The following column appears in the August edition of The Business Monthly, serving Howard and Anne Arundel counties.

Last year, there were three murders at the Columbia Mall – a double-homicide outside the mall and a murder in the food court.

The murders of young men by other young men shocked the community and led to beefed up police presence.

In 2022, there were four murders in Howard County; in 2023, there were five. Last year, there were 10. Even then, 10 is not a high number for a county of 330,000 people but shocking nonetheless where crime rates have remained relatively low.

Howard County State’s Attorney Rich Gibson Jr. Official photo

The high-profile double-homicide led State’s Attorney Rich Gibson Jr. to decide to prosecute the case himself. It’s an action he’s taken only a handful of times in his six-and-a-half years as the county’s top prosecutor, given how all-consuming a case like that can be.

But Gibson insists, “Howard County is a safe place. Numerically speaking, just by the data,” he said in a long-interview July 14. “We are an extraordinarily safe space. Crime is down across the country, right? So just generally speaking, per the numbers, mathematically speaking, crime is trending downward everywhere. Howard County is no exception.”

He points out that both of these fatal mall shootings “were targeted events. The people that were at the mall knew each other, as you said, and there was some animosity that existed between them and they chose this horrible way of resolving that animosity. I think it is scary because the mall is a place a lot of people congregate.”

Disbelief

But lots of people don’t believe crime is down, I tell him, regardless of what crime statistics might show.

As state’s attorney, Gibson says he has to address “how people feel but also give them a sense of what is [fact].”

“A single crime is too much crime, and we hope to get to a place where crime is even lower, right? Every offense we take very, very seriously. But at the same point in time, it’s true that crime is numerically down. What you’re seeing, in particular with juveniles is that while crime is numerically down, the types of crimes that our youth are engaging in are more egregious crimes and so those crimes resonate in a more significant way with the community.”

A young-looking 49, Gibson is no casual observer of violent crime and death. He’s been a prosecuting attorney for 20 years. That includes 13 years in Baltimore City, where he spent five years on the homicide unit followed by the major investigations unit where he wound up supervising a team of attorneys focused on violent repeat offenders.

In 2018, a Democrat, Gibson was elected Howard County’s first African-American state’s attorney, easily winning the general election with 62% of the vote. In 2022, he got a free ride to re-election. He had no opponent in the Democratic primary or the general election. A familiar figure at political events in the county, Gibson is planning to run again next year.

Loves the job

“I love the job! It’s immensely rewarding. I get to serve my community. I get to try to keep my community safe. I get to shape what justice looks like in this space. It’s an area that I have a degree of expertise in and so I’m comfortable in this space, but no two days are the same…. I have a great team around me that allows me to create what I hope to be the kind of public safety that the community enjoys.”

It’s not like there’s no crime in Howard County. Otherwise, Gibson wouldn’t need a $14 million budget with a staff of 95 people, including 48 attorneys operating in the circuit and district courts.

With no significant public controversies during his tenure, Gibson shows no signs of worry about his reelection, based on his campaign finance report. He only raised $1,000 last year, and has only $41,000 in his campaign account, a meager sum for a countywide race. And no, he has no interest in running for the open county executive seat, a common political career path in neighboring Prince George’s County.

With no term limits for them in the Maryland Constitution, state’s attorneys in some jurisdictions stay in the job for decades. Scott Shellenberger, 66, in Baltimore County is serving in his fourth term, despite a close election last time and a younger opponent next year. He was preceded by Sandra O’Connor who served 32 years in the job. John McCarthy in Montgomery County is also in his fourth term as state’s attorney there.

Representing his fellows

Gibson is coming off five years as president of the Maryland State’s Attorneys Association, representing the 24 elected local prosecutors. Gibson agreed that it was both an honor and a chore.

“It was a real honor, because you get a chance to represent the entire state.” But it’s not always easy to find consensus. “You know, you have rural, urban, suburban, Democrat, Republican, very conservative, very liberal, and you’re trying to find consensus amongst the 24 electeds. Obviously, dealing with 24 electeds, you’re dealing with strong personalities and strong thoughts.”

“Despite the differing opinions on public safety, regardless of political affiliation, regardless of rural, urban, suburban, there was a lot of common ground because on public safety, we are a little more cohesive than on some other issues.”

Body-worn cameras for police, for instance, which Gibson supports, are also an issue of resources for both police and prosecutors. Not only is the equipment costly, but it also creates a lot more work for police and for prosecutors.

