Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

For a decade, a 50-foot-deep berth at Seagirt Marine Terminal has been on top of the wish list for Baltimore’s port. Good things — including 2,700 permanent jobs — must come to those who wait because it’s beginning to look at lot like Christmas has finally arrived in South Baltimore.

In a first-of-its-kind arrangement for the port, state officials have negotiated a contract to lease Seagirt to a private company, Ports America Chesapeake, for the next 50 years. In return, Ports America would build the much-anticipated berth at a cost of $105 million.

But wait, there’s more. The company has also agreed to invest $500 million to maintain and improve the terminal over time and to give the Maryland Transportation Authority (which has financed Seagirt’s development) $100 million once the deal is approved.

As Seagirt’s sole operator, Ports America would also make payments to the Maryland Port Administration depending on the volume of container traffic. The amount would increase once the volume hits 500,000 containers a year (from the current 350,000).

And in one more important trade-off in the deal, Ports America would surrender 65 acres at Dundalk Marine Terminal so the MPA could expand the importing of cars and trucks. Right now that potentially lucrative trade is at a roadblock because the port lacks sufficient space to temporarily park the vehicles.

The MPA has been looking for a public-private partnership deal for years, but this, at least at first glance, would seem to exceed expectations. In unveiling the arrangement Friday, Gov. Martin O’Malley envisioned it creating a total of 5,700 jobs. That includes the 3,000 temporary jobs made possible by construction at the port and on whatever projects the Transportation Authority chooses to pursue.

Just as importantly, the investment means the port can attract the much-anticipated massive container vessels made possible by upgrades to the Panama Canal that are expected to be completed by 2014. Baltimore’s shipping channel is deep enough to serve such mega-ships, but its current berths are not, nor are the existing cranes large enough to reach across their oversized decks.

Bigger ships mean lower shipping costs for trade from Asia to the East Coast (and then connected by rail to the Midwest). Baltimore is uniquely situated to take advantage of the opportunity. But financing the 50-foot berth through traditional means — the Maryland Transportation Trust Fund — was all but impossible given the competing highway and transit needs.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Port of Baltimore finally gets its 50-foot berth" »

Posted by Andy Green at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

The recommendation by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that mammograms not be given routinely to women under 50 and that the teaching of self-exams be de-emphasized has sparked a spirited debate among doctors, researchers, advocates and ordinary women. That’s a good thing. The questions of when such screenings are most effective and what benefits and risks they provide are too seldom considered in a medical culture that tends to assume more tests are always better. There are thousands of examples of women whose potentially deadly cancers were caught early because of mammograms, and many others in which women suffered unnecessary consequences ranging from anxiety to needless treatment because the tests raised false alarms. It’s a debate worth having.

But using that question of medicine and public health policy as a talking point to oppose reforms of the health care system that will result in vastly greater access to medical care for millions of people is nothing but scaremongering. Opponents of President Obama’s effort to reform the nation’s health care system, from conservatives in Congress to the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, are ominously pointing to this recommendation by a previously obscure panel as proof positive that health reform will result in the rationing of care and that people will die as government bureaucrats scramble to cut costs.

This line of reasoning ignores the fact that rationing already exists in the American medical system. Millions of low- and middle-income women are rationed out of mammograms because they lack health insurance. Others find treatment for breast cancer rationed by insurance company bureaucrats who scramble to increase profits by denying coverage, sometimes on the flimsiest of pretexts. And the extent to which private insurance companies now offer coverage for screening tests is often determined by state mandates that they do so. Those mandates, incidentally, are also something many conservatives oppose; when they talk about allowing the sale of health insurance across state lines, what they mean is that they would like people to be able to purchase lowest-common-denominator policies from states that take a minimalist view on what kinds of tests, procedures and treatments ought to be covered. (According to the New York Times, all states except Utah require mammogram coverage for women in their 40s.)

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Politicizing mammogram guidelines" »

Posted by Andy Green at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

The economic downturn that has caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, homes and sense of financial well-being has also produced a dramatic increase in the number of people who go to bed hungry at night. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported last week that nearly 50 million Americans -- including almost a quarter of the nation’s children -- lacked consistent access to enough to eat in 2008. That was the highest figure recorded since the department began keeping such statistics in 1995.

In Maryland, by most measures the one of the wealthiest states in country, as many as 456,000 residents are at risk of hunger for at least part of the year, according to the Maryland Food Bank, which collects and distributes foodstuffs to needy families and individuals.

Food bank officials say that 205,000 children and 73,000 senior citizens in Maryland are at risk, and that the USDA statistics are already a fact of life for workers at local food pantries and soup kitchens: Since the recession began, demand for such services has gone up 50 percent in some areas, with the biggest increases coming among the working poor and the newly unemployed, many of whom would have been considered middle class just a year ago.

At the same time, the recession has wreaked havoc on donations from food producers and private individuals. This year food bank officials began renting trucks to haul foodstuffs from as far away as Rochester, N.Y., after local supplies fell short. They’ve also revived a classic strategy of the poor: Asking farmers to let them collect the gleanings from a field after the harvest comes in.

Even so, charitable groups are having a hard time keeping up. Demand is growing fastest in Baltimore County and in Kent County on the Eastern Shore. Meanwhile, there’s persistent need in Baltimore City and in the state’s rural areas. Last year the food bank distributed some 18.6 million pounds of food across the state, and that was only enough to satisfy a fraction of the need. Officials estimate the food bank would have to distribute nearly 80 million pounds of foodstuff a year to end hunger in Maryland.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Hunger at the holidays" »

Posted by Andy Green at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

Baltimore, long a center of African-American culture on the East Coast, is a natural home for the region's first Negro League Baseball museum, and from a historical perspective, the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor is the perfect place to put it. That area was the center of black culture in Baltimore for decades, and the plan moving forward with the city's blessing calls for the museum to be built next to a refurbished Sphinx Club, which once played host to the likes of Billie Holiday and Cab Calloway.

From a marketing perspective, though, the location is a bit of a risk. Dedicated community members are working to revitalize the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor, but it is most certainly a work in the early stages of progress. A Negro League museum downtown, near Camden Yards, the Sports Legends Museum and the Babe Ruth House Museum, would be a guaranteed smash hit, but getting tourists up to Pennsylvania Avenue, which never recovered after the riots of the late 1960s, is going to take some work. We hope that this development, along with the recent reforms in Baltimore's live music regulations, could help restore the area to its former glory, but for that to happen, the city will need to expand its commitment to the area and enlist marketing partners such as the Orioles to make sure this museum is a success.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Ida and an early season nor’easter combined to pack a one-two wallop that lashed at Ocean City, along with much of the East Coast, last week. It was a storm of a magnitude that hadn’t been seen for more than a decade at the resort town.

Yet on Sunday as the skies cleared and temperatures rose to a nearly summer-like 70 degrees, the usual Ocean City boardwalk shops and restaurants were open for business as if nothing out of the ordinary had taken place. That couldn’t have happened a generation ago.

The difference is that Mother Nature’s fury was unleashed largely on piles of sand instead of hotels, shops and the boardwalk. For 21 years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been pumping off-shore sand onto Ocean City’s beach, building up dunes like a protective wall running from 27th to 146th streets that kept more valuable property out of harms’ way.

The dunes took a big hit, of course. Town officials estimate that up to half of all the sand used to build up the dunes has returned to the Atlantic Ocean. Some stretches of beach are much more narrow, as thundering waves swept big chunks of that sand back to the deep as well.
But Ocean City’s $8 billion in private property? The damage -- caused mostly by minor flooding from wind-driven high tides creeping up from the bay side -- is hardly worth mentioning.

The so-called beach “replenishment” project at Ocean City has drawn its share of critics over the years. Pumping sand and even building sea walls along the boardwalk can seem a bit like tilting at windmills -- the shifting sands of a barrier island like Ocean City were never meant to stay in one place for very long.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Ocean City saved by a Great Wall of Sand" »

Posted by Andy Green at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

If there are two groups of people held in disregard these days it’s anyone who works for an insurance company or the government. That makes those employed by the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, the state’s quasi-public auto insurer of last resort, something of a two-fer in the public’s eye.

One can only imagine that reaction of people when the term, "bonus," is tossed in there, too. But that’s what happened recently when state legislative auditors chided MAIF for rewriting bonus plan rules in the middle of 2008 so its workers could remain eligible for $1.4 million in end-of-year pay-outs.

What happened exactly? For years, MAIF has operated an employee incentive plan, something made possible because the organization is not truly a state agency but is funded entirely by insurance premiums. Drivers come to MAIF when they’ve been turned down by private companies either because they have a bad driving record or a poor financial one.

The theory is that MAIF can operate more like a private company. When it does well, the employees get a modest boost – the average MAIF salary last year was $57,500 and the average bonus $3,400.

But how to measure performance to justify the incentive payments? That’s the rub. MAIF doesn’t turn a profit so it’s used two major criteria in recently years – surveys that monitor customer satisfaction and the organization’s financial posture as measured by its expenses compared to receipts. If employees find ways to reduce expenses and improve efficiency, the theory went, that ratio usually improves.

That’s fine in a normal year but 2008 proved far from average. MAIF’s financial situation worsened as the economy slid into recession. That obviously had little, if anything, to do with employee performance and much more to do with fewer people buying MAIF policies and rising costs of claims.

By mid-year, MAIF’s board saw that the bonus criteria was unrealistic and decided to change it. In doing so, they clearly ignored the plight of the state budget which was simultaneously in the process of substantial reductions and employee furloughs.

But so what? If MAIF is truly independent, that shouldn’t matter. Yet at the request of the O’Malley administration, MAIF made furloughs, too. And that was kind of silly since salary reductions at MAIF don’t provide one thin dime to the state treasury, only less in state taxes collected from MAIF employees who had their salaries cut.

Continue reading "Tomorrow's editorials: MAIF bonuses" »

Posted by Andy Green at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

By now the dangers of smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke are so well established that hardly anyone disputes the risks they pose to public health and well-being. Every year some 390,000 Americans die from smoking-related illnesses, and tobacco contributes to 1 out of every 6 deaths annually in this country. That’s why we applaud Towson Univerity’s decision last week to ban smoking everywhere on its campus. We only wonder why it took the university this long to take a step that so obviously benefits its students and the entire school community.

Smoking is already banned inside most schools, hospitals, offices, public buildings and restaurants in the state. Lighting up is also prohibited on the grounds of public elementary and secondary schools. But Towson will be Maryland’s first four-year college to ban smoking anywhere on its grounds. Whatever inconvenience that may cause some students and staff will surely be made up for by the prospect of a healthier, cleaner environment for everyone.

Last year, Montgomery College, which offers a two-year program, became the first Maryland institution of higher learning to ban smoking on its campus. It was followed by community colleges in Harford, Frederick and Carroll counties. Nationwide, about 365 colleges and universities no longer permit smoking anywhere on campus, including the entire Pennsylvania state university system.

College students are just entering adulthood, and we ordinarily support their right to be free from the pressure of campus authority figures and allowed to make their own decisions, good or bad. For that reason, last week we supported the University System of Maryland’s decision not to adopt rules on campus screenings of pornography. But smoking is different. First, the nature of second hand smoke means that others suffer the consequences of one person’s bad habit, and second, the addictive nature of smoking makes it one bad decision that can be impossible to recover from.

There’s good reason schools are willing to take strong measures to discourage smoking among the students in their charge. Studies have shown that most adult smokers took up the habit while still in their teens: Some 90 percent of all smokers start before the age of 18, and the average age for a new smoker is just 13.

But by the time young people reach their 20s, their chances becoming addicted drop dramatically. If a young person can stay away from tobacco until he or she graduates from college, the likelihood of their ever falling victim to a smoking-related illness is relatively small.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Towson U. bans smoking" »

Posted by Andy Green at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

While the mentally ill this country face numerous inequities -- a lack of adequate health care, employment opportunities and ostracism from the mainstream of society among the more obvious injustices -- it is not an exercise in discrimination but in common sense to try to keep guns out of the hands of the potentially dangerous.

That’s why most states bar gun sales to those with a mental disability -- often defined as someone who has been civilly committed to treatment, declared not guilty by reason of insanity, diagnosed schizophrenic, or in some states, has a history of serious drug and alcohol abuse.

While it is unfortunate that some people pose a substantial risk to themselves or others, it would truly be madness for the rest of us to ignore that fact. Providing a gun to someone who has previously demonstrated an inability to sort right from wrong is not unlike engaging everyone in an unending round of Russian roulette -- eventually it’s going to get people killed.

That’s why it’s somewhat bizarre that North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr is standing behind legislation he introduced last March that would restore gun ownership rights to veterans designated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Justice as “mentally incapacitated” or “mentally incompetent.”

Senator Burr’s beef appears to be that the standards used by the VA for determining mental incapacity were developed from concerns over whether certain veterans can be responsible for their personal finances. If they could not manage their VA benefits, they made the list that, in turn, is used to flag gun purchases under the Brady Act’s background check.

Although an inability to manage one’s finances is far form a perfect measure of dangerousness, it’s not an especially unreasonable standard either. To assume that individuals who have served in the military are not capable of unreasoned violence is to deny reality. Health studies have shown that veterans are more likely to commit suicide than the general public, and when they do so, they are most likely to use guns.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Veterans should not be exempt from the Brady Bill" »

Posted by Andy Green at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

When parking meters were invented about 70 years ago, they were designed for one purpose — to prevent drivers from hogging precious parking in the nation’s urban centers. Without available spaces to park visitors’ cars, merchants couldn’t bring in customers, and the local economy would suffer.

Meters are still helpful in this regard, but today their purpose has clearly expanded. Parking revenue, not just from meters and garages but from citations issued for violations, reliably produces millions of dollars of income each year to finance Baltimore’s government.

Yet surely the inventor of the parking meter did not anticipate that his work would allow Maryland’s largest city to gouge Josh Roberts of Seattle in a manner that, had it been attempted in the private sector, would be regarded as racketeering of the lowest order. At least loan sharks have been known to give their prey a break once in a while; the city is not so easily deterred.

As The Sun reported this week, Mr. Roberts wrote a check for $948 to cover the cost of a single parking violation incurred in 2004 only to find out that he actually owed $64 more. The penalties were adding up so fast that even the city’s collections agent had trouble calculating the full amount.

