civil and public service

Maryland officials on Wednesday approved $16 billion in contracts that are intended to change the way state employees use health care by offering rewards for taking steps to stay well — and imposing penalties for refusing to comply.

As bills go out with the first fees for customers who don't want smart meters, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. is pressing to apply the charges to a much larger group — people the utility says have ignored repeated requests to switch out their old indoor meter.

Installing back seat credit card readers may be the least of the cab industry's troubles

WASHINGTON — Criticism of President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the Social Security Administration appeared to evaporate Thursday at a confirmation hearing that featured few questions about controversial service cuts and recent allegations of mismanagement.

The Office of Personnel Management has been working on rules for a phased retirement plan for federal employees for more than two years, and lawmakers are getting anxious.

After all, unlike in 1776 when there was taxation without representation, in our era, tax policies are made by people who answer to those of us who vote.

In a full reversal of existing state healthcare policy, transgender state employees in Maryland can now access gender reassignment surgery, hormone therapy and other transition-related care under their state-provided health insurance plans.

A decade ago, planners predicted that Laurel would see a surge in its population as civilian and enlisted military personnel, mainly from Virginia, were relocated to Fort Meade under the Base Realignment and Closure Act, or BRAC.

Maryland hasn't had a new power plant of any significance built in over a decade — one reason it imports more electricity than almost any other state, racking up extra charges for consumers. But now new plants are coming.

Patrick DeGroodt, who oversaw the development of a communications system for the Army that allows soldiers on the battlefield to communicate with the same ease that the rest of us have with cellphones, has been named a finalist for the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. is asking for the fourth rate increase in as many years.

James Rogers Miller Jr., a former state delegate from Montgomery County who spent 15 years as a federal judge in Baltimore for the District Court of Maryland, died of congestive heart failure June 25 at HeartFields Assisted Living at Easton. He was 83.

The Supreme Court's decision in Harris v. Quinn only dealt with home health care workers in Illinois, but it invited more direct challenge to public sector collective bargaining laws.

The University of Maryland, College Park's football and men's and women's basketball coaches were the state's three highest-paid public employees last year, continuing a long-standing trend.

A planned power plant in Fairfield that environmental groups and local schoolchildren have protested faces millions of dollars in fines and has been ordered to halt construction because organizers didn't buy enough emissions credits to offset air pollution the facility will create, according to state officials.

The real lesson of the IRS scandal is the rise of the self-interested bureaucratic class, Jonah Goldberg writes.

As military leaders grapple with rising reports of sexual assault in the ranks, Maryland Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Linda Singh is believed to by the highest-ranking officer in the armed forces to discuss her own experience of abuse publicly.

It takes something as big as the VA scandal to prompt compromise in the gridlocked Congress; too bad more things aren't considered a national embarrassment.

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski called on the Obama administration Thursday to turn its attention to two Marylanders who are being detained overseas and argued that the recent release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl raised significant questions for U.S. efforts to bring those men home.

A U.S. Court of Appeals panel has upheld a decision that Maryland strayed into federal-only territory when it tried to jump start construction of a power plant with subsidies.

A proposed natural gas export facility in Southern Maryland moved closer to reality Friday, but state regulators ordered the terminal's owner to include more safety and environmental protections for the controversial project, and to donate $48 million to promote clean energy in the state and to help poor Marylanders pay their power bills.

Uber Technologies still has a lot to say about the Maryland Public Service Commission's plan to regulate it and other ride share companies as taxi operators — and the regulating agency will hear them out.

For the third consecutive year, The Aegis was honored as Newspaper of the Year among the state's largest circulation non-daily papers by the Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association during the organization's annual awards luncheon Friday.

The city government is requiring nearly 2,000 school employees to begin contributing to the municipal retirement system, a plan met with resistance by school officials who say the district won't be able to meet the July 1 deadline.

With the swearing-in last week of U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel, more than half the federal district judges sitting in Maryland now are appointees of President Barack Obama, marking a generational shift that reflects the state's evolving legal culture.

Organizations that pay portions of past-due utility bills say the surge in calls for assistance they got during the bitterly cold winter have continued this spring as people try to keep their power on. The winter added to a longer-standing problem: Growing numbers of people can't afford their utility bills.

More than 300 awards were given to employees in 20 different categories at the annual Baltimore Federal Executive Board ceremony, from "outstanding supervisor" to "rookie of the year."

Both middle school and college students are learning from each other after school at Arbutus Middle School. The education is thanks to a program called the Arbutus Achievers Club, in which University of Maryland, Baltimore County, students volunteer to tutor at-risk students at the school on Shelbourne Road.

PSC should not allow BGE to charge so much to those who 'opt out' of smart meter

Based on BGE's experience with multiple buyout offers over the years, Pepco customers should push for big concessions in the proposed Exelon deal, with a particular eye toward boosting reliability.

Women who work for the federal government, on the whole, make less than their male co-workers — just as in the private sector.

A judge with the Maryland Public Service Commission proposed a ruling that would categorize Uber as "common carrier" taxi service, subject it to the same regulations as other taxi companies.

Thousands of scientists and researchers federal agencies have been hired in recent years under special hiring authority intended to help the government compete with the private sector for senior leadership positions. Government watchdogs warn, however, that officials must use the powers judiciously.

A series of recent federal reports have raised concerns with safety in small field offices scattered across the country, where federal employees at the IRS, Social Security Administration and other agencies are more likely to interact with the public.

State Sen. James N. Robey claims no grand ambition, no plan to arrive where he now sits as majority leader of the Maryland Senate, or to have made the unusual leaps from Howard County police chief to county executive to legislator. Things happened, he said, one thing led to another, people egged on a sometimes reluctant candidate.