Md Newswrap

Maryland news rap is made possible by a grant from Maryland National Bank Maryland National Bank is helping the region to grow and by members of Maryland Public Television. Good evening. Welcome to Maryland News. I'm Gwen Eiffel. Neil Friedman is off tonight. These are the stories we'll be covering this week in Annapolis. The General Assembly wrapped up its 90 day session this past Monday and among the accomplishments legislators band phosphates open baluns borders to out-of-state banking and approved about 220 million dollars in capital

construction projects in addition to the bills that passed and failed. We'll look at some of the prime movers and shakers of politics in the nation's capital States capital. Federal investigators concluded a seven year probe into activities on Baltimore's notorious block this week and they didn't come up entirely empty although they were not able to prove Mafia influences as they had set out to do. They did find that a number of Baltimore's police were allegedly accepting illegal payoffs. Recently a Harford County woman pleaded guilty to housing six elderly people in an unlicensed boarding home during her hearing. She claimed the other homes around the county were operating illegally as well. A recent survey seems to prove her point that claims that one of every 10 domicile or a care home is operating in the Baltimore area is licensed by the state to Baltimore. Undertakers are offering more than six feet under for a rather costly fee. They're offering an eternity in orbit covering these stories and more tonight. Our Allison Muscatine of The Washington Post. Mike Powell of the Baltimore news American Peter comp of the Baltimore evening sun and John fair hall of the Baltimore Evening Sun

John who are the winners and losers this week at Annapolis are this three months in Annapolis. Well the legislature is you know finished with a bang this week Monday they passed a lot of major bills on the very last day and as you mentioned before there's there's now a phosphate ban in Maryland for three years. It'll take effect January 1st. There is a measure that will allow Citicorp the New York banking giant to get full banking privileges over a number of years in Maryland. The legislature also passed a package of bills that will attempt to control health costs. They passed bills to aid the racing industry earlier in the session of course. They passed the 7.5 billion dollar budget. Of course there were some losers as well. The ambitious Gambling Control Legislation that Joe Wellens the chairman of the Judiciary Committee had introduced and held a massive public hearing for didn't make its way through. Instead the legislature passed a bill legalizing slots in eastern counties except for Ocean City. Let's talk about the city court bill because that was a major thing during the last few days of the session and that didn't get past the last day.

Does that have wide ranging effect outside of Hagerstown which is obviously going to benefit Hagerstown of course will benefit with 750 jobs and there will be jobs elsewhere in the state about 250. The long term benefits will come from whatever increased competition Citicorp brings. I think it's going to help consumers because I think they're going to bring a lot of competition to a staid banking industry in Maryland. And but you're also going to bring in other major banks. Chase Manhattan has indicated an interest in coming in and other major banks do the same thing and the price tag for coming into Maryland now is $25 billion in investments and a thousand new jobs. Joe we didn't seem to have as much first issue as as previous years it wasn't as much tension. Things are going to go pretty well although you have a little problem with abortion. And yet on the other hand you pass something like the living will that seemed to kind of just float by rather quietly than that. It wasn't unusual session in that some very controversial legislation from previous years like the living will which allows patients to determine when terminally ill terminate terminally ill

patients to return when life sustaining equipment will be used. It passed very quietly this time because the Catholic Church decided to the Catholic Conference I should say just let me go Akhet it with some revisions. But essentially Wasn't this the year of the economy. I mean it seemed to me that the legislature that finally accepted it and discovered economic development. And if you took any bill or put tags say hey this is economic development. SAP would go right through. I think you're right because there's probably no other way that the Citicorp bill could have possibly gotten through except with that magic name job is if the bankers had not taken 1000 jobs out of Maryland and put them in Delaware for their little credit card operation two years ago you think it might have had a different proposition this time. Very possibly Citicorp very cleverly when it made an offer to Marilyn said One thousand jobs which is equal to the jobs that left the state and said credit card operation. Very clever isn't there also a perception that over the last few years the Marilyn banks have done pretty well in the legislature and that it's high time that competition or whatever

enter into the picture there was that perception although sometimes I suspect there was more of a perception in the press corps than among legislators many of whom did at different periods in the debate over Citicorp side with the Maryland Bankers Association and then some of the legislators side with Citicorp because they were actually angry with the Maryland banks one for not being aggressive. They did give the banks. There was a rather generous banking bill just in the last year the year before which helped Marilyn banks and they still went to some of them went to Delaware. I talked to legislators several of them who said that they just these grins on their face there were so happy Citicorp was common for that very reason they were upset with the Marilyn banks they just didn't think they had done a very good job. Many people arguing that the chickens have come home to roost for the Maryland bankers and quite possibly that's true that might have tipped the balance. But what is all this what does this bill mean to us. I mean is this eventually going to mean cheap clothes cheap money for consumers.

