WORTH NOTING: Scout Takes a Hike from Maryland Mansion

Doggone! Scout is out of the Maryland governor’s mansion. Scout, a four-year-old mutt, got the boot after biting the 5-year-old son of Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley, reports The (Annapolis) Capital . Scout, who’s been in the doghouse for his bark as well as his bite, moved in with O’Malley family friends. He may get to come back to State Circle for a visit later this summer.

 

Scratch-and-sniff technology made the jump from stickers to lottery tickets, The Denver Post notes. The Colorado Lottery announced plans to sell crossword tickets that smell like coffee, chocolate and flower bouquets. The scented cards are aimed at women, who already buy 70 percent of the crossword tickets.

 

There’s plenty of reasons Jose N. Vazquez is a long shot for a seat in the Florida House. First, he’s a write-in candidate. Second, he’s in prison. And third, the prison he’s in is nearly 200 miles from the district Vazquez wants to represent, the St. Petersburg Times points out. Vazquez was allowed to register as a write-in candidate, even though Florida prohibits felons from running for office and requires legislators to live in the district they represent.

 

Change you can Xerox is alive in Georgia state government. A task force charged with overhauling the state’s mental health system lifted paragraphs-long passages straight from a 2004 report in Michigan, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) appointed the commission after the newspaper exposed dangerous conditions in the state’s mental hospitals. The report, released earlier this month, also includes information copied from two other sources.

 

The Quaker State won’t be extending its brotherly love to a gathering of Muslims this weekend, the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Over the objection of many of his colleagues, state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R) derailed a resolution honoring the U.S. chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s 60 ^th annual conference. “The Muslims do not recognize Jesus Christ as God, and I will be voting negative,” Metcalfe said on the House floor. Gov. Ed Rendell (D) is one of several politicians who denounced Metcalfe’s comments, which Metcalfe later said were taken out of context.