Political Pressure At the MVA???

A few weeks ago, I read what he assured was not a "conspiracy" column by Richard Cross III, a  former press secretary to Republican Robert Ehrlich, with a shake of my head.

In it, he claimed questionable policy by the current O’Malley administration (Democratic governor of Maryland) to encourage Republicans to switch their voter affiliation when re-registering their car, changing your address, or other small items of business you might undertake at the Motor Vehicle Administration.

Frederick MD MVA

He said that an informal Facebook survey of his friends identified that only Republicans were being asked whether they would like to “change their party”, not his Democrat friends.

 I shook my head because this column was written in the super-charged electoral atmosphere that includes debate of  voter identification methods. Never before in my 50 years do I remember the people around me worrying so much about what other people do when they register or reach the election judges at the polls.

Because I am a trained journalist---and because I took my daughter to get her learners’ permit at the MVA within a week of reading this piece--I decided to get to the bottom of things. As the “sponsor” of her  permit, my address had to be updated since we moved last November and this gave me a great opportunity to ask questions.

At the desk, the technician (and indeed she was, in the best manner of some government employees, she said that she only follows the prompts offered to her on the computer screen) asked me if I wanted to “update” – that’s literally the word on the screen folks – “my party affiliation”. (The word "change" that Cross said he heard was not on the screen). I answered no, and she non-committally moved on to the next screen--without even a clue as to my party registration.

After the process finished, I asked her if she’d heard about the column or if she ever had complaints on this process from people. No, she said, with the exception of a customer who didn’t care to be asked about voting at all.

I asked her  whether the question on the screen was random, or whether it displayed for everyone she processed.....it comes up on every transaction, she said. Most people, she said, don’t change anything.

Well, there was that conspiracy “busted” by a few honest questions.

I followed up and called the office of the Administrator of the MVA, John Kuo. They shared with me this link on their website, which outlines Maryland's policy in response to the federal law requiring Motor Vehicle offices around the country to follow this procedure. 

So, I suppose to be thorough Mr Cross should investigate how people in red states are being posed the question??? I'm not worried about it, personally. I’m glad to see anyplace where we are making it easier to register, "update" your registration (I suspect many more are switching to Unaffiliated than an organized party!), or to be aware that as a citizen who can drive a car, you have a duty as a citizen to vote for your government officials.

By the way, in a followup column on Cross's blog, he says that the Motor Voter Act does not require this. Too bad he didn't look it up....because it does.

Beware of conspiracy theories. Behind them you'll usually find someone who didn't have time to -- or didn't care to--- check the facts first.

The Industrial Revolution, 2.0: Additive Manufacturing

My fascination with manufacturing as a staple of modern society goes back to my childhood, when I secretly pledged to work in a hanger factory, fearing that as hanger plant jobs became less and less sexy, there would be no one to make hangers.

But there's a new game in town, which I heard about recently at the Rapid-Tech Conference put on by the Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland.

Imagine this: on an oil refinery in a remote offshore area outside Texas, a 25+-year-old, creaky, rusty part --- whose original design doesn't even have a remote chance of being recorded in drawings, manuals or an -- fails, shutting down this multi-million dollar rig, possibly for weeks while the part is re-engineered and re-manufactured on shore.

But then, Version 2.0, imagine this: in a process called additive manufacturing, (in a weird sort of way, its kind of like printing out a digital version of a manufactured part or item), the same part is photographed offshore, scanned, digitally reverse-engineered, sand-molded, "printed" and recreated in a plant in Pennsylvania, and returned, polished and complete, to the oil rig in a matter of days?

According to one of the evangelists of additive manufacturing, Dave Burns of Ex One, it's actually happened. And the potential for a new generation of manufacturing that could make America competitive again is what it represents.

The steps, Burns says, boil down to this:
1) Scan or create CADD file of object to be manufactured.
2. Manipulate by taking said object and "slicing" it digitally, allowing it to be manipulated in layers.
3) Download the layers and recreate the physical object layer by layer. Either through liquid for viscuous material (like cake and the different layers of frosting); powder (layers can join through chemically selected particles) or chemistry (binding of particles), the object is rebuilt.

This contrasts with centuries of our current technology, subtractive manufacturing, in which blocks of material are whittled down to size to put back together.

