J. Adam Fenster/The Gazette George Owings and his House colleagues shared one last laugh Monday before the minority whip officially stepped down.

Owings, a flamboyant yet stoic former Marine, was nearly brought to tears when Minority Whip Tony O'Donnell gave him the journalized proceedings of the 1956 General Assembly session -- when his father served as the House's chief clerk -- as a token of gratitude to Owings' 16-year House career.

Known for his "Owings Unplugged" floor speeches, in which he has thundered against gun control and tobacco taxes, Owings gave a more subdued and eloquent address to his House colleagues, Senate President Mike Miller, Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Mike Steele.

Owings talked about the "perfect storm" in Annapolis with House Speaker Mike Busch, Miller and Ehrlich almost always at odds over taxes, slots and other high-profile issues.

Ironically, Owings was the one elected official who seemed to bring all three Annapolis titans together. He has been Miller's District 27 mate throughout his political career, has been "like brothers" with Ehrlich since their time together in the House and was Busch's chief vote-counter.

"He's a legislator's legislator," O'Donnell said of Owings.

Owings advised the less experienced members of the House that "no bill is your bill," cautioning them to never get too attached to a particular issue because it may get stolen away or buried in a committee. He offered some kind words about the media, who have catalogued his many floor speeches and pithy quotes, but warned his colleagues that "nothing is off the record."

At the close of his speech, Owings quoted Charles Dickens from "A Tale of Two Cities," drawing a comparison to his departure from his beloved House of Delegates as the best of times and the worst of times.

On finishing his speech, Owings was given a several-minute standing ovation that he described as the "pinnacle of my political life."

-- Thomas Dennison

Carter v. Kane, Round One

Unlike last year, state GOP Chairman John Kane was not prancing around the State House on Sine Die carrying a binder with "Target List" in big letters on the front.

But that doesn't mean he forgot about the list. He confidently predicted the GOP will knock off 12 Democratic delegates and seven senators in 2006.

"People are angry. People are frustrated with the Democrat obstructionism in Annapolis," Kane said.

In one of those Sine Die run-ins to remember, Kane had a mini-debate with anti-slots lobbyist and Ehrlich antagonist W. Minor Carter in the basement of the State House.

Carter, who told Kane he is a Republican and a "McCainiac," confidently predicted that slots are not coming to Maryland because of the Republican NIMBY factor.

"Marylanders support slots," Carter said, "as long as they are put in poor neighborhoods and not in their backyards."

Kane then took a shot at Busch, Carter's top anti-slots ally, as a wishy-washy flip-flopper on the slots issue. Kane said the speaker is "all over the map" when it comes to slots -- first he opposes them, then he wants casinos, then he is ready to make a deal.

"Your guy flip-flops more than a pancake at IHOP," Kane quipped.

Carter immediately changed the subject, accusing Kane of resorting "to personal attacks."

To be continued next year, we're sure.

-- Thomas Dennison

Red-headed Eskimo iced

In the session's final days, a House committee axed Ulysses Currie's Senate bill that would have given $1 million to one woman from the state's Transportation Trust Fund.

The woman, Helene Selig, wanted to buy back four acres her late husband sold to the state 25 years ago. Selig wanted to pay the same price the state did -- $700,000 -- instead of the $1.8 million bid the property fetched at auction.

-- Steven T. Dennis

No People's Counsel

The House Economic Matters Committee caved in to a battery of insurance industry lobbyists and defeated Miller's bill to establish a People's Insurance Counsel to represent the interests of insurance consumers in Maryland.

Miller sponsored the bill in response to the insurance nightmares of Hurricane Isabel victims, particularly those in Southern Maryland and Baltimore County. The insurance industry was unable to kill the bill in the Senate but had more luck convincing Economic Matters Chairman Dereck Davis to keep the bill bottled up in the House.

Davis came onto the Senate floor to talk to Currie when Miller stopped the proceedings to single out the delegate and tell him that the insurance lobbyists sitting in the balcony would like to see his bill come to the House floor.

After a lot of laughter, Davis left the floor and told us his committee "worked extra hard on the bill because it was the Senate president's," but the bill "represented a major sea change in Maryland policy."

Davis said his committee will work on the issue over the summer.

-- Thomas Dennison

Immigrant tuition

sacrificed

Roy Dyson, who derailed the immigrant tuition bill by not voting on it on Sine Die, said he worried the bill could come to the Senate floor and prompt Republicans to filibuster it along with the so-called "living wage" bill.

"My rationale was timing," Dyson said. "We found out that there would be a filibuster on the living wage, and we could not afford another filibuster."

Dyson said organized labor was supportive of Sheila Hixson's immigrant tuition bill in the House but wanted the living wage bill more.

"I didn't want to see them lose both bills," Dyson said.

Dyson's move, which killed the immigrant bill on a 5-5 vote, had Hixson steaming.

The House Ways and Means chairwoman said it was her biggest personal disappointment this session and blasted Dyson for saying he would support the bill, only to wig out at the last minute.

The tuition bill, which would have given illegal immigrants who graduate from Maryland high schools in-state tuition at state colleges and universities, had been the top priority of the immigrant lobby. A similar bill was vetoed last year.

-- Thomas Dennison

and Steven T. Dennis

Political payback on TRIM

A bill to modify Prince George's County's Tax Reform Initiative by Marylanders was held until the last day of the General Assembly session in the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, and then the committee declined to vote on it.

"Senators were upset because I took Prince George's County out of the slots bill. So they took no action on my bill," said Carolyn Howard, chairwoman of the Prince George's House delegation.

Howard, a member of Ways and Means, amended Ehrlich's bill to exclude Prince George's as a site for two slots facilities. "They were real upset about that, but I was following the desires of my constituents, who did not want slots in Prince George's County," Howard said.

Many of those constituents, it should be noted, were upset with Howard for seeking to turn back the 1978 property tax cap.

--Sonsyrea Tate

Separation of church

and alcohol

Theo's Restaurant, a family-owned Greek eatery in Rockville, is one step closer to getting a liquor license.

A bill allowing a neighboring church to waive a distance requirement that would have banned the restaurant from getting a liquor license went the distance in the General Assembly this year. Ehrlich signed the bill into law on Tuesday, according to an aide with Del. Luiz Simmons.

Simmons' bill would allow Theo's to apply to Montgomery County for a liquor license if the nearby church puts up no resistance.

-- Noelle Barton

Where did she go?

Betty Hager Francis, director of the Prince George's County Department of Public Works and Transportation, was busy last week answering calls about dangerous buses being removed from service and responding to Letters to the Editor in The Gazette concerning litter along some roadways in the county. Then, poof! On Monday she was gone.

"Ms. Hager Francis has not been with us effective Monday," said a woman who answered the phone at the department's office Wednesday.

Why is she gone?

Calls were referred to County Executive Jack Johnson's director of communications.

There was talk of removing Hager Francis early in Johnson's term because new county executives often install their own department heads. But she was praised for her management during a nasty snowstorm last year, and it seemed that she would be allowed to stay. She was one of the final department leaders to leave.

This week, word of her departure spread quickly. Her colleagues said they were surprised, and that she had not hinted at leaving. But Johnson denied rumors that she had been fired, saying only that he "accepted her resignation."

It was an abrupt resignation, by all accounts.

Hager Francis has been replaced in the interim by Dale Coppage, a 28-year employee at the department. He worked the last 10 years as deputy director.

--Sonsyrea Tate