You can assume one thing Citicorp is going to come in competing very hard. There's a pool of money out there to get. Citicorp is going to go after. And the way you go after money is not to raise interest rates it's to lower barriers get consumers in the door. So I I expect some very very good things. What other kinds of bills are important this session that survived anyway. Well of course you have the whole package of Children and Youth bills not the least of which was the bill that passed on the final day in the final hours a bill that will allow as we talked in previous shows a single parent the other spouse is behind payments now after 30 days of delinquency you can go to a judge and say Look attached that that person's wages and that bill passed was a very important piece of legislation. It was also a bill to limit state pension investments in the future in certain companies that do business in South Africa will actually do anything or is it just so much verbiage. Yes it does do something it's not so much verbiage. It doesn't do nearly as much as the Black Caucus would like but they're more patient they've learned you get one foot in the door and maybe next year they can increase

the amount of money involved. Is there something else to say about the legislature too and that is at the end of it we sit down and we tally up these hundreds and hundreds of bills and I forgot what the final tally was this year but we usually end up over five to seven hundred bills passed. And in actuality not more than two or three or four affect the average person on the street directly. You know this year as I was as I was doing some stories on this there were only two bills that people talked to me about. And the one was they have to buckle their seat belts which they won't. And the other one was this phosphate ban. Did that mean they couldn't buy soap anymore. And obviously they can they just can't buy it with phosphates. But that's what they talked about. Those two bills not only those bills but also politics was the talk of the town in Annapolis this year. Oh yeah. We had the gang of three dominating things. Governor Hughes speaker Ben Cardin led Senate president Mickey Steinberg it's been affecting a lot of the legislators were complaining that these guys were you know solving any of the problems behind closed doors.

Who ended up solving the problems and having the most legislative impact the governor and the legislative leadership. Well I think by and large the governor got everything through what I say he's probably the single biggest winner there because he was a little more aggressive is a little more active we started seeing people. And I think he put himself in a better posture to run for the Senate as he probably will do although we all know in May. But Mickey Steinberg comes out a big winner. He's going to be there for the next session. He's got good good control of the Senate although he's says he operates by consensus like LBJ and Benecol didn't do badly. But I think the problem is that he was trying to help out too many people in Montgomery County here a bill here a bill there. And if you if you talk about Ben Cardin he's a little unfocused because I think he's scatter them so I asked him to do that wanted to win and then he said he's not interested in running for governor it would make sense that in anticipation of that race he's kind of doling out favors if he needs to where it might help him in the journey because when you talk

about huge you know I say hey he's a guy who did this over the Chesapeake Bay. He brought in Citicorp. We talk about Ben Carson Ben Cousins all on everything you know. And I think that's kind of bad either. Imagine the two perceptions of Ben Cardin that may clash a little. You've got a perception in Annapolis that he's a very effective legislator who this year assumed a much higher profile he put in legislation to help to subcreative subsidized telephone service for the poor. He created some legislation that a senior citizen center actually. But then you got the other perception outside of Annapolis and that's the public perception which reads newspaper public reads newspapers to get their information about bankcard and looks at the TV. And I think Ben was a very did not appear as visible to the general public as he did to people in Annapolis. I wonder how much he increased his name recognition statewide and his image as a leader. I don't think as much as you would think. It's true of all three of them though. You know the average person sees all these 188 people go down to Annapolis and the governor's already there

