Baltimore

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) threw her support behind November's slots referendum last week, according to The Baltimore Sun.

"I made it very clear, so I hope you report it very clear: I'm supporting Question 2 to reduce the property tax," Dixon said on Friday, according to the Sun.

City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) joined Dixon in her support of the controversial ballot measure as well.

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Facing a looming budget shortfall, Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-Baltimore) announced he would be considering steeper cuts to funding for health care and education and is considering a furlough program, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Last month, the Board of Revenue Estimates reported the state's general fund revenues were at roughly $14 billion - $432 million less than original estimates.

To combat the deficit, O'Malley announced he would be asking state agencies to identify cuts of up to five percent in the current year's budget. The governor plans to present these cuts to the Board of Public Works on October 15. 

O'Malley said the nation's economic outlook and the result of November's slots referendum would influence the decision to make more cuts.

With the exception of Nashville and Memphis (the debate was held in Nashville), the most tuned-in television market in the country for the second presidential debate Tuesday night was Baltimore, where approximately 55.6 percent of households watched the debate.

Baltimore also ranked highest in the vice presidential debate last week.

Republican Andy Harris is hanging out with wrong crowd, according to a new television ad from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"We've met Andy Harris's friends. They're not your friends," says a narrator in the ad. "Like the utilities, oil and gas lobby. They gave Harris big bucks and he voted to deregulate electricity."

Pro-slots group For Maryland For Our Future says its new television ads aren't just designed to promote November's slots referendum, they're intended to correct Comptroller Peter Franchot's "misleading" and "false public statements" about Question 2.

"In the past year, Peter Franchot has tried to run away from his record on slots," said For Maryland For Our Future in a statement.

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-Baltimore) says that performance-based government management is "truly omni-partisan" and is "apolitical."

"There's no Democratic or Republican way to fix a pothole," O'Malley said during a video address. "You either do it or you don't."

O'Malley made the statements for his keynote speech at Governing magazine's Managing Performance 2008 Conference on Friday. 

The state prosecutor's office has issued a new batch of subpoenas, suggesting a two-year long probe involving Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) is still underway, according to The Baltimore Sun.

The subpoenas are being aimed at four development projects, according to the Sun. Ronald Lipscomb, a Baltimore developer, is involved in at least three.

Perhaps this is one of those situations where there is enough blame to go around.

First here is what we know. We know that Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) is being investigated into whether or not she received gifts for approving city incentives that favor developers. In particular is developer Ronald Lipscomb. Lipscomb and Dixon, who were separated from their respective spouses for quite sometime, acknowledged that they had a personal relationship between 2003 and 2004. During the course of the relationship, they had spent a lot of time traveling and a lot of time shopping. Those shopping strips involved dropping a lot of money in a single store. Also a fact is that Dixon did not make full disclosures when she filed her ethics reports. This is where I begin.