At the conference, speakers talked about its potential across industries for better everything.

An orthopaedic surgeon said it will allow him to build a custom joint replacement for patients, allowing flexible geometry, quicker, more precise surgery (taking a six-hour surgery to a 90-minute operation) and lowering costs int he prodess. "It's much better to build a custom product for the patient than having to "modify" the patient to fit the off-the-shelf manufactured ,piece," he said.

• At Mercy Medical Center, Whiting Turner design engineers modelled patient-room headwalls in such detail using this process, they refabricated 190 identical rooms using the process off site, saving $4.5 million to the project.

It's a paradigm buster, Burns says, because "you can make anything you can design"....regardless of the complexity of the object, the design and manufacturing costs become equal.  He predicts a shift in the availability of manufacturing jobs: not less jobs, but more for CADD designers and designers who understand digitally based products. Students and professors from CCBC Catonsville are staking their futures on this, with a huge focus on additive manufacturing at the Fab Lab within their Enterprise Institute.

Artist Jan Kirsh works with additive manufacturers in the area to use a version of their technology for a new type of artwork. "Some artists are afraid to try this and try to say its not art, but I disagree," she says."I can be starting with a material manufactured in Italy in the 1600s and can now create it with a new application."

Keep an eye on this new Industrial Revolution. It could be the future of American manufacturing.

The Relevant Volunteer Fire Company


Six days ago, I was host to dozens of wholesome teens and their families who used me as a home for a big event to give out high school student band  awards.


Next week, I'll probably be home to a wedding reception filled with pink balloons, a perspiring bride and loaded plates of banquet food.


On a Saturday last month, more than 100 folks traipsed through my foyer on foot, in wheelchairs and walkers for their oyster and turkey supper.


And today, I'm the place that more than 500 law enforcement officers of various stripes have called home during the G-8 summit. I've been the source of breakfast lunch and dinner, the storage place for riot gear and the parking place for hum-vees, de-contamination tents and the grounds for training exercises for riot response.


I'm a fire hall, specifically the Lewistown Volunteer Fire Department's headquarters, and I serve many purposes for my community.


I'm an American institution, that combination of public need and private response; a kind of throwback to the days of Paul Revere and the riders who responded the call to the citizens to "come to arms" for the betterment of the community.


Am I a dying institution? Probably not. My very versatility, and the fact that I can respond to the needs of both the public sector (G-8 summit) and private parties makes me more relevant than ever. I'm the kind of public "institution" that will weather the cyclical debate about the role of government.

A wedding at the Lewistown Volunteer Fire Company's social hall provides such a contrast to..... 

          Assembly of personnel and supplies for possible mayhem!

English Language Only Ordinance: A "No Brainer" with a Subtle Punch

Frederick County, like many others (see Baltimore Sun editorial about Anne Arundel County) is considering what's promoted as a "no-brainer" by the Board of County Commissioners: an ordinance that would officially designate English as the exclusive language for doing business in Frederick County. (public hearing 7 pm tues feb 21 @ winchester hall)

As many people have written in other places such as the Sun, the move can be viewed as pandering, an empty gesture that can be primarily chalked up to politicians' wish to play to anti-immigrant voters and their anxieties.

Federal law (such as, Occupational Health and Safety Administration requirements for translated Material Data Safety Sheets, for example) requires employers to accommodate employees whose primary language is not English*, so Frederick County will have to comply. (I'm waiting to see if the local point of view agrees with my research, to hear from county attorney John Mathias and risk manager Mike Beard, so stay tuned).

If you put this ordinance win the context of the current atmosphere of fiscal austerity, however, it sends the wrong message to managers and employees.

Today's is a world where the workplace and customer base is increasingly diverse, whether people want to accept it or not. When I worked at a large manufacturer with a diverse workforce (primarily Hispanic and Vietnamese), especially on the production lines, our company realized it was in our best interest to voluntarily provide safety signage and train managers in other languages.

With the passage of this ordinance, managers now have an unspoken signal: stay away from people with differences, as a matter of fact, to make your life simpler, don't even hire them. They may never write it in their job interview notes, but it will undoubtedly be in the backs of their minds as they look for employees who can fit within the communication parameters that are being set.

