Allegiance overlooked zip

This heritage provides a sense of place. Though we did not produce four American presidents, unlike Virginia, we can point with pride to the continued existence of four homes in Annapolis belonging to our signers of the Declaration of Independence: Thomas Stone, Samuel Chase, William Paca and George Carroll of Carrollton.

Their descendants still roam the Old Line State. And, of course, we produced a disgraced U. He played by old rules that considered ethics a foreign concept. His forced resignation was a significant event during the ill-fated Nixon Administration. His successor, Gerald Ford, eventual president, pardoned Nixon, another earthshaking occasion in American history. No longer is it hiding its historical light under a bushel of crabs.

Instead, it is telling the world that Annapolis and its bountiful history and colonial homes are open for public scrutiny and insight. A point of constant pride is the U. One of the most highly regarded liberal arts schools in our country, St. One of the homes that has always caught my attention is the all- wood Sands residence owned by the same family for years. William Sands was one of Marylanders who died in Brooklyn.

This long-overlooked battle allowed Washington and his troops to fight another day. William Sands and his fellow soldiers fought heroically against the better-trained and-equipped British forces. As the Civil War was ripping apart our young country, the Maryland General Assembly met in Frederick in to decide whether to secede from the Union. Truly a border state with highly charged mixed sentiments, Maryland drew urgent attention from Lincoln, who remembered the assault in April on Massachusetts soldiers as they marched to a Baltimore train station, now Camden Yards.

This skirmish was one of the first during the Civil War. With only 51 candidates vying for the 40 Election Committee seats in LegCo, and all being of the same political standard, most of the hopefuls are shoo-ins for success. To select their 40 LegCo representatives, the 1, members of the Election Committee will use the bloc voting method.

This means that each member must mark their ballots to vote for 40 candidates. For their TV presentations on November 26, the candidates were divided into small groups and given a few minutes each to introduce themselves. Since most of the candidates are staunchly pro-government, there was little disagreement as they hastened through their presentations in the few minutes allotted to each. Two non-Chinese candidates are among the hopefuls, a rarity in post Hong Kong.

Originally hailing from Canada and Britain respectively, Allen Zeman and Mike Rowse see no problem in accepting the new order. Both are now naturalised Chinese citizens. If elected, as seems likely, they will make history in that respect and help reinforce the official claims about the new system being open to all. Most noteworthy at a televised presentation last month were the comments by Andrew Fung , who served as information coordinator during the administration of Chief Executive CY Leung.

Fung worries about the lingering British ways of top civil servants. Further in this respect, the Election Committee sector at work will also be an elaborate exercise in the long-established bureaucratic tradition of relying on concurrent positions to reinforce reliability and guarantee compliance. This is because of the convoluted nature of the arrangements that include much overlap between the five-sector electorate of the Election Committee and the Functional Constituencies, thereby creating the impression that they are all just voting for each other — which in many cases they are.

The Election Committee sector also serves as an escape route from the rigours of actually representing ordinary voters. Five candidates in the Election Committee sector are former legislators, whose terms have just ended. They represented Geographic Constituencies in the past and are now switching to the easy-rider Election Committee path instead. These seats evolved from the old habit of appointing chamber-of-commerce representatives to the colonial legislature.

The British began their s popular vote reforms by allowing professionals in the legal and education sectors to elect members of their respective professions to represent them in LegCo. Post reformers gave up trying to reform these constituencies and campaigned instead for a council wholly elected by universal suffrage, as promised by the Basic Law.

But it was not to be. Instead, their role has been affirmed and reinforced by the multiple roles they play. Among the special interests and sectors represented by these constituencies are business, industry, banking, agriculture and fisheries, health care, labour, education, lawyers and so on.

They have also been keen on recruiting social and economic talent as opposed to the familiar pro-Beijing pro-establishment political parties that have become fixtures at election time. The contests nevertheless appear to be mostly formalities — perhaps with a few exceptions. One such exception is the one functional constituency with an openly declared centrist or non-pro-establishment candidate, namely, Tik Chi-yuen.

He also featured in the Election Committee election as the only such candidate to win one of its seats. They would then become formally subject to the new national security rules, with potentially dire consequences if they misbehave. This oath-taking is now mandatory for everyone on the government payroll including top officials, legislators, District Councilors, and civil servants.

Tik argued that it should not be required for social workers since they are supposed to work for the benefit of all and might get into trouble if help was given to the wrong sort of people.

She argued otherwise. Unlike most other democrats, he still seems to believe it was not a final offer and might be subject to ongoing negotiations for reform over time. His opponent said this is not the time for more talks on political reform.

Livelihood issues are most important. Also in the running for the social welfare seat is non-partisan Yip Cham-kai, who did not take part in the forum. If not for these seats, the election might have gone completely unnoticed by the general public, suggesting why the government has just launched a publicity blitz to get out of the vote.

And no wonder. The old design relied on proportional representation to fill multiple seats in five election districts.

List of Allegiant destinations The following is an overview of all Allegiant flights and destinations:. Akron CAK. Albany ALB. Albuquerque ABQ. Allentown ABE. Amarillo AMA. Appleton ATW.

Asheville AVL. Austin AUS. Baltimore-Washington BWI. Bangor BGR. Belleville BLV. Bellingham BLI. Billings BIL. Bismarck BIS. Bloomington BMI. Boise BOI. Boston BOS. Bozeman BZN. Cedar Rapids CID. Charleston CHS. Chattanooga CHA. Chicago MDW. Chicago Rockford RFD. Cincinnati CVG. Clarksburg CKB. Cleveland CLE. Columbus LCK. Concord USA. Dayton DAY.

Denver DEN. Des Moines DSM. El Paso ELP. Eugene EUG. Evansville EVV. Fargo FAR. Fayetteville XNA. Flint FNT.

Fort Lauderdale FLL. Fort Wayne FWA. Fresno FAT. Grand Forks GFK. Grand Island GRI. Grand Junction GJT. Grand Rapids GRR. Great Falls GTF. Greensboro GSO. Hagerstown HGR. Harrisburg MDT. Houston HOU.

Huntington HTS. Idaho Falls IDA. Indianapolis IND. Jacksonville JAX. Kalispell FCA. Kansas City MCI. Key West EYW. Knoxville TYS.