Michael Smigiel

ANALYSIS The state Senate is expected to vote this week on a revised proposal, approved by a Senate committee late last week, that would ease the devastating blow to county budgets proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley to shift half of teacher, community college and library staff pension costs to the counties. But the bill...
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In the run-up to the April 3 primary election, in which all but one of the Cecil County Commissioners is a candidate for one office or another, expect the unexpected. On Tuesday, the lone non-candidate– the perpetually silent Michael Dunn (R-3)– suddenly launched a scripted diatribe against Commissioners Tari Moore (R-2) and Robert Hodge...
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A new pro-business political action committee Tuesday endorsed incumbent Republican Robert Hodge for the 5th District Cecil County Council seat and Dr. Alan McCarthy, a veterinarian challenging incumbent James Mullin in the 1st District Republican primary. But the PAC sidestepped a potentially divisive endorsement in the crucial but crowded field of candidates for Cecil...
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When is a Cecil County golf course a disco and what do late night live music and dancing have to do with playing 18 holes on the grassy links in the sunshine? That was the issue before the Cecil County Board of License Commissioners (liquor board) recently as the three-member panel reviewed the troubled...
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When Del. David Rudolph (D-34B) eked out a tiny margin of victory in a three-way general election contest last year, his supporters breathed a sigh of relief and told themselves it wouldn’t happen again: “There’s always redistricting,” they hoped. Rudolph’s redistricting prayers seem to have been answered in the new maps proposed by a...
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