Twenty years ago, a robbery prosecution might involve four witnesses, says Gibson – a victim, another witness, a police officer or two. Today, such a case might also involve technical experts on cell phones, surveillance and body-worn cameras.

“So, the density of today’s cases is so much greater than the density was a decade or two ago. And so is the amount of work that a prosecutor must do per case.”

Juvenile justice

How to handle juvenile crime is another thorny issue for prosecutors.

“The leadership of DJS [Department of Juvenile Services] has had a philosophy under the prior secretary that was really a “Don’t touch them, low interaction mindset and model that I think really does our youth a disservice.”

“Governor Moore has changed who’s at the helm, and I’m hoping that new leadership is more in line with the philosophy that says, we have an opportunity to intervene with these kids, and we’re going to do so in a meaningful way. We’re gonna target the underlying root causes. We’re gonna get involved and grab hold of them now with the goal of reshaping them so that we don’t see them tomorrow.

“It is my hope, and I believe the hope of every prosecutor in the state to not deal with kids more than once. And certainly not to see them when they’re adults, because if you don’t train them and teach them that their actions have consequences, if you don’t teach them that there’s a better way to handle problems, if we don’t teach them the right way to interact as a member of our community, the answer will be, you’re going to commit that crime as an adult, and there’s going to be a very different consequence awaiting you. Everyone suffers. There’s another harm that’s on our community. We haven’t done right by that kid.”

Speaking of kids, Gibson has three of them with lots of photos on his desk of them and his wife, physician Dr. Carissa Guishard-Gibson. They live in Ellicott City.

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Jr. ROTC students from Atholton High School hold the new Howard County flag. MarylandReporter.com photo by Len Lazarick

Howard County officially raised its new flag Monday in front of the county’s George Howard Building in Ellicott City. The design by long-time county resident and  designer Esen Paradiso won a year-long competition that attracted 209 entries from 102 individuals. The new flag was approved by the County Council and signed into law by the executive in May.

“This bold unique design is unlike any other in our state and is certain to inspire us and be recognizable to all,” said County Executive Calvin Ball.

“Our new county flag reflects Howard County‘s natural and human resources and historically proud and future-oriented central Maryland community,” explained Ball. “It represents an evolving agricultural past blended with an optimistic culture, environment and economic future, which is cosmopolitan, vibrant and thriving.

“The arch represents both the historical past of Howard County and its dynamic future. The stripes represent Howard County’s historical and contemporary abundance of agriculture and natural resources in western Howard County and throughout.

“The golden circle represents the boundless energy of the sun, empowering a diverse community, with a view toward the horizon, a bright and optimistic future for all of Howard County. … The blue represents the optimism of endless skies, the hope of a bright future, the abundance of natural and recreational resources. The green represents the planned preservation and utilization of the natural environment, the continual investment in the thriving agricultural economy, and the promise of a growing and culturally, appreciative community.”

The old Howard County flag is lowered by members of the police and fire honor guard. MarylandReporter.com photo by Len Lazarick

Ball honored the old flag but made no reference to its symbolism. It also won a competition 56 years ago. The old flag took its dominant theme from the red-and-white bottony cross in the Maryland flag.

According to the history of the Maryland flag on the web page of the Maryland Secretary of State: “Marylanders who sympathized with the South adopted the red-and-white of the Crossland arms as their colors. Following Lincoln’s election in 1861, red and white ‘secession colors’ appeared on everything from yarn stockings and cravats to children’s clothing. People displaying these red-and-white symbols of resistance to the Union and to Lincoln’s policies were vigorously prosecuted by Federal authorities.”

“During the war, Maryland-born Confederate soldiers used both the red-and-white colors and the cross bottony design from the Crossland quadrants of the Calvert coat of arms as a unique way of identifying their place of birth. Pins in the cross bottony shape were worn on uniforms, and the headquarters flag of the Maryland-born Confederate general Bradley T. Johnson was a red cross bottony on a white field.”

The red-and-white cross and the checkered black and gold of the Calvert family founders were eventually combined in the 1880s as a sign of reconciliation after the Civil War.

Here is Monday’s flag-raising story by The Sun’s April Santana with extensive quotes from Paradiso and information about the design process.

MarylandReporter.com photo by Len Lazarick.

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Several thousand people lined one of the busiest intersections near the Columbia Mall Saturday to protest President Trump as part of “No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance” Saturday morning. Events like this were happening all over Maryland and the nation organized by the progressive Indivisible organization.

