FEMA's Denial Of Hurricane Sandy Disaster Aid To Eastern Shore Residents, Flu Season, and A Ruling On The House Of Delegates Seat Formerly Held By Tiffany Alston

Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski is upset with the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- after it denied a request for federal aid for hundreds of Eastern Shore residents devastated by hurricane Sandy. At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on FEMA Aid yesterday, Mikulski said that many of the Marylanders hit hardest by Sandy can't recover on their own. State officials say they will continue to try to help Eastern Shore residents, while they pursue an appeal (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).

Flu season is underway... and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the seasonal influenza virus has begun to spread earlier this year than it has in nearly a decade. Nationwide, the flu leads to an average of 24-thousand deaths a year. Baltimore City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot says there's still time to get the flu vaccine, and notes that it's widely available for free. There's information about where you can get the vaccine at Baltimorehealth.org or by calling 311 (via our wire service, the Baltimore Health Department and WJZ).

A Circuit Court judge in Prince George's County has ruled that neither former Delegate Tiffany Alston nor businessman Gregory Hall should be given a seat in the Maryland state legislature. Instead, the judge said that Governor Martin O'Malley can either await a new nominee from the Prince George's County Democratic Central Committee or go ahead and name a new delegate himself (via our wire service, the Baltimore Sun, and the Daily Record).

The issue of gambling may be (mostly) behind Maryland lawmakers... but WYPR Senior News Analyst Fraser Smith says it's still ALL ABOUT THE MONEY, as the 2013 General Assembly session nears. Fraser comments in his weekly essay.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is defending the city's automated speed cameras. At a press conference yesterday, the Mayor said the camera error rate is less than one-percent and she has put together a task force to review the entire traffic camera program to reduce the error rate to zero (via our wire service; more here from WBAL)

Baltimore City police yesterday made their one-thousandth gun-related arrest of 2012 (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).

Citigroup's newly announced plans to lay off 11-thousand employees are not expected to have a major impact on the Baltimore region. Less than 1 percent of the organization's 36-hundred Maryland employees are likely be affected. One Maryland Citibank branch is expected to close, that's the one on Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie (via the Baltimore Business Journal and the Baltimore Sun).

It wasn't your typical town hall meeting for the new Baltimore County superintendent. Yesterday, at Chesapeake High School in Pasadena, about 60 students got a chance to ask Doctor S. Dallas Dance questions during the first of two meetings intended to give students a voice in how the school district is run (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).

Harford County Executive David Craig has put out a plan for the two years left in his term (via our wire service, the Baltimore Sun, and the Dagger). 

The holiday season shifts into high gear in Baltimore tonight with the annual lighting of the Washington Monument. It's the 41st year for the lighting -- and the event keeps growing. This year's "celebrity lighter" will be the Ravens' Ladarius Webb; he'll join Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake at around 7:45 tonight to flip on the holiday lights on the monument, triggering a fireworks and laser light show finale. The celebrations surrounding the monument lighting begin at 5:30 in West Mount Vernon Park, at a holiday village featuring food, as well as arts and crafts, and performances from the renowned Morgan State and City College choirs.