There are a few good government proposals percolating in the Maryland General Assembly this session, and I want to highlight one for you that seems to be gaining steam. This one, HB 221, would amend the state constitution to immediately force out of office any elected official found guilty of crimes that make them ineligible to serve. Currently, officials found guilty of disqualifying crimes are not forced out of office until they are sentenced, a gap that could leave them in office for months.

You may recall the recent saga in Prince George’s County, where former County Councilwoman Leslie Johnson pleaded guilty to charges of destroying evidence in a federal investigation of her husband, County Executive Jack Johnson, which MarylandReporter recently summarized:

As you know, I think we need to eliminate wasteful spending and close special-interest loopholes as part of the solution to getting our country back on track Last year, I fulfilled a campaign promise and co-sponsored legislation to remove several special interest and luxury tax breaks that Maryland just cannot afford, including repealing the Gold Bullion Tax Break, which expempts large amounts of gold coins and bullion from sales tax. I also supported removing the $6 million taxpayer subsidy that goes to the purchase of Maryland-mined coal (a subsidy, which I have heard goes largely to international consumers).

That is why I am pleased that Governor O'Malley proposes eliminating both of those in his proposed FY13 budget.

As you may know, for years I have been working to try to take arsenic out of the foods that make it to our dinner table—chiefly chicken.

For years, many poultry growers added an unnecessary arsenic-containing product to poultry feed known as Roxarsone. Much of the arsenic passed through chickens grown in Maryland as manure, which is used to fertilize farmland and often runs into waterways, and some of the arsenic remained in broiler chickens destined for the dinner table.

In advance of the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, Delegate Sam Arora and many other Maryland state and congressional lawmakers joined activists today at the State House to call on the U.S. Congress to overturn the ruling and help make elections more democratic. The Citizens United decision opened the floodgates to corporate cash in elections by allowing corporations to spend unlimited sums from their treasuries to influence voters.