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.

A third member of the judicial commission that nominated the son of Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr.(D) for a District Court judgeship resigned today in protest over what she called political interference in the process.

Marysabel Rodriguez-Nanney, an immigration and criminal defense attorney in Annapolis, said she "felt the process was not working the way it was supposed to work." She said today she was lobbied by "politically involved people" and "other attorneys" to add Miller to the list but did not provide details.

She joins attorneys Eileen E. Powers and Paula J. Peters, also with Annapolis practices, who signed a letter of resignation to Gov. Martin O'Malley (D).

The lawyers said they could not support the decision of the Judicial Nomination Commission in Anne Arundel County to recommend Thomas V. Miller III to the governor for a seat on the District Court bench. The younger Miller did not make the first cut of nominees recommended to fill three vacant judgeships in the county, but after the governor requested more names to choose from, he made the list. Miller was one of several candidates in the second round who Rodriguez-Nanney said was unqualified for the post.

The Senate president, his son and a spokesman for O'Malley have denied any political interference in the nominating process.

The commission has 13 members; 11 participated in the nominations.

Consumer groups are urging Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) to veto a bill that would allow a Columbia-based, for-profit credit counseling firm whose business practices are under review in multiple states to be licensed in Maryland.

The legislation, approved by the General Assembly during the recent legislative session, would allow AscendOne and businesses like it to operate in Maryland just as nonprofit debt counselors do. Supporters say for-profit counseling firms have helped many homeowners find financial security. But opponents who have fought the bill for two years say the for-profit firms are predators cashing in on vulnerable homeowners hit by the foreclosure crisis.

A veto would need to come by Thursday, when the governor is scheduled to sign a final batch of bills approved during the legislature's annual 90-day session.

"We ask you to pursue a leadership role and veto" the bill, leaders of the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition and Maryland Public Interest Research Group wrote O'Malley (D). "Otherwise, this legislation will ensure that the most vulnerable in our communities will provide the '"profit'" to the for-profit businesses in this industry. The empty pockets of credit-challenged individuals is not the proper foundation for business success."

O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said the governor has not made a final decision on the bill. "There are a number of requests in for us to sign the legislation and to veto it," Abbruzzese said. "He's going through those."

Another controversial measure before the governor is one he was set to sign last month but pulled from the list after a last-minute push by public health advocates. That bill would classify as beer the popular fruity malt liquor drinks dubbed "alcopops" by detractors.

When they passed the bill, lawmakers overrode a recent opinion from Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D), who said the drinks are distilled spirits that should be taxed as liquor and sold only in liquor stores. Abbruzzese said the governor is still weighing whether to sign the bill.

The Board of Public Works this morning approved $9 million toward construction of a new operating room and laboratory at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, but not before requiring the hospital to submit to a review of its minority hiring practices.

The review was a response to complaints from Arnold Jolivet, managing director of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association, who alleged in a letter to the board that the hospital violated state law when it recruited a half-dozen firms to bid on the project, none of them minority-owned.

Rick Dunning, the hospital's senior vice president for facility construction, said the 19,000-square-foot project requires highly specialized work and noted that the winning contractor, Whiting Turner, is partnering with several minority-owned subcontractors.

The board, unable to quickly sort out what happened, agreed with a motion from Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (D) to approve the contract on the condition that a work group led by the Governor's Office of Minority Affairs look into the matter.

"They'll look at your process and at opening it up, so it breathes more life into the goals" of hiring minority firms, said Brown, who led the meeting.

The Maryland Chamber of Commerce will announce its support today for the proposal on the November ballot question to legalize slot machine gambling in the state.

The 850-member business group has supported slots since the General Assembly first debated the issue during the Ehrlich adminstration. Last week, the chamber's board of directors voted formally to endorse the referendum and the coalition organizing to get it passed, joining the Maryland Association of Counties and the state teachers association.

Chamber spokesman Will Burns said the group has made no decisions on whether it will offer financial backing to the pro-slots campaign. But at a minimum, the chamber will be active in the grassroots campaign to pass slots "and let people know what the altneratives are," he said.

"If the referendum fails, we expect more budget cuts, higher taxes or a combination of both," Burns said. If Marylanders end up paying higher taxes, "the business community will be in the crosshairs."