Maryland
updated
7:43 a.m.
Twenty-five inches of snow. Forty-eight hours without power. Average temperature in my house: fifty degrees, Fahrenheit. And now, a blog post. Are you tired of snow? I am. Let's find somewhere else that wants it and we can truck it over to them. In the meantime, here's a delayed look at what's happening, and what's happened, in East County this week. Posting may not be on schedule this week, but...
Just Up The Pike - 7:05 a.m.
My family and I are hunkering down for what the National Weather Service is now predicting to be possibly the greatest snowstorm ever in the Baltimore-Washington area. http://www.weather.com/... ...
DailyKos (Maryland) - Fri 2:26 p.m. - 8 clicks 
Here's what you'll find (or not find) at the grocery store in the event you haven't gone already: You will not find any apples. You will not find any biscuits. You will not find any yakisoba. You will not find any chicken gizzards. (I took the last one.) You will not find out what happened on The Bachelor . But you will find more photos in this nifty slideshow...
Just Up The Pike - Fri 1:22 p.m.
Welcome to Week 4’s Update from here in Annapolis. Below is the link to my weekly “Reznik Report” video blog posted on my website. Also below is information I would like to share with you including Governor O’Malley’s State of the State address, invitation to District 39 night in Annapolis, transparency initiatives here in Annapolis, Maryland’s Federal Stimulus spending, and information about a t...
Reznik for Maryland - Fri 8:09 a.m. - 8 clicks
Good morning my fellow Mid-Atlanticans! The time is nearly upon us to see if the hype was all warranted and if the snow storm is going to hit us just as hard as they say it will. According to the Washington Post Capital Weather Gang , we're looking at 16 to 26 inches of snow over the next 36 hours or so here in the District of Columbia, Baltimore, Dover, NoVa, and surrounding areas, and t...
DailyKos (Maryland) - Fri 7:06 a.m. - 8 clicks
Better tell their kids to wear their pajamas right-side out tonight, because I'm not interested in any of the twelve inches of snow we're supposed to get this weekend. It's February , for gosh sakes. Doesn't that usually mean rain around here? Anyway: - DeJaBel Cafe on University Boulevard in Wheaton is closing today, or so says What's Up, Wheaton? on Twitter . The coffeeshop, also ...
Just Up The Pike - Fri 6:47 a.m. - 2 clicks
Will Obama do the Christian thing and protect LGBT from Christian Prayer Breakfast? Dan Ewald: YDM LGBT Caucus Chair I can't recall the number of times I had to defend Obama for his inaction on LGBT issues. During the campaign, many were divided between Hillary and Barack. Hill-dog was beloved by the community and seen as a great advocate for minority rights. Barack had past l...
Young Democrats of Maryland - Thu 3:55 p.m.
1) That Mayorga Coffee Roasters was a community institution, providing caffeine, comfy chairs and occasionally live music to those who lived in or passed through South Silver Spring, South Silver Spring, shown here in 2002, needs destinations to draw people who already go Downtown. 2) That, with several thousand square feet of space (like many buildings in South Silver Spring, it was a...
Just Up The Pike - Thu 9:00 a.m.
And now, what you've all been waiting for: the results of the Great Peruvian Taste Test. Over the weekend, chicken-loving readers were asked to choose their three favorite pollos a la brasa from a list of fourteen restaurants in suburban Maryland. They were also allowed to select "other" and name a place not on the list. We got 89 responses. This is by no means a scientific poll. People were al...
Just Up The Pike - Wed 9:49 a.m. - 9 clicks
- Half of the Georgian Confidential team is moving out, leaving just one upset tenant-blogger trying to right the wrongs at the recently-renovated apartment building I grew up in . "As much as I've thought this place was a mess, I'm going to miss you, my readers and fellow neighbors," writes blogger SS_Samurai in their farewell post . - Further Up The Pike, the Howard County Counci...
Just Up The Pike - Wed 6:44 a.m.
In State of the State speech, Md. Gov. O'Malley focuses on jobs Md. doesn't need state-operated insurance exchange, report says Md. General to open $57 million expansion Bills would ban products with 2 chemicals in Md. Jury must decide whether crash that killed 8 was a street race Lawsuit targets speed cameras Silver Spring wants to make city safer for pedestrians ...
The Modern Day Prophet - Wed 5:07 a.m. - 2 clicks
Prince George's crime levels hit 35-year low Jury selection in street race trial continues after dark Assembly website called “antiquated” Hogan won't run, backs Ehrlich for governor Md. gets poor mark in teacher regulations ...
The Modern Day Prophet - Tue 10:08 a.m. - 4 clicks
The Silver Spring Civic Building has windows and doors! After years of waiting, we can finally compare the artist's renderings to an actual thing. Even though I initially didn't like the design of the Civic Building at first, I'm really excited to see it completed. It's sleek but also inviting, and it'll hopefully be a stage for many great public events in the future. Three...