That's bad when there are hardworking legal immigrants in our community looking for work.

Our County Commissioners have missed the boat on this one. Hiding from the need to be diverse in public communications is a shortsighted; you won't find visionary American businesses hiding their heads in the sand.

*while the assumption is that hispanic immigrants are the dominant non-English language group, Frederick County Public schools' English Language Learners report notes that languages such as Burmese have large populations in our community as well.

Part II: The Demise of Independent Readers

Last blog I talked about the misconception by some readers that

newspapers are supposed to represent the opinions of their audience in editorial pages.

Another interesting news phenomenon in the Internet age is the method in which media consumers select their news, considering there is

1. More access than ever to choices of news sources due to the Internet and

2. More access than ever to non-trained news sources (i.e. journalists trained to fact check with two sources, etc.) on the Internet

As citizens of a democratic society, we have a deep responsibility to seek credible news sources, or to balance partisan sources with information from the opposing view in a search for the truth.

One of the reasons our country is so polarized is the fact that more and more people are getting their news from sources that only verify their own worldview; in other words, liberals in Frederick don't listen to WFMD, Fox TV or read the Washington Times and conservatives live sans NPR, MSNBC and the Huffington Post.

I polled my own friends in a highly unscientific poll on Facebook. I received 34 responses, 51 percent who label themselves as liberal or liberal/moderate; 37% moderate and 12% conservative. I reviewed the responses one by one and can tell you that the highest mix of liberal and moderate respondents (most are from Frederick) use the Frederick News Post, Washington Post, CNN Online and TV,and NPR (most of which are classified often by conservatives as having a liberal bias). CNN was a go-to source across the moderate-liberal span.

I didn't see my conservative respondents turning to talk radio or Fox for their news, but I also didn't see the liberals or moderates turning there to balance what they are hearing.

Its a subject that I hope journalism schools and sociologists will continue to explore (if anyone has access to any good studies, send them my way!) as the vitriol increases and polarization continues.

Another interesting article on the same subject came out in the Washington Post at about the same time I was conducting my little facebook poll:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-south-carolina-a-window-on-an-ideologically-polarized-news-market/2012/01/11/gIQA2ygPDQ_story.html ).

Journalism Is Not Public Relations--Take Note, Ideologues

Part I: The Demise of Independent Journalism

I want to look "beyond the headlines" in this piece to use my training as a journalist and newspaper editor to clarify some misimpressions about what, traditionally, has been the purpose of journalism and media in a democracy.

I studied this in my years to achieve a bachelors of science from the University of Maryland School of Journalism, as well as time spent as a reporter in the 80s and early 90s at four daily news organizations.

This, I learned, practiced, and continue to

expect:

The most trustworthy news organizations are not meant to be a voice of the people, but an independent voice for the people.

The United States had 267 fewer newspapers in 1990 than in 1940 (Colliers Encyclopedia). In 1992, only 37 U.S. cities had major, competing newspapers and the numbers have continued to grow worse since then. The loss of independent newspapers has meant a watering down of independent reporting that has given way to a rise in "viewpoint" news organizations such as Fox and MSNBC, where pretenses of presenting both sides (which I was taught in J-school) are gone.

Many of today's American news consumers seem to no longer realize they have a right to expect, demand and seek independent sourcing and information--- a sad state of affairs in a democracy!

Locally, this got under my skin when Blaine Young wrote his response a week or so ago to the Frederick News-Posts editorial, Tone it Down. He seems to think the newspaper is obligated to use its editorial columns to support his point of view.

He made that pretty clear in his reply to the newspaper's recommendation that he choose between his political career and his talk show. "Under no circumstances will I allow critics, in the media or otherwise, to silence me or run me out of office," he wrote. (His reply is here.) It was an editorial, Blaine, and the purpose of editorials is to publish opinions.

Young says he studied Mass Communications, so he should have had at least one class on History of the Media or Media and Democracy. Or you would think in high school, he might have had a basic Government class. That's where you learn the vital role an independent media plays in a democratic society.

But I don't think he paid attention. Not only does Young accuse the editorial writer of attempting to "silence him" for failing to succumb to his campaign rhetoric, but goes on to accuse the newspaper of trying to put its competition out of business by criticizing. Maybe he's really showing us the cynical way his own mind works with this line of reasoning.

