Today's column: O'Malley's economic deveopment makeover:

It's as plain as the steely resolve in Gov. Martin O'Malley's eyes that something interesting is about to happen to the Department of Business and Economic Development.

The governor didn't tell the department he wanted to overhaul it until just before he said so in a speech last month, according to people familiar with the situation, so O'Malley and DBED Secretary David W. Edgerley haven't been reading from the same PowerPoint plan.

The risk is that, like governors before him, O'Malley will turn Business and Economic Development Department into a deal-chasing boiler room for planning ribbon-cutting announcements with out-of-state companies.

Of course, DBED needs to play the business recruitment game. But its primary focus should be helping the companies that have already thrown in their lot with the state.

Read the rest of the column on O'Malley and DBED.