Croom Station Signal

Currie Scandal: Citizens Need a Maryland False Claims Act

The ongoing news reports about search warrants and subpoenas to obtain documents from the offices of State Senator Ulysses Currie, a long-time protege of Senator for Life Mike 'Puddinhead' Miller, has highlighted a glaring deficiency in Maryland law:  Maryland is one of a dwindling number of states that has failed to enact a state False Claims Act to protect the citizens against politicians and government contractors who steal from taxpayer funds.

The federal False Claims Act was enacted shortly after the Civil War, reacting to public revulsion at the widespread wartime procurment corruption which lead to the deaths of thousands of Union soldiers.  Today whisteblower cases brought under the FCA recover literally billions of dollars in fraudulent claims every year.

The success of the federal FCA has lead states with clean government lobbies to adopt similar state measures. One of the more recent is the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act (Virginia Code 8.01-216.1 et seq.) The VFATA creates a cause of action providing for civil penalties, treble damages, and attorney's fees against 'any person' who submits false claims for payment to the Commonwealth.  In just its first year in force, VFATA whistleblowers recovered $117 million for the Virginia state treasury.

Maryland has a very limited FCA-type statute that only covers false claims against the state medicaid system.  The ongoing scandals in our one-party state underline the need for a law to empower the citizens to protect themselves from the waste, fraud and abuse that is far too prevalent in Maryland state and county government.

Biofuels no magic solution to immigration crisis

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) just announced that a 75 percent rise in worldwide food prices since 2000  has caused new outbreaks of famine in foreign cities, where food is widely available but poor residents can no longer afford the increased prices.  A reported 25,000 Indian farmers committed suicide in 2007 over food shortages and debts, despite India' image as a model for globalist development.

The WFP said that biofuel production could make the situation worse by diverting production and increasing prices. Rising oil prices have caused fertilizer costs, which account for 25 percent of U.S. agricultural costs, to rise more than 150 percent in the past five years. Meanwhile, an area of fertile soil the size of the Ukraine is disappearing each year because of drought, deforestation and sprawl.

Analysts are beginning to recognize that subsidized biofuel production, of ethanol in particular, is THE root cause of higher retail food prices in the US, and  is contributing to “chronic hunger, malnutrition and starvation” in the poverty-stricken nations of Africa and Southeast Asia.

The United States cannot solve the problem of mushrooming overseas DEMAND for energy and foodstocks. The 120 thousand new immigrants who settle in the U.S. EVERY MONTH from overcrowded foreign nations will increasingly impoverish the native working and middle-income citizenry, as food and fuel prices continue to rise.

We cannot invent our way out of this crisis; we have only two realistic options:  Slash immigration to sustainable levels, or slash the standard of living for all Americans except the very rich.  Maryland is tragically taking the second course.

Collision course: Rapid growth and dwindling groundwater in Charles County.

Water and other environmental issues were on a lot of minds during a meeting on February 4th between Charles County commissioners and the mayors and council members of La Plata and Indian Head in Waldorf. Agenda: The drop in groundwater levels in regional aquifers and efforts to conserve the resource.

It is critical that the towns and county work together to conserve groundwater because of the dwindling supply of the resource being pumped out of regional aquifers, said commissioners’ President F. Wayne Cooper (D).

‘‘We have to work together to plan our future,” he said, adding that the use of treated effluent water from local wastewater treatment plants through a closed loop system is a good head start in tackling the problem. We’re all working off the same aquifers. We need to manage the resource together.”

According to the latest data from the U.S. Geological Survey, county residents and businesses are pulling between 12 million and 13 million gallons a day of groundwater from aquifers in the region, said Jason Groth, the county’s program manager for adequate public facilities.

La Plata Town Manager Daniel Mears said water use increases 55 percent in town during the warm months when people are watering lawns, washing cars and filling swimming pools. The town is considering a policy that would impose higher water fees on customers who use more than the average amount of the resource in their homes. La Plata’s water is withdrawn from the lower Patapsco aquifer, which is rapidly being depleted.

Charles County recently formed a water resources advisory committee to formulate recommendations on how to deal with the shrinking supply of groundwater in the region. The county is scheduled to meet with Prince George’s County officials to cement an agreement established about a decade ago that would enable the county to withdraw up to 5 million gallons of Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission water a day to offset use of groundwater in the area.

A new state law — HB 1141 — enacted last year by the Maryland General Assembly also mandates that counties and towns start seriously looking at ways to conserve groundwater, including the incorporation of a water resource element in updates of local comprehensive plans.  The law also mandates that jurisdictions include priority preservation areas and municipal growth projections in comprehensive plans.

Counties and towns also need to assess the amount of groundwater being used by private deep wells and commercial and industrial facilities. ‘‘It’s abundantly clear that we need to develop a water resource element in our comprehensive plans,” said Indian Head Mayor Dennis Scheessele. 

‘‘The state wants a more dedicated assessment so our projected growth is in line with the water supply,” she said. ‘‘Individual wells are in the same aquifers that we’re in. This is a regional problem.”

If a jurisdiction does not comply with the new law by October 2009, officials will not be able to change the zoning of any property in their jurisdiction until it is in compliance with the law.

http://somdnews.com/stories/020808/indytop120048_32091.shtml

PG County Commute 6th Worst in USA!

I knew the Washington metro area is considered one of the ten worst commuting areas in the nation. But I didn't think Prince George's County was so bad.

According to U.S.News & World Report (May 7, 2007 p. 45), the mean travel time to work in Prince George's County is the SIXTH WORST IN THE ENTIRE NATION: 35.7 minutes.  Only four NYC area urban counties and Prince William County in Virginia (40.5 minutes) are worse.

The growing sprawl in our rural tier, and overpopulation in other areas of the county are a prescription for more congestion, more taxes, and a nastier, dirtier, noisier quality of life.  What's the solution?  (1) Immigration reform at the national level to control the population explosion; (2) Dump the Miller-O'Malley-Vallario machine in Annapolis to control the state tax & spend explosion, and (3) defend the integrity of the 3-tier Master Plan and Green Infrastructure Plan in Prince George's County to fight sprawl and congestion.

"They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot...."