Cars and trucks honked their approval as the crowd waved hand-made signs and American flags as suggested by the national organizers. The signs emphasized support for democracy and opposition to fascism and various policies of the Trump administration. Some used profanity to emphasize their message.

The protesters were mostly older and white, although there were a range of generations children, Blacks and Asians as well.

UPDATE June 15, 2:07 p.m.: Here is a crowd-sourced estimate of the turnout across the country for as many as 2.100 protests.

All content of Maryland Reporter is under a Creative Commons License and available for reuse with attribution. All photos by Len Lazarick of MarylandReporter.com.

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MORE BUDGET CUT FOR STATE UNIVERSITIES: Campuses in the University System of Maryland were warned Thursday afternoon to brace for another 7% cut to their budgets in the coming year, on top of the 4% the system was forced to absorb as part of a statewide budget challenge earlier this year. University System Chancellor Jay Perman, in a video message, said individual campus presidents all agree that personnel cuts should be a last resort. But he noted that, given the size of the reduction, “for some universities, personnel actions cannot be taken off the table.” And he warned that the fiscal situation would likely get worse, as federal budget reductions and job cuts continue this year. Bryan Sears, William Ford/Maryland Matters

ANTI-DEPORTATION DEMO IN BALTIMORE: Immigration advocacy group CASA commanded a show of force against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Baltimore on Wednesday. Hundreds of demonstrators in Baltimore protested the recent federal crackdown on undocumented immigrants. According to CASA leaders, ICE officers have targeted “people who have been violently abducted while carrying out essential family tasks like grocery shopping and job hunting.” CASA said there have been at least 16 immigration arrests in Baltimore City and Baltimore County since May 20. Video and text. Mike Hellgren, Christian Olaniran, JT Moodee Lockman/WJZ TV

HIGH SCHOOLERS PROTEST DEPORTATION: Hundreds of students staged a walkout and demonstration at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring on Thursday to protest the reported deportation of a classmate. Kate Ryan/WTOP Radio

• The Blair student is at least the second known Montgomery County student detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent weeks. Recently, a student who attended John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring was also detained, according to local lawmakers. Neither event took place on school grounds but provoked outcry in school communities within Maryland’s most populous jurisdiction. Nicole Asbury/Washington Post

JUDGE RULES BALTIMORE’S OPIOID SETTLEMENT WAS TOO HIGH: Baltimore may not get as much money in opioid restitution after a judge ruled Thursday that the jury’s award to the city was too high.Six years ago, the city declined to join a global settlement with other jurisdictions and instead opted to sue the companies on its own. A Baltimore jury in November 2024 found two drug distributors liable for contributing to the city’s ongoing opioid crisis. At the time, the companies, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, were ordered to pay more than $266 million in damages. Hannah Hoffman/WBAL TV

• The city and its taxpayers bear many costs of responding to these intractable problems,” Fletcher-Hill wrote. “The difficult question in this action is the extent to which two distributors of prescription opioid medications can be held liable for this complex problem.” Scott Maucione/WYPR FM

NEW CUSTOMER RELIEF FUND TO HELP ELECTRIC BILLS: Amid increasing energy costs in Maryland, some electric ratepayers could be eligible for one-time grants ranging from $250 to $750. A multimillion-dollar fund is intended to help provide relief to some Marylanders for their energy costs, the governor announced Thursday. The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel estimates electric rates have increased by 30% since 2020. Gov. Wes Moore explained that the Customer Relief Fund will be a temporary, one-time assistance program. Shareholders of Exelon, the utility parent company of Baltimore Gas and Electric, Pepco and Delmarva Power, donated the funds. Dave Collins/WBAL TV

3 MONTGOMERY COUNCIL MEMBERS RUNNING FOR EXECUTIVE: A rundown of the three candidates from the Montgomery County Council for County Executive after Wednesday’s announcement by Andrew Friedson, with links to the previous stories about those running..Will Jawanndo and Evan Glass are already in the race. Ginny Bixby/Bethesda Today

PETE SMITH IS THIRD CANDIDATE FOR ANNE ARUNDEL EXECUTIVE: Pete Smith, a County Council Democrat representing the northwestern flank of Anne Arundel County, quietly launched his campaign to become the next county executive in 2026. Smith, 45, will officially announce his bid to replace Steuart Pittman, a Democrat who is term-limited, on Saturday. Smith is the third Democrat to enter the race. He joins his colleague, council member Allison Pickard of District 2, and James Kitchin, Pittman’s special assistant who is a former teacher and public policy researcher. A Republican challenger has not yet entered the race. James Matheson/Baltimore Sun