In an editorial column, the newspaper has no duty to be a mouthpiece for a particular point of view.

A similar situation occurred when Joe Volz, a columnist for the Frederick Gazette, talked about this in a piece back in 2010. A letter writer had taken him to task because his column failed to reflect the letter writer's perception of the community's leanings on the subject of illegal immigration.

Volz said, pretty eloquently, that as a columnist, he is not bound to adhere his viewpoints to the perceived opinion of the community. He is absolutely right.

We all know what we expect when we turn to news reported by Fox, NPR and MSNBC. Thats why we should cherish those editorial writers, columnists, and news organizations (I, for one, love WTOP and CNN Radio) who continue to derive their information from sources on both sides of the story.

There are fewer and fewer independent, trustworthy media voices left in our community, and increasingly, in our country. I hope all the Americans who are turning back to the Founding Fathers to guide their opinions in recent years pay special attention to the Founding Fathers belief in the necessity of an independent Fourth Estate.

Part 2, coming shortly: Do we consume news, not for information, but to reinforce our own point of view?

LEED & Marriott: ROI Can Bring Mainstream into the GreenStream

Green building continues to work its way into the mainstream of development in Frederick County. And with it may come changes to county regulations that developers and builders hope make it even sweeter to save resources in new and remodeled buildings.

The latest is an evaluation by Frederick County's Department of Utilities and Solid Waste Management (water and sewer) of the impact of water conservation on buildings.

It was brought to the table by Plamondon Hospitality Partners, representing Marriott and Roy Rogers locally, as a result of their new Towne Place Suites five-story hotel opening this July.

Towne Place Suites: A "Conversion" for the Owner

When a return on investment becomes predictable, (in contrast with a fuzzy, long-term bottom line) businesses are eager to get on the wagon. The Towne Place project is an example of one that finds itself at that place where classical environmental goals dovetail with reality: return on investment.

The project's architect told me recently that when he first encouraged management at Plamondon to strive for LEED, there wasn't a high interest level. They were skeptical about returns, and even more skeptical about investing the high cost of applying for LEED (a building that size has thousands of dollars in application fees at stake) without knowing whether their efforts would qualify.

(LEED is a qualification process monitored by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) that uses a rigid set of criteria to award points for resource-conscious design of a building, ranging from practices to decrease useage of water and energy; increase the amount of construction waste recycled, or the amount of recycled content used in building materials; and many other sustainability areas.


(The photo at right shows the I-70 Rest Stop, westbound, which was a LEED project for the State Highway Administration for which Canam supplied steel and LEED qualification information.)

When he found out Marriott worked with USGBC on a pre-approved templates that guaranteed Silver LEED (a kind of "third place" behind Platinum and Gold LEED) if the prescripted steps were followed, he reversed course and had the project redesigned. Cost savings in design elements like low flow shower heads, LED lighting and other resource-light design choices also began to look sweeter.

A Break from Frederick County?

He brought their efforts to the attention of Frederick County's Department of Solid Waste and Utilities Management with the seemingly logical argument that, if the hotel is using less water, connection fees (charged by the County at time of building to help pay down debt for water and sewer facilities) should be decreased. That argument still has to be vetted, though, according to DSWUM water head Kevin Demosky.

That's because the county bases connection charges on CAFs, or Capacity Adjustment Factors. In 2000, they calculated the useage of water by numerous users of a certain type, and based connection fees on an average of use by all in that category. Those numbers haven't been revamped for years, so its possible that with all the low-flow toilets and showerheads being installed as a matter of course in the hotel/motel category, Towne Place Suites' LEED work may only be "average"--which may not be the answer Pete Plamondon was looking for.

Demoskys department is studying the implications of the request as well as the feasibility of revamping the CAFs to reflect current user categories' useage.

Stay tuned, because incentives for businesses to "go green" still seem to be the carrot that is needed to get the stick moving. Its good to see a hotel going green, not only for the right reasons for resource conservation, but for a more practicable measure of sustainability: profitability.

SEE ALL MARYLAND LEED PROJECTS HERE (TYPE IN MD IN THE "STATE" FIELD).

If you know of local businesses who are implementing sustainable business practices, please comment here....