For a debt to grow from Mr. Roberts’ initial $52 to an astronomical $1,012 in five years is nothing short of breath-taking. Had this been a credit-card company practicing such usury instead of a municipality, someone would likely be going to jail right now, and it would not be Mr. Roberts.

Incidentally, Mr. Roberts claims to have known nothing about the parking ticket before this year. It was allegedly incurred shortly before he moved to Seattle, and the law firm employed by the city to track overdue payments only recently found him.

He had a choice: Either pay the ticket and the penalties that had accrued at a rate of $16 a month or fly to Baltimore, hire a lawyer, and contest it. As that second option would have cost at least twice as much, he really had no choice at all.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Baltimore's parking fine usury" »

Posted by Andy Green at 4:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. went too far when it thretened the City Council this week that it would halt its social service programs in the capital if lawmakers there approve a gay marriage proposal next month. According to The Washington Post, the church is concerned that the law would force it to extend medical benefits to same-sex partners, to facilitate adoptions in gay households or rent a church hall to a gay group.

As far as church activities funded by public dollars go, let's hope so. No institution, no matter what its guiding principles, should be allowed to discriminate with public money. It is sad that the church apparently believes its misguided effort to ostracize a significant portion of the population is more important than its mission to help Washington's poor and hopeless. Some 68,000 people rely on the church's services, including homeless shelters and health clinics, and it's not right to hold them hostage to the church's political agenda.

This conflict also points out a limitation of the government's habit of relying on outside groups to provide social services. Those who argue for government to play a smaller role in establishing the social safety net often note the ability of private charities to pick up the slack. But as this situation makes clear, organizations that choose to do so can also choose to stop.

Posted by Andy Green at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

We treat children differently from adults in all sorts of ways because we recognize they are not fully formed intellectually, emotionally or ethically. We restrict their ability to see R-rated movies, to buy alcohol, to get tattoos or vote. It's hard to justify, then, the fact that more than 100 people in the United States are now serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for crimes other than murder that they committed as juveniles. Such a harsh sentence is understandable for repeat adult offenders, people whose patterns of behavior indicate they will never change their criminal ways. But given our widespread judgment in all other areas of life that minors are still developing, how can we justify a sentence that doesn't recognize the possibility of change?

The arguments on the issue this week before the Supreme Court appear to have fallen on familiar lines. Four conservative justices were looking for a way to avoid concluding that such sentences amount to cruel and unusual punishment, and four liberal justices were rallying around the opposite point of view, leaving Justice Anthony Kennedy in the middle.

It's not surprising -- he was the swing vote in the case that held that the death penalty was unconstitutional for juvenile offenders -- but it's ironic given the other reason he made the news this week. Justice Kennedy gave a speech recently at the Dalton School in New York, but, before doing so, he insisted that any student journalists covering the speech get his approval for their story before running it in the school newspaper. Justice Kennedy apparently does not believe that minors can handle the responsibility of writing down a few quotes from a speech. Now he's deciding whether minors should be forced to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

During this week's arguments, conservatives said the reason for the death penalty decision was that capital punishment is fundamentally different from other sentences. True. But the decision was also correct because juveniles are different from adults. Perhaps some people who commit crimes as juveniles are really so depraved that they can never be a part of society. That's something for a parole board to decide years after they committed their crimes, not for a judge to speculate about when looking at a child.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

The University System of Maryland Board of Regents made an admirably mature decision this week to ignore political pressure and stand up for the free exchange of ideas on campus, no matter how unsavory those ideas may be. In deciding not to become the first university system in the nation to adopt a policy about how and when pornography can be shown on campus, the regents avoided a thorny First Amendment issue. But they also recognized an important element of their mission. College is a time for young men and women to learn to make decisions on their own, even bad ones. The regents -- and certainly the legislature -- shouldn't be making those decisions for them.

There's probably little chance, given that it will be an election year, that the General Assembly will just let this issue go when it reconvenes in January. State Sen. Andy Harris, a Baltimore County Republican who crusaded against the University of Maryland College Park's plan to screen a pornographic film in the spring, is almost certainly running for Congress again, and there's no doubt he believes this is an issue that can win him votes. He's probably right. Other lawmakers shouldn't take the bait. The legislature has plenty more important things to do, and besides, revisiting the issue could have exactly the opposite of the desired effect. After all, what can make something more attractive to college students than forbidding them to do it?

Posted by Andy Green at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

A new report ranking Maryland 49th out of the 50 states in its use of federal transportation funds on resources for walkers and bikers was flawed and understates Maryland's commitment to pedestrians. But if it produced an eye-grabbing headline and gets state officials to pay more attention to pedestrian safety, that may be just as well because whatever the validity of the study's methodology, the state remains a dangerous place for those who travel without cars.

State highway officials say the report undercounted Maryland's spending because it looked only at pedestrian-specific projects, not larger developments that have pedestrian-friendly features baked in. The fact that Maryland tends to favor the latter is, arguably, a good thing. But it doesn't erase the fact that pedestrians make up a much larger percentage of those killed on the roads in Maryland compared to other states and that the danger they face has not been declining along with other accidents.

Maryland needs to place much more emphasis on pedestrian-friendly features, not just in its spending of federal highway dollars but in its approach to community planning in general. However we truly rank nationally, it's clear that Maryland has a long way to go before bikers and walkers can share the roads safely.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

The new federal rules for protecting the Chesapeake Bay are likely to get a lot of criticism: from farmers, from environmentalists, from state officials, from builders. The regulations take aim at pollution from agriculture, development, sewage, smokestacks and vehicle exhaust, but states are given latitude in figuring out how to achieve improvements in those areas. If they don't, they face unspecified sanctions.

That's considered too strict by some, including Repulicans in Congress who say it's a top-down, Washington-heavy approach that could hurt business. And it's thought by others to be too weak because it relies on states, which have so far failed to control pollution on their own.

But this effort needs to be considered in context of Sen. Benjamin Cardin's legislation to expand federal government authority over the Bay -- and to put up serious cash with which to do it. And even if this step is not everything enviornmentalists want, it is at least a step in the direction of federal involvement in the Bay and the hope that it can trump the uneven cooperation between Bay watershed states that has hampered progress so far. This move isn't everything, but it's a start. 

Posted by Andy Green at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

The sex trafficking and prostitution charges seemed pretty clear cut -- Carlos Silot was accused of running a brothel near Patterson Park, staffed with illegal immigrant women, from a rented rowhouse, where police found a customer roster, photographs, condoms and more. But the case fell apart this week for a predictable reason: The women refused to testify.

How could we have expected otherwise? Women are brought to this country from Mexico, cut off from family, made to endure countless deprivations, and can't possibly expect that testifying against the man they say was responsible would turn out well. What believable assurances could the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office possibly make that it could protect these women? It certainly can't have helped that prosecutors initially charged the women -- the victims in this case -- with prostitution, only dropping the charges due to a lack of evidence.

It's unclear why local, rather than federal, prosectuors took this case. The U.S. Attorney's Office can bring to bear more resources to investigate the alleged crimes and to offer protection for the women who are the true victims. Moreover, federal laws for such crimes are much stricter, thanks to a law signed by President George Bush in 2005. The federal government also has mechanisms to help provide legal status for victims of such crimes -- the women in this case were in the country illegally -- and to help them rebuild their lives.

Maryland law was tightenened recently to deal more harshly with child sex trafficking, but not with cases such as this one, in which the women were adults. Sex trafficking involving adults is a misdemeanor under Maryland law; if convicted, Mr. Silot faced at most 10 years in prison on a charge of pandering. That needs to be changed.

Posted by Andy Green at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

--As monumental a step as it was for the House of Representatives to pass a health care reform bill that promises to extend coverage to millions and improve the system for those who already have insurance, the legislation would do significant harm to the ability of women who need abortions to get them.

Longstanding rules have prevented federal funds from being used to provide abortions, and the right thing to do would have been for this legislation to preserve that arrangement. But thanks to an amendment approved over the weekend, the bill would prohibit health plans that participate in the government health insurance exchange and accept people who receive subsidies from offering coverage for abortion -- even to people who pay the full premiums out of pocket. Not only would the government be prohibiting the use of public money to provide abortions, it would prevent women from spending their own money to get such coverage. The suggestion that women would be able to purchase extra coverage to pay for the procedure is laughable -- who would buy it? Nobody expects to need an abortion one day.

The health care debate is not the venue to expand or restrict access to abortion in this country. We hope when the Senate takes up the legislation it approves a more sensible course to maintain the status quo.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (43)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

--Despite what now seem like obvious warning signs that Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal M. Hasan was troubled, it would perhaps be a stretch to conclude that Army officials should have anticipated that he posed a danger and acted before he could. In truth, there is no way to know when someone will pick up a gun and commit such a horrible act of violence. But it is fair to wonder whether the Army missed signs that indicated he was not suited for counseling soldiers traumatized by war.

The fact that Major Hasan received counseling while a psychiatry resident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is not in itself a red flag -- it is apparently common, given the nature of their work -- but other signs, such as his inappropriate speeches about his radical vision of Islam in professional contexts, should have singled him out for greater scrutiny. Fellow doctors found his behavior odd, and he led an increasingly isolated life as his opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq grew stronger. His complaints of anti-Muslim harassment should also have gotten the attention of his superiors. The Army can't countenance a soldier trying to avoid being sent to war, but when that soldier's job is to safeguard the mental health of others, it can't ignore signs of instability either.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown publicly demanded Friday that the Afghan government rein in corruption, saying he is “not prepared to put the lives of British men and women in harm's way for a government that does not stand up against corruption.” He insisted that the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai demonstrate clear progress in five areas: security, governance, reconciliation, economic development, and engagement with Afghanistan's neighbors. If Mr. Karzai’s government fails, Mr. Brown said, it will have “forfeited its right to international support.”

There have been hints in recent days that President Barack Obama is delivering a similar message and similar demands in the closed-door world of diplomacy, but making such a public statement — and setting out benchmarks for Afghanistan to achieve — packs more force and is the kind of thing we need to see from the Obama administration if it is going to ask us to support sending thousands more troops to such a vexing war.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

The first public corruption trial against Mayor Sheila Dixon, on charges of theft and embezzlement in connection with the use of gift cards meant for the city’s needy at Christmastime, begins Monday. Ever the fighter, ever defiant, Mayor Dixon has said she will attend her trial (as well as the one yet to come on charges of perjury), and in recent days she has said she is looking forward to it because the truth will finally come out.

We certainly hope so — the mayor is absolutely right to suggest that in this case so far, truth has been in short supply. We’ve seen plenty of evidence from the prosecutor: dates, times, amounts. We have gotten glimpses of testimony from those whose own potential legal liability has made them cooperative. And we’ve heard plenty of theories from Ms. Dixon’s lawyers about whether any of the mayor’s alleged conduct is actually against the law. But of the things Baltimore residents really need to know about their mayor — what her actions say about her moral compass, whether she regrets anything she’s done or whether she feels her conduct has been beyond reproach — we have heard precious little.

There’s probably not much chance that we’ll get answers like those in this trial or the next one. A criminal trial is suited to answering narrow questions of legal guilt or innocence, not the broad ethical ones that matter in the world of politics and governance. In fact, the threat of prosecution has probably hindered any deeper accounting; under sound legal advice from her many excellent lawyers, Mayor Dixon has said little about the charges she faces other than to proclaim her innocence. And the focus of Maryland State Prosecutor Robert Rohrbaugh has, for good reason, been on those actions for which he has been able to secure indictments, not on other questionable conduct in Ms. Dixon’s past.

But as long as the mayor is offering up the hope for truth, here are the questions we’d like to get real answers to:

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: The answers we want from Dixon's trial" »

Posted by Andy Green at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (55)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

We would think that after 14-year-old Destinee Parker, a Montebello Elementary/Middle School student with no underlying health conditions, died this fall from the H1N1 virus that city parents would take seriously the need to get their children vaccinated. Furthermore, we would think that the news of vaccine scarcity, long lines at clinics offering the shot and continued reports about how widespread the virus has become would make parents eager for the city's offer to set up vaccine sites at their children's schools. Yet days before the first ones are due to begin, just 1,800 of the 80,000 consent forms the city school system sent home have been returned. You could get a better response than that for a field trip to Ft. McHenry.

Most cases of H1N1, also known as swine flu, are mild, but it has been disturbingly deadly in children. More than 1,000 kids have died nationwide from the swine flu, and half of the cases serious enough to require hospitalization are in children. Many people have anxiety about vaccines, particularly this one, since it was produced and tested quickly. But ask Destinee's parents which risk they would take -- the vaccine or the disease -- and they wouldn't have to think long before giving the answer.

Posted by Andy Green at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

Baltimore failed fire cadet Racheal Wilson when it sent her, ill prepared and ill equipped, into a live fire training exercise that violated dozens of federal safety standards. Her death is the deepest stain imaginable on the department, and there should have been no priority higher than doing everything possible to make recompense to her family. Now the city has failed her again by bungling the paperwork for a federal death benefit from the Department of Justice that would have paid nearly $300,000 to her children.

Mayor Sheila Dixon's reaction -- that the failures occurred under a previous fire chief -- doesn't cut it. For one thing, the request for information that the department failed to provide came in the last few months, and for another, she is responsible for setting matters straight no matter which fire chief was involved. Ms. Dixon needs to take charge of finding a way to take care of Ms. Wilson's children financially without forcing all taxpayers to cover for some employee's mistake.

Anyone who had a hand in this failure doesn't deserve to be working for the fire department. Racheal Wilson lost her life because of carelessness. Losing a job seems like a small price to pay by comparison.

Posted by Andy Green at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

While headed to a football game last weekend, more than a dozen members of the Morehouse College “House of Funk” marching band were injured in a crash on Interstate 75 south of Atlanta, Ga. Not one of them was wearing a seat belt, as the vehicle lacked passenger restraints of any kind along with many other common safety features.

That’s because they were riding on a bus -- or what the industry calls a motorcoach -- which is not required to have safety belts or crash-resistant roofs or many other protective features U.S. consumers now take for granted in their cars and trucks.

The Morehouse students were fortunate that no one was killed in the rollover accident, but others have not been so lucky. Last year, 17 people were killed and 39 injured when a motorcoach was driven off an overpass on U.S. 75 near Sherman, Texas. Since that Aug. 8, 2008 disaster, there have been at least 42 more bus crashes and fires elsewhere in the U.S.
Each year, the nation’s buses provide transportation to more than 600 million passengers, and ridership is rising, particularly as the cost and headaches associated with airline travel grow.