DEMS CELEBRATE, CONTINUE TO FIGHT TRUMP: It was a celebration of Maryland Democrats and their victories over the past year, but the specter of President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress was never far off. Several hundred Maryland Democratic politicians, advocates and donors gathered Thursday at Martin’s West in Woodlawn and tried to find the light in their uphill battle against the Trump White House and the  Republican majority in Congress. But in three hours of speeches, nearly every speaker stressed that the fight against Trump’s administration needs to continue — even if the challenges seem insurmountable. That included the evening’s keynote speaker, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), a one-time pastor at Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters

WHERE IS JUVENILE SERVICES HEADED? Fox 45 has a 23-minute video with background on the fired head of the Department of Juvenile Services and the views of Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates and other prosecutors about what should happen there. Mikenzie Frost/WBFF

NEW RECOMMENDATIONS ON PUBLIC HEALTH: The Maryland Public Health Commission is out with about 30 recommendations to better care within the state, which include a chief nursing officer, youth health education programs and local resource hubs to inform people about medical options. Some of the most sweeping recommendations include the creation of a statewide chief nursing officer to provide technical assistance to nurses through leadership in continuing education, policy and revision of job classifications. Scott Maucione/WYPR FM

WORCESTER COUNTY LOWERS TAXES: The Worcester County Commissioners adopted a $281.4 million operating budget for fiscal year 2026, advancing strategic priorities such as education, public safety, and infrastructure, while also reducing the property tax rate. The fiscal 2026 budget lowers the real property tax rate by three cents to 81.5¢ per $100 of assessed value. Worcester County, which includes Ocean City, will continue to offer the lowest local income tax rate in Maryland at 2.25% and maintain the second-lowest real property tax rate among all counties. Kevin Kinnally/MACo’s Conduit Street blog

ROLLEY TO HEAD BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT: Former city planning director and onetime mayoral candidate Otis Rolley will be named CEO and president of the Baltimore Development Corp. Friday. Fern Shen, Mark Reutter/Baltimore Brew

HOWARD CO. CIVIC ACTIVIST GRACE KUBOFCIK DIES: Grace Ann Kubofcik, a Howard County government civic watchdog, died of a pulmonary blood clot June 9 at Howard County General Hospital. The Ellicott City resident was 83. “She paid close attention to social, economic and environmental justice,” said former Howard County Executive Elizabeth Bobo. “She had a deep devotion to public policy in our government. She never sought attention and was one of my dearest friends.” Grace was a longtime reader and supporter of Maryland Reporter. Jacques Kelly/Baltimore Sun

The post State Roundup: More budget cuts for state universities; Deportation protests in B’more, MoCo; help for electric bills; more county executive candidates appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.

Del. Jessica Feldmark made official Wednesday what was well-known in Democratic circles for months: She’s running for Howard County executive next year to succeed Calvin Ball who is term limited.

A crowd of more than 150 people filled the North Pavilion at Blandair Park in Columbia, a major recreation complex Feldmark played a role in implementing as chief of staff to Howard County Executive Ken Ulman and as administrator of the Howard County Council for eight years after that.

Feldmark’s announcement was attended by five of her fellow Howard County delegates and two of its three state senators. Sen. Guy Guzzone, one of the most powerful members of the Maryland General Assembly as chair of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, introduced her. Guzzone has played a major role in the county’s Democratic politics and is the county’s longest serving elected official.

“This is my 27^th year in elected office,” Guzzone told the crowd. “I’ve seen a lot of great people over the years, a lot of great people who do a lot of great things and there are a lot of elected officials here that are super people. But Jessica stands above them because of a level of commitment and competency and heart.”

“Great things can be done in the state and the county, and man, I am grateful to know Jess, and I am grateful to work with Jess, and I look forward to working with her a very, very long time.”

The 50-year-old Goucher College graduate spent some time introducing herself.

Her mother was a school nurse, and her father was a hydrologist for the National Weather Service “and they were both activists too,” she said. “They taught me the value of service, the power of organizing, and the importance of social justice. These weren’t just abstract concepts in my home.”

