Author: delsandy

Turf battles and a scientific discovery

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I was being lobbied.

Who can be reimbursed for providing medical care is one of the issues considered by my new committee, Health and Government Operations.

We call them turf battles.

Yesterday afternoon, I was being lobbied by an opthamologist.

Dr. Laura Green opposes a bill that would authorize optometrists to perform certain surgical procedures.

I asked her if she knew Arnall Patz.

In the early 1950s, Dr. Patz and a colleague proved that oxygen therapy was the cause of an epidemic of blindness among thousands of premature babies.

“I didn’t know Dr. Patz,” Dr. Green replied. “However, with far more premature babies surviving, his discovery means that they will not be blinded by excessive oxygen.”

Arnall Patz was a friend of my family.

I read this diary entry to Ellen Patz, his widow.

January 12 – The Room Where It Happens

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I want to be in the room where it happens.

When a decision is being made in Annapolis, I want to be in that room – or have someone there who’s looking after my bill.

So does Alexander Hamilton. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovje92D742s

I also want to help my constituents be in that room.

As our City schools are being rebuilt, some of them are being closed. I want the neighbors and alumni of a closed school to have a real say in what happens next to that building.

Today, I discussed how to do that with two colleagues.

Two Baltimore Sun reporters interviewed me about a data analysis they conducted of rent escrow court proceedings in Baltimore.

If the tenant is in the court room but does not have a lawyer, I told them, the chances are far less that his or her rights will be protected.

How we treat those 34-year olds

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It was my honor to again be asked by Speaker Mike Busch to offer the prayer at the Opening Day session of the House of Delegates.

This is what I said.

34 years ago, a newly elected delegate from Northwest Baltimore took the oath of office for the first time.

Today, a 34-year old in Baltimore County is without a college degree or a well-paying job.  The Beth Steel plant where his father had a union job is closed. 

A 34-year old single parent in West Baltimore confronts a neighborhood and a school that still lack the resources for her family to succeed.

A 34-year old immigrant in Montgomery County worries if she can remain here and provide for her children. 

For the next 90 days, all of us must focus on Hubert Humphrey’s moral test of government:

How we treat those 34-year olds: the underemployed, the single parent, and the immigrant. 

 

January 10 – We all benefit

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Fighting for our civil rights in Annapolis for over 30 years.

My reelection mailer with that slogan hangs above my desk.

Two of the civil rights bills I introduced and helped enact were heard by the Government Operations and Long Term Care Subcommittee.

One protects workers who are denied equal pay, and the other resulted in the French national railroad company making public its records of transporting Jews and others to Nazi concentration camps.

I will be the new chair of that subcommittee.

If the Trump Administration is lax in its administration of civil rights laws, my subcommittee would hear legislation to strengthen Maryland’s laws.

My guiding principle on civil rights issues: In a society that respects differences, that welcomes the minority, we all benefit.

When I first ran for the House of Delegates, my endorsement by Jacob Edelman was featured in my campaign literature.

He was the chair of the Maryland Human Relations Commission.

I’m following in his footsteps.

January 9 – The moral test

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I did not see Meryl Streep on the Golden Globes last night.

I was watching Annie Hall on Turner Classic Movies.

But after listening to her stirring remarks today, I’m prompted to quote Hubert Humphrey (not from memory or Google, this is on my office wall):

The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children: those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.

And we must now add, “The moral test of those who seek to run our government.”

Preakness, Northwestern Senior High, and Laboratories

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The 90-day legislative session starts in two weeks.

A reporter asked me today, “What do you want to accomplish in 2017?”

This is my reply.

  1. Preserving the Preakness at Pimlico – Next month, the Maryland Stadium Authority will release a study evaluating the ability of Pimlico Race Course to serve as the permanent home of the Preakness.  I will work with Governor Hogan, Mayor Pugh, the Stadium Authority, and the Maryland Jockey Club, which owns Pimlico, to secure financing for a new seating facility.

 

  1. Future Use of Northwestern Senior High School site – The School Board has voted to close the school.  That will take place after Forest Park High School is reopened (September 2018) and possibly after Cross Country Elementary/Middle is renovated.  (September 2019)  The process that determines the future use of the building and the site must provide for input from all of the affected parties.

 

  1. Laboratories of Democracy – Justice Brandeis wrote, “The states are the laboratories of democracy.”  If the Congress or President Trump take actions that are not in the best interests of Marylanders and we have the legal authority to undo that misguided action in our budget or laws, I will try to do so.