Yet Congress has failed to act on National Transportation Safety Board recommendations to improve the industry’s safety standards.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Time to make buses safer" »

Posted by Andy Green at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

The news that Black & Decker's merger with Stanley Works will result in the loss of yet another of the Baltimore area's Fortune 500 corporate headquarters is sure to set off another round of civic tooth-gnashing about why the city always seems to be on the losing end of these transactions. But this deal is no occasion to bemoan Maryland's business climate or to compare ourselves to such supposed corporate havens as Dallas.

For starters, this deal had nothing to do with Maryland and everything to do with what looks like a natural marriage between two big players in the same industry. Stanley effectively brought more money to the table, so it gets to keep its home turf.

For another thing, the question shouldn't be whether Maryland is hanging on to these established companies but whether it is incubating the next generation of corporate giants. With the state's stellar educational system and burgeoning high-tech industries, particularly centered around the biosciences, we have the opportunity to develop the titans of tomorrow -- provided we keep our focus on nurturing our intellectual capital.

Certainly, the loss of jobs and philanthropy that goes with Black & Decker will be a blow, but if there's something to get upset about for the long term, it's not this merger but the news last week that the Department of Energy had awarded grants to 37 efforts to produce breakthroughs in renewable energy production -- none of them in Maryland. If there's news to be excited about, it's that Maryland researchers were awarded more than 400 National Institutes of Health grants to pursue their work under the federal stimulus program. Those are the kinds of developments that will determine how prosperous we are in the future.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

After months of political posturing, legal maneuvering, strong-arm tactics and heated rhetoric, Constellation Energy Group and Electricite de France on Monday accepted the conditions imposed by the Maryland Public Service Commission on the proposed sale of half of Constellation's nuclear business, resulting in an agreement that looks like a good deal for Baltimore Gas and Electric customers -- and the $100 rate credits they are to receive are the least of it.

We get legal protections to prevent BGE from being harmed should Constellation's finances take a turn for the worse, as they did last year when the company neared bankruptcy; measures to prevent Constellation from extracting dividends from BGE that the utility can't afford; an infusion of cash to help shore up BGE's standing; and a delay in requests for rate increases. In terms of BGE's long-term stability and the reliable supply of power in Central Maryland, those provisions may be the most important ones.

We also get a strong possibility that Constellation and EDF will move forward with a third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs. While that won't benefit BGE customers as directly as it would have if Maryland had never deregulated the electric industry, it would still substantially increase the amount of power generated in the state and, the laws of supply and demand being what they are, help hold down rates in the long term. Plus, it would help alleviate an energy supply imbalance in the state and do it without adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. And even if Calvert Cliffs 3 doesn't happen soon -- or ever -- we still get the U.S. headquarters for EDF, which is seeking to start building nuclear plants across the country.

The deal offered some reassurance that the Public Service Commission is able to act independently despite significant political pressure from Gov. Martin O'Malley and others. The commission ignored some of the governor's demands, including that it limit Constellation CEO Mayo Shattuck's compensation -- a worthy goal, perhaps, but not the PSC's business -- and modified others to make them more reasonable.

Finally, there's the $100. It doesn't begin to soften the rate shocks we've seen over the last few years, but at a time when family budgets are tight, $100 isn't so bad.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

--Tuesday's vote in Maine on whether to accept the decision of that state's legislature to legalize same-sex marriage is being viewed as a test of the national mood on that hot-button issue, but whichever way the vote goes, there are signs that gay marriage is steadily gaining acceptance. To take just two examples locally, the Washington D.C. City Council is considering legislation now to allow gay marriage in the city, a few months after nearly unanimously deciding to recognize gay marriages from states where the practice is recognized. And Montgomery County is considering legislation that would require government contractors to provide the same benefits for domestic partners that they do for spouses in straight couples. The entire nation may not be ready to accept gay marriage today or tomorrow, but just a few years ago, it would have been inconceivable that the topic would even be up for debate. That's clear progress.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

With the number of home foreclosures on the rise again in Maryland, Gov. Martin O’Malley’s idea to require mediation before banks can begin proceedings to seize the homes of delinquent borrowers is a good idea, but it needs to be accompanied by more resources to help ensure legal representation for troubled homeowners. Many homeowners are losing their homes because they don’t know how to navigate the landscape of state and federal lending laws, and more might be able to stay in their homes if they were able to obtain qualified legal guidance. In addition to requiring mediation, lawmakers need to increase funding for legal assistance to homeowners, especially in the hardest-hit areas of state, and expand access to the courts for homeowners facing foreclosure.

Posted by Andy Green at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will be posted alongside it in the print edition.

In Baltimore County, violent crime is down, but incidents of theft are up. What’s driven the increase is the lucrative market for scrap metal that has thieves yanking copper pipes out of the walls of vacant apartments and swiping catalytic converters from parked cars with the help of nothing more exotic than a cordless saw.

Between 2005 and last year, theft of valuable metal has increased 500 percent in the county, police report. It now represents nearly 2 percent of all the burglary and theft cases investigated by the county police.

Tonight the Baltimore County Council has a golden opportunity to clamp down on the growing problem with a law that would require scrap metal processors to keep close records of what they buy -- including checking the identification of the seller. They would also have to hold for at least five days items such as street light poles and cemetary urns that police may want to investigate as potentially stolen.

This last requirement has proven to be one of the most controversial elements of the measure, but it’s essential that the council not relent on the waiting period despite considerable lobbying by the county’s 18 scrap dealers who stand to be inconvenienced.

While it’s understandable that dealers might protest the law, they’ve only themselves to blame. When 12-year-olds can walk into a scrap yard pushing a grocery store car full of copper gutters and manhole covers to make a sale no questions asked, something is amiss.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: The county should crack down on scrap metal dealers" »

Posted by Andy Green at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

The legislation proposed by City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake to require crisis pregnancy centers that do not provide abortion or birth control services (or referrals for those servies) to post a sign saying so has turned into a bit of a tempest in a teapot. Those clinics, which are nonprofits, say they're being singled out by abortion rights groups. Advocates from NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland say they've sent undercover interns to centers like those and found they were given inaccurate information about abortion -- that it causes cancer, infertility, etc. But it's unclear from NARAL's report on the investigation which, if any, of those instances happened in Baltimore.

At the end of the day, though, the legislation just requires a sign. It doesn't say anything inaccurate or misleading, and the people who run the clinics aren't otherwise shy about stating their position in opposition to abortion rights. They have expressed concern that groups on the other side of the issue would use the law to harass them and rack up fines, but that's not a realistic fear. The city isn't going to deputize NARAL to hand out citations. Perhaps few people are presently confused about the kind of services that are now being offered at these centers, but their clients are women going through an extremely difficult time, and it's hard to imagine the harm in making sure they know exactly what they can expect.

By that token, the City Council should pass the bill, but not before amending it to place the same requirements on centers that do provide abortion and birth control services and referrals. If the goal is truth in advertising, it should apply to everyone.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--President Barack Obama traveled to Dover, Del., late last night to view the coffins of soldiers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents who were killed in Afghanistan as they were brought home for burial. It's a poignant reminder to all of us of the sacrifices being made by our troops, but perhaps more importantly, it's a reminder for him that as he is trying to decide what to do in Afghanistan, Americans are dying there at a greater rate than at any time since the war began eight years ago.

The mixed signals he sent about America's commitment to sending more troops to the country may have influenced Afghan President Hamid Karzai's decision to allow a runoff in the nation's disputed elections, but the delay is not helping our soldiers and Marines in the field. We may have reached the point where no middle ground is possible -- we're either all in, or we should pull out, and there's increasing reason to believe that a full commitment to rebuild that country would be longer, costlier and bloodier than its benefits would warrant.

--Here's how Maryland's public information law is supposed to work: Citizens can request to inspect public documents from a government agency and, unless there's a compelling reason otherwise, (for instance, it would compromise an ongoing investigation or invade someone's privacy in a personnel matter), they are allowed to inspect them. If they want to copy the documents, they can do so for a reasonable fee to compensate the agency for its costs.

Here's how it usually does work: If you want to inspect government documents, the agency will ask you to do so in writing. It is afforded up to 30 days to render a decision on the request, and darn if it doesn't take exactly 30 days most of the time. And as for copying, "reasonable fee" tends to mean 25 cents a page. If Kinko's found that reasonable, here's guessing it wouldn't be in business for long.

But here's how it's worked when The Sun has requested documents from the Baltimore police: The requests sat, unresponded to, for more than a year. After being prodded by attorneys (twice), the police responded by saying all the requests should be redirected to other people within the department or outside it and by producing a fee schedule that runs to $1 for the first page of photocopying, $10 for a police incident report and a whopping $80 to burn a CD of a 911 call. (Price at Wal-Mart for a blank CD: 23 cents.)

The Sun has filed a lawsuit against the department, seeking relief from policies that appear designed specifically to shield the city police from public scrutiny. It is an important cause not just for the newspaper but for any citizen who wants to know how the city's largest and most vital agency does its job.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--President Barack Obama is scheduled to sign legislation today expanding the federal hate crimes statute to include violence based on sexual orientation and disability. The change doesn't mean that the justice department is suddenly going to be prosecuting many of the assaults, robberies and other crimes that are most often swept up in local and state hate crimes statutes, but that the federal government will be able to provide assistance and resources to local officials who can be overwhelmed by trying to prosecute these cases. Most importantly, the legislation, first introduced 13 years ago, is a powerful statement that, as a society, we do not tolerate discrimination or bigotry in any form and that the disabled, gays, lesbians and the transgendered are to be afforded the same rights and protections as anyone else.

--High school sports are supposed to teach the values of hard work, discipline and fair play, but those lessons got scrambled Monday at the Baltimore County boys cross country championships. Hereford High School won the meet, but afterward, one of the Bulls' runners was disqualified because the black spandex shorts he was wearing under his uniform had a visible seam stitched in a different color thread. Yes, that is, for unclear reasons, against the rules. Losing that runner's points dropped Hereford out of first place and moved Towson High School up to take the title. If there is a bright side to the situation, it's that the Towson coach appears to have had no role in the protest or the ruling -- that would have sent a disturbing win-at-all-costs message, indeed. But the fact that no wise adults have stepped in to set matters right does leave these adolescents with the lesson that rules are to be obeyed blindly and that technicalities can trump justice.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--The City Council took an important step Monday to enrich Baltimore's cultural life by overturning a decades-old prohibition on live music and other entertainment in bars and restaurants in some of the city's trendiest neighborhoods. Mayor Sheila Dixon should sign the bill. Live entertainment will help Baltimore's musicians, help its small business owners and help the tourist economy. Neighborhood activists in places like Federal Hill, Hampden and Southeast Baltimore have expressed trepidation about the plan, saying they fear it will worsen noise, traffic and parking problems. But the legislation City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake brought through the council Monday night includes measures to allow for the revocation of live entertainment licenses at troubled establishments -- or even the revocation of food licenses at restaurants. That, combined with a recently more activist liquor board, should give residents comfort that they have recourse if an establishment becomes a nuisance.

--The Obama administration went too far when it attempted to exclude Fox News from a round of interviews with an official who was made available to the other members of the White House press pool. That action was reminiscent of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s decision to bar state employees from talking to two Sun reporters whose work he didn't like. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now. The government doesn't get to pick and choose who covers it. We certainly don't agree with many of Fox News' editorial choices, but we do agree with their right to make them. (For more on this topic, click here.)

Posted by Andy Green at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--The audit of the Baltimore City Foundation that City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake requested after Sunday's investigation of the nonprofit by Sun reporter James Drew is a good start on what needs to be a systemic overhaul of an entity created with noble intentions that has turned into a slush fund for city officials.

The most egregious activity Mr. Drew uncovered was the use of the foundation as a conduit for money from a major campaign contributor to help fund Mayor Sheila Dixon's inaugural celebration and, a year later, for a corporation to help pay for her official Christmas cards. No matter how the administration may try to dress those items up as pertaining somehow to the foundation's mission, they are plainly political acts. But the evident use of the fund to avoid competitive bidding in the construction of a visitors center at Cylburn Arboretum is also troubling, as is the general fog around who is authorized to access the funds and the brazen lack of oversight of the millions that have accumulated there.

The situation is a gussied-up version of the petty misuse of funds that landed former Police Commissioner Ed Norris in jail. Whether or not the use of Baltimore City Foundation funds carries the kind of legal implications that Mr. Norris' use of a fund originally designed to benefit widows and orphans did, the ethical implications of the city's use of the foundation are arguably worse. In Mr. Norris' case, the money supported personal foibles; in the foundation's case, it served as yet one more back door for special interests to further elected officials' political standing. That cannot be tolerated.

--One day, Gov. Martin O'Malley is ruefully announcing that his efforts to negotiate with Constellation Energy Group are over and that he regrets ever engaging in them in the first place. A few days later, he's endorsing the company's deal with Electricite de France over its nuclear business -- provided Constellation does all of the things he was demanding in the first place. What is a Maryland ratepayer -- or, moreover, a member of the Public Service Commission -- to make of this?

A number of the conditions Mr. O'Malley placed on his support make sense, chiefly measures to insulate BGE from the risks inherent in the joint venture and its possible expansion of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear reactor. But his demand that the company provide one-time kickbacks to BGE customers is hard to see as anything but political. Is the 10 percent credit related in some rational way to the terms of the deal, or just to Mr. O'Malley's inability to deliver on his campaign promise to stop BGE rate increases? It leaves the PSC in a difficult spot. Do members go along with the desires of the governor who appointed them, or do they act like independent, professional regulators (another thing Mr. O'Malley promised to provide during the 2006 campaign)?

Posted by Andy Green at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

All Baltimore mourned the death of a 20-year-old Johns Hopkins University student recently struck and killed on St. Paul Street by a truck witnesses saw being driven erratically earlier in the day that is owned by a man who has been convicted at least four times of driving under the influence. The hit-and-run killing of Miriam Frankl need not be senseless if it spurs lawmakers to make it far more difficult for intoxicated drivers to get behind the wheel.

