Wednesday, March 3, 2010

“ESPN Vasquez Maryland Duke basketball - Weblogs.baltimoresun.com” plus 3 more

“ESPN Vasquez Maryland Duke basketball - Weblogs.baltimoresun.com” plus 3 more

ESPN Vasquez Maryland Duke basketball - Weblogs.baltimoresun.com

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 08:48 PM PST

I was thinking Saturday that TV college basketball games don't get much better than the University of Maryland's double overtime victory against Virginia Tech. And then came Wednesday night's win over Duke at College Park. I am hooked on TV coverage of the Terrapins like I haven't been since their national championship season.

If you didn't know College Park was the center of the basketball universe Wednesday night by the fact that first place in the ACC was at stake, or that two of the candidates for conference player of the year were on display, you did by halftime when you saw that Erin Andrews was ESPN's courtside reporter. That's the same Eric Andrews who was just named this week as a contestant on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars."

I'm only half joking here, folks. Part of the excitement of TV college basketball involves the energy, glamor and glitz that ESPN brings to campus when its cameras arrive. And, for better or worse, personalities like Andrews are a key part of the package. That's just the way it is a media and celebrity saturated culture like ours.

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Facing Ethics Probes, Rangel Drops Tax Leadership - ABC News

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 08:48 PM PST

Buffeted by ethics inquiries, veteran New York Rep. Charles B. Rangel stepped down Wednesday as chairman of the House's powerful tax-writing committee, delivering a fresh political jolt to a Democratic Party already facing angry voters.

The action also muddied the congressional picture on taxes, coming as the House moves toward difficult debate over large automatic increases that lie just over the horizon. The outcome will affect tens of millions of American taxpayers.

Rangel's relinquishing of the Ways and Means Committee gavel spared colleagues from having to vote on a Republican-sponsored resolution to strip him of his post. But it also focused attention on ethical lapses by a top leader of a party that had promised to end a "culture of corruption" when it regained control of Congress in 2006 from Republicans.

That could spread far beyond Rangel. Ethical problems can be politically toxic for the party in power, particularly this election year with so much anti-Washington sentiment in the air.

Rangel, 79 and a member of Congress for the past 39 years, stepped aside just days after being admonished for breaking House rules by accepting corporate-financed travel.

He called his exile temporary. But he still faces inquiries by the House ethics committee over late payment of income taxes on a rental villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, his use of House stationery to solicit corporate donations to an educational institution that bears his name, and belated disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unlisted wealth.

Some of these cases could result in rebukes more serious than last week's admonishment, and that could make it difficult for Rangel to reclaim his chairmanship.

He has been a key player in the health care overhaul debate, and whatever legislation finally emerges from Congress will bear his and the committee's stamp. Even more importantly, for the next few months Ways and Means will play a central role in shaping tax policy.

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REACH TO IMPEACH? - Washington Times

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 08:41 PM PST

By Jennifer Harper

REACH TO IMPEACH?

A race of interest, perhaps. Kesha Rogers, a "Lyndon LaRouche Democrat," has won the Democratic primary in the 22nd Congressional District of Texas with 53 percent of the vote, the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee announced Wednesday - noting that her opponent, Doug Blatt - who had been endorsed by local Democratic groups - received 27 percent of the vote. Ms. Rogers espouses a startling "impeach Obama" platform, among other things.

"Kesha's campaign hit relentlessly at a single theme, that President Obama must go, that his attacks on this nation - with his dismantling of the manned space program, his efforts to ram through a fascist, killer 'health care' policy, his endless bailouts for Wall Street swindlers, while demanding budget cuts which will increase the death rates among the poor, the sick, the elderly and the unemployed - are not acceptable, and will not be tolerated," says Harley Schlanger, a LaRouche spokesman.

RAMPANT ILL WILL

Well, let's just cut to the chase here. A list titled "Sex, Violence and Hate: The Top 10 Most Disgusting Attacks on Conservative Women" has been assembled by the Culture and Media Institute, chronicling the ill will - some of it astonishing - levied against females of a certain ideological persuasion. See the list here: www.cultureandmediainstitute.org.

"This doesn't happen to liberal women. Recall that MSNBC's David Shuster was suspended for mentioning Chelsea Clinton in a suggestive light during the 2008 presidential campaign. And you can be sure, if there were well-known liberal women who had been treated in this manner, the National Organization for Women would have been very vocal about protesting such disgusting, adolescent and sometimes violent comments. For conservative women? They're silent," research director Colleen Raezler tells Inside the Beltway.

"March is Women's History Month, in which we acknowledge the accomplishments and contributions of women in history and in society today. But for a select group of women - conservative women - their accomplishments and contributions are rarely celebrated but often demeaned and mocked in sexist - and crassly sexual - ways," she continues, noting that Michelle Malkin and Sarah Palin draw the most odious attacks, with Fox News correspondent Megyn Kelly; ABC's "The View" co-host, Elisabeth Hasselbeck; and Liz Cheney and others also targeted.

