overzealous, local bureaucrats with state pre-emption. Short-term rental helps local communities by growing the number of tourists that visit the area. A recent study published by the National Bureau of Economic...

[snip]"A guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, 'I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it,'" Biden said. "They asked me if I’d like to debate this gentleman, and I said 'no.' I said, 'If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.'"[snip]

A student pulled out a gun and shot two other students at a high school in southeast Maryland Tuesday morning before the shooter was fatally wounded, the St. Mary’s County sheriff says. The student entered Great Mills High School in Great Mills at the beginning of the school day and shot a female student in a hallway, Sheriff Tim Cameron told News4. A male student also was hit by a bullet.

A lone gunman was shot and killed Tuesday morning after opening fire at a southeast Maryland high school; being stopped by a heroic armed security officer who engaged the shooter within seconds. According to Fox News, the suspect is the only fatality; with one male and one female student injured during the ordeal. “Our school resource officer was alerted to the event. he pursued the shooter, engaged the shooter, fired a round at the shooter,” St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron said. “The shooter fired a round as well. In the hours and days to come, we’ll be able to...

Great Mills High School in Maryland was on lockdown after a shooting on Tuesday morning, school officials confirmed. The incident was contained and the St. Mary's Sheriff's Office was on the scene, the school said on its website. Maryland State Police also told Fox News they were responding to the incident.

Parkland Update: Broward County Sheriff’s Office Training Materials Say First Officers Should ‘Confront the Shooter’ Judicial Watch Files Two Lawsuits against DOJ for Documents on Top Officials’ Ties to Clinton Dossier Creator Fusion GPS Charm City Corruption: City with Highest Murder Rate Starts Defense Fund for Illegal Aliens Parkland Update: Broward County Sheriff’s Office Training Materials Say First Officers Should ‘Confront the Shooter’ The school shooting in Parkland, Florida, just becomes more tragic as we learn new details of the local sheriff’s department response – actually, its lack of response. This week, Judicial Watch released Broward County Sheriff’s Office...

Truth in Accounting .. based on fiscal year 2016 comprehensive annual financial reports .. found that 64 cities do not have enough money to pay all of their bills, and in total, the cities have racked up $335.4 billion in unfunded municipal debt. ... Government reports are lengthy, cumbersome, and sometimes misleading documents ... taxpayers and citizens deserve easy-to-understand, truthful, and transparent financial information from their governments. ... to balance the budget, elected officials have not included the true costs of the government in their budget calculations and have pushed costs onto future taxpayers. ... TIA was unable to rank...

UMBC made sports history on Friday night by becoming the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The America East champions pulled off a shocking 74-54 upset over No. 1 seed Virginia in the South Region.

Yesterday we had students walking out of school all over the country to protest gun violence. Now, in Baltimore and some other cities, there may be a different type of walkout. Teachers are objecting to the idea of any of them being trained and armed, so much so that if there are any armed teachers in the school they will walk out as well. (CBS Baltimore)

Less than a year after Baltimore prosecutors ordered staff not to charge illegal immigrants with minor, non-violent crimes because it could get the offenders deported, Maryland’s largest city will hire immigration attorneys to help those facing removal. It’s important to note that Baltimore has the nation’s highest per capita homicide rate and has been coined the deadliest big city in the United States by a mainstream newspaper. Nevertheless, a city panel approved spending $200,000 this month to pay for lawyers to represent illegal aliens with deportation orders. Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh says in a local news report that the goal...

As a female and a Republican – yes, shock and awe, there are women Republicans in Montgomery County – I cannot stop laughing at the recent decision by the Maryland Democrat Party to adopt separate but equal elections for their central committee members. Half of their central committee members must be female and the other half male, but that is not new. What is new is that during this year’s June 26 primary for 17 counties, each voter will HAVE to Vote for one or more MALES on the Male ballot and one or more FEMALES on the Female part...

A space at a Baltimore park that had long honored two Confederate generals has been rededicated to abolitionist Harriet Tubman. The Baltimore Sun reports that hundreds of people gathered Saturday for the ceremony at Wyman Park Dell. The ceremony took place just feet from the now-empty pedestal where a large statue of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson once stood. The statue was removed in August after a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia reignited the national debate over what to do with symbols of the Confederacy. Saturday was the 105th anniversary of Tubman's death. The space...

A federal judge in Maryland on Monday dismissed a challenge to President Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). "This Court does not like the outcome of this case, but is constrained by its constitutionally limited role to the result that it has reached," Judge Roger Titus said in his opinion. "Hopefully, the Congress and the President will finally get their job done."

President Donald Trump lauded a win in a federal court affirming his authority to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program — initiated by former President Barack Obama by executive action in 2012 — allows those who arrived in the United States before they turned 16 the ability to apply for renewable two-year deferments on deportation. “Federal Judge in Maryland has just ruled that ‘President Trump has the right to end DACA,'” Trump tweeted on Tuesday. “President Obama had 8 years to fix this problem, and didn’t. I am waiting for the Dems, they are running for the...

Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel has called on Democratic counterpart Tom Perez to explain Rep. Keith Ellison's (D., Minn.) relationship with noted anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. Ellison, the Democratic National Committee's vice chairman, claimed recently he hadn't had contact with Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, since 2006. However, the pair have been together at least three times since 2010. His untrue claims earned a "four Pinocchios" rating from the Washington Post fact checker. Questions over their relationship were reignited following anti-Semitic speech Farrakhan gave in February. The speech also criticized Ellison for having distanced himself from the...

The mayor of Baltimore, Maryland has pledged to provide 60 “free” buses to transport up to 3,000 city school students to Washington DC next week so they can participate in the March For Our Lives. Lunches and t-shirts also will be provided for students.

Photo at link (give 'em some hits) The first cargo of liquefied natural gas has set sail from the Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG export terminal in Maryland, where the newly constructed liquefaction facility is undergoing final commissioning. The commissioning cargo of natural gas left the Cove Point facility on the Chesapeake Bay on Thursday, March 1, according to Dominion Energy. The cargo was loaded onboard the LNG tanker, Gemmata. Shell NA LNG is providing the natural gas needed for liquefaction during the commissioning process. Once commissioning is complete, the Cover Point terminal will produce LNG for ST Cove Point,...

At the risk of being called cold or harsh, let me begin by saying every American has a right to his/her opinion on just about any issue. Including guns. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me add this: the people playing partisan politics on the graves of the 17 innocent dead people from Douglas High School are despicable. I don’t care what age they are. Over the last couple of weeks, a variety of conservative voices have gotten in trouble for insinuating that the anti-gun protesters coming out of Douglas High School seem far too practiced...