Maryland: County

County Councilman Josh Cohen has decided to pull the amendment to a bill concerning the development of Priest's Point waterfront at tonight's county council meeting. CP reported on controversy surrounding this in a post yesterday written by a local resident:

I will not be introducing an amendment tonight to change the County's
land use designation for Priests Point.  Thank you to everyone who

Eric Hartley has a good piece in today's The Capital about the furlough of state employees. He writes,

"If you ask the union, Gov. Martin O'Malley has decided to "balance the budget on the backs of state workers and residents," in the words of Patrick Moran, Maryland director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
People are struggling across America, with millions

As of 10:00 pm Monday, this is what we can learn from the city's web-site about last minute filings for candidates:

Sam Shropshire FINALLY got listed as of 10 pm. Late. Late. Late.....why would he wait so late? According to one observer, "Sam dramatically left the Council Chamber at 8:40 to file for mayor. Came back looking like a winner."

We now have a Republican challenger to government relations consultant and Democrat Ian Pfeiffer in Ward Seven. Her name is Jennifer Monteith of 3 Silverwood Circle #6. Apparently she is a science fiction writer and a business marketing consultant (this information based on a brief internet search).

Josh Cohen has recently made a lot of news about the endorsement he received from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). I have some issues with the whole notion of unions making endorsements, especially when it is for candidates who may one day be negotiating contracts with them, which would certainly be the case with AFSCME Council 67. However it is of little surprise that the union representing government employees would back Cohen, he of the Moyer/Finlayson/Hoyle/Garraway pedagoguery and their union and labor and Democratic Party connections. Yet once again I must ask, are all these endorsements meaningful--and are they good things? In my mind they merely cement the fact that Cohen is part of a machine, an establishment, a network of powers-that-be that will conduct business as usual.