Just Up The Pike - Feb 2 - 2 clicks
Unless you've got one of those swanky high-rise apartments, there's no better place to see snow in Downtown Silver Spring than atop one of its many multi-story parking garages. Yesterday, I climbed to the top of the Bonifant-Dixon Garage , located at Bonifant and Dixon streets . It's a great place to look down on Fenton Village, Georgia Avenue and the Metro. You can see a person walking i...
Just Up The Pike - Feb 1 - 2 clicks
- The Great Peruvian Taste Test is well underway, with over seventy responses to the reader poll we posted on Friday. The polls close TODAY at 5pm , so if you've haven't already voted (or voted twice), you should get on top of that. I was disappointed to realize that missing from the poll was one of my favorite Peruvian pollo a la brasa joints, Chicken on the Run in Downtown Beth...
Just Up The Pike - Feb 1 - 2 clicks
Welcome to Week 3's Update from here in Annapolis. Below is the link to my weekly "Reznik Report" video blog posted on my website and information about two press conferences I participated in this week along with some recent press my bill setting limits on credit checks in the work place. In this week's Reznik Report I will discuss two pieces of legislation I introduced this week, some encourag...
Reznik for Maryland - Jan 29 - 10 clicks
The poll below should be self-explanatory. Pick your THREE favorite pollos a la brasa and the FIVE that get the most votes will be taste-tested by yours truly, using the criteria we outlined on Wednesday. Thanks for taking the Great Peruvian Taste Test ! As of 5pm on February 1, the poll is closed. Check back later for the results! In case you're curious to try these places yourself, here...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 29 - 3 clicks
- As noted yesterday , Joe's Record Paradise plans to open their new store in Silver Spring on Monday , February 1. The store has a stage and owner Joe Lee plans to have live entertainment, including a performance by local country legend Chick Hall, Jr. on opening day. - A 34-year-old man was arrested after raping a 19-year-old girl in a Montgomery College bathroom, Wednesday an inci...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 29 - 2 clicks
Joe's Record Paradise , the legendary record store currently located on Gude Drive in Rockville, will move to 8216 Georgia Avenue ( at Ripley Street ) in Downtown Silver Spring on Monday , February 1. That's what friend of JUTP Chip Py heard yesterday when he stopped by to take a few photos and and chat up Joe Lee, proprietor and occasional smoker . The new store - this is the sixth ti...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 28 - 6 clicks
So, one question I've been asked about the Great Peruvian Taste Test is "how is this going to work?" I admit I wasn't totally clear about that before. Here is my plan: Through Thursday , I'll be taking suggestions for Peruvian places around the area. I'll compile that into a list which I'll post on Friday as a poll for y'all to vote on your top three favorite Peruvian chicken places. The ...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 27 - 3 clicks
Del. Roger Manno's HB 10 addresses present, mid- and long-term budget and fiscal challenges. Currently, no other proposal addresses the need to increase revenue and fix systemic short-falls in the state employees' and teachers' pension funds. Here's the synopsis of HB 10: "Imposing a tax at a specified rate on income in excess of $1,000,000; requiring specified corporations...
Free State Politics - Jan 27 - 3 clicks
Join the Montgomery County Progressive Alliance and the Greater Silver Spring Democrats Club for a panel discussion County and State Budgets: Delegates Brian Feldman , Sheila Hixson , and Roger Manno ; County Council President Nancy Floreen . Speakers are checking their schedules to see if they can make it for the new date. Others invited. Saturday February 13th 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Wh...
Free State Politics - Jan 27 - 8 clicks
- Officials closed Georgia Avenue in Wheaton at rush hour on Monday and evacuated dozens of nearby homes after receiving reports of a foul odor in the area. This happened shortly after a manhole at Georgia and Plyers Mill Road popped off and flew through the windshield of a passing SUV, striking the driver in the face. Though news reports mention the two events together, there seems to ...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 27 - 3 clicks
What is there to say about pollo a la brasa other than that it is amazing when done correctly, when the meat falls off the bone, when the skin is tender but not gummy? When it is properly supported by sides of rich, fluffy rice and plantanos charred but still golden inside? I first discovered Peruvian rotisserie chicken on my lunch break at an internship almost four years ago, led through ...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 26 - 3 clicks
More and ever more thoughts and recollections from my time on the West Coast this month. I hate hills. In San Francisco, you can see them from blocks away. As I approach them, my shoes fill with dread. Either the hills are so high, or the clouds so low, that you feel like you can touch the sky. This is not so inspiring as it is daunting when you are walking up a hill. Others wil...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 25 - 3 clicks
- Good Eatin' in Wheaton gives the thumbs-up to New Kam Fong , one of the Wheat's ethnic-dining gems, but pans Mi Rancho in Downtown Silver Spring. I'm conflicted about this. I got food poisoning after an eighth-grade Spanish class trip there, but I really enjoyed whatever it is I ate at the #DTSStweetup there last Friday. (Speaking of which: because I haven't done so already, let's ...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 25
Welcome to Week 2's update from here in Annapolis. Below is the link to my weekly "Reznik Report" video blog that I have now begun posting on my website and some information I think everyone should be aware of. In this week's Reznik Report I will discuss the budget proposed by the Governor and the 2 pieces of legislation I introduced in the last few days. CLICK HERE to watch the Week 1 Reznik ...
