BERLIN – A major reshuffling of seats on the benches of the state’s highest courts for the first appellate district, which includes Worcester County and much of the lower Eastern Shore, was completed last week when Gov. Martin O’Malley appointed Christopher B. Kehoe to the Court of Special Appeals.The first domino fell when Berlin resident… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – Charged with developing new strategies to better manage Maryland’s valuable fishery resources, the state’s Task Force on Fisheries Management last week released its 2008 legislative report offering over 30 specific recommendations on habitat preservation and restoration across the state including the waters around Worcester County.Gov. Martin O’Malley last November established the 17-member… Read more »

SNOW HILL – It was three strikes, you’re out this week for the Worcester County Board of Education when the state’s highest court denied a last minute effort to provide relief from paying the $1.1 million settlement lost to a private contractor in a civil suit over a dispute about work done at the new… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – Doug Cymek might be the newest voice on the City Council, but don’t expect to hear him make a big fuss about it.Cymek, who gained a seat at City Hall in his third try, has been the quietest of the council members in his first few months since the election, opting rather… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – The traffic headache that was supposed to last six hours during Monday’s Route 50 Bridge malfunction consequently only lasted three.According to Wayne Weichman of the Snow Hill division of the Maryland State Highway Administration, one of the four tail-locks, which bond the two moving parts of the drawbridge together, broke loose and… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – Now that the lights have gone out, where do all the lights go?As the Winterfest of Lights pulled the plug on yet another year of widespread holiday “oohs” and “aahs” from onlookers both young and old, the arduous task of tearing down and storing over 100,000 lights and large displays that illuminate… Read more »

OCEAN CITY – Less than a month after a long-time Ocean City Police sergeant filed a discrimination civil suit against the town and its police department alleging he was by-passed for promotion to lieutenant when he was activated into service as a U.S. Coast Guard reserve officer following the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks, Ocean City… Read more »

OCEAN CITY — Balancing the budget might be the most difficult task the Mayor and City Council has to undertake each year; Yet with 2009’s economic forecast looking anything but sunny, is the task facing local government more like: Mission: Impossible?Mayor Rick Meehan said that the 2009 Ocean City budget, like every year, must be… Read more »

OCEAN PINES – Everyone in northern Worcester County wants their piece of the slots pie, and the Ocean Pines Association (OPA) moved to protect its own interests in future slot machine gambling revenue in a letter to state elected officials early this month.The letter, dated Dec. 5 but released to the public just this week,… Read more »

BERLIN – Changes sought in Maryland’s slot machine legislation by the Worcester County Commissioners have both surprised and concerned Berlin’s elected officials, who approved a letter to state legislators this week in an attempt to preserve the town’s right under the slots law to 10 percent of slots revenue in the county.Last week, the commissioners… Read more »