Among the worst: Playboy magazine writer Guy Cimbalo identified the top 10 "conservative women" he wanted to have rough sex with - though he used a much more graphic term and called them "[expletive] hot." His list included Ms. Kelly, Mrs. Hasselbeck, Weekly Standard writer Mary Katharine Ham and Rep. Michele Bachmann, Minnesota Republican.

In addition, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann compared Mrs. Malkin to a "mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it," while fellow MSNBC host Ed Schultz offered this characterization of former vice president Dick Cheney's daughter: "The shooter's little girl, Liz Cheney, has been hitting the lecture circuit, parroting daddy's fear-mongering rhetoric." ABC News correspondent David Wright also referred to Mrs. Palin as "Vice President Barbie."

JUST SO YOU KNOW

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In first meeting, new Metro chairman stresses safety - Maryland Community Newspapers Online

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 08:56 PM PST

Citing a series of deadly crashes, the new chairman of Metro's board of directors emphasized Thursday the need to move passengers safely across the region.

"Above everything else, we must provide safe service, and in the past year we have had accidents which have shocked and saddened all of us," said Peter Benjamin, who represents Montgomery County and Maryland on the board, at his first meeting as chairman.

"We need to change how we handle safety at Metro. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. We need a new approach."

While improving safety means replacing aging equipment, it also means employing new technologies and making certain workers establish a "culture of safety," Benjamin said.

As an example, he said, an operator or mechanic who has a fight with his spouse before leaving for work must be able to concentrate on the job and "not be distracted for even a few seconds."

Metro has asked the federal Department of Transportation, the American Public Transportation Association and the AFL-CIO to work with it to improve the system's safety, Benjamin said.

Passengers will not ride Metro if it is not safe, he said.

"Most of the people who ride Metrobus and Metrorail are not dependent upon transit; they own cars," Benjamin said. "They will ride Metro only if it is safe, clean, reliable and comfortable at a reasonable price."

But Metro passengers also have to understand the rail system is 34 years old and has many limitations because of aging subway cars, tracks, power equipment and communications, he said.

The system also has bus garages that are 100 years old and some buses 15 years old, he added.

"We will have more service disruptions and delays than when the system was new," Benjamin said.

As part of the effort to enhance safety, Metro's board voted to install software on many of the system's cars designed to keep the trains from rolling backward when they are operated in manual mode. The $813,000 software is expected to be installed by the end of the summer.

The software is part of Metro's effort to comply with a National Transportation Safety Board recommendation dating to November 2004, when a crash occurred after a train without passengers rolled back into a train at a platform at Woodley Park station.

Metro's board also recently approved repairs to the control units on 546 rail cars to keep the doors from opening on the wrong side when the cars are at a platform.

Metro had three incidents in the past where the doors opened onto the track side of the car instead of the platform side when the train was operating in automatic mode.

All the trains have been in manual mode since the June 22 fatal crash of two trains that killed eight passengers and one train operator. The cause of the crash is still under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The door repairs, expected to be completed by 2011, will cost an estimated $2.6 million.

Public transit fees higher

Beginning this month, commuters who take public transit to work are paying more as part of the effort by local governments to avoid drastic cuts in service due to budget problems.

Montgomery County Ride On bus and Metrobus and Metrorail fees increased as of Monday. The price of a Ride On day pass is up from $3 per day to $3.20 per day. Fares also increased on all rides by 10 cents per trip and the cost of transferring from Metro to a Ride On bus is also 10 cents higher.

Metro has added a temporary surcharge of 10 cents per trip, while fares for senior citizens and those with disabilities are up 5 cents per trip.

The surcharge runs through June 26, but is expected to become permanent for the next fiscal year.

Pothole patching effort continues

The cycle of thawing snow freezing into ice at night continues to break up pavement into car-shuddering potholes on county streets.

"They are getting dozens of reports every day from residents, and they are patching dozens of potholes every day," said county spokeswoman Esther Bowring.

The county asks residents to report potholes on county roads at the county's Web site, www.montgomerycountymd.gov/potholes or by calling the county's customer service center at 240-777-6000. To help the repair crews locate the potholes, the county asks that a street address close to the pothole or a cross street near it be provided.

"That is the most expedited way of doing this," Bowring said.

Potholes on state roads such as Route 355, aka Rockville Pike/Frederick Avenue, and Route 97, aka Georgia Avenue, should be reported to the Maryland State Highway Administration through its customer service Web site at marylandsha.force.com/customercare/request_for_service.

During the winter months, crews use temporary patches until warmer weather allows for permanent repairs, state officials said.

Washed-out wall

to be repaired by spring

Bethesda residents near the Capital Beltway might notice the traffic sounds louder than usual for a while.

The State Highway Administration will repair a sound wall washed out by the recent heavy snows and thawing along Interstate 495 at Route 187 in Bethesda.

The work will repair the erosion and install drains and pipes to direct the water runoff in the future.

While the work is under way, a section of the sound wall will be removed. It will be replaced when the work is finished.

As part of the work, which is expected to be completed in the late spring, a jersey wall barrier will be placed along the exit lane, narrowing the lane and possibly slowing traffic.

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