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Nick Anderson ― Washington Post

The federal government awarded $330 million Thursday to two groups that are developing new student assessment systems for the District, Maryland and dozens of other states in an effort to upgrade their much-maligned standardized tests.

Drawn from the Obama administration’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund, the grants aim to build on the fast-growing movement toward national standards in English and math. With new expectations for what students should learn come new hopes for improving how their achievement is measured.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers - a consortium that includes the District, Maryland and 24 other states - would receive $170 million. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, representing 31 states, would receive $160 million.

Anne E. Kornblut and Lori Montgomery ― Washington Post

With just two months until the November elections, the White House is seriously weighing a package of business tax breaks - potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars - to spur hiring and combat Republican charges that Democratic tax policies hurt small businesses, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations.

Among the options under consideration are a temporary payroll-tax holiday and a permanent extension of the now-expired research-and-development tax credit, which rewards companies that conduct research into new technologies within the United States.

The Bay Net

Democrat and small business owner, Vincent ‘Vinny’ Ippolito made the trip down from Charles County to talk with Baynet Radio and TheBAYNET.com about his run for office and his position on a number of issues in his quest to become the next County Commissioner for Charles’ District 4.

When asked why he decided to run, Ippolito said, “I’ve been a member of the Democratic Central Committee and am very familiar with a lot of the issues facing Charles County. I decided to run when the current Commissioner from District 4, Gary Hodge decided to run for State Delegate.”

Ippolito stated that he has the knowledge and background to be an effective leader for Charles County’s second most densely populated District which covers the area of east St. Charles, North of Billingsley Rd. and South of Route 5. “Prior to my work on the Central Committee I was active in the 2004 Presidential Race and as the years went by, became more and more active in the political process,” said Ippolito.

Yvonne Wingett and JJ Hensley ― USA TODAY

An Arizona sheriff has been sued by the U.S. Justice Department for refusing to cooperate with a civil-rights probe into police practices and jail operations.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, is disappointing given that he and his office were cooperating on the federal probe. “I thought we were really close to getting this resolved,” the sheriff said.

Arpaio restated his confidence that Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies do not target Hispanic citizens because of their race, and said if the Justice Department had any evidence of racial profiling, they wouldn’t be suing him to get records to prove that deputies profile.

Sandy Block ― USA TODAY

U.S. Savings Bonds, long favored by gift-givers and conservative investors, are going paperless.

Starting Sept. 30, federal employees who invest in Savings Bonds through payroll deductions will be required to buy them from TreasuryDirect.gov, where they’ll be stored electronically. The requirement will extend to private-sector employees on Jan. 1, 2011.

In fiscal 2009, Treasury sold 12 million Savings Bonds through payroll deductions. About 38% of those bonds were purchased by federal employees, says Joyce Harris, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Public Debt.

The elimination of paper bonds will be limited to investors who buy them through payroll deduction. Individuals will still be able to purchase paper Savings Bonds for themselves or to give as gifts at banks and credit unions, Harris says.

Andrea K. Walker ― Baltimore Sun

An additional 3,500 uninsured Marylanders will get health coverage as the state expands its high-risk program using $85 million in federal funding received under national health care reform.

The program will enable those who have been denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition to obtain health insurance. The first of them became eligible for coverage yesterday.

“This is an important day and shows we are moving in the right direction in improving our health care system,” said Rep. John Sarbanes, a Maryland Democrat. He said denial of coverage because of pre-existing conditions became the “poster story for health care reform in this country.”

TOM MURPHY ― WTOP

Workers are paying a larger portion of their health insurance costs as businesses shift more of the burden to their employees to help ride out the economic downturn, an annual study shows.

The average employee contribution toward premiums for family coverage climbed 14 percent this year to nearly $4,000, according to a report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust released Thursday. Contributions for single coverage grew 15 percent. But total premiums _ the amount split by the employer and employee _ rose a modest 3 percent for family coverage and 5 percent for single employees this year.

The Bay Net

From Maryland Emergency Management: While hurricanes are unusual in Maryland, we sometimes sustain damage – and some fatalities – from the tropical storms that follow in their wake. Agnes in 1972, Floyd in 1999 and Isabel in 2003 are some of the hurricanes-turned-tropical-storms that have caused significant damage in Maryland in recent history.

With the uncertainty of the massive storm, now with the Hurricane Hunters measuring sustained winds of 159 miles per hour and the stalled cold front that weather officials were hoping would push the storm back out to sea losing the race to the east coast, Earl could hit the Outer Banks of North Carolina by late today. The track as predicted now will keep the storm bouncing all along the east coast with a direct landfall now predicted in Southeastern Mass. Hurricane force winds are currently 100 miles out from the 30-mile wide well-formed eye and Tropical Storm force winds currently extending over 200 miles out from the eye, the likelyhood of a severe wind event here in Maryland grows.

