The Bradford Pear tree has now been officially spurned by Prince George's County. The County Council unanimously adopted a resolution yesterday ditching it as the official county tree.

The Bradford Pear, which was developed by government scientists at a U.S. Agricultural Department Plant Introduction Station in Glenn Dale and released to the public in 1963, was adopted as the official county tree in the 1970s.

For years, the tree was popular among cultivators and municipal tree planters for its shapely branches and bright white flowers. But over time, its branches have proven weak and it often splits in storms. It also has become invasive and pushes out native species.

Governments nationwide have stopped planting the tree and local gardeners pushed for it to lose its designation as the county's official tree. The council agreed to convene a work group to decide on a new county tree.

An effort to expand the role of local labor unions in overseeing Montgomery County's $3 billion employee retirement system appears headed for a quiet death. County Council President Michael Knapp (D-Upcounty) said this week that there are no plans to revive the a measure that would increase to five from three the number of union representatives on the system's investment board from three to five.

A council committee sided with the unions last month, but when the issue came before the full council, members expressed reservations and asked for more time to gather information.

The issue probably won't resurface before the clock runs out on the bill. Under council rules, legislation expires if the council does not act within 18 months, in this case by Oct. 8, 2009. By keeping the issue off the agenda, the council will avoid having to take an up or down vote on the politically charged topic.

"At this point, it's just deferred indefinitely," Knapp said. "There's nothing scheduled, and I don't anticipate it being scheduled."

The bill was proposed by County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) as part of the labor agreement negotiated with the county's largest public employees union. Union leaders had sought additional representation on the board to have more oversight of their members' retirement investments. The measure would also make the president of the Municipal and County Government Employees Organization a permanent member of the panel.

The council's top adviser, Stephen Farber, warned against the expansion, saying that "politics and pension funds are a toxic mix" and that the board needs "investment experts, not bargaining experts."

Representatives for retired county employees also argued against such a move, saying it would weaken the roles of retirees, nonunion workers and taxpayers, who contribute about 87.percent of the funding for the nearly $3.billion system.

"There were enough folks who had legitimate concerns," Knapp said. "I don't think anybody saw a need to take any other action."

That leaves council member Duchy Trachtenberg (D-At Large) as perhaps the best hope for the provision. Trachtenberg said she is seeking an independent review of how other local governments structure oversight of public retirement funds.

Until 2004, Montgomery's investment board had nine members: one union representative, one retiree representative, one nonunion employee representative, two public trustees with investment experience and four senior county managers. Four years ago, then-County Executive Douglas M. Duncan agreed to add two more union members and two more public members, for a total of 13 on the board.

"I do think we need to reexamine it," Trachtenberg said. "I'm trying to find something that works for everybody."

The frigid relationship between Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos recently thawed long enough for the two men to share a meal in Baltimore's Little Italy.

O'Malley and Angelos were brought together for dinner at Boccaccio this month by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), O'Malley confirmed last week.

"It was a very cordial and casual conversation," Miller said, when later asked about the gathering. "It was about moving forward in the future. None of the problems of the past were brought up."

The shared enmity dates to the early days of O'Malley's tenure in Baltimore, when the young mayor and Angelos, a wealthy trial lawyer and member of the city's old guard, sparred over development and other issues.

O'Malley irked Angelos later by saying he could support a new baseball club in Washington while Angelos was fighting the idea.

Though a prolific donor to Democrats nationally, Angelos cozied up to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., Maryland's first Republican governor in a generation, whom O'Malley defeated in November 2006.

It remains to be seen whether the dinner signals a new direction in the personal and political relationships between the governor and Angelos, who declined to comment through a representative.

"The governor was happy to accept the invitation," said O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese. "It was a very forward-looking dinner."

Within moments of her swearing in last week, Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D-Md.) was casting her first vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Edwards defeated Republican Peter James in a special election in parts of Montgomery and Prince George's counties June 17 and was sworn into Congress two days later. In February, Edwards ousted incumbent Rep. Albert R. Wynn in the Democratic primary.

The special election was held to fill the remainder of Wynn's term after his unexpected resignation in May. Edwards will face James again in the November general election.

On the day she was sworn in, Edwards popped directly from a photo op with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to the floor to vote on a bill that would extend parental leave benefits for federal workers. Shortly afterward, she went to a reception hosted in her honor in the basement of the U.S. Capitol.

On her second day, Edwards got an opportunity to weigh in on a particularly thorny issue, voting to oppose a bipartisan bill that would extend the government's eavesdropping capabilities.

The bill also would effectively block lawsuits against telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration's warrantless-wiretapping program.

