The Maryland Senate gave tentative approval Friday to a bill that would give domestic partners the same rights to visit medical facilities and to make end-of-life decisions for their partners that married spouses have. Domestic partners are defined as adults who are mutually dependent on each other for maintenance and support, regardless of their gender.
The Senate resisted efforts by Republicans to weaken the bill in a series of amendments. But the committee did accept an amendment by Baltimore County Sen. Andy Harris that would require an affidavit by domestic partners attesting to their relationship in addition to documents showing joint ownership or tenancy, shared checking accounts, life or health insurance and other items showing a shared life.
Without the affidavit, Harris and others argued that the term “domestic partners” could be applied to roommates and friends in temporary arrangements.
Ban on gaming devices moves ahead
The Senate moved forward Friday an emergency bill to ban gaming devices similar to slot machines on Friday with little debate.Twenty-eight senators, including most of the Democratic leaders, are co-sponsors of the bill, which is moving very quickly after its introduction a little more than two weeks ago.
The bill is designed to phase out gaming machines that might compete with the state for gambling dollars or with slots machines, if approved by the voters in November. The bill exempts electronic bingo currently legal in Anne Arundel County and slot machines run by charitable organizations on the Eastern Shore, as well as so-called tip jars in Western Maryland.
Global warming legislation softened
A Senate committee moved a bill forward Friday that reduces greenhouse emissions in the state, but many of the provisions in the measure have been softened after businesses objected to the requirements.In the major change, the 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gases that the bill would have required by the year 2050 has now by made “a planning goal,” said Sen. Paul Pinsky, a PrinceGeorge?s Democrat who was floor leader for the bill.
The mandate to reduce emissions 25 percent by 2020 remains in the bill, but Pinsky emphasized that “it does not call on every plant, every factory to, reduce it by 25 percent,” but applies to overall emissions in Maryland.