and they expect them. Now you know I think you're wrong about one guy the governor wrong way right. Everyone looks you what they see when is you know if you if you've been watching the news shows this week everyone's been giving this analysis of how great the legislature did how much work they did. And then TVs did it and the talk shows did it and after a while you start seeing yourselves. Well what were they supposed to do down there weren't they supposed to do something good we give them credit for doing nothing more than their jobs and I think the eyes. My feeling is the average person on the street the person is going to be voting for these people for the United States Senate and for governor in a few years is saying they didn't do any more than their job they'd done only their jobs the way we voted before the session started. They would have done precious little of this. No no I don't think so. I think there was an opportunity to do it could easily one other thing I mean that's not true at all. I mean the average person who thinks that is a fool because there's there's conflict there's lobby you there there are two sides to the thing. It isn't an easy proposition as you very well know do their job. What kind of

job could they do. They could very well have decided to keep phosphatase in Maryland. Would that be doing their job or would banning them be doing that. No no. My point is that when they go down there I think the public expects them to do a good job and take the right decision on things like Citicorp and to take the right decision on past states. I'm not saying they didn't do that. They did. What I'm saying is that when we come back and we start heaping praise on him and give them all this credit and how great they were and who scored high and who scored low. It just seems to be an extremely positive thing we can take this up again tonight. Right now we have another story to talk about the Baltimore block. Why is it back in the news again. What is going on down there. Another investigation this one started about seven years ago by the FBI. You know this was intriguing when when we talked about doing this story first thing I did was go to the files to get some information on investigation so I said in the library and Art told me then file an investigation pulled out one big fat file and he pulls out another

one in another one and then all of a sudden I had all these files and I thought. We've got some problems down here. What we had now was I'm not even count how many investigations have been done there. But we have a new one. Here's what they're looking for this time the FBI came in seven years ago basically to see if organized crime had some type of influence in illegal activities on the block. As far as we know at this point they did not find anything. The outcome of that was. Three Baltimore City police officers have had departmental charges filed against them claiming that I'm alleging that they took some money whether we were the targets of this investigation. Where it wasn't the police did they come out with small potatoes from what they went in to get. From what I understand it was not the police when they went in there that they were looking for was outside influences. This mean look we are going to have to hear have this great team of organized crime family and running all these businesses and by businesses I mean the actual block strip joints and bars but also running the

businesses that people used to perceive as going along with this area that meaning gambling prostitution. And this is Pallisers and you know the one going out and drugs you know and that's what I think the thought was This is peanuts really this is no big operation down there. It's too small for them off here. No one worries about it you. It's intriguing the bold as many investigations have gone on there. They've always been able to get various individuals associated with the blog on what you really should call. I mean I hate to say it but nickel and dime kind of things. And if anyone thinks you know I'm not saying it's right for if it's true that police officers take money obviously that's a serious offense but if you're looking for a huge pond you come up with a little problem I guess like you're raising the question why did the police officers get stuck with departmental rather than criminal charges. Well there's a couple of thoughts that the one is that there is not enough evidence to form a criminal case

against them so. So why file that. I mean it's much easier to take a departmental case is right in other words yeah you can you can do something that violates departmental policy but you haven't committed a crime. And the other thing is that there's always that possibility open that you can file those charges. So there's a lot of the little penny ante stuff and a lot of kind of sleazy stuff goes on there. But isn't that really kind of a consensus of society of Baltimore City and so we leave it there. Don't let it spread around. I mean consensuses is is a very good word but it's even more than that it's almost a blessing. You know Mayor Schaffer and the City Council and the leaders of Baltimore have literally bless this area they've they've given it this special adult entertainment designation. Everyone knows it there. You know when the city prints up literature that's sent out to groups around the country to bring their conventions to Baltimore. One of the things that's mentioned in that literature is that we have the block that we're doing. I think it's called a fun center or whatever fun area but

also entertainment. That's a nice word for semantics but the point is the city sells this area and I think they realize there's a train there and there is a certain attraction you've got to put on all the cities of many cities and this is the first I've lived in ever where you didn't have major police scandals every couple of years in the city police department. And second of all they talk about the block and Baltimore as if it's this horrible place. The block is nothing compared to times square the block is nothing compared to what every other city Baltimore city leaders point to is so clean it's boring. How do we get a lot more this conflict. We'll discuss that next week. Let's talk about Tom Sawyer or care homes what is a domicile or a care home. I'm not going to say the word but I'll tell you I very very very well. It's a group home of sorts it's a it's any home where there are more than three people who are living who require some kind of supervision be it that they're infirmed and aged be it that they're mentally or physically handicapped. There are a number of these homes around the state and what we found out

