Published Stories

In The Washington Post! (sort of)

Getting a story picked up by The Washington Post was one of my main goals for my Capital News Service semester.

I may have fallen short of getting a full bylined story into the Post, but my latest piece about campaign finance in the congressional race in Maryland’s 1st District was kindly included in the Post’s “First Click” email/blog about Maryland politics.

It’s not a huge deal, but it’s a nice morale boost after a J-school year that’s been chock-full of doom and gloom about journalism’s future.

Hoyer’s Health Care Honeymoon Chilled by Fiscal Reality

COLLEGE PARK — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Mechanicsville, was less celebratory Thursday than he’s been in the nearly two weeks since the passage of historic health care reform, striking a gloomy tone as he spoke about America’s troubled fiscal future.

Addressing a crowd of roughly 100 University of Maryland students, Hoyer issued a somber warning to the younger generation about the looming problems caused by a government that promises more than it can afford.

“This means more to you than it does to me. It means a lot to me. But to you, it is crushing your generation with debt,” Hoyer said. “If we’re not careful, if you have your Iraq and Afghanistan, or your H1N1 or your Katrina, you will have no resources with which to respond.”

Click to read the story at Southern Maryland Online.

Maryland May Be Too Blue for Republican Surge

A wave of voter anger and frustration sweeping the nation may make for a more interesting election year in strongly Democratic Maryland, conservative activists and candidates say.

That anger — attributed to frustration over the health care reform bill and the stumbling economy — boiled over in dramatic fashion in Massachusetts when Republican Scott Brown upset Democrat Martha Coakley in a special election Jan. 19 to fill the Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy. That result has led to speculation that more Democrats could be headed toward similar upsets in the fall.

Gov. Martin O’Malley, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and all eight of Maryland’s representatives in the House are up for re-election this November. Every incumbent except for one, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Frederick, is a Democrat.

Most of the races look somewhat tame in the early stages of the election cycle, but one is already shaping up to be a sure bet for political drama.

Read the rest of the story in the Baltimore Sun.

Navy hospital ship Comfort prepares to aid Haitian quake victims

The flurry of activity on Pier 11 in Baltimore began Thursday, as the USNS Comfort prepared for its latest mission — to aid in the relief effort following Tuesday’s massive earthquake in Haiti.

The 894-foot-long ship, described as a “floating hospital,” holds a trauma facility equipped to treat up to 1,000 patients at a time. Haitian patients are expected to be transported aboard by helicopter.

Click here to read the rest of the story.