Maryland Department of Planning Site

The Maryland Department of Planning site has a lot to offer, and I will spend a few postings discussing its content. One particularly useful part of this site is the Data Center. Some of the data here is a few years old but it’s still worth knowing about. Check out the page entitled “High Technology Industries In Maryland In 2000” which provides a number of statistics on the breakdown of the number, types, and location of high technology industries in MD—either through maps or tables. The Economic Census page also provides interesting statistics on minority owned businesses in MD, albeit fairly dated (1997). Finally, check out the Publications page. Here you’ll find full text reports on such topics as Smart Neighborhoods, Big Box Developments, Infill and Redevelopment.

Maryland Law Blogger Takes Vacation

Alright, I realize, I've only been blogging for a couple of months now but, still, I think a short vacation is in order! The author regrets to inform you that there will be no new postings until December 29th. I look forward to you joining me back then.

Maryland Legal Gateway

Following on the post a few days ago, here's another suggestion for a portal to MD legal resources from Genie Tyberskie, publisher of the TVC Alert from The Virtual Chase. The Maryland Legal Gateway, part of the Legal Gateway site, is published by legal publisher Miller Davis Company. The "Legal Resources" tab on this site gives you a gateway to MD government agencies and basic MD legal related resources. In addition, this site also allows you to pose a lawyer a question ("Attorney Answers") and to browse by subject attorney responses to questions already posed ("Legal Topics"). Especially useful, though, is the "MD Guidebooks" section which give you an overview of MD law on various topics.

Judge Finds MD Spam Law Unconstitutional

I've found two articles that discuss Montgomery County Judge's Durke G. Thompson decision last week that found Maryland's 2002 Commercial Electronic Mail Act unconstitutional. One article is from the Sun (you'll need to register to see this if you're not already) and the other is from Law.com: "Judge faults Md. Law On Spam" and "Maryland Judge Rules State's Anti-Spam Law Unconstitutional."

Comprehensive MD Legal Sites

If you're looking for a portal to Maryland government agencies, courts, and county/municipality pages on the web, might I suggest the following. The one is Maryland State and Local Governments page from the State and Local Governments On the Web website. The other is the Maryland page from the Washburn University School of Law site. Personally, I'm more partial to the former. In addition, the State and Local Government's site also seems to be better updated and maintained. But they're both useful starting points for research.

Lawyer's Code of Civility

In case you were wondering what exactly are the standards of civility for lawyers practicing in Maryland, the Maryland State Bar Association sets forth the following Code of Civility "for all lawyers and judges in Maryland. "According to the standards, "Civility is the cornerstone of the legal profession."

Research Tools from ChooseMaryland.org

One of the most innovative and useful parts of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development's site is the Data Center. In particular, check out the link for Research Tools. This page allows you to compare different counties in Maryland on a range of demographic variables (median income, median age, etc.). In addition, you can also compare Maryland to other states on such variables as the amount of Incorporation Tax. The County Comparative Maps page, as the name implies, presents the data visually--through maps. Other links on the page present the data in tables, which you can then convert to an Excel spreadsheet.

Governor's Executive Orders

As I said at the outset: this blog is intended to be collaborative. That being said, I'm trying to understand discrepancies in the two online sources for Executive Orders: Executive Orders as they are offered on this page (select Executive Orders) from the COMAR site and Executive Orders as they are offered from this page from the Office of The Governor. If you compare the two sites, you'll notice that not every Order that appears in the Office of the Governor site appears in COMAR. And my question is why? Any thoughts are welcome.

2004 Bills Signed and Vetoed

This page from the Maryland Legislature provides a list of 2003 bills which were either signed or vetoed (Thanks to Jim Gernert for this!).

Governor Bans State Officials from Talking To Journalists

This Sun article discusses whether or not Erlich acted within Constitutional bounds when he banned state officials from talking to two Sun reporters.

Supreme Court Case on Liquor Sales

This article discusses Maryland's interest in the case being heard today before the Supreme Court on the issue of shipping liquor directly to consumers.

Maryland Israel Development Fund

For those of you who heard about Gov. Erlich’s recent announcement concerning the Maryland Israel Development Fund and were searching for more information, here’s a few pointers. First, if you’re looking for new articles on this fund, check out this page from the Israeli Embassy. If you’re a subscriber to the Daily Record, you can also check out this page. Additionally, you can also check out the page of the Maryland Israel Development Center, the organization charged with marketing the fund. Second, if you’re interested in learning more about the background behind cooperative business ventures between the state of Maryland and Israel, check out this page entitled Cooperation Between Israel and The State of Maryland. On this same site, The Jewish Virtual Library, there are also independent pages about past Israel-Maryland ventures: The Bi-national Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD), and The Bi-national Science Foundation (BSF).

The Journalist’s Guide To Maryland’s Legal System

In case you’re not familiar with this publication, you should be. The Journalist’s Guide To Maryland’s Legal System is a survey of Maryland’s legal system written for and by non-lawyers. Clear and succinct throughout, it’s an excellent resource for individual’s with limited legal background who seek to gain an overview of Maryland’s legal system.

Boating Regulations

This page from the Department of Natural Resources provides a list of proposed new regulations for boating in different lakes in Maryland.

Assisted Living

The Maryland State Bar Association has a worthwhile publication on this topic entitled Assisted Living In Maryland: What You Need To Know. Likewise, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office puts out a similar publication worth checking out entitled Nursing Homes: What You Need To Know.

If you’re looking for information on how to select a nursing home you should check out the Maryland Health Care Commission’s Site. In particular, this site offers a page which allows you to search by facility. Each entry includes various descriptions of the services and population served by the facility and includes a deficiency report on the facility. In addition, to further assist you in selecting a facility, you should check out the Consumer’s Nursing Home Checklist. Finally, you should also check out the Resources page of this site which provides links to a number of other helpful resources.

Insurance

I recently checked out the Maryland Insurance Administration site. There are a couple of pages on this site worth noting. First, if anyone is currently looking into buying a home, or is advising clients on doing so, you might find this publication entitled Consumer’s Guide To Homeowner’s Insurance useful. Seems pretty clear and accessible. There are also similar guides for Auto Insurance and Health Insurance for Small Employers.

Second, for those of you who want to keep abreast of new MD legislation relating to insurance, this page provides summaries of such legislation. Each of these PDF documents provide a list of insurance-related bills that have passed and brief summaries of each.