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Baltimore Sun A group trying to repeal Maryland's new same-sex marriage law said they submitted 39,743 additional signatures to the state Monday, bringing to 162,241the number of people who asked to put the law on the November ballot.
The amount far surpasses the nearly 57,000 needed to trigger a referendum and exceeds a self-imposed goal of reaching 150,000 signatures made by the Maryland Marriage Alliance, a group spearheading the repeal effort.
"These incredible numbers clearly show that Marylanders strongly reject the idea of redefining marriage," said Derek McCoy, the executive director of the Maryland Marriage Alliance, in a statement.
The group did not respond to several emails requesting a copy of their ballot fund report, a document that shows who gave them money and how they spent it. The report will be public Tuesday.
Maryland's state board of elections has already verified 109,313 signatures from the group's initial submission a month ago -- roughly twice the needed signatures to qualify the question for the ballot. The board of election will have to sift through today's signatures before they certify the results.
Josh Levin, the campaign manager for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, which supports gay marriage, said in a brief statement: “As we expected, our opponents met the legal signature threshold and the Civil Marriage Protection Act will be on the ballot this fall."
According to the city slickers at the Sun, it's all about what happens OFF the farm.
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Baltimore Sun The U.S. Senate passed a sweeping, five-year farm bill on Thursday that would change the way the government subsidizes agriculture and maintain funding for Chesapeake Bay restoration -- despite earlier threatened cuts -- Maryland lawmakers and environmentalists said.
The legislation eliminates a Chesapeake Bay-centered program that brought in $50 million annually for conservation efforts. But regional lawmakers said they fought for and won changes in proposed new programs that would prioritize the bay and recoup the money.
Sen. Ben Cardin, chairman of the Senate Water and Wildlife Subcommittee, said in an interview that he expects the new structure will be "very favorable" to Chesapeake clean-up efforts, though it is difficult to say precisely what future funding levels will be. "It's been done in a way that has broad support," Cardin said.
The Senate voted 64-35 to approve the farm bill, which captured support from 16 Republicans. Its future is uncertain in the House, where Republican leaders have said they will delay action on their version of the bill. The politics of agriculture funding can be particularly messy because support and opposition often falls along regions of the country -- and predominant crops -- rather than along partisan lines.
The bill calls for about $23 billion in spending reductions, including about $6 billion for conservation programs overall.
But Doug Siglin, the top lobbyist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the outcome put bay restoration advocates on a strong footing heading into negotiations with the House. The current farm bill, which was approved in 2008, will expire in September.
“It's really good news for us," Siglin said.
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Baltimore Sun Several Maryland Democrats on Friday backed President Barack Obama's decision to allow certain young illegal immigrants to remain in the country, a policy that advocates say will affect as many as 800,000 people nationwide.
"The announcement today recognizes that we should not hold hardworking, innocent children responsible for the actions of their parents," said Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat who is up for reelection this year. "We should focus our immigration enforcement on the most dangerous individuals rather than children who mostly have known no other country than the U.S."
But Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, a Republican who faces a difficult reelection this year, said he felt the decision undermined the Constitution.
"President Obama's decisions will encourage more illegal immigration, weaken our border security and make it more difficult to have a bipartisan dialogue to reach consensus to fix our national immigration crisis," Bartlett said in a statement.
Rep. Andy Harris, the state's other Republican lawmaker, did not respond to requests for comment.
Obama's announcement comes almost two years after Congress failed to pass legislation that would have provided a path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants who were brought to the country by their parents and who attended college or served in the military. The bill once had bipartisan support, but has recently drawn significant opposition from Republicans.
Under Obama's proposal, illegal immigrants would be allowed to apply for a work permit if they were brought to the country before they turned 16 and have no criminal record. They must also be under 30 years old and have graduated from high school or served in the military.
"These are young people who study in our schools, they play in our neighborhoods, they're friends with our kids, they pledge allegiance to our flag," Obama said during a Rose Garden address Friday. "They are Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper."
Maryland Democrats, many of whom had voted for the federal DREAM Act previously, were not surprisingly supportive.
"I believe in immigration reform that protects our borders, protects American workers and rewards those who work hard and play by the rules," Sen.Barbara A. Mikulski said in a statement. "Young people who were brought here as children should be able earn an education and serve their country without threat of deportation."
"The focus of our deportation policy should be removing those individuals who are dangerous -- rather than punishing young people who were brought here as children and now want the opportunity, without the threat of deportation, to earn an education or work, especially those who already have served our country," Baltimore Rep.Elijah E. Cummings said in a statement.
Many congressional Republicans decried the move.
"How can the administration justify allowing illegal immigrants to work in the U.S. when millions of Americans are unemployed?" Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. "President Obama and his administration once again have put partisan politics and illegal immigrants ahead of the rule of law and the American people."
The decision comes a year after the Maryland General Assembly approved a related measure that would allow certain illegal immigrants to attend state universities at in-state tuition rates. That measure, which has been challenged by state Republicans, will now appear as a referendum item on the ballot in November.
In a statement, Gov. Martin O'Malley urged state voters to "build on this momentum" by supporting the state law, known as the DREAM Act. The new policy, O'Malley said, is a "very positive and important step for young people in our country who consider themselves Americans and deserve the opportunity to contribute to our country’s future without the fear of enforcement action."
Republican Dan Bongino, who is running against Cardin in November, said in a statement that "we have always welcomed a diverse immigrant community with open arms but those who choose to make the United States their home must respect the established, legal process. We are either a nation of laws, or not."