She talked about playing the piano as she sat with her grandfather “and he would sing along to old union songs from a song book we had” and he would explain the lyrics. “Songs about workers’ rights, about fighting for better conditions, about joining together to make sacrifices for the greater good. These weren’t just songs, they were his history and a soundtrack for progress.

“Those lessons he taught me would shape the path I’ve taken in life,” she said. This included service in AmeriCorps after college.

“Howard County is reaching a critical point. We can’t take for granted that Howard County is great place to live. We have to work very intentionally to keep it a great place to live and make it an even better place with the chaos and cruelty coming out of Washington.”

Feldmark offered a long to-do list for the next executive: adequately funding schools, tackling the housing affordability crisis, protecting the environment, growing the economy, maintaining infrastructure, making sure that people are safe and feel safe.

In next June’s Democratic primary for county executive, Feldmark will face County Council member Deb Jung of West Columbia. Democratic Council member Liz Walsh of Ellicott City is also expected to enter the race.

Of the two dozen elected officials in Howard County, only one is a Republican, County Council member David Youngmann, who has said he will not seek reelection. No Republicans have announced for county executive.

Advance stories about Feldmark in the Sun and Banner:

Howard County Executive race gets another Democratic candidate, Del. Jessica Feldmark

You can also find The Baltimore Banner article about Feldmark by clicking here. 

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Eighty years ago, on April 1, a Sunday in 1945, seven troop divisions, four Army, three Marine, landed on the beaches of Okinawa, a remote tropical island the size of Prince George’s County.

It was the largest amphibious invasion of the Pacific War, and its bloodiest battle, particularly for 450,000 civilians on the long narrow, hilly isle. A quarter of the inhabitants would die in the course of intense combat and heavy bombardment from hundreds of Navy ships and aircraft.

On Tuesday, Okinawa, you will see none of the elaborate commemorations of the D-Day invasion in France that took place last year. There are no quaint villages with ancient churches, well-stocked wine cellars, and cute cafes. In 1945, few buildings were left standing.

From D-Day, it took Allied forces 11 weeks to conquer 150 miles of German-held territory and reach the un-bombed city of Paris.

From the landing beaches in central Okinawa through its heavily fortified hills and extensive caves to its southern tip 20 miles away, it took 12 weeks of fierce fighting.

The intensity of the resistance and the extraordinary number of casualties, both military and civilian, in what the Japanese considered part of their homeland, were among the key factors in the U.S. decision to drop atomic bombs rather than launch the invasion of the home islands planned for the fall.

The American troops that survived Okinawa, including my father, had no doubts about the wisdom of that decision to drop the bombs. It saved them from another brutal invasion.

Peaceable kingdom

Okinawa had been an independent peaceable kingdom with ties to China until Japan took it over in 1879. Okinawan kings had banned weapons on the island for centuries, leading to the development of karate, a weaponless martial art defense.

Unlike D-Day and the dramatic march across Europe to Berlin 11 months later, the brutal battle of Okinawa is little depicted in film or TV. The most recent movie is Hacksaw Ridge, a film centered on the conscientious objector Desmond Doss, an Army medic who saved countless lives and won the Medal of Honor. A snippet I particularly remember as Doss arrives on the scene is a truck full of dead bodies from the 96^th Division in which my father served.

I visited Okinawa with my father on the 50^th anniversary of the battle in 1995 and produced several stories for Patuxent Publishing’s weekly papers. With permission, I republished those stories on MarylandReporter.com. There’s a list and links to these stories at the bottom of this article.

My father didn’t talk about his wartime experiences until decades after the war was over, which is fairly typical of combat veterans of many wars. Besides my father’s tales, I interviewed a number of veterans, including former Sen. Danny Brewster, whose distinguished service on the island as a Marine officer helped boost his political career.

On the 50^th anniversary of the battle, the Okinawans dedicated a huge memorial, the Cornerstone of Peace, with hundreds of black granite slabs on which are inscribed over 241,000 names of those who died from the battle – 149,000 Okinawans, 77,000 other Japanese, mostly soldiers, 14,000 Americans, and hundreds from other countries.

The Okinawans need no reminder of the American invasion.  The U.S. military is still there in two major air bases, a port, multiple camps, and other facilities occupying 14% of the island. It is the base for the electronic spy planes that fly up and down the Chinese coast, constantly buzzed by Chinese fighters. Many of the Marines have been shifted to Guam at the insistence of the Okinawans, who would like to be rid of all the Americans, a likely target for any armed conflict with China over nearby Taiwan.