 

I welcome your thoughts.

November 14 – Legislative Laboratories

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“How concerned should I be?” a constituent and friend, Scott Sherman, emailed me yesterday. Scott asked me about a tweet that said Democrats now control only 13 state legislatures (26%). If they lose one more they fall below the % needed to stop constitutional amendments.

“Any words of wisdom or comfort?” he asked.

“The states are the laboratories of democracy,” I replied. “Put your time and expertise into making this dictum of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis a reality in one aspect of policy in Maryland.”

Then I read a Sun article headlined Trump victory sparks activism.

The article describes a 21-year-old political science and American studies major at Washington College who has already shifted his post-college plans from finding a well-paying job that could reduce his student debt to looking for work at a nonprofit or a political job “where I could make a difference.”

I wrote him about the state program which provides grants to recent graduates to help repay their academic debt if they take a lower-paying job in the government or non-profit sector. I introduced the bill that created the Janet L. Hoffman Loan Assistance Repayment Program.

Which legislative district in Maryland has the most people 25 years of age or older without a college degree? The 6th District in Essex and Dundalk.

A trade war with China will not bring unionized well-paying manufacturing jobs back to Beth Steel or the GM plant on Broening Highway.

On Friday, I asked that language be drafted to require the Baltimore City and County Community Colleges to target job training efforts in areas where the number of college graduates is below a certain level.

I’m no scientist, but I look forward to spending time in Brandeis’ laboratory.

On voting rights, Mr. Trump is not alone.

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In light of the response that my post/letter to the editor generated, some additional thoughts.

North Carolina’s restrictive voting law imposed voter-ID requirements, reduced the number of early-voting days, and changed registration procedures in ways meant to harm African-Americans’ right to vote.

“The new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision” and “impose cures for problems that did not exist,” Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel that struck down the law for violating the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “Thus the asserted justifications cannot and do not conceal the State’s true motivation.”

A recent study looked at around a billion ballots cast in the United States from 2000 through 2014 and found only 31 instances of impersonation fraud at the polls.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/?tid=a_inl

Mr. Trump is not alone in relying on ungrounded assertions of voter fraud. Republican-dominated state legislatures have passed restrictive voter-ID laws in approximately 20 states since the 2010 election.

 

 

Our elections are not rigged.

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I sent this letter to the editors at the Baltimore Sun:

“I hope you people can sort of not just vote on the 8th — go around and look and watch other polling places and make sure that it’s 100 percent fine,” declared Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania last week.

His supporters nationwide can fill out a form on the campaign’s website to receive more information about becoming a volunteer Trump Election Observer.

In Maryland, it is a crime if a person willfully and knowingly votes or attempts to vote more than once in the same election.

It is also a crime if a person willfully and knowingly influences or attempts to influence a voter’s decision whether to cast a vote through the use of force, fraud, threat, menace, intimidation, reward, or offer of reward.

An individual whose right to vote is challenged at the polls may establish his or her identity by presenting any of the following forms of identification: the individual’s voter registration or Social Security card; the individual’s valid Maryland driver’s license; any identification card issued to the individual by the local, state, or federal government; any employee identification card that contains a photograph of the individual; or a copy of a current bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the individual’s name and current address.

Our elections are not rigged.  They will stay that way if our right to vote is upheld.

 

 

September 22 – Landlords and the Law

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I just sent the following letter to the Baltimore Sun.

Dear Editors:

Courts should strictly scrutinize landlords’ claims of being compliant with lead paint laws, the Public Justice Center recommended in a report issued last year funded by the Abell Foundation.

A significant number of landlords did not provide the required proof that they had complied with the state law requiring owners of older rentals to register their properties and provide certification that they have been inspected for reducing the risk of lead poisoning, according to a study by the Legal Aid Bureau, released this week.

These findings are not “a squishy concept” or “pretty sweeping and generalized assessments about the entire rent court system, based on a very small number of cases,” as a lobbyist for property owners told the Sun.

They are a disturbing pattern and practice of property owners’ failure to comply with the law.

Delegate Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg

Don’t worry. I’m not relying on this letter alone to increase the landlords’ compliance with the law. I’m a part of a study group reviewing the issues raised by the Public Justice Center report, as is the lobbyist quoted in the Sun.

The article that prompted my letter is at http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-evictions-legal-aid-20160920-story.html

 

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning