John Belushi – Sandy Rosenberg

A High Tech Name Change

March 24, 2021 | by delsandy | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Over 600 students have interned at nearly 150 organizations with support from the Maryland Technology Internship Program (MTIP) since 2018.

After reading UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski’s op-ed about a similar program in Massachusetts, I introduced the bill creating the program.

Governor Hogan has funded it.

The people at UMBC who administer MTIP suggested that we change the minimum GPA average from 3.0 to 2.5.

Qualified students are unable to participate, they’ve told me. I respect their judgment.

But I couldn’t resist calling our legislation to bring about that change the “Belushi bill.”:

At the Senate hearing today, Christine Routzahn from UMBC testified about Ben Cichy, a Mission Systems Engineer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, who had mediocre college grades.

House Bill 307 is now the Cichy bill.

An Indictment, Clean Energy, and a Faber Amendment

July 12, 2019 | by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

A criminal indictment is not the usual source for my legislation.

Celebrities creating bogus athletic records for their children headline the college admission scandal.

I used to visit high schools on behalf of Amherst, the college I attended. What did I learn?

Students whose parents have a college degree understand the admission process. On the other hand, students who would be the first in their family to go to college know very little about the schools they should apply to and the financial aid that’s available to them.

In recent weeks, I’ve talked to people who do admission work in public schools.

More discussion is needed before I draft a bill.

Government spending for clean energy will be targeted to “areas burdened by cumulative environmental pollution and other hazards that can lead to negative public health effects” under legislation enacted this year in New York state.

I met with environmental advocates to discuss how to do this in Maryland. They are very interested.

Are there lessons to be learned here from House Bill 268, Welfare to Work – Job Skills Enhancement Program – Green Jobs? I successfully sponsored this legislation in 2009.

234 students are benefiting from the Maryland Technology Internship Program.

I passed this bill with the help of Freeman Hrabowski, President of UMBC, and Governor Hogan funded it.

Interns working for non-profits are not eligible for the program. A bill would change that.

Currently, students must have a 3.0 average to be eligible.

Employers and the staff at UMBC want that to be lowered to 2.5.

I’ll call that the Belushi amendment.

Avoiding double secret probation

February 21, 2011 | by delsandy | Sandy's 2011 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I had visions of John Belushi.

We were trying to find a professor who had taught a certain freshman delegate, thinking that relationship would be very effective for lobbying.

We knew where the legislator had gone to school but not who had taught him.

I thought of Belushi rummaging through the trash to find last year’s exam.

“However you can legally find out who the delegate’s professor was, do it,” I advised the group around the table.

I know who taught me constitutional law. It was Telford Taylor, Chief Counsel for 12 cases during the Nuremberg trials of the Nazis.

One of the legal principles established by that tribunal: coercion – acting pursuant to an order of the government or of a superior, does not relieve you of responsibility for your actions.

That’s one of the arguments we’ll be making regarding the legal responsibility of the French railroad company for transporting Jews and others to the concentration camps under direction of the Germans.

“In my testimony, I want to quote Telford Taylor on this point,” I told one of the lawyers we’re working with.

February 21