democracy

Aberdeen's long-awaited approval for a room tax may have hit another snag, as Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler just questioned the legality of the tax's approval method.

Ehrlich echoes the babble of religious conservatives on prayer

As expected, former Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi won the latest Egyptian election for president by a landslide, giving the military establishment total control of all governmental instruments of power. He won 92 percent of the votes with 46 percent turnout. President-elect el-Sissi now has an historic chance to usher in a new democratic Egypt. Unfortunately, the last 10 months of his rule have indicated a far different future for his struggling country.

Congressman has not been straight on NSA's actions

Government Accountability Office reports suspensions and debarments have more than doubled

The president defended a measured view of how U.S. foreign policy should be conducted that we believe most Americans share

After Edward Snowden's Wednesday interview on NBC, the jury is still out on whether he's a patriot or a traitor

The Aberdeen city government, with no fanfare or bluster, plans on spending less in the year ahead than it did during the current financial year.

Baltimore County's Kamenetz is bought and paid for by developers and other special interests

With $50 million a year in county revenues on the line, the U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will hear a challenge to a Maryland court ruling that some taxes on out-of-state income are collected in violation of the Constitution.

Essentially, the change ends up being that county council members go from not being able to talk about certain land use policies, but having a key say in their outcome to being able to talk all they want about those land use policies but having almost no say in their outcome.

The legal fight over a World War I memorial cross in Bladensburg is the latest front of a national battle over the separation of church and state.

Some privatization may be key to resolving long-standing faults in Veterans Administration health care.

Sunday's elections could help stabilize the country if the new government vigorously attacks its long-standing culture of corruption

Over the past quarter-century, veterans appropriations bills have been passed on schedule only three times. For the other 22 years, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has had to wait days, weeks and often months before knowing what its funding would be.

Millie Tyssowski, a retired Medicare executive and Social Security Administration budgeting official, died of congestive heart failure May 16 at Sinai Hospital. The Dickeyville resident was 93.

The lesson of war

Kidnapping of students reveals the difficulty Nigerians face in governing a nation divided by religion and tribalism

The thing I love about PBS "Frontline" is its willingness to call out people in power in American life.

The Harford County Council has approved a proposed charter amendment to remove job protections for deputy county department heads, even though several department heads and residents decried the change as overtly political and potentially destabilizing.

Sen. Jim Brochin doesn't argue for small government or large government, but rather for good government that serves the needs of his constituency. The opponents — Connie DeJuliis and that faced off with him in a recent debate at Ildewydle Community Center should take notice.

The application is called MyLaurel and is intended to be both informational and interactive. The chief function of the application is a feature that allows residents to place a variety of service requests – like reporting crime tips, downed trees, etc. The application also alerts residents during emergency situations and provides information on the city including a map of its historical locations and a directory to the city's elected officials and employees.

The public's focus on public business ain't what it should be, or at least what it needs to be in Harford County and many other places.

More than students, Boko Haram seeks to terrorize parents

Four candidates for governor — one Democrat and three Republicans — have opted to publicly finance their campaigns. But we can and must do more.

As Maryland looks to re-energize its economy amid federal budget cuts and slow growth in the wake of the recession, the candidates vying to be the next governor each developed distinct plans for how to improve Maryland's business climate and promote job creation.

The Center for Plain Language is part of a movement aimed at purging gobbledygook from government and private-sector communications and replacing it with simple, clear English. Each year it issues a report card on federal government agencies and awards prizes in various categories of communication.

Maryland's pre-trial release system is broken and lawmakers must act this year to fix it

The U.S. must help Nigerian authorities rescue more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist extremists

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld the right of government entities to hold sectarian prayers ahead of public meetings, a decision that will allow the Carroll County board of commissioners to resume observances that had previously been blocked by a federal court.