of late is that many of them are not licensed as they are required to be by the state. Why not. Why not. Sixty four thousand dollar question. Well it appears that there are so many of these that the only way they come to the attention of state officials who are trying to enforce licensing requirements or not try to enforce licensing requirements depending on which way you look at it is if there is some kind of citizen complaints people in the neighborhood get upset because there's a group of mentally handicapped or physically handicapped people who suddenly are living in their neighborhood and they don't like it. They go to county officials they go to state officials and say do something about this and it comes to the attention of somebody in the state who can enforce the law and take people to court. That happened three times in the last month or so. A woman in Harford County as you mentioned earlier pleaded guilty to having an unlicensed home. She said hey wait a second there are these homes all over the place. Furthermore state and federal hospital send people all the time to these employment which wasn't perfect but we have to wait. It's a very difficult question I mean why doesn't the state go after them

they say well we need to find out where they are. Well the fact is how many people want. To house people like this. Can you imagine being the government bureaucrat who has to regulate this and he's saying to himself I know there's a home out there. Now I want to regulate it and I want to close it down because I want to protect these people. But if I close it down then these people are all going to be out in the street. And then what do I do with them because I don't have another place on call them. In the case 22 it's really an what is so wrong with these boys. It's real. That's a good question. It's really unclear First of all that the licensed facilities in these states there are ten in Baltimore ten in Baltimore County 13 in Baltimore City and others scattered around the state whether they are capable of housing the numbers of people who need this kind of care. And the second thing is exactly what you're saying. You know most of the time I think they've come to attention because there's been too many people not because they've been terrible or or dirty or expensive to get a license. That's exactly part of the cost. I'm not sure but there is expense involved in that. They are have to have a sprinkler system to

prevent fires and they have to have sterilization equipment for the. And these people who have these homes are doing it for money. They don't have it. The woman in Harford County. Right. She didn't have the proper license. That's why they came after but why is she mistreating these people or them. Evidently that was not part of the charge and the charge was to many people in a house without a license. I'm sure there are cases of group homes where people are mistreated where they are kept in in quarters that are too small and and treated badly. And I'm sure you know we've talked about those at various times in the past. That doesn't seem to be the pressing issue in these specific there's obviously a crime even if the state is going to make a mistake is made an unconscious decision an unofficial decision we're not going to force this because it's going to produce a real social problem. On the other hand nobody can answer the question. Are there people being mistreated in some of these on some some and the cries out for an investigation. Well at least to find out if you need to step up regulation I mean I think that the state is saying they are beginning to enforce it more too with these few cases that have just come to light in

the past few weeks. But clearly they're admitting that that hospitals are sending these people to unlicensed homes. It's the law that needs revising the licensing law. That's you know that's a good debate. Make it easy. Why why do you need expensive sprinkler systems if you're going to have five people in the next week next week if there's a fire and five people were killed I want to use that's when it becomes an a scandal especially people who can't care for themselves who might require it are going to be infirmed unable to move around who require help getting to and from places I think of a fire regulation is a violent sterilization. I mean there are very basic requirements but they're costly to people who are really in effect using their residences to house these people. OK we have one more thing to talk about tonight and that's this little number here. I have a gift that someone gave me of a lotto ticket. And later on tonight when we're really going to have someone who's going to win or several people are going to win more than 10 million dollars in this week's lotto drawing I hope we'll be going to see if it is of course I'll split it among you all evenly. What do you think about lotto good or good.

She said it on the air I can't believe. Her. No know I have made no bones in all the years that I've been on this show which goes back to the time right after the lottery came into the state. I've all I thought that the the issue of gambling is is wrong. I think it's coming down on the on the wrong people. And I'm against the law. I've never bought a lotto ticket so I what more can I say I'm the law. I don't think it's a little fun a little suspense. I mean maybe some poor people spend too much of their money on it. That's true. They shouldn't. But for a buck you have a little bit of a thrill you can you can dream can't you. And I think that's good. I have no problem with that. I'm with Mike on this one. If the majority of people who buy these are poor people that they've done the studies they found where the tickets are being bought and you will know that some rich matron or Roland Park in Baltimore is going to win this thing. They know they're going to walk behind me. Mrs. John autumn crossed the thirty third is going to win this thing and then walk away with 10 million. That hasn't happened yet though. The people who are now this is a problem with lotto and that's the people who buy the tickets are often the people who probably could best benefit from this money but who also can least afford to buy the ticket.