Reznik for Maryland - Jan 22 - 2 clicks
Annapolis, MD: January 21, 2010 – Delegate Kirill Reznik (D-39) has introduced a bill in the House, HB 175, which will prohibit employers in the state of Maryland, with exceptions, from using a person’s credit history or credit report when making hiring and retention decisions. Similar legislation has already been passed in Hawaii and Washington. Studies have shown that employers are increasi...
Reznik for Maryland - Jan 22 - 4 clicks
- A proposed school and office building on Route 108 would bring up to 150 jobs to Sandy Spring, but not everyone's excited about it. The three-story building "definitely does not preserve and enhance rural village character," says Michelle Layton of the Sandy Spring-Ashton Rural Preservation Consortium . Supporters say that Sandy Spring won't get the little shops and boutiques they want...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 22 - 2 clicks
One thing most JUTP readers don't know is that I also write a lot of prose. Figures that if I'm going to enter Bethesda Magazine 's short story contest (deadline is February 26 , folks), I should test the waters and see how my writing does in a public forum. So this is a short story, semi-autobiographical, based on something that happened my senior year of high school. Tell me what...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 21 - 4 clicks
For the first time, I actually stopped by Burtonsville Town Square, the new shopping center being built on the site of the 1960's-era Burtonsville Shopping Center. Not sure if it's progress that we're replacing a strip mall with a bigger strip mall, even one that developer Chris Jones calls the " greenest suburban retail " in the nation. The new Burtonsville Town Square will have about 140,...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 21 - 4 clicks
The Safeway at Georgia Avenue and Reedie Drive in Downtown Wheaton abruptly closed last month to make way for a mixed-use development that will take its place. In the meantime, however, the abandoned building remains as a boarded-up shell. When I visited last Friday afternoon, a lone bike was chained to a lamppost, and a mother taught her kid how to drive in the empty parking lot. This ...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 20 - 2 clicks
- Goldberg's New York Bagels will move into the former Kirsten's Cafe at Georgia Avenue and 16th Street, reports the City Paper , which notes that the chain has several iterations, all originating from the same dough factory in . . . New Jersey. There's already another Goldberg's off Randolph Road in Rockville. - Awesome food blog Lunching in the DMV (as in "that dude's lunchin'") r...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 20 - 6 clicks
Today's Washington Post reported that Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley is set to slash spending across most categories. But he's missing the boat when it comes to solving our state budget crisis while looking out for the state's best interests. Maryland's first step shouldn't be so short-sighted. Our first step should be fixing the tax system -- that w...
Free State Politics - Jan 19 - 5 clicks
It's rush hour in Los Angeles, but I'm sitting on a bus, flying past the BMWs lined up on Wilshire Boulevard. When we reach an intersection, the light turns green. Cars swing out of the right lane to let the bus pass. And before my eyes is a parade of famous landmarks: Miracle Mile, Rodeo Drive, the beaches of Santa Monica at sunset. A Metro Rapid bus on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. ...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 19 - 2 clicks
The Maryland General Assembly is back in session, and I want to welcome you to the first of what will be a weekly update. These will be a little different than they have been in the past. I will now use these blogs as a forum to notify you of events and information I think everyone should be made aware of. I will also attach a link to my weekly "Reznik Report" video blog where I will discuss, eac...
Reznik for Maryland - Jan 18
The debate over how to fix Wheaton has gone on for twenty years. JUTP has looked at what residents want , what planners' visions are, and how we're going to get to the safe, vibrant, prosperous business district we all say we want. Yet within the past month, two very big proposals have appeared, threatening to get this revitalization started once and for all. Neither of them involved much ...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 18
Happy Martin Luther King Day! If you've got the day off, take some time to think about the reason why you're not at work. And if you're feeling especially generous, check out this website for events across Montgomery County commemorating the life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King, Jr. - You've probably heard that Rick Santos, who lives in the Oakview neighborhood of Silver Spring,...