Over the years, the campaign against drunk driving has taken many forms, from lowering blood alcohol levels to funding sobriety checkpoints. But there’s one strategy legislators could pursue that could prove more effective than any of them: Mandating ignition interlock devices.

The technology is proven, as are the results it delivers. Drivers must breathe into an installed interlock and produce a sober result in order to start the car -- and then pass a periodic retest once they are on the road. Failures are logged by the device and provided as evidence to the Motor Vehicle Administration.

New Mexico, the first state to mandate ignition interlock for drunk driving, has seen recidivism drop 65 percent over a four-year period. Drunk-driving fatalities in the state have fallen by more than one-third.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Time to lock out drunk driving" »

Posted by Andy Green at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

(Note: The following is an updated version of the editorial based on comments we received yesterday.)

The death in May of 14-year-old Christopher Jones of Crofton at the hands of youths police identified as gang members put everyone on notice that juvenile gang violence isn’t just a big-city problem. Police and prosecutors say youth gangs are active in every part of the state and that even middle schools are now prime recruiting grounds.

Yet two years after the General Assembly tried to tighten state laws against violent juvenile gangs, authorities are still operating as if they’ve got one hand tied behind their backs when it comes to preventing such crimes, due in large part to confusion over how closely school and law-enforcement officials can cooperate to deter youth gang violence, along with when and what kinds of information they are permitted to share about suspected gang members and gang-related crimes.

Federal privacy laws generally protect students against school officials disclosing confidential educational records to police. But the law also makes certain exceptions for medical emergencies and threats to public safety.

If, for example, a gang leader orders an assault or robbery as part of a new recruit’s initiation, teachers and principals who get wind of it can warn police if the information is based on personal knowledge or observation. However, state education officials say uncertainty about how far that exemption extends has had a chilling effect on information-sharing.

Even less clear is whether a teacher who overhears a student making threatening remarks to other students can disclose that information to those children’s parents. That’s the kind of intervention that might have saved the life of Christopher Jones, who was trying to stay away from the gangs in his area when he was targeted by youths bent on forcing him to take sides.

The rules need to be clarified. Even the American Civil Liberties Union acknowledges that police and school officials may have a duty to share certain kinds of information about suspected gang activity that is specifically not covered by federal privacy laws.

Continue reading "When it comes to stopping gangs, schools' hands are tied" »

Posted by Andy Green at 1:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--The Maryland Higher Education Commission was wrong to block Maryland residents from the University of Maryland-University College's planned community college administration program on the grounds that the program would duplicate efforts at Morgan State University. Historically, there was a reason to avoid duplicating programs offered at Morgan and other historically black universities at nearby, predominantly white ones; it had the effect of maintaining a racially segregated system of higher education. But that principle doesn't apply in this case.

For one thing, Morgan's program is majority white right now. For another, the reason UMUC developed the program was a growing need for people trained in community college administration; it wouldn't poach Morgan's program but would simply offer more opportunities.

And most important, Morgan's live classroom instruction would be competing with an online program that would be used mostly by students from out of state. If Morgan can't convince prospective in-state students that its program offers something more than online instruction, then it has more problems to overcome than a legacy of segregation.

--The Obama administration is moving to slash the pay of top executives at companies that received billions in government bailout funds. Cash salaries will be cut about 90 percent, and overall compensation will be down about 50 percent. Perks, like country club memberships and private jets, are getting slashed, too. It's about time. Sure, this amounts to a much greater intrusion into corporate boardrooms than the U.S. government has ever taken before. But the bailouts of the seven companies in question were also unprecedented, and furthermore, the executives agreed to oversight on salaries. The executives will still be compensated lavishly, considering they almost bankrupted their companies and the entire nation while they were at it, but at least now the compensation will largely be in the form of company stock that they won't be able to cash in for several years. That means they'll have at least some incentive, for once, to look out for long-term interest, not short-term gains.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--It doesn’t take a world-class bargain-hunter to recognize that the price of anything, from groceries to electronics, is impossible to assess without considering hidden costs. Like that big-screen TV? Better ask about the cost of cables and digital sound system. A home listed below market price can sound great until repairs to the cracked foundation, faulty wiring and leaky plumbing are factored in.

Yet for decades the U.S. has embraced an energy policy blithely ignorant of the true price tag of driving our highways and providing electricity to our homes. That was underscored this week with the release of a new study that finds burning fossil fuels is costing the U.S. $120 billion a year in health care costs.

That’s an enormous sum, and yet one is far more likely to hear complaints about the possibility of paying a few more pennies at the pump or dollars on the monthly utility bill than on the much greater cost associated with the thousands of premature deaths and serious illnesses tied to pollution from coal and oil annually.

--For an elected official, the pension is the perfect perk. Lawmakers are generally wary of voting to raise their own salaries – voters tend to notice and don’t like that much – but the pension, ah, you only collect that once you’re out of office and no longer care what the voters think. That’s the only explanation for the egregious certainty that Baltimore County Councilman Vincent J. Gardina, a five-term incumbent Democrat from Perry Hall, will leave office next year with a $54,000 annual pension for life. And considering he’s 54, life could be a very long time.

He could be followed shortly by several other long-term incumbents on the council, four of whom are in their fourth terms and are guaranteed at least 80 percent of their salary for life, 100 percent if they stick around for one more term. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there seems to be little momentum for changing the system. But considering the council’s parsimony when dealing with all other aspects of county finances, it’s hard to justify their inattention to their own lucrative benefit. (For more on this topic, click here.)

Posted by Andy Green at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--It's certainly good news that Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreeed today to a runoff election against his nearest competitor, Abdullah Abdullah, and accepted the findings of massive fraud in the initial contest. His previous willingness to ignore the nearly 1 million fraudulent votes he got and to cling to power regardless was a huge obstacle to any hopes for a stable partnership between the U.S. and the Afghan government and tainted the question of whether the Obama administration should send more troops. Apparently all the hemming and hawing the president did over whether he would accept Gen. Stanley McChrystal's recommendation to increase the force there by another 40,000 wasn't wasted time; reports suggest that the administration was able to use the issue as leverage to get more cooperation from Mr. Karzai.

But let's not get too excited just yet. We need to see that an election actually happens and is free and fair. Moreover, it's hard to imagine that the Karzai government has suddenly gotten religion and shed its corrupt ways forever. Mr. Karzai's decision is better than the alternative, but it's no guarantee that we have a clear path ahead to helping build a strong, stable Afghan society.

--The Obama administration announced this week that federal law enforcement officials will stop going after people who use marijuana with a doctor's prescription in states where that practice is legal. That's a good step. Chasing down cancer patients smoking a drug that's no more harmful than many others that can be freely prescribed hardly seemed like a good use of law enforcement time in the war on drugs.

Perhaps Maryland will take the cue and add a dose of sanity to its medical marijuana laws as well. It is not legal in Maryalnd for a doctor to prescribe marijuana, but it's only slightly illegal for people to use the drugs for medical purposes. A defendant charged with posession of marijuana is allowed to present evidence of medical need and, if a judge finds that convincing, is subject to a $100 fine. Essentially, we're treating the issue with a wink and a nod, an arrangement that forces those whose conditions can legitimately be helped by using the drug to procure it illegally, rather than in a controlled setting where their safety and the purity of the product can be assured.

We don't advocate going so far as California, where doctors have been known to prescribe marijuana for conditions so mild as anxiety disorders. The state should empower a commission, perhaps the Maryland Board of Physicians, to certify conditions for which marijuana use is an appropriate treatment.

Posted by Andy Green at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--After months of indecision about whether to approve zoning for slot machines in Anne Arundel County, a new suggestion to end the deadlock comes from Council Chairwoman Cathleen M. Vitale: to approve them at a location where nobody was interested in putting them in the first place.

The council has been tied in knots about how to resolve the strong and determined opposition by some neighbors of Arundel Mills Mall, who don't want the mega-casino/entertainment complex proposed there by Baltimore's Cordish Cos., with the fact that Arundel residents voted overwhelmignly for slots in last year's referendum, knowing full well that the largest casino in the state was destined for their jurisdiction. Amazingly, months after the Cordish proposal was first made public, three members of the council have still not been able to state a public position on the matter. What exactly are they undecided about? What information could they possibly still need to make up their minds?

If someone gave out Profiles in Cowardice awards, surely these would be leading contenders. The legislation enabling slots retained local control over zoning for such facilities so local governments could help minimize negative impacts and decide whether slots are appropriate in their jurisdiction, not so they could hold up a matter of crucial statewide importance through dithering and indecision.

--Howard County is considering legislation that would make it the first jurisdiction in the nation to ban the use of tanning parlors by children under 18. Some might find this curious since the county can't very well ban children from being exposed to sunlight, but there is a difference between that and a commercial enterprise whose sole purpose is to subject people to cancer-causing radiation. Current state law allows minors to tan with their parents' permission. But if their parents gave them a permission slip, would we allow them to buy cigarettes and alcohol, too?

Posted by Andy Green at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

The cancer that would eventually claim the life of Richard H. Semsker might have been excised more than a decade ago when it was only a small mole growing on his back. But for various reasons, the melanoma was left untouched by his doctors for years, and the cancer eventually spread to his brain. The 47-year-old Montgomery County attorney died two years ago this week.

Next month, oral arguments in the appeal of the $5.8 million malpractice verdict that arose from Mr. Semsker’s death will be heard the Maryland Court of Appeals, and the outcome of the case could rock the medical malpractice insurance industry in this state.

That’s because what Mr. Semsker’s attorneys seek to prove is that the state’s cap on non-economic damages -- more commonly known as pain and suffering -- should not apply in his case. Their argument turns on a provision of 5-year-old malpractice reform law that they believe exempts malpractice verdicts stemming from claims that don’t first go to voluntary arbitration.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: A threat to Md.'s medical malpractice reforms" »

Posted by Andy Green at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--Baltimore police are reporting an encouraging sign amid their mountains of crime statistics: Homicides related to domestic violence in the city are down sharply compared to the last few years. The city recorded 13 domestic homicides in 2007 and 14 in 2008, but so far, there have only been four this year. Domestic violence advocates credit work by the police department, which has helped secure stiffer prison sentences for domestic violence and has significantly increased the number of warrants it serves on suspected abusers. But more steps should be taken, including developing a tracking system for abusers who violate probation and the establishment of a family justice center in Baltimore, like those in some other counties, that provides one-stop services for victims of abuse.

--Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration released the results of its survey of Baltimore residents Thursday and confirmed two things that should be fairly obvious to most people who live here. One, illegal drug use and violent crime are major concerns of city residents, as is the difficulty of finding good jobs. And two, Baltimore is a Balkanized place.

Residents reported a curious disconnect between how they felt about their neighborhoods and how they felt about the city as a whole. While 88 percent found illegal drug use to be a serious or very serious problem and 87 percent felt the same way about violent crime, just 30 percent felt unsafe or very unsafe in their own neighborhoods at night and a mere 7 percent did during the day. Despite the fact that downtown Baltimore is, statistically, safer than many neighborhoods, people felt less safe there. The same trend ran through other statistics in the report. People think there is enough green space in their neighborhoods but not in the city as a whole. They think their neighborhoods are reasonably clean, but the city isn't.

The survey largely validates Mayor Dixon's focus on crime and making the city cleaner, though the six-month lag between the time the city took the survey and when it reported the results limits its utility. (Residents' feelings about cleanliness, trash pickup and recycling could well be quite different by now, since the city recently enacted the biggest changes in those services in years.) But the poll suggests that Ms. Dixon's needs to focus on the psychological as much as on any program or service; people's actual experience of the city seems to be much better than their perception of it.

Posted by Andy Green at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--Year after year, the idea of publicly financed campaigns for the State House dies in Annapolis as legislators cling to two self-serving rationales: That people don't really care about campaign finance reform and that they're certainly not willing to pay to fund politicians' campaigns. A poll of Maryland voters due to be released Wednesday exposes both as myths. The survey found a strong majority is in favor of a system that would use taxpayer funds to support election campaigns, a proposal backers say would reduce the power of incumbency, allow a more diverse field of candidates to have a chance at winning and reduce the influence of deep-pocketed campaign contributors.

--The Maryland NAACP showed itself to be badly out of step in its call last weekend for the state to clarify the rules of mayoral succession in Baltimore out of fear that vagueness in the law could allow Gov. Martin O'Malley to name a white person to the post if Mayor Sheila Dixon is convicted in her upcoming trials and is forced to step down.

First of all, the law governing succession is quite clear. That is, after all, how Ms. Dixon got the job in the first place. NAACP head Marvin L. Cheatham reportedly introduced the resolution because he heard a lawyer on talk radio discussing the issue. If the NAACP has any hope of being a relevant, influential organization, it can't be going off half-cocked like that. Why should anyone listen to it if it can't even check the facts about something so basic before demanding the law be changed?

And second, how exactly does panic over the thought of a theoretical white mayor jive with the post-racial society President Obama is trying to usher in? Is it the NAACP's contention that only a black person can represent a majority black city -- and, by logical extension, that only a white person can represent one that's majority white? Would the group be equally outraged if a black person became mayor of predominantly white Westminster? And what about Ms. Dixon's predecessor, Mr. O'Malley? Did the NAACP find fault with his tenure as mayor because he is white?

Posted by Andy Green at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--The good news is that after years of debate, a constitutional amendment and months of stops and starts, Maryland is on the verge of actually buying the slot machines that will, at least in part, help solve its budget problems. The bad news: In the middle of an economic crisis and plunging tax revenues that are forcing severe cuts to health care, education and other top public priorities, the state is likely to be shelling out millions more than budgeted if it wants to buy top-notch machines. Analysts expect that operating expenses -- including the procurement of machines -- will cost Maryland $65 million a year, while the 2 percent of slots proceeds set aside to cover them will generate about $27 million. And that doesn't account for the start-up phase when the state will need to obtain the machines but won't have any slots revenue at all to pay for them.

It's going to be tough for Maryland politicians to tell those suffering from state budget cuts that they have to spend millions on slot machines. But they have to do it. Now that Maryland has decided to have slots, all of us -- even those who opposed expanded gambling in the first place -- have an interest in seeing the program succeed, and it won't if we're saddled with unappealing machines. The gambling environment in the region is simply too competitive. The timing may be terrible, but investing in top-notch machines is almost certainly the single best investment Maryland can make right now.