During her campaigns, Edwards had pledged to oppose immunity for phone companies participating in the program. She had accused Wynn of being too cozy with the industry, which had heavily supported his campaigns. The eavesdropping measure passed the House by a 293 to 129 vote. Supporters included Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.)

"No one denies the importance of combating terrorism and ensuring the protection of the United States and its citizens, but we cannot sacrifice fundamental, constitutional rights in the name of fighting terrorism," Edwards said later in a statement.

Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey led a group of county politicians yesterday who announced they will work to convince local residents to vote against a November ballot referendum that would authorize the state to legalize slot machines.

Ivey was joined by member of the Prince George's County Council, a school board member, several local delegates and two state senators at an elementary school in Laurel, not far from the Laurel Park racetrack.

The track is on the border of Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties and could be eligible for thousands of slot machines, if the referendum is approved by voters.

Ivey said he believes gambling adversely affects those who are already financially suffering.
Others in the group, including State Sen. Douglas J.J. Peters (D-Prince George's) said they believed the slots initiative would result in too little new revenue for Prince George's, given the number of county residents likely to gamble.

The group pledged to activate their supporters in an effort to defeat the referendum.

The Montgomery County Council today selected a community activist and a developer to fill two vacancies on the Planning Board that sets land-use policy, oversees parks and reviews development plans.

Clarksburg community activist Amy Presley replaces Republican Allison Bryant, whose term expired this month. Joseph Alfandre, who developed the Kentlands in Gaithersburg, replaces Democrat Gene Lynch, who died in January.

Alfandre was backed by Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson, whom he has known since the 1970s when Hanson served an earlier term on the board with Alfandre's father. Alfandre said he pioneered the planning practice of including public officials, civic activists, residents, businesses and others in designing the Kentlands, one of Montgomery's first "new urbanist" communities.

Presley, who helped bring to light construction irregularities in Clarksburg, had the backing of a broad cross section of the community, including the Montgomery County Civic Federation and the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.

The council unanimously backed Presley in its first round of voting. Alfandre was chosen after a series of votes in which council members also nominated transit activist Ben Ross and former Prince George's County parks director MaryeÖ Wells-Harley.

As expected, the Montgomery County Council unanimously signed off this morning on Ike Leggett's pick to serve on the commission that oversees water and sewer service in Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

But the discussion over Rockville epidemiologist Roscoe Moore's appointment exposed deep frustration among council members about the state of affairs at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, perhaps exacerbated by the widespread disruption in water service last week following a water main break.

The six-member, bi-county commission is evenly split along county lines over who should lead the agency that is struggling to replace miles of aging infrastructure. A long list of council members chimed in about what they say is a troubled structure of governance that has no mechanism for breaking a tie. They called on state legislators to introduce bills in the next General Assembly session to try to fix the system.

"Water and sewer service is too important to be put at risk by a system that often results in political deadlock," said Council member Phil Andrews.

The Montgomery County school board is expected to vote tonight on whether to give Superintendent Jerry D. Weast emergency power to make students walk farther to school, as a way of coping with escalating fuel costs for buses. More walkers would mean fewer buses. But opponents worry that children won't be safe on roads without sidewalks. What do you think?

Del. James W. Hubbard seems to have started a trade dispute with China -- and he's loving every minute of it.

The Prince George's Democrat began to rankle the Chinese government last winter, when the General Assembly took up his bill to make Maryland one of the first states to ban some products manufactured with lead.

Hubbard, who gravitates toward environmental issues, offered put in the bill in response to a high-profile recall of some Chinese-made toys last year that were found to contain too much lead.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative alerted the Chinese government, which sent a letter from Beijing to protest the bill as a barrier to trade. Lawmakers in Annapolis were unfazed and passed the bill, which takes effect next month.

Then came a four-page missive from the World Trade Organization's Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade -- in English and Chinese -- opposing another of Hubbard's bills, to ban a chemical compound called bisphenol A that is central to the plastics industry. Manufacturers in the United States and China use the compound in baby bottles and other products. With testimony on both sides, the bill did not pass out of a House committee.

The Chinese said there is "no specific scientific evidence" proving that products containing bisphenol A are hazardous to children.

Hubbard said he believes both complaints were prompted by lobbyists for the chemical industry, here at home in Washington.

"I truly feel the [chemical] industry and the toy industry are running to China and saying, 'You ought to oppose these bills, and if you don't you'll lose out on product sales in America,'." he said.

An e-mail to the WTO's Beijing office seeking comment last week went unreturned, as did a call to a spokeswoman for the American National Chemistry Council in Washington.

"It makes me feel good that I'm hitting on something," Hubbard said. "If there wasn't a problem, they wouldn't be spending this kind of money and the time they are to try and kill my bills."
He says a bisphenol ban will be his priority when the General Assembly convenes in January.