Those storms frequently cause flooding, coastal storm surge and wind damage and often spawn tornadoes and thunderstorms. Wide-spread power outages are common after a hurricane.

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Maryland Independent

THE BOARD OF APPEALS FOR CHARLES COUNTY,MARYLAND has been petitioned by Benedict Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad, Inc., for a variance to the front, rear and side building restriction lines, an increase above the maximum floor area ratio (FAR), and an increase above the maximum impervious surface ratio (ISR) to accommodate an expansion to the existing station, as described in Article II, Section 297-29, Article VI, Section 297-89, and Article XXV, Section 297-416 of the Charles County Zoning Ordinance. The subject property, designated as Tax Map 49, Grid 7, Parcels 57, 58 and 19 (Lots 1-12), is located in the Residential Village (RV) and Commercial Village (CV) Zones and within the Limited Development Zone (LDZ) overlay of the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area. The Board of Appeals is hereby giving notice that a Public Hearing will be held on this matter Tuesday, September 14, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in the Commissioners Meeting Room of the Charles County Government Building, La Plata, Maryland.

ALAN SAYRE ― WTOP

An offshore petroleum platform exploded and was burning Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast, west of the site where BP’s undersea well spilled after a rig explosion.

The Coast Guard said no one was killed in the explosion, which was spotted by a commercial helicopter flying over the site Thursday morning. All 13 people aboard the rig have been accounted for, with one injury. The extent of the injury was not known.

They were rescued from the water by an offshore service vessel, the Crystal Clear, said Coast Guard Cmdr. She said they were taken to a nearby platform. All were being flown to the Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma to be checked over.

MARCY GORDON ― Houston Chronicle

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a panel investigating the financial crisis that regulators must be ready to shutter the largest institutions if they threaten to bring down the financial system.

“If the crisis has a single lesson, it is that the too-big-to-fail problem must be solved,” Bernanke said Thursday while testifying before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

Bernanke also said it was impossible for the Fed to rescue Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy in 2008 because the Wall Street firm lacked sufficient collateral to secure a loan. Lehman’s former chief executive told the panel a day earlier that the firm could have been saved, but regulators refused to provide help.

Daily Record

Productivity in the spring fell by the largest amount in nearly four years while labor costs rose, signals that companies may have reached the limits of squeezing more work out of fewer workers.

Productivity dropped at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the April-to-June quarter, double the 0.9 percent decline originally reported a month ago, the Labor Department said Thursday. Unit labor costs rose 1.1 percent, the biggest rise in labor costs since late 2008.

7:00 p.m. Meeting to be held in Commissioners’ Conference Room
[...]
CONSENT ITEM

4. FINAL PLAT

A. CHELSEA MANOR, PHASE 1A, Lots 1-11, 55-67, XRS 10-0008, 7th e.d., 20.83 acres, 24 townhouse lots, Core Mixed Residential Zone, located off of Marshall Hall Rd., Applicant: Chelsea Manor II, LC

DISCUSSION ITEMS

5. PUBLIC MEETINGS

A. MITCHELL PROPERTY, ZMA 09-36, Request: Rezone from RR to PUD, Applicant: St. Charles Community, LLC

B. BEALL PROPERTY, ZMA 09-37, Request: Rezone from RM to PUD, Applicant: St. Charles Community, LLC

C. MASTER PLAN AMENDMENT #09-90(15) FOR THE VILLAGES OF WOODED GLEN & PINEY REACH , Request: Incorporate the Mitchell Property and Beall Property into Villages of Wooded Glen & Piney Reach Master Plan; to Assign Dwellings Units to the Various Neighborhoods in those Villages; to Establish a Dwelling Unit Mix for those Neighborhoods; and to Provide Other Updates and Revision to the Current Master Plan, Applicant: St. Charles Community, LLC

D. AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN THE RURAL AREAS, ZTA 10-123, Request: to Permit Affordable, Multi-Family Housing in the AC and RC Zones, Applicant:
Cornell Posey

6. DECISION

A. WATER RESOURCE ELEMENT OF THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN, Applicant: Charles County Commissioners

Tim Grant ― Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Withdrawing money from a 401(k) prior to retirement age goes against the advice of most financial experts, yet a record number of people are dipping into funds they’ve set aside for retirement to pay for immediate needs.

Fidelity Investments, one of the nation’s largest suppliers of retirement plans, recently reported a sharp increase in the number of 401(k) participants who tapped their retirement accounts for hardship withdrawals between April and June this year.

About 62,000 of Fidelity’s 11 million account holders requested hardship withdrawals compared with 45,000 who did so during the same period last year. The top reasons were to prevent foreclosure and eviction, pay for college and purchase a primary residence.

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