--The Washington Post reported this morning that a panel reviewing Maryland's death penalty protocols found "serious flaws" in the procedures proposed by Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration and wants more time to review them and come up with alternatives before executions can resume. That's led to immediate criticism from death penalty supporters who believe the panel -- led by capital punishment opponents -- is simply trying to extend a de facto moratorium on executions despite the General Assembly's repeated votes not to ban them. There are some legitimate questions about the protocols the O'Malley administration drafted -- executioners would not be required to have any particular medical training, there's no guarantee that the condemned would be unconscious before the lethal chemicals were administered, and it's unclear whether the chemical cocktail used in executions is humane.

But those objections point to the fundamental contradiction of trying to devise a humane way to kill someone. Given that those who run the advisory panel oppose capital punishment in general -- a position we share -- it is hard to conceive of a way to carry out executions that would not be inherently flawed. Unfortunately, their point of view has not carried sway in the General Assembly. As much as we wish otherwise, the legislature has not outlawed capital punishment but has instead simply restricted its use in future cases. Circumventing that decision by foot-dragging is not the right thing to do.

That leaves the matter in Mr. O'Malley's hands. He has a choice. He can enact regulations for capital punishment, despite legitimate misgivings about them. He can hide behind this panel and allow it to drag the matter out indefinitely. Or he can take the intellectually honest approach and commute the sentences of those on death row to life without the possibility of parole.

Posted by Andy Green at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

Earlier this year, the Baltimore County Health Department dispatched two 18-year-old police cadets to 80 local stores where cigarettes are sold. Want to guess how often the teen-agers were asked to show some form of identification?

A miserable four out of 10 times.

When county officials surveyed stores close to county middle and high schools, the results weren’t much better: ID was requested less than half the time. Whenever the sole female cadet purchased cigarettes from male store clerks, the results were even more troubling — not once was she asked to show her driver’s license or any other form of identification.

The stores didn’t violate the law, at least not yet. It’s still legal to buy cigarettes at age 18, but unless all Baltimore County retailers are omniscient or blessed with superpowers that allow them to discern age at a glance, the persistent failure to ask for ID is an alarming reality.

In that light, the Baltimore County Council’s recent wrangling with (and confusion over) legislation to require vendors to request identification of anyone under the age of 27 looks rather silly. Stores ought to require identification of anyone buying cigarettes, period.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Baltimore County teens and cigarettes" »

Posted by Andy Green at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are some previews of editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--Opponents of the state’s plan to close the Upper Shore Community Mental Health Center in Chestertown have a point that the state has not yet provided sufficient details about how the 200 patients a year who rely on the facility will find adequate care in an area where options are few. But that doesn’t mean the closure – part of the aggressive cost-cutting measures that have been required to close Maryland’s recession-induced budget gaps – is the wrong thing to do.

The center is one of just seven remaining state-run mental hospitals; most others have been closed over the years as Maryland has moved to treat uninsured mental health patients in community-based, non-institutional settings. In most cases, it has managed to provide less restrictive care at lower cost.

The O’Malley administration has agreed to hold off closure proceedings for 90 days to give time to make the transition successful, and Health Secretary John Colmers is due before the Board of Public Works next month to give details of the state’s plan. His proposal deserves careful consideration and scrutiny, but it is certainly premature to suggest the decision may be a mistake, as Comptroller Peter Franchot did this week.

Maryland has reached the point at which balancing the budget is going to require extremely painful choices, and Mr. Colmers, whose department has been hit harder than most, doesn’t have a lot of options left. Any other cuts he makes are likely to hurt some other vulnerable population. Given the historical context, Mr. Colmers’ decision is reasonable and its consequences manageable.

But growing concern over the intimidation of witnesses, jurors and others by criminal defendants and their allies — along with the proliferation of electronic devices that might be used toward this end, particularly ubiquitous cell phone cameras — pose a difficult dilemma for the courts.

This week, the Maryland Court of Appeals’ rules committee was presented with a choice: Set a policy for electronic devices in the state’s court houses or keep the present hodgepodge of rules that has caused some to ban them altogether and others not at all.

The committee chose the latter course of action. It was exactly the right thing to do.

Maryland judges are correct to be concerned about witness intimidation. No jurisdiction understands this better than Baltimore where it doesn’t generally require a cell phone, laptop or other electronic device for some thug with a history of violence and gang connections to make a juror or witness fearful.

Cell phones can be used to take photos that could be posted on the Internet raising the threat of retribution. Phones or laptops could be used to text or e-mail testimony to witnesses who are supposed to be sequestered. It’s not hard to think of ways they can be used for nefarious ends.

Judges have the authority to ban electronic devices from their courtrooms — and ought to when there’s a real and tangible threat to a proceeding. But cell phones and computers are useful, too, and not just for lawyers and court employees who are generally exempted from any such prohibition anyway.

What about others who have a stake in the courtroom proceedings: The victim who wants to watch a trial but needs to stay in touch with the office? The journalist or blogger keeping the public informed? The average citizen who needs some way to stay on call in case of some emergency at home?

The courts must strike a balance between the interests of participants and those of spectators who have a legitimate interest, too. In a democracy, the public ought to be able to witness court proceedings.

One-size-fits-all policies make it more difficult to strike that balance. In Baltimore County, visitors can’t bring a cell phone to court in Towson but can in Catonsville and Dundalk. Towson has had experience with intimidation-by-photography, the others have not.

This lack of uniform regulation may bother some, but it’s not unlike the sorts of decisions judges have to make every day on everything from jury instructions to sentencing. The facts on any particular day — and the technologies — are always subject to change. Good judgment and a bit of vigilance tempered with a commitment to open government ought to prove an adequate and flexible solution.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--From a journalistic point of view, "The Bed Post," a sex column that appeared in Towson University's student newspaper, The Towerlight, had some real problems. It was published under a pseudonym, in contrast to the paper's other articles, and many members of the paper's editorial board had misgivings about the explicit nature of its content. Likewise, it's hard to find any artistic or educational merit in "Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge," the pornographic film that students planned to show on the University of Maryland-College Park campus in April. But in both cases, it should be up to the students to come to those conclusions, not to the university administrators to dictate taste.

In the Towerlight case, Towson University President Robert L. Caret short-circuited what should have been an internal discussion about the appropriateness of the column by writing in a letter to the editor that the paper had misjudged its audience by publishing appalling content. In subsequent correspondence with the paper's editor, who has since resigned, he hinted that the university would cease advertising in the paper over the matter, a threat that essentially forced the Towerlight's hand as the university accounts for 40 percent of its revenue. The purpose of The Towerlight is to train students to become journalists, and for that to happen, they need the experience of learning on their own what is and what isn't appropriate. Heavy-handed intervention doesn't accomplish that.

Similarly, an official University System of Maryland policy on the display of pornography on campus -- perhaps the first such policy in the country -- takes the responsibility away from students to decide, as a community, what is and isn't appropriate. The point of college is for young people to learn critical thinking skills and mature into adults who can make these kinds of judgments on their own. A systemwide policy may satisfy the political agendas of some delegates and senators in Annapolis, but it doesn't serve the purpose of higher education.

--Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has begun an inquiry into whether the city could support a small soccer-specific stadium to attract D.C. United to the city. It's an intriguing idea -- stadiums designed with soccer in mind have done well elsewhere, and the crowd for the Chelsea-A.C. Milan exhibition match this year gives reason to believe Baltimore would be no exception. But the idea is one to explore cautiously. In a recession, at a time when state and city budgets are beyond strapped, the numbers would have to be extremely convincing to go forward with construction anytime soon.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--It's good that the perjury charges against Mayor Sheila Dixon now appear likely to be considered at trial. The accusation that she accepted thousands of dollars in gifts from one-time boyfriend Ronald H. Lipscomb, whose company got millions in tax breaks from the city, without publicly disclosing them, has placed an ethical cloud over her administration. We need to know whether she is innocent or guilty. (For more on this topic, click here.) 

--Baltimore Gas & Electric announced this week that it expects residential customers will be paying about 25 percent less to heat their homes with natural gas this winter. Is this because of some dashing intervention by Gov. Martin O’Malley or the Public Service Commission? A winning argument by the People’s Counsel? Concessions by BGE to grease the skids for its parent company’s nuclear deal? Nope. It’s that pesky business of supply and demand. This winter is expected to be less severe than the last one, and the worldwide recession has significantly tamped down the demand for natural gas. Supply outstrips demand and, voila, price drops. It’s a reminder that as much attention as Maryland has paid in recent years to the regulation of its energy sector, we are at a fundamental level subject to powerful forces that we can only affect on the margins.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--The Baltimore Development Corp. has certainly done a lot of good over the years in helping to revitalize the city. But it has also operated under a shadowy set of rules that, BDC alums acknowledge, are more or less passed down from generation to generation. The Sun's Annie Linskey reports that what legal documents they have establishing what the quasi-public agency can and can’t do have, in some cases, been photocopied so many times that some of the words have had to be inked in by hand. There is no statute establishing the BDC, and there is no publicly available charter -- no clear code by which it operates.

The recent flap over the BDC’s awarding of demolition grants without going through the city’s competitive bidding process highlights the problem. Not only is it unclear whether such work would have to be bid under BDC rules, it’s not even altogether clear how an agency that’s supposed to be an advisor to the mayor and city council on development matters is in the business of awarding demolition contracts in the first place. The city should reconstitute the BDC under a clear charter, available to the public, that spells out its powers and responsibilities under the law. No other quasi-public body in the city plays such an important role in Baltimore's civic life, and no other acts under such a fuzzy legal authority.

--The news that Johns Hopkins University Professor Carol W. Greider won this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine for her research with two others into the mechanism by which chromosomes protect themselves from degrading when cells divide – a key to understanding the process of aging – is an occasion for celebration and a reminder of the groundbreaking research being conducted by members of our community.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

The economic downturn has exacerbated the turmoil in troubled families and put thousands of Maryland women at greater risk of domestic violence. Since January, calls to the Baltimore House of Ruth, which offers temporary shelter and counseling to victims of abusive partners, have increased 40 percent over last year. Yet the cries for help are coming at a time when many non-profits that aid victims of domestic violence are being forced to cut services and staff. The Maryland Department of Human Resources, which partially funds shelters for abuse victims around the state, must not abandon these women -- and their children -- at a time when the number of victims seeking refuge has risen dramatically.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

As discouraging as it was to watch certain members of the Senate Finance Committee treat the concept of affordable health insurance coverage as America’s own Bolshevik Revolution last week, hope for a modicum of common sense in the U.S. Congress springs eternal. The battle over the public option isn’t over yet as there is at least one more card to play.

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already promised, no matter what comes out of the full Senate, the health care reform bill approved by the House of Representatives will contain the public option. What happens in the inevitable conference committee is anyone’s guess.
But how in the world could Senate Democrats get to the point where the concept of the public option — some quasi-government insurer offering a basic health insurance plan financed by premiums (not tax dollars) in order to keep private insurers from gouging consumers — is even particularly controversial?

What does that make Social Security or Medicare, America’s embrace of Marxism? Good thing Franklin Roosevelt wasn’t stuck with a U.S. Senate full of statesmen like Max Baucus and Kent Conrad. Instead of Social Security, the nation’s elderly would be struggling today to figure out what their local “co-op” might be offering in the way of retirement pensions — if anything at all.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: The public option" »

Posted by Andy Green at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

The news that a complex tax law change known as “combined reporting” could have resulted in $170 million in additional payments from businesses into Maryland’s coffers if it had been in effect in 2006 is bound to reignite a familiar debate in Annapolis next year, with labor unions and other progressive groups on one side and the Chamber of Commerce on the other.

The two sides have been duking it out over this issue for years, with proponents of combined reporting insisting it ensures that business pay their fair share and are unable to hide profits in other states and opponents saying it would be a logistical nightmare. Adding fuel to the fire, Maryland is in the midst of a deep budget crisis. As much as $2 billion may need to be cut from the budget next year, with the effects likely to hit government workers and those who depend on state services. Meanwhile, the state is struggling to emerge from the recession, and the chamber is already staking out the position that combined reporting would hurt businesses when they’re most vulnerable.

It’s hard to predict how a General Assembly session will shape up, but the issue has all the trappings of an election year firestorm.

The preliminary report from Comptroller Peter Franchot’s office to the Maryland Business Tax Reform Commission does provide sufficient grounds to keep the debate over combined reporting alive. But the way the debate is being framed is the wrong way to look at the issue. It’s not a matter of whether Maryland can score some quick cash to help with its budget problems on the backs of faceless, inter-state corporations, and it’s not a matter of whether the General Assembly is anti-business. It’s a matter of designing a corporate tax structure that’s more fair and that makes the state less susceptible to the wild rises and falls in revenue it has seen as we have lurched from boom to bust in recent years.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Combined reporting" »

Posted by Andy Green at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--The death of 14-year-old Destinee Parker from a case of the H1N1 flu virus is tragic. The Montebello Middle School student was part of a loving family and had ambitious plans to pursue a career in art. It's also frightening -- Destinee is Maryland's first youth to die of the swine flu without having an apparent underlying illness. Her story is bound to increase the anxiety among parents and the public at large for the spread of the virus during the flu season this fall and winter.

It is, however, important to remember that although our familiarity with the seasonal flu has made it seem less dangerous, it too is a killer. In fact, about 1,000 adults -- and three youths -- died from it last winter, far more than have been killed so far from the swine flu. This virus has some characteristics that are different from the seasonal flu -- it appears to affect the young more than the old, for example -- but it is too early to conclude that it poses a new and unfamiliar danger.

Still, the attention a case like Destinee's inevitably draws is invaluable if it persuades people to take steps to prevent the spread of H1N1, steps they should be taking every year anyway to prevent the spread of seasonal flu. Our best hope is that her death might encourage more people to be vaccinated, to stay home when they're sick, to wash their hands frequently and, if necessary, to wear face masks.

--Mayor Sheila Dixon's attorneys have succeeded in splitting the charges against her into two trials: one on accusations that she stole gift cards, and one on charges that she committed perjury in failing to report gifts from developer Ronald Lipscomb. Maybe this development will help her chances, maybe it won't. But one thing's for sure: It's not good for the city. This development drags out Ms. Dixon's legal woes and keeps the city in limbo even longer.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--The Maryland State Police insist they have changed their procedures to stop the practice of racial profiling and that none of the 100 complaints filed against them in the last five years was founded. But they have refused to grant access to the files to the NAACP and the ACLU, saying those documents are exempt from public disclosure because they involve personnel records.

