White Pages Maryland

Maryland Politics: R.I.P. white pages, state legislature says ...

The Senate on Monday joined the House of Delegates in voting to end mandatory delivery of residential white pages to home phone company customers.

Last fall, Verizon asked the Public Service Commission if it could provide free electonic or paper copies only upon customer request. The PSC denied Verizon's proposal, prompting lawmakers to intervene .

The House gave unanimous final passage to a similar bill earlier this month. Only one senator, Sen. Norm Stone, the chamber's elder member, voted against it Monday.

The legislative plan mirrors what Verizon had in mind: The tomes will never again automatically land on doorsteps. 

The changes do not affect advertising-funded business directories, such as the Yellow Book.

(Note about the photo: No residential white pages could be located for this blog entry. Image is a section of Anne Arundel business listings from Yellow Book.) Annie Linskey covers state politics and government for The Baltimore Sun . Previously, as a City Hall reporter, she wrote about the corruption trial of Mayor Sheila Dixon and kept a close eye on city spending. Originally from Connecticut, Annie has also lived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she reported on war crimes tribunals and landmines. She lives in Canton. --> John Fritze has covered politics and government at the local, state and federal levels for more than a decade and is now The Baltimore Sun’s Washington correspondent. He previously wrote about Congress for USA TODAY , where he led coverage of the health care overhaul debate and the 2010 election. A native of Albany, N.Y., he currently lives in Montgomery County.
Julie Scharper covers City Hall and Baltimore politics. A native of Baltimore County, she graduated from The Johns Hopkins University in 2001 and spent two years teaching in Honduras before joining The Baltimore Sun . She has followed the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pa., in the year after a schoolhouse massacre, reported on courts and crime in Anne Arundel County, and chronicled the unique personalities and places of Baltimore City and its surrounding counties.