EDITOR'S NOTE: Political Notes is a weekly look and government and political news.

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The Arc of Maryland has named Del. Ted Sophocleus its 2009 Legislator of the Year Award for sponsoring Rosa's Law, which removes the phrase mental retardation from state laws and official documents.

The law, which requires the state to use the phrase intellectual disability, is named in honor of an Edgewater girl with Downs Syndrome, whose family came to Sophocleus last fall and asked him to draft the legislation.

Nina Marcellino Rosa Marcellino's mother, contacted his office after she learned that her daughter was classified as...