Perhaps the police have cleaned up their act, but there’s no way for the public to be sure unless their investigations can be reviewed by some outside party. And there’s reason to wonder whether anything has really changed – between 2003 and 2008, 70 percent of drivers stopped and searched by the state police were minorities, even though they were no more likely to be found carrying drugs than white motorists.

A Baltimore County judge ruled that the records should be released with names blacked out, which seems like a perfectly sensible balance between the officers’ right to privacy and the public’s right to verify the department’s claims. The matter is now before the state’s second highest court, the Court of Special Appeals. We hope those judges will follow the circuit judge’s sensible compromise.

--A hearing in Annapolis this week demonstrated with perfect clarity what the problem has been for all these years in caring for Maryland’s most vulnerable children. Sen. Joan Carter Conway declared Tuesday that the Department of Human Resources’ new strategy of finding placements for troubled or neglected kids in family settings as opposed to group homes was unfair to the group homes. With all due respect to the group home operators who do a good job, that’s just too bad. The children are our concern, not their livelihood.

There was an important question raised about the department’s new strategy, which is whether the state can produce evidence that, as it claims, children are better served in home-based settings than in group homes. We do need more data. But it is the answer to that question, not whether a decision is fair to adults who profit from the system, that must guide public policy.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside them in the print edition.

--The United States goes into this week's talks with Iran over its nuclear program without a lot of great options. Years of pressure to get the regime to stop uranium enrichment altogether have failed. The prospect for more and tougher sanctions is unclear, given the historical reluctance of Russia and China to agree to them. And military strikes to wipe out Iran's nuclear facilities would likely require a lengthy, sustained campaign that would serve to cement the position of the hardliners in that country's government, without a guarantee of success.

Among the bad options, the best one is probably this: To offer that we will cease attempting to interfere with Iran's peaceful nuclear program if Iran will agree to stringent inspections from international monitors to ensure that its development of nuclear power doesn't mask a drive for nuclear weapons. If that works, it staves off the development of a nuclear-armed Iran, possibly until the reform movements in evidence after this summer's elections there take hold. If it doesn't, we will be in a better position to demand action from Russia and China and to strengthen our efforts at containing Iran through our military presence in the region and refocusing of a missile shield in that region.

--The expected increase in unemployment insurance levies on Maryland businesses should come as no surprise -- with so many people out of work, the state's fund was bound to be depleted. What is unfortunate is that the increases, coming as they do at the same time that businesses are struggling with a too-slow economic recovery, could make it more difficult for employers to add more workers back to the payroll. Maryland should consider whether its system should be changed either to increase the size of reserves in good times or to allow for a greater depletion of funds in bad times. Many other states' funds have become completely insolvent, forcing them to borrow from the federal government. But under the circumstances, is that really such a bad thing?

Posted by Andy Green at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are some previews of editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--Maryland’s law banning the practice of sending text messages while driving comes amid a steady stream of evidence that electronic distractions in the driver’s seat pose a serious and growing threat to highway safety. Researchers have found that texting behind the wheel is about as dangerous as driving drunk. A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study of truckers found they were 23 times more likely to get in an accident if they texted behind the wheel, a risk about four times greater than dialing a cell phone.

But the news about texting may be having the perverse effect of distracting lawmakers from taking up the issue of other dangerous – and in some cases, far more common – activities behind the wheel. Maryland’s texting ban was the first major distracted driving bill to succeed in the General Assembly in more than a decade of attempts by safety advocates, but its approach is narrowly tailored to just one activity – sending a text message. Reading texts is still OK. Using applications on your iPhone? Perfectly legal. And given the difficulty of even getting that flawed legislation through the General Assembly, the odds of closing those loopholes seems slim.

Fortunately, the federal government is considering the issue. Safety advocates are pressuring the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to enact broad rules banning the use of electronic devices by commercial truckers, which would be an important step, given that the risks of distraction are much greater when paired with large vehicles that are difficult to maneuver and cause massive damage in accidents. Furthermore, legislation introduced in Congress would strip federal highway funds from states that do not adopt bans on texting while driving. Such an action would give drivers a uniform standard from coast to coast, but it must define electronic distractions broadly so that evolving technology doesn’t outstrip the law.

--It’s a tough time to be a die-hard baseball fan in this town. The fantastic start to the Ravens’ season can only drive Orioles fans deeper into despair as the franchise lurches toward setting a new standard of futility. It’s gotten so bad that the Orioles bird was spotted at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday, wearing a Ravens jersey.

It’s easy after so many losing seasons for Orioles fans to conclude that their only chance to compete would come with the formation of the American League Northeast, a division of two in which the Yankees and Red Sox play each other 120 times a year (an arrangement that would probably suit all parties involved just fine). But the flowering of the Ravens this year points to something broader than the effect of a new coach or a young quarterback. It’s a testament to the saner financial structure of the National Football League, in which revenue sharing and salary caps keep teams at rough parity. It’s time for Major League Baseball to make some real attempt to lessen the differences between the haves and have-nots. If it won’t, perhaps it’s time for Congress to revisit the antitrust exemption that the league has long enjoyed.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

Given the raucous national debate over health-care insurance over the summer, it may come as a surprise that most Marylanders not only are solidly in favor of reform, they’re also willing to pay for treating a condition that has long been a matter of secrecy and shame.

A poll released by the Open Society Institute of Baltimore last week showed that despite the tough economic times, 74 percent of Maryland residents support including addiction treatment in health care reform, and 62 percent said they are willing to pay more each month in health care premiums to make it more affordable and accessible.

That suggests people in Maryland are no different from those in other parts of the country when it comes to the painful experience of how destructive substance abuse can be to both individuals and families. A parallel national survey released at the same time shows that Americans across party lines agree on improving access to addiction treatment. It appears that even in a time of intense partisan debate over health reform, the country can agree on at least one thing: Treatment for drug and alcohol abuse that saves the lives of loved ones is worth supporting wherever you fall on the political spectrum.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

If last week’s world summit on climate change produced anything worth noting, it is this – don’t expect the world to reach a new agreement over controlling man-made greenhouse gases in time for the United Nations summit in Copenhagen in December. Consensus is not around the corner and the U.S. is not the only nation struggling with this important but difficult issue.
But while the prospect of a blown deadline isn’t ordinarily a reason to cheer, there are too many positive signs of movement here and abroad to ignore. Momentum is building. It may not reach critical mass in a mere two months, but change is coming.

In New York, President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao vowed to action. China, once seen as an impediment to progress on the issue, may outpace the U.S. with ambitious plans to improve energy efficiency, invest in renewable energy and plant enough trees to reforest 150,000 square miles.

Health care may have bogged down efforts to pass a clean energy bill in Congress, but the legislation approved by the House last June was a good first step. The Senate is expected to take action once the health care debate is resolved – whether the chamber’s efforts will be adequate or not remains to be seen.

Yet even on the national stage, the signs are encouraging. Last week’s announcement by Pacific Gas and Electric that the California utility is withdrawing from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the organization’s heel-dragging approach to global warming shows change is in the air.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

Reducing Baltimore homicide rate will take more than just getting illegal guns off the streets and arresting the most violent offenders. It will also require putting more resources into apprehending the illegal gun dealers who provide the weapons that fuel the city’s homicide epidemic.

That’s the conclusion to be drawn from Sun reporter Peter Hermann’s perplexing report last week that the steady decline in nonfatal shootings in Baltimore over the last 12 years has not been matched by a comparable drop in gun fatalities. Police traditionally have thought of non-fatal shootings as unsuccessful homicides. But the fact that shootings have declined much more than homicides suggests the something is wrong with that assumption. It’s also an indication that police may need to rethink the strategy they have relied on so far.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Go after guns, not drugs" »

Posted by Andy Green at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--The Maryland Transportation Authority is proposing fees for the Intercounty Connector that could top 35 cents a mile at peak times, far higher than any other roadway in Maryland. Drivers who use it to commute daily from Gaithersburg to I-95 could wind up paying as much as $2,400 a year to avoid the Capital Beltway. The state doesn’t have much choice but to set the tolls high. About half of the $2.56 billion cost of the 18.8-mile road is being funded by bonds backed by tolls from the ICC and other roads, bridges and tunnels. Like it or not, motorists are going to have to get used to this kind of thing. Absent any political will on the state or federal level to raise taxes to pay for investments in infrastructure, any major additions to our roadways are likely to be paid for one E-Z Pass transaction at a time.

--The idea of fresh, local, healthy foods in Baltimore City school cafeterias seems like a great idea. Who could argue with the health benefits of serving whole grains, fruit and vegetables (and by “vegetables,” we don’t mean ketchup)? There’s something intuitively appealing about bringing school lunches back to what they once were, before frozen trays of ultra-processed chicken nuggets became the norm.

But as with everything, there are tradeoffs. Schools outsourced meal preparation in an effort to save money, and converting back will have costs — as much as $3 million, for example, to retrofit a warehouse into a central cooking facility. In a school system struggling to put quality teachers in every classroom and to get proper supplies into its students' hands, is this the right investment to make?

We say yes. The drive to outsource sometimes proved penny-wise, pound-foolish, so a return to old ways can in some instances actually save money. But even if it means occasionally diverting money that could have gone to other educational purposes, the investment is worth it. Not only does it produce healthier kids, but it also sends a message that they deserve to have the best, to have something just as good, and maybe even better, than their peers in the suburbs. There’s more to food than just nutrition. The preparation and serving of meals is a primal way to convey attention and care. Slapping pre-fab, frozen food on a tray screams indifference. Providing meals that someone took pride in making is a small way of telling students that they’re important. If Baltimore schools are to continue the remarkable turnaround they’ve displayed in the last few years, they need to make sure kids get that message all day long, in the classroom, in the halls and, yes, in the cafeteria.

(Sun photo)

Posted by Andy Green at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--The expected approval Wednesday of the first slot machine gambling license in Maryland is more than just an important milestone in the long-running, politically charged debate about gambling in the state. The grant of a licence for a slots parlor at Ocean Downs is also the first promising sign we’ve seen in more than a year for the state’s coffers. A temporary facility with as many as 500 machines could be running in time for next summer’s tourist season in Ocean City, and while that may not make much of a dent in a $2 billion budget shortfall, it certainly helps.

The Ocean City facility has also been blissfully free of the ethical, legal and political problems that have stymied the development of the likely more lucrative sites planned for Anne Arundel County and Baltimore City. The Ocean Downs site is being developed by a Marylander – Bill Rickman of Montgomery County – who has experience in operating a successful racetrack-casino in Delaware, and it has gotten the approval of local elected officials.

It’s probably naïve to hope that the sight of slots rising in Worcester County will inspire the Arundel County Council to finally make a decision, or for Baltimore officials to make sure we have no more surprises like land swaps or no-bid demolition contracts on the way to a slots site there. But when Maryland voters overwhelmingly supported legalizing slot machines in the 2008 election, they expected more than a few hundred machines on the far eastern edge of the state. They expected a successful, responsibly run program that would help fund state government without more tax increases. Baltimore and Arundel officials need to follow Worcester County’s lead to get us there as soon as possible.

--The Food and Drug Administration’s first act as a regulator of tobacco was a good one: banning sweet, fruit- and candy-flavored cigarettes. Because they mask the harsh taste of tobacco, these products have been particularly attractive to underage smokers, serving as a gateway into a lethal habit. It’s curious that the agency exempted menthol cigarettes from the ban – a decision based, no doubt, on the fact that menthols are vastly more popular with smokers of all ages than the strawberry, chocolate or vanilla varieties that are subject to the order. FDA officials said they’re reviewing menthols, and they shouldn’t hesitate to put them on the banned list as well if they can be determined to have the effect of making smoking more attractive to children.

Federal, state and local officials should be looking at other ways to make sure these starter-sins stay out of the hands of children. Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler’s push to restrict the sales of “alcopops,” sugary alcoholic beverages that are now as widely available as beer, met an inexcusable veto from Gov. Martin O’Malley in 2008. Although the governor has subsequently come around on the issue, the legislature has still been unable to enact restrictions. And Baltimore and state officials have long struggled to restrict the single sales of so-called “little cigars,” products that are taxed and sold as if they were premium cigars instead of what they really are, glorified cigarettes. Mayor Sheila Dixon was able to enact regulations requiring they be sold in packs of five or more, but the change that would really matter – taxing them like cigarettes – has gotten nowhere in Annapolis.

Opponents of such restrictions are right that adults should be able to make decisions that are bad for them, but that argument fails when it comes to products that, intentionally or not, are calibrated to appeal to kids.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--After the years of worry about whether the newly instituted high school assessment test requirements for Maryland’s class of 2009 would be so difficult that they would keep thousands from graduating, the results announced this week seem like pretty stark reassurance: Only 11 kids in the entire state failed to graduate because of the tests. In fact, the figure was so minuscule that some are now questioning whether the requirements are too easy and should be stiffened.

But the number 11 is not the one that we should be focusing on. There were another 2,280 students who failed the HSA but also failed other graduation requirements. That means there’s an extremely high correlation between the group of students who can’t pass the HSA (or didn’t bother to try) and those who couldn't pass the previous requirements. The point of statewide testing tied to graduation, presumably, was to ensure that standards are even across Maryland’s high schools and that some kids aren’t getting diplomas without learning the requisite skills. This data suggest that’s not really a problem. Uniformly, throughout the state, if you can pass the existing high school graduation requirements, you can pass the HSA, and vice versa.

So was this a pointless exercise? Not necessarily. Maryland and other states are working to develop a set of national educational standards. The experience of the HSAs will not only inform that effort but will help Maryland make a smooth transition if and when those standards are adopted.

--Kudos to Maryland Atty. Gen. Douglas F. Gansler for deciding to conduct an investigation into the local chapter of ACORN, the community activist group that has come under fire since the release of videotapes showing its employees giving advice on dodging taxes and setting up a brothel. Somebody had to do it, and Baltimore State’s Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy’s office wasn’t doing the job. A spokeswoman for Ms. Jessamy said her office has bigger crimes to prosecute, and there’s some truth to that – her agency has the unenviable task of trying to maintain law and order in a city with a sky-high murder rate. But thanks to the outrageous nature of the secretly recorded ACORN tapes, millions of people across the country have now seen the organization’s employees engaged in behavior that calls the propriety of the group’s activities into question. That can’t be ignored.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso has embraced a curious contradiction when it comes to discipline. On the one hand, he has sought to reduce the number of suspensions for minor offenses in hopes of keeping more kids in school. On the other, he has adopted a zero-tolerance policy for setting fires on school property, making that offense grounds for automatic, permanent expulsion. Some education advocates are rightly questioning whether that hard-line stance conflicts with the state constitution’s requirement that Maryland provide a free and adequate education to all students.