One saving grace of all this is that most of the people have won. It's been nice to see that they were able to pull it off but then they have all these problems people start calling when the phone want their money. I mean it does have its drawbacks. It's not nice and I don't know we hire somebody that's a mixed blessing. That's true. History critics said you know the state has never come up with a solution on how to handle gambling. You know we we talked about slot machines we've talked about all of the other things that went on the legislature this year with gambling and Latos another one of those you know I've gotten to the point where you know I don't fight it I don't argue about it. I don't write columns about it anymore in the newspaper I said All right the states got it. But I still have the feeling that some people are suckered into it and maybe suckered into a race tracks so bingo or anything else. Why. Let people have a little bit of fun for a buck. I don't see the fun part of my million bucks. That's a million dollars on this one. So listen let's talk about that little thing I teased you with earlier we're talking about being buried in orbit.

I'll do it. What are we talking about here. Well the U.S. Department of Transportation two months ago gave approval to a consortium of Engineers and undertakers in Florida who had formed a group called Celeste's ink to. Provide the first burials in outer space. So anybody who wishes to remain alive till 1987 when this could be possible will have a chance to do that because there are two funeral directors in Maryland both in Baltimore who have signed up with this consortium and are now offering funerals. Much Does It Cost. It's only of near thirty nine hundred dollars more than the average cost of a funeral or whether or not your body is cremate you. Thank you. That's the drawback. They want to here against cremation. Don't plan on it. Then they go to cremate you what they take and they compress it down into one else. So what. What was left with you. There is something you can put in a lipstick case. Well I would get shot out this is what they do is they. You have the drawback according to the funeral directors is that you have to not

only be cremated which most people don't want to do. They then reduce you even further with some new spectrum special gasification process. And then as you said Peter they put you into a lipstick size capsule. Now however you do have a choice of platinum gold or silver capsule which you can choose and then they'll take ten thousand three hundred of these and put them on the nose of a Conestoga to rocket and launch it. You know we ought to take this to California. Right. Are you us. Understanding is this supposed to put reflective material on this. And of course you know the whole idea is on a clear night that Grandma. Is to be a state senator or a teacher or live in space. I'm not nor to be a star. I have not followed the space program that closely but I do know a lot of things orbiting this earth eventually come back down again. How do you know grandma is not going to come back. These are going to be nine hundred dollars that they are going to go. Very very important question. These are going to go 1800 nautical miles into space

which means according to the guy who is the vice president of Celeste's Inc you will be out there for at least 63 million years now. But in the future they have plans for the future for a mere forty six hundred dollars. They're planning a deeper launch which will be truly for eternity. Know you just keep going. They'll get you out far enough further than $63 that no one else does. To me that really is what's going to happen someday when we're all able to go traveling in space in our lifetimes we hope like Senator Jay Garner is this very day. We're going to we're going to run into space we're going to garbage in space we're going to see bodies going between our bodies. We're going to see these little canisters going by space and it's he's going to leave and sell this thing out. I mean three hundred people who want to do it. I mean I suppose as a novelty thing the first launch probably will be sold out. But I mean one of the funeral directors in Baltimore said that he's already had two serious inquiries about change to humanizing though why bother if you want to be that big why bother.

But it's a novelty and I'm about to change my mind on the lottery. And a lot of people should take their thirty nine hundred dollars buy thirty nine of those tickets and they're better off than spend their money. It's also that you're going in the ground. I think it's an adventure adventure going on the ground up the flowers growing daisies being buried at sea. That's what we need. Really. As one of my wife's relatives did. It was cremated. Hole in the ground put it in there and an oak tree planted and to give little pleasure to somebody in the future. Why. Because I'm still alive. That's a much better thought. Much better. John I hope the same thing for you. For Neil Friedman. We'll be back next week for the other members of the news team I'm going out. Eifel good night. In.

Maryland news rap is made possible by a grant from Maryland National Bank Maryland National Bank is helping the region to grow and by members of Maryland Public Television