As the battle waged in 1945, the American public paid little attention. On April 12, Franklin Roosevelt died, and Allied forces were making their final drive to Berlin, leading to VE day on May 8. There will likely be little attention paid this week.

Previous stories

MarylandReporter.com republished three of those stories 10 years ago, putting them up on the internet for the first time exactly as they were written then.

The first story, Okinawa: The final battle revisited, is largely the tale of the 96th Infantry Division and my father’s return to the island in 1995.

The second, Okinawa: Remembering all the dead, is about the memorial park dedicated 30 years ago and an interview with the governor of Okinawa who made it happen.

The last, Okinawa: It was kill or be killed, includes other interviews with Maryland veterans of the battle, including the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Brewster.

https://marylandreporter.com/2010/05/28/memorial-day-remembering-the-final-and-much-forgotten-battle/

https://marylandreporter.com/2012/04/02/remembering-the-final-battle-of-world-war-ii/

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Dan Rupli, lawyer, congressional candidate, civil rights enforcer and progressive activist, died Thursday at 82 from a fall and complications of dementia.

Dan first came to prominence in 1976 when he mounted a liberal challenge to Rep. Goodloe Byron in the 6^th Congressional District, a conservative Democrat Rupli came close to defeating in the primary. He lost again to Byron two years later.

Rupli never lost the political bug and was heavily involved in numerous political campaigns. In 1992, he was the Maryland coordinator of the presidential campaign of Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, with whom he stayed in touch over Harkin’s 30-year Senate career.

UPDATED 3/20/2025: “I loved Dan Rupli,” said Harkin in a posting. I always enjoyed my times with him during my years in the Senate and when I ran for President in 1992. He was a true progressive, just the best! … His memory brings a smile to my face and thanks for his life.”

Rupli also served in the 2004 presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, the 2006 Senate campaign of Kweisi Mfume and other political campaigns through the years. He stayed in touch with many of the candidates he had supported for years, pitching new ideas and giving advice.

“Dan was one of the more principled political people that I have ever known,” said Rep. Mfume, who reclaimed his old 7^th District House seat in 2020. “His sense of fairness and justice was exceeded only by his belief in the ability to bring about change. He gave so much of himself and offered himself up – over and over again – to communities across the state of Maryland as someone willing to fight the good fight. He was a friend who will be deeply missed.”

Dan had urged then State Sen. Chris Van Hollen to run for Congress in 2002. Van Hollen won a competitive Democratic primary against Del. Mark Kennedy Shriver and ultimately defeated incumbent Republican Congresswoman Connie Morella.

“Dan Rupli understood the importance of participating fully in our democracy and using your voice to make a difference,” Sen. Van Hollen said on Dan’s passing. “He used his to make our state and our nation stronger, for which we were always grateful. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this difficult time.”

Against his better judgment in 2014, Dan was persuaded by Democratic Party officials to run for the State Senate in conservative northern Frederick County’s District 4. He wound up getting only 32% of the vote against Republican Michael Hough.

Last hurrah

Dan Rupli

Finally, last year at the last minute, Dan filed again to run for Congress in the open seat for the 3^rd Congressional District.

Why shouldn’t someone with 50 years of political experience be taken seriously as a candidate?, Dan asked Maryland Reporter at the time. “I’m doing it because I have an 8-year-old daughter,” said Dan, who has grandkids twice her age.

“Kids are turned off right now. Democrats don’t inspire them. They have a very cynical view of the future. … I’ve got nothing to lose.”

In that race, Dan didn’t raise enough money to file finance reports and there was no evidence of an active campaign. He wound up running dead last among the 22 Democrats in the race, garnering just 34 votes. State Sen. Sarah Elfreth won the primary and the general election.

Early in his career, Dan was an attorney in the U.S. Justice Department enforcing the Voting Rights Act in the South. He then turned to private practice of law, and in the 1990s, Gov. Parris Glendening appointed him as a trade representative to China.

Dan’s sister, Robin Rupli, a retired reporter for Voice of America, said, “Dan had the most astute political mind of anyone I ever knew. He had the experience of working in so many campaigns, a deep knowledge of history and an innate sense of what motivated people that tapped into so many winning strategies.”

“Dan had no patience with the status quo,” she said. “He thought positive change was as obvious to everyone else as it was to him. He was ‘a dreamer’ – but those dreams were rooted in his parents’ mid-western upbringing, common sense and a desire for public good.”