Mr. Alonso has softened the policy somewhat – those under 16 are now able to come back if they successfully complete a year in an alternative school – but that potentially leaves out more than a dozen older students who have no recourse under the policy. When Mr. Alonso came to Baltimore, in-school arson was a serious problem, and it has diminished since he instituted his policy. But not all fires are equally dangerous, and not all students involved in setting them are equally culpable – or irredeemably ill-behaved. There needs to be leeway for individual circumstances, and there is no reason not to afford those over 16 the same opportunity for rehabilitation and restoration as their younger peers.

--The U.S. Senate last week voted overwhelmingly in favor of a provision that would require Amtrak to allow passengers to carry guns in their checked luggage, a practice that used to be standard on the railway but which was discontinued after the Sept. 11 attacks. The reason: Unlike on airplanes, Amtrak’s baggage cars are not completely secure, and it would be difficult and expensive to guarantee that passengers can’t access their firearms midtrip. It’s certainly true that Amtrak security isn’t what it should be – a determined person could probably find easier ways to sneak a gun on board – but that argues for giving the rail line resources to improve security procedures, not circumventing them.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

Gov. Martin O’Malley learned this week why to hate economists. On the same week that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke declared the recession “very likely” over and less than a month after shrinking the state’s general fund budget to 3-year-old levels, he’s now been told he must cut about $300 million right away, and instead of a $1 billion shortfall next year, it looks to be $2 billion.

Forecasts, shmorecasts.

Like a concrete block tossed in a pond, the ripple effect of high unemployment rates continues to spread long after the initial splash. Lost jobs means lost income tax revenue, and the latest estimates are that Maryland’s situation is worse (and the economic recovery is going to be slower) than was foreseen a mere month ago.

For anyone who remembers the last major recession in the early 1990s, the downward spiral is a familiar ride. It was just as painful for then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer, who presided over Board of Public Works meetings with the disdain of a vegetarian forced into butchery and helpless to do much more than hack away at popular and much-needed education, health and public safety programs on a regular basis.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Maryland's $2 billion shortfall" »

Posted by Andy Green at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

Maryland’s Public Service Commission faces a major test of its independence and wisdom as a regulator in its decision of whether to approve the proposed purchase by Electricité de France of nearly half of Constellation Energy Group’s nuclear holdings. Gov. Martin O’Malley, who appointed or re-appointed the commission members, has signaled extreme skepticism of the deal, including in an op-ed Wednesday in The Sun in which he claimed the deal held no benefits for Baltimore Gas & Electric ratepayers. He has made clear that he is either trying to kill the deal or hold it up for a payoff from Constellation in the form of BGE rate reductions and other concessions.

Even without Mr. O’Malley’s influence, the decision is a tough one: The recent history of energy policy in Maryland shows that we have had a poor understanding of the possible consequences of regulation and de-regulation.

Based on the testimony before the commission last week about the proposed deal, it is clear that it offers no certainties. There are risks to BGE customers if the PSC approves the deal, and risks if it rejects it. But the strong argument for approving the deal is that in that case, the risks can be mitigated and are paired with potentially significant benefits to ratepayers. If the deal is rejected, the risks can’t easily be mitigated, and there are no potential benefits.

The PSC should approve the deal on the condition that Constellation enact much stricter means to ensure that BGE cannot be negatively impacted by the activities of its nuclear division -- or the high-flying trading arm that got the company into trouble last year. Mr. O'Malley's calls for immediate BGE rate relief and the slashing of Constellation CEO Mayo Shattuck's pay package are just distractions.

(Sun photo)

Posted by Andy Green at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal is expected to ask President Barack Obama to send even more troops to Afghanistan, but it would be hard to justify doing so without some fundamental rethinking of what we're doing there, what we hope to accomplish and what kind of partnerships are possible with Afghan leaders.

We have entered a new and deadly phase in the war there at the same time that United Nations monitors are reporting widespread fraud in the re-election effort of President Hamid Karzai and others report that official corruption is crippling the nation. After eight years there, our presence has failed to give root to a functioning democracy. Nor has it wiped out al-Qaeda; the terrorist group's top leaders have fled to Pakistan and other parts of the globe.

The point of an increase in troops, presumably, would be to stabilize the country to give local authorities time to establish control and for us to train local forces to keep the peace, all in the name of disrupting the terrorists who used Afghanistan as a base to plan the 9/11 attacks. Given the current state of affiars there, it's hard to imagine that will be possible. If the Pentagon and White House can't articulate a plausible set of benchmarks for using our military to create a more stable Afghanistan and to keep us safer, it's time not only to reject requests for a troop buildup but also to start planning to bring existing forces home.

(AP Photo)

Posted by Andy Green at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--Former President Jimmy Carter made headlines this week by concluding that much of the opposition to President Barack Obama stems from his race. But even if race is a part of what's caused the passionate opposition to Mr. Obama's policies, arguing about the matter isn't going to help anything. Many people are anxious about the future of the country for a variety of reasons, and the president's race may be one of those reasons for some people. But the only way for Mr. Obama to overcome those anxieties is to concentrate on his job and lead us to a better future.

(For more on this, click here.)

--A report in the New England Journal of Medicine this week lends support to the idea of taxing sugary soft drinks as a way to improve the nation's health and fund health care reform. They conclude that a tax of a penny an ounce would raise nearly $15 billion in its first year and would have the added benefit of reducing obesity. The idea is well worth exploring. Increasing the price of soda could have a major impact on consumption, particularly among children. The researchers estimate that a 10 percent increase in the price of soda would decrease consumption by 8 percent to 10 percent. Opponents are trying to equate a soda tax with a tax on food; they bought a full-page ad in Sunday's Washington Post urging Congress, "Don't tax our groceries." But this is not bread, apples and milk we're taxing here. It's something with little or no nutritional value. It would be no great loss to anyone except soda company shareholders if Americans drank less.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--The resignation of Maryland Republican Party Chairman James Pelura gives the state’s beleaguered minority party a much-needed chance to reboot before the 2010 election. Mr. Pelura inherited the party at a difficult time – former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s defeat in 2006 left the GOP leaderless and robbed it of its most potent fundraiser – but things have only gotten worse over the last four years. The party is broke, and has been for some time; it was recently ordered to repay former Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele’s campaign committee some $75,000, and it had to secure approval to do so on the installment plan. And the party has been divided by internal tensions and ideological disputes.

It’s important for Maryland to have a strong, viable two-party system. Without it, we have too little debate about the important issues facing us as a state. The new chairman, whoever he or she is, needs to focus on the basics: getting the party back to solvency, recruiting good candidates and giving them the support they need to compete.

--The new apartment building at 26th Street and Maryland Avenue is just the kind of thing Baltimore needs to revitalize marginal neighborhoods. The building, a renovated 1874 tin factory, offers affordable living space for teachers and low-rent office space for nonprofits. It has amenities for teachers – such as a copy center to prepare classroom materials – and is already a big hit. The building is fully leased, and there’s a waiting list of 100 teachers who want in. It’s important, of course, for the city to work on affordable housing for low-income residents, but Baltimore shouldn’t forget the middle class either. Creating attractive places for teachers and other moderately paid professionals to live will stabilize neighborhoods and provide a richer, more vibrant city.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

 --If there’s any doubt about whether the state’s anti-gang statute is effective, consider this: Almost two years after it became law, it has not been used a single time by prosecutors in Baltimore, despite an increasingly violent gang culture associated with the city’s drug trade. There have been plenty of horrible cases in which a statute that criminalizes involvement in a gang that furthers its criminal activities would be a useful tool for prosecutors, but because the definition of what constitutes a gang member is too vague, it has proved useless. The only case in the state in which the statute has been used occurred in Harford County, and there, the sentences for the gang crimes ran concurrently with the underlying murder sentence, making the whole exercise largely meaningless. There are legitimate concerns about constructing a statute that criminalizes the free right of association, but legislators in Annapolis need to make it a priority to revisit this statute and turn it into something prosecutors can actually use.

--People should have the right to dry their clothes in the fresh air of their backyards. They should be able to collect rainwater, too, and use it to water their gardens. But in too many cases, neighborhood covenants either prohibit those simple, eco-friendly (and economical) activities in the name of aesthetics, or create overly burdensome restrictions. The legislature has twice rejected “right to dry” bills that would have eliminated clothesline restrictions, but lawmakers should take a comprehensive look at the conflicts between neighborhood associations and steps that people are increasingly taking to reduce their impact on the planet, from compost piles to solar panels. There is certainly value in maintaining the architectural integrity of neighborhoods, especially those with strong historic character, but the balance needs to favor finding ways to blend new (or in the case of clotheslines, old) features into neighborhood life. The state should establish programs to work with neighborhoods to update their covenants to be more permissive of efforts to improve the environment. We need to make it easier for people to save the planet, not harder.

Posted by Andy Green at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--It’s been eight years since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but as a nation, we have hardly moved on. We are still at war in Afghanistan, facing a resurgent Taliban. We still have not captured Osama bin Laden. No construction has begun on the site of the World Trade Center in New York. We have not figured out how to handle combatants in the global war on terror in a way that is fully consistent with our values. We have made it eight years without another terrorist attack on American soil, but we are not close to declaring victory and may never be. The attacks were carried out in a space of a few hours by just 19 men, but they have left scars that show no signs of healing. (AP photo)

--To listen first to President Obama’s speech to Congress Wednesday night and then to his Republican detractors, you’d think they were talking about two entirely different health care proposals. Rather than attempt to debate the merits and risks of the Democrats’ approach, the GOP has cast its lot in with those who scream out untruths – in the case of Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, literally so. But the president’s straightforward explanation of the aims and methods of his health care reform proposal will make it more difficult for the Republicans to play up the false accusations about death panels and government takeovers of the health care system. It will also make it much easier for conservative Democrats and perhaps a few moderate Republicans to support a plan that, while imperfect, represents a giant leap forward.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will apear alongside them in the print edition.

--We’ve gotten used to the idea of police monitoring public spaces through video surveillance. And the practice of private businesses installing security cameras to tape what’s going on in their establishments isn’t new. But the agreement between Baltimore police and a bar called Shirley’s Honey Hole to install cameras inside and outside the business with a direct feed into the police network crosses a new line in our expectations of privacy in private establishments. There is a difference between the ability of police to review privately collected video once a crime has taken place and the potential for constant monitoring of patrons’ activities, whether they are illegal or not.

Shirley’s agreed to the cameras rather than risk being padlocked by the police as a nuisance establishment. But the arrangement raises a number of questions: Is the video connection with the police a permanent feature there, or is it something that will be changed if and when Shirley’s cleans up its act? Do the police anticipate replicating this arrangement elsewhere? What are the criteria for the use of such cameras, and are there limits to how far the police will go in monitoring private activity?

--It should come as no surprise that some people living near Hawkins Point aren’t thrilled by the idea of power plant fly ash showing up at a local landfill. In recent years, the effects of improperly handled coal ash have gotten a lot of attention, from the contaminated wells near an ash landfill in Gambrills to the billion gallons of the stuff that accidentally spilled into the Tennessee River last year.

But the question before the Maryland Department of the Environment is whether or not to allow 7.4 million tons of so-called "coal combustion byproducts" to be dumped in an industrial landfill that is designed to handle far more toxic material than the failed Gambrills site and is proposed to be upgraded further.

That’s a far more complicated issue, and concerns over public welfare cut both ways. If not in Hawkins Point, where? And might local residents be better off if the landfill ends up with coal ash instead of the other chemicals, toxics, organic compounds and other industrial waste the facility is already licensed to accept?

Posted by Andy Green at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of some editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--All the political handwringing over President Obama’s attempt to reboot the health care reform effort with his address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night belies just how far we’ve come toward passing what could be the most significant package of legislation in years. The House of Representatives is poised in the coming days to pass a reform bill that would extend coverage to nearly all Americans, forbid insurance companies from denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions and set up exchanges that will help people keep coverage when they switch jobs and shop for the policies that are right for them. The Senate, though not quite as far along, is working on plans that contain most of the same ideas.

There are some potentially fatal sticking points – most notably, whether the legislation would create a public health insurance option to compete with private carriers – but there remain avenues to overcome them. Even if the chance for a reform package with wide bipartisan support is appearing increasingly unlikely, the idea floated by Republican Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe and endorsed over the weekend by Democratic Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson to make the creation of a public option contingent on the failure of private insurance to lower costs is a good one. It might even be enough to get Democrats the 60 votes they need in the Senate to overcome a filibuster.

If not, they should consider taking the parliamentary moves necessary to pass health care on a straight majority vote. There would surely be some political fallout for doing so, but not nearly so much as there would be for failing to pass health care reform at all.

--The effort to crack down on violence in two Southwest Baltimore neighborhoods is encouraging in that the problem of crime is not being viewed in isolation. In addition to police checkpoints and enhanced patrols, the city is providing more code enforcement, firefighters and other officials to address the neighborhoods’ problems more broadly. There is certainly the potential for civil liberties concerns in the use of police checkpoints – recently, Washington police went too far in this regard – but these initiatives have some chance of improving the situation after the police go home because they address some of the root causes of lawlessness. Baltimore could go even further – bringing more social workers, drug treatment, doctors and nurses and so on – but a holistic approach is the only way to clean up troubled neighborhoods for good.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

The allegations still seem incredible: An 11-year-old girl abducted in broad daylight, then raped and held captive for 18 years by a sociopath who fathered two children by his victim. And no one noticed anything amiss until an alert campus police officer, following up on an intuition, sounded the alarm that ultimately led to the arrest of Phillip Garrido, the 51-year-old convicted sex offender now charged in the case.

As details of the crime in California came out last week, the nation looked on in horrified fascination. Investigators are still trying to sort out how the alleged perpetrator -- who was on parole for a previous rape when Jaycee Dugard, now 29, was abducted in 1991 as she walked to a bus stop near her home -- got away with it for so long, despite being on a state registry of sex offenders and attending regular meetings with his parole officer.

