Edgewood, December 10th, 2011

From the Harford County Dagger and the Edgewood Community Council:

OPEN FORUM

The primary purpose of this event is to engage in a discussion with local elected/appointed officials about quality of life issues/concerns important to their constituents.

Invited Guests

County Executive – Mr. David Craig
Sheriff Jesse Bane
County Council President Mr. William (Billy) Boniface
County Councilman Mr. Dion Guthrie
School Superintendent Mr. Robert Tomback
School Board Representative Mr. Robert (Bob) Frisch
State Senator – Mrs. Nancy Jacobs
Delegate – Ms. Mary Dulany-James
Delegate – Mr. Glen Glass

DESIRED OUTCOME
Commitment from all of our local elected/appointed representatives to work collaboratively with each other; and with the Edgewood community to address our concerns and issues.

LOCATION
Fountain of Life Fellowship Church
1918 Pulaski Hwy Edgewood, MD 21040
(410) 538-7633

DATE:
Saturday December 10th, 2011

TIME:
11:00 AM-1:00 PM

Andy Harris Speaks Out

from the Harford Couny Dagger

U.S. Congressman Andy Harris appeared on the WAMD Morning Show Tuesday morning to discuss the failure of Super Committee to agree on $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years.

Listen to the full audio from Harris’ interview here.

During his interview with Morning Show hosts Maynard Edwards and Cindy Mumby, Harris speculated that President Barack Obama always wanted the Super Committee to fail, allowing him to run against a “do nothing” Congress.

Harris also said the Republicans wanted to keep the Bush tax cuts in place, but offered to reduce $300 billion by closing “loopholes.” The Democrats wanted $1 trillion in tax increases or nothing. Tax reform proposed by Republicans was “beat down” by Democrats, Harris said, and the President “jumped in” with them.

Harris expressed worry about the automatic spending cuts now triggered, noting that President Obama has said he would veto any attempt to circumvent the automatic cuts.

In the defense budget, Harris said the cuts amount to $600 billion, or a 10% budget reduction, over and above the winding down of the war in Iraq.

Harris said that the defense cuts will have a “direct effect” on Aberdeen Proving Ground and other federal operations in Maryland. Nationally, he said that the defense cuts could mean layoffs of 200,000 federal employees, including soldiers, or else cuts to weapons development programs. He said that defense cuts of a few percentage points were doable, but not 10%.

As for non-defense spending cuts, Harris said that President Obama can “pick and choose” which areas to cut.

Finally, in the field of candidates seeking the Republican Presidential nomination, Harris said he is leaning very heavily toward Newt Gingrich and will likely be issuing an official statement in that regard.

"We Only Enforce Laws When we Choose to," Implies Democratic Mayor

from the Baltimore Sun

As police in other cities, most notably New York, crack down on protesters involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement, officials in Baltimore still say they have no immediate plans to oust the Occupy Baltimore activists from McKeldin Square, near the Inner Habor, where they've been gathered since last month.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has said that the overnight camping at the square -- which is a city-designated protest area -- is illegal. But the mayor today, once again, refused to say when or if Baltimore police would act to remove the campers.

“We are going to deal with it at a time of our choosing,” Rawlings-Blake said at a morning press conference.

The mayor also said she was concerned with the homeless population, some of whom suffer from drug addictions or mental illness, who have joined the protesters' camp.

Here's video of the mayor's comments from our media partner WJZ:

Meanwhile, the protesters have been debating internally about the best use of their time and energy. With winter coming, some Occupy participants think they should abandon the camping at McKeldin Square to focus on other types of activism, while others stress the importance of having a symbol of the movement visible in the heart of downtown.