Danny Craig Rupli was born Feb. 23, 1943, in Chicago but grew up in Silver Spring, Md. where he attended Montgomery Blair High School and Montgomery College. He graduated from the University of Maryland College Park with a degree in history and earned a juris doctor from the University of Baltimore in 1969.

Dan spent the last years of his life in Columbia, Md., working on causes such as gun control, affordable housing and youth engagement in politics, as well as offering counsel to the many politicos he came to know over the years.

Dan is survived by his wife, Mary Ann, a much younger Filipina he met in his Asian travels, their daughter, Jacqueline, and children from his first marriage to Brenda Rupli: Randy, Andrew and Erika (Rupli) Auchterlonie; daughter-in-law Danielle Rupli; sisters Kathryn Parker and Robin Rupli; grandchildren, Seven Auchterlonie, Kristopher and Sophia Rupli and nephew, Jason Rupli.

A memorial service will be held Friday, April 11, noon, St. Paul’s Episcopal Parish, Rock Creek Church Rd. and Webster St, NW, Washington. DC 20011.

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This column appears in the March issue of The Business Monthly serving Howard and Anne Arundel counties.

A half century ago, I spent a year in the belly of the federal bureaucracy at the Social Security Administration. I was a GS-7 in the Health Insurance Inquiries Branch of the Bureau of Health Insurance. That’s the peoplewho ran Medicare before it became a separate agency.

I analyzed letters sent by important people like U.S. senators and congressmen to the top dogs in the government about Medicare and I drafted responses to these important people to be sent out by the top dogs like the Social Security commissioner and the secretary of what was then HEW, Health, Education and Welfare.

It was not hard work compared to the folks at Social Security who deal with the public in local offices or handle the huge amount of records and money associated with the program. I remember spending a lot of time in the library up near the commissioner’s office.

This was back in the inefficient days before personal computers and sophisticated copy machines. We had IBM Selectric typewriters, dictation equipment and lots of carbon paper. For our younger readers, do I need to explain what carbon paper is?

All the cutting and pasting of standard responses so easy to do today had to be done by hand and retyped by women in the typing pool.

Responding for the president 

I especially remember the day when I was sitting at my recently repainted metal government desk in my gray government swivel chair, picking up the Dictaphone and starting the letter to some poor soul who had written to President Ford. The man’s letter had trickled down the bureaucracy to my desk for a response by the head of Social Security. I began to dictate: “The President has asked me to respond to your letter.”

If the letter writer had been an important someone to which the White House itself would need to respond, an analyst of a higher grade than me would prepare a “White House draft” that required 17 carbon copies – a copy for every bureaucrat up the chain of command who would need to sign off.

The whole idea was to make sure the government was speaking with one voice about the Medicare program. Does this sound wasteful? Were my unproductive visits to the library fraud or abuse? If there was work to be done, I did it. If I finished early, I couldn’t very well go home.

Is there waste fraud and abuse in the federal government? Of course there is. I had two close relatives who were health providers at Veterans Affairs, the nation’s largest health system and the second largest federal employer after the Defense Department. Did they ever encounter incompetent managers and providers? Did they see employees who abused sick leave and who did the least amount of work required? Stupid rules and regs that wasted time and money? Of course they did.

Eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in federal agencies can’t be achieved by the sort of indiscriminate mass firings that have been occurring. Good workers get thrown out with the bad, and ultimately the work doesn’t get done. For some ideologues, that’s the point. Cut enough people and money, and the work doesn’t get done, proving once again that the federal government can’t do anything right.

Let’s run government like a business, they say. So let’s cut those awful people at the Internal Revenue Service. But, what business looking to cut expenses and raise profits would make cuts in its billing department that brings in the revenue?

Losing taxpayers, revenue

The actions in Washington will have an immediate impact on state and local budgets in the form of lost revenue.

Those fired federal employees are also Maryland taxpayers who won’t be paying taxes. The people being laid off at the headquarters of Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore because of the elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which supplied the bulk of its funding, are Maryland taxpayers too.

It’s long been known that Maryland is heavily dependent on the federal government for its economy tax base.

At least 8% of Maryland taxpayers work directly for the feds. Then there is the $42 billion in contract spending by the federal government here, about half of that from the Defense Department to places like Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Almost 30% of Maryland’s $67 billion state budget comes directly from the federal government, primarily for Medicaid health insurance – $10.3 billion – and food aid – $1.9 billion. And that doesn’t count federal dollars that go directly to county governments for education and law enforcement.