Just Up The Pike - Jan 18 - 5 clicks
The End is Near of the Maryland's Public University Tuition Freeze Corporate Sponsorship for Baltimore Police Mounted Unit Major Shift in Federal Transport policy could help aid DC transit projects. ...
The Modern Day Prophet - Jan 14 - 10 clicks
State lawmakers balk at pay raises Md. lawmakers get set for budget-heavy session Baltimore City putting police back on foot patrol 2 public safety unions back Baker for Pr. George's executive ...
The Modern Day Prophet - Jan 7 - 6 clicks
Next week begins the 427th session of the Maryland General Assembly. As we work to bring Maryland out of this recession and into better economic times, we will be considering a number of issues during the legislative session. Throughout the session, you can count on me to keep you updated as to all of the legislative happenings through my weekly "Reznik Report from Annapolis" and my weekly vid...
Reznik for Maryland - Jan 5
Guest post by Knia Tanner, Prince George's County YD member Not even the threat of winter weather could stop the dedicated members of the YDM platform committee from meeting on Saturday, December 5 at the Maryland Democratic Party headquarters. Representatives from Young Democrat county chapters from across the state converged in Annapolis to talk about and share ideas. Creating the organiz...
Young Democrats of Maryland - Dec 26 - 2 clicks
Jim Ireton won, and won big Tuesday night in the primary of the Salisbury mayoral race. Disclosure: I volunteered on a couple of occasions and made a bunch of phone calls Tuesday for Jim. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at what we know from the results, what’s reasonable to extrapolate from the data, and what comes next. First, the raw numbers: ================= Registered ...
Duck Around - Dec 17 - 7 clicks
Those who know me know I'm not a reticent guy. I talk. A lot. Usually too much. But faced with this yesterday, I didn't do much talking. The occassion simply called for silence. Sure, it was cold getting in line for Silver Ticket Security at 5:30 a.m. Yes, it was cold standing from 5:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. No, I couldn't see very well. But the sound I will remember is the soun...
Duck Around - Dec 17
Courtesy of EW.com : The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2009 inductees this afternoon, and the lucky five legends are Metallica, Run-D.M.C., Bobby Womack, Jeff Beck, and Little Anthony & the Imperials. So Metallica basically made it the first year they were eligible. Black Sabbath had to wait WAAAAAAAAY too long, and don...
Duck Around - Dec 17
So my daughter and I make the journey north on Saturday to enjoy the musical stylings of The Sword (love that band! Lars was right about something!), Machine Head, and the mighty Metallica. It will be the 7th time I've seen them, and the first for my oldest offspring. (Note to self - see The Offspring this year...) In celebration, I'll post a video a day of something Metallica has pla...
Duck Around - Dec 17
I just may need to take a day off of work to enjoy this one. Street date is March 29. I have no idea what this does, but it looks cool. http://duckaround.blogspot.com ...
Duck Around - Dec 17
Well, I've finally taken the Facebook plunge. It's amazing how fast people find you - I've had about half a dozen people from my graduating class at Parkside find me in the last 24 hours. I'm listed as William Duck. Makes me sound older. :) And the weirdest part? I didn't know my own sister was already on Facebook! I have no idea what this does, but it looks cool. http://duckaround.blog...
Duck Around - Dec 17
In just 36 hours since word went out on SBYNews.com and in today's The Daily Times , we have commitments for ALL 14 weight classes, plus an additional $1,000 from the U.S. Navy Recruiting Office in Ocean City , who will be on-site for the weekend. Those businesses and groups who stepped up to the plate include: Common Grounds , a Fair Trade Coffee Ho...
Duck Around - Dec 17 - 8 clicks
Sorry I've been, well, nonexistent on my own blog lately. No excuse except for the sheer busyness of life. I had to run the Delmarva Classic in the Civic Center for the first time. That went well. Thanks to Joe Harbinson and all the crew at the WY&CC for that! Ali and I went to see Metallica in Newark, NJ. That was awesome. Ali and I went ...
Duck Around - Dec 17
"How Heavy This Axe" from "Gods of the Earth". It's like Black Sabbath got a new singer in 1972 rather than 1979. Their guitar tone is to kill for. I can't wait to see these guys. I have no idea what this does, but it looks cool. http://duckaround.blogspot.com ...
Duck Around - Dec 17
In addition to every single Republican member of the House of Representatives, Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-Md-1st) votes against President Obama's stimulus bill. He was one of 11 Democrats to do so, presumably after securing permission from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to do so. From the Washington Wire of WSJ.com : President Barack Obama extended an olive bra...
Duck Around - Dec 17 - 2 clicks
Saw this on DailyKos . "We're probably not gonna lose a lot, but we're not gonna make much, either." - San Francisco Chronicle executive, 1981. How right they were. I have no idea what this does, but it looks cool. http://duckaround.blogspot.com ...
Duck Around - Dec 17