The state was already facing a $2.7 billion deficit that Gov. Wes Moore was filling with a combination of reduced spending and higher taxes. But the size and scope of the potential cuts by the Trump administration may require even steeper budget adjustments. At this point, no one knows for sure.

Those tax hikes were billed as a “reform” that lowered taxes for the majority of taxpayers and raised them primarily for the rich. But a deeper analysis by the Comptroller’s office paints a different picture of a plan that shifts brackets and eliminates itemized deductions.

“Most taxpayers will be impacted by the changes,” says the report from the Board of Revenue Estimates. “About six in 10 will have a modest decrease (average of $173) while two in 10 will have a larger (average of $1,458) tax increase. In general, the proposal will reduce tax liabilities for most lower-income taxpayers and increase liabilities for higher-income taxpayers, particularly for taxpayers with the most income, who would have paid $20,800 more in taxes, but many taxpayers with modest income who itemize would have paid more taxes.”

In Anne Arundel and Howard counties, for instance, about a third of households making $100,000 to $200,000 per year would pay more in taxes.

The post Mass federal firings will hurt state and local budgets in Maryland. Is this anyway to run a business? appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.

Frank Turner, who represented Howard County in the legislature for 24 years and was a business professor at Morgan State University for 41 years, died Friday in Columbia at 77. In 1994, Turner was the first African American elected to the General Assembly from Howard County.

Democrat Del. Vanessa Atterbeary announced his death on the floor of the Maryland House of Delegates.

Since his retirement from the legislature in 2019, Turner was a trustee at Howard Community College.

Turner’s longtime friend, Morgan colleague and political ally, C. Vernon Gray, who served 20 years on the Howard County Council as its first African American, remembers Frank as “a kind and gentle person who always greeted people with a warm and pleasant smile. He was a workaholic, whether in business, politics, or the legislature. Frank was a thoughtful, creative, and compassionate legislator, who always thought of the ways that he could make things better — his constituents and community, through meaningful bills or programs.

“As a friend of longstanding, I witnessed Frank’s ups and downs, but I never witnessed him complain, even though he had health challenges,” said Gray, who like Turner is a professor emeritus at Morgan. “He, somehow, always, maintained hope and made a way.”

Before his election to the House of Delegates, Turner was deputy campaign manager for Barbara Mikulski in her first run for the Senate in 1986 and served as her special assistant for small business while he continued to teach business law at Morgan.

In the House, according to his official biography, Turner served on several committees over the years, ending the last six years of his career as vice-chair of the Ways and Means Committee, now chaired by Howard County Del. Vanessa Atterbeary, who had known Frank since she was in elementary school and called him “Uncle Frank.” She said Turner referred to the panel as the “Ways and Schemes Committee.”

In 2007, House Speaker Michael Busch strong-armed Turner to head the Ways and Means financial resources subcommittee which handled gambling and casinos, a post Turner did not want. He sometimes found himself in floor debates defending gaming legislation he did not particularly like.

In a 2012 story in Maryland Reporter, Turner said that decades before, as a business professor at Morgan, he wrote an academic paper critical of casino gambling, and “I still believe they’re not great.”

Turner said in 2012 he took a tour of gambling operations in nearby West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and “they all had Maryland license plates” in their parking lots.

“If we’re going to spend the money, we might as well spend it in Maryland,” Turner said.

Howard County Executive Calvin Ball called Turner his “dear friend” and “mentor.” “He truly lived a life dedicated to giving back to our community.”

“His legacy of advocacy and service has left an indelible imprint on our county and our state, and we are a better community because of his efforts.” Ball pointed to Turner’s help in getting state funding for numerous county projects, especially the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center, the former segregated high school that now has a room named in Turner’s honor.

Former Del. Frank Turner and Howard County Executive Calvin Ball walk a hall at the renovated Harriet Tubman Cultural Center, the county’s former Black high school where a room is named in Turner’s honor. Howard County Government photo.

In a Facebook post, Del. Jessica Feldmark of Howard County said Turner was “a tireless advocate for our community,” in particular Blandair Park where in 2014 the playing fields were dedicated in his honor.

Born in Mt. Pleasant, New York, Turner was a 1968 graduate of North Carolina College at Durham (now North Carolina Central University). He earned a law degree from the North Carolina Central University School of Law in 1973.

Turner leaves his wife, Kim, and four children.

The post Former Howard County Del. Frank Turner dies at 77 appeared first on MarylandReporter.com.