Yet what happened to Ms. Dugard in California could have happened anywhere, including Maryland, where sexual offenses against children remain among the most under-reported types of crime. Like California, Maryland has a law requiring convicted sex offenders to register on a statewide list when they are released from prison and to report any change of address so that communities can be aware of their presence in the community. Offenders who are on probation or parole are subject to aggressive long-term supervision by corrections officials, and in recent years Maryland has passed increasingly tougher laws to ensure they adhere strictly to the terms of their release.

But tougher laws alone aren’t enough to protect vulnerable children from sexual abuse, exploitation and the physical and emotional trauma that marks victims’ lives for years afterward. That requires a willingness on the part of people in the community to be alert to suspicious behavior and report it to the authorities. Neighborhoods must take a pro-active attitude toward prevention -- notwithstanding the fact that sex offenses remain a taboo subject in many communities and that people often say nothing even when they suspect something amiss simply because they’d rather not get involved. But when decent folk fail to come forward, even the toughest laws may as well not be on the books.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: More than just tough laws needed to prevent sex crimes" »

Posted by Andy Green at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

A year ago, when a group of GM executives came to The Sun to meet with the editorial board, they couldn’t stop talking about the Chevy Volt. Then still in the conceptual stages, the plug-in electric hybrid was their answer for the future and repentance for years of pushing gas-guzzling SUVs that, at the time, had been made exceptionally unattractive by sky-high fuel prices. They seemed to pine for it, much like a baseball team trailing badly in the bottom of the ninth might wish for a six-run homer.

A lot has changed since then. GM’s vice president of sales, Mark LaNeve, was in Baltimore last week to meet with area dealers and to fill them in on the company’s plans now that it has emerged from bankruptcy. When he stopped by The Sun, he was ga-ga over the Chevy Equinox, a small, four-cylinder SUV that gets 32 miles to the gallon. He had lots to say about the Chevy Cruze, due out next year and expected to be a strong competitor for the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic, and about a couple of new Cadillac models that should hit showrooms soon. The Volt? He didn’t bring it up, and when he did, he talked about the car — expected to get as much as 235 miles to the gallon but to cost $40,000 to produce — less as a game-changer than as a small-scale experiment.

After so many years of watching a bloated, arrogant General Motors steadily and not so gracefully decline from a dominant global corporation to a government charity case, it’s hard to be optimistic. None of its models were in the top 10 most popular cars purchased in the Cash for Clunkers program, and despite the wild success of that incentive, GM’s sales in August were down 20 percent over the previous year, compared to a 17 percent increase for Ford and double-digit increases for Toyota and Honda.

But the company’s plans for crawling back to profitability are refreshingly simple and modest: Hang onto a strong position in the lucrative truck and SUV sector and seek to expand its share of passenger car sales by making a few good cars and marketing the heck out of them. Shed of billions in liabilities for retiree health care and pensions and able through the bankruptcy process to slim down in a hurry, the company is positioned to make a profit without returning to the go-go days of $1.50 gas and Hummer-centric business plans.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: GM's new strategy" »

Posted by Andy Green at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has his work cut out for him cleaning up the mess the Bush administration left at the Justice Department. Having begun by appointing a special prosecutor to investigate CIA abuses in the torture of terror suspects and hiring veteran career attorneys to oversee the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility and Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, one of his top priorities must be reorganizing the agency’s long-suffering civil rights division so that it can return to its traditional mission of enforcing anti-discrimination laws and protecting the rights of minorities.

Under Mr. Holder’s predecessors, the civil rights division suffered grievously from political meddling in high-profile cases and hiring practices that ignored merit-based Civil Service rules in favor of ideological litmus tests which allowed minimally qualified partisan hacks to win top jobs. The predictable result was that dedicated career attorneys were demoralized and shunted aside; more than 200 of them left or were forced out over the last eight years. Mr. Holder plans to request an additional $22 million for the agency that will allow him to hire capable replacements for these valued employees without igniting the partisan furor that would come from having to weed out scores of incompetent Bush-era partisans who now enjoy Civil Service protection.

In addition to expanding the division’s staff, Mr. Holder wants to shift its focus back to long-standing efforts on voting rights, housing and employment discrimination, discriminatory bank lending practices and the drawing of new voting districts after next year’s census. He also wants to replace his predecessor’s narrow emphasis on individual cases of intentional discrimination with a broader approach that takes into account systemic bias and policies that have a disparate impact on minorities.

Continue reading "Upcoming editorial: Confirm Tom Perez" »

Posted by Andy Green at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--The kids at Milford Mill Academy are smart enough to know that New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, who spoke with them Tuesday about the evils of steroids, has paid little price for his use of performance-enhancing drugs from 2001-2003. If he really regrets it, there are plenty of more substantive steps he can take to end the culture of steroid use in sports. (For more on this, click here.) 

--Southwest Airlines announced this week that for an extra $10, it will let passengers board the plane first, thus exempting them from the stress of checking in early and standing in line with the hoi polloi. This continues a disappointing trend among airlines to nickel and dime passengers for everything from snacks to checked bags to – in a plan hatched by a British airline executive but not yet implemented – using the bathrooms on the plane.

The problem here is not so much that they’re charging extra fees but that they’re charging for the wrong things. How about a $10 to make sure you and your bags wind up in the same place? Or $10 to guarantee you won’t be stuck on the tarmac for five hours without food or water? Maybe $10 so the ticket agent won’t act like a jerk? Or, in Southwest’s case, an extra $10 to make sure they use FAA-approved parts when they maintain their planes?

Posted by Andy Green at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer and a majority of the City Council appear poised to lift restrictions on the number of bars that can stay open until 2 a.m. in the city's historic district, a move sure to upset nearby residents who already feel besieged by drunken rowdies from the 40-some taverns that now have that privilege. This is a perennial fight, one that's probably been going on since George Washington was hoisting tankards in the Capital City, and those who buy homes in the historic district need to accept a certain amount of nightlife that has been a part of Annapolis much longer than they have. But there are limits, and it's not unreasonable for residents to want to maintain the current equilibrium between peace and disquiet.

The chief argument made by supporters of the change in laws is that the current system in which some older bars' 2 a.m. licenses are grandfathered in is unfair to those bar owners who can only stay open until midnight. But just as residents should have known that the bar scene was a part of downtown living in Annapolis, so too did the bar owners with midnight licenses know from the start that they would face that particular competitive disadvantage. The proponents of the change have advanced no arguments that the 2 a.m. rule would somehow benefit the city as a whole -- it's not as if Annapolis is bereft of places to eat and drink, or that mass numbers of bars have recently closed there, depriving the city of tax revenue. Absent any sort of compelling public interest, there's no reason to change the status quo.

--A federal judge recently struck down Connecticut's system of public financing for political campaigns in a flawed bit of reasoning that shows a real lack of common sense. In that state, as in the few others that have adopted such systems, candidates must show a minimal level of support before they are eligible for public funds. The judge concluded that the system thus violated the First Amendment rights of those candidates who aren't able to demonstrate such support. This ignores the fact that the overall effect of the law is to vastly increase the number of political candidates who might be able to exercise their rights of free expression by getting their messages out to the people. Let's hope this decision is quickly overturned and that other states -- Maryland included -- move toward a system that lowers the barriers to participation in our political system and reduces the influence of campaign contributions on our government.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

--The state oversight board that governs Maryland’s public defender’s office may be able to avoid answering questions about its sudden firing of the agency’s head, Nancy Forster, by hiding behind the state law protecting personnel decisions from public disclosure. But that does not absolve it of the duty to inform the public about its intentions for a vital agency that ensures the fairness and equity of our criminal justice system.

The only hints we have about what led two of the three board members to fire Ms. Forster come from a memo written by Ms. Forster listing changes she says they wanted in the department, including the disbanding of the capital defense and juvenile protection divisions of the office; closing a community defenders operation; outsourcing Child in Need of Assistance representation to private attorneys; and firing the Baltimore County public defender, Thelma Trilpin.

If, in fact, the board wants those changes made, members need to say so and explain why. A July 2 letter from board chairman T. Wray McCurdy indicates dissatisfaction with the rate of growth in the office and its focus on assisting clients beyond their immediate legal needs. If this heralds a major shift in focus for the agency, the oversight board should explain its wishes in public so they can be properly debated.

--It sounds like an attractive idea for a cash-strapped government: Offer amnesty to businesses and individuals who owe back taxes so they can pay without penalty and only half of the accrued interest. The state gets a quick boost of funds that it may or may not have gotten, and delinquent taxpayers get to clear the slate. But coming just five years after the last such amnesty, the plan sets a disquieting precedent. Will businesses and individuals now expect amnesty programs to be a regular occurrence, and will that lead to even more tax avoidance in the future?

Posted by Andy Green at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are some more things we're covering for the weekend's editorial pages. We welcome your comments on these topics and will publish some of them in the paper.

* SPEED CAMERAS. Baltimore County will vote this week on whether to allow speed cameras in school zones within the county. As we have pointed out before, it would be absurd for any jurisdiction not to take advantage of this tool to deter scofflaws and protect children. Anyone driving more than 12 miles per hour over the limit near a school deserves a ticket.

Posted by Michael Cross-Barnet at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's some of what's coming for the weekend. As always, please share your thoughts with us about these issues.

CASINO: Slot machines at the Arundel Mills Mall are being held up by a dithering Anne Arundel County Council that apparently is hoping that the state slots commission will first award a license to David Cordish's slots proposal for the mall. This delay is inexcusable. It's time for the council to break this stalemate and take action on the Cordish plan.

ONLINE PRIVACY: On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. But if you call someone else a dog -- or, perhaps, a "skank" -- it turns out your anonymity might not be as protected as you think in an area of law and ethics that seems to be evolving by the day. Meanwhile, interactive encyclopedia Wikipedia has tightened its standards to require that editing of entries about living people must pass muster with a moderator before being posted. A look at the state of privacy and protection on the still-wild frontier of the Web.

Posted by Michael Cross-Barnet at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are the editorials we're planning for Friday's paper. Let us know your thoughts.

* SWINE FLU PREPARATION. Reports earlier this week that up to half the population could be infected with swine flu in the coming year, with as many as 90,000 deaths, were quickly followed with more reports stressing that those figures represent a worse-case scenario and the actual effects of the disease could be much less severe. But it is the government's responsibility to be prepared for just such a worse-case scenario -- while at the same time avoiding conditions of overreaction and panic. This will be a major test of the Obama administration's ability to manage a public health crisis.

* E-ZPASS CHARGES. The fuss over the new E-ZPass policy of charging tagholders a monthly fee always was a tempest in a teapot. Sure, a few thousand motorists have turned in their tags in protest. These are probably the same people who believe that any increase in fees, taxes or tolls is inherently "unfair." But the fact is, EZ-Pass customers have been getting a fantastic deal for years now -- and they still will be, even with the implementation of the small monthly charge. The relatively small number of protesters shows that most drivers understand this.

Posted by Michael Cross-Barnet at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

This is what we're writing about for Thursday's editorial page. Please weigh in with your thoughts  about these topics, and we will publish a sample of responses along with our editorials.

* Senator Kennedy: People overuse the phrase "end of an era," but with the passing of Ted Kennedy, this has indisputably occurred. For more than 40 years, no one commanded the American political scene the way he did, and no one was responsible for more important legislation. His was an epic life, and his compassion and expertise will be missed as the country wrestles with the issue that was perhaps dearest to his heart: guaranteeing health care for every American.

* AP tests: The number of Maryland students taking and passing an AP exam rose significantly this past school year, with a 9 percent increase in passing scores. This reflects well on the state of educational progress in Maryland at a time when SAT scores (which held stable) are losing some of their previous significance and AP tests are gaining increasing prominence.

Posted by Michael Cross-Barnet at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's what we're working on for Wednesday's editorial page. Let us know your thoughts on these issues; the best comments will be included in tomorrow's paper.

* State budget cuts: The O'Malley administration today is announcing a package of $470 million in budget cuts, which will include furloughs for 70,000 state workers. More than $250 million of the total will be carved from aid to local governments, and the remainder could come from state services like health care. Because funding for public education from kindergarten through high school won’t be affected, the cuts are likely to hit a handful of other services hard. Instead of across-the-board spending reductions that target crucial and unnecessary programs alike, we hope the governor will focus on eliminating things that the state simply can't afford in these austere times, such as legislative scholarships and a continuing freeze on state tuition increases.

* Controversial club: The Suite Ultralounge in the Belvedere Hotel, which has been the scene of violence on multiple occasions, will remain open, for the time being, despite the city liquor board's attempt to shut it down. A judge ruled that the board must first establish rules about when a bottle club's license may be revoked. That leads us to wonder: Why doesn't the board charged with enforcing liquor laws already have such rules in place? Meanwhile, if problems continue at the
Ultralounge, the Police Department might have to step in and padlock the place as a public nuisance.

Posted by Michael Cross-Barnet at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's what we're writing about for Tuesday's editorial page. Let us know what you think. A sample of the responses will be published in tomorrow's paper.

* CIA abuses: The Justice Department plans Monday to disclose many details on prisoner abuse that were gathered by the CIA's inspector general but have never been released. At the same time, the department's ethics office has come out in favor of reopening nearly a dozen cases of alleged detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are welcome developments that signal an opportunity for the Obama administration, and in particular Attorney General Eric Holder, to make a clean break with Bush administration policies that ignored or even condoned torture and other abuses.

* Raven arrested: Not all the facts are known about the arrest of Anthony "Tony" Fein, a rookie at Ravens training camp, Sunday night at an Inner Harbor restaurant. But initial reports suggest that the police acted appropriately in response to a report of a possible firearm in the restaurant. Indeed, the police have promised to be more aggressive in confronting potential violence in the harbor, a position we have supported. But whether the officer behaved correctly or not, there can never be any excuse for pushing or hitting a police officer.

Posted by Michael Cross-Barnet at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will appear alongside it in the print edition.

Beans & Bread, a soup kitchen in Upper Fells Point, feeds 300 people a day. That’s not expected to change, even if Beans & Bread wins city approval to build an addition. What would change is that the people who already line up for food would get to queue up inside the building instead of out on the sidewalk. They would have a place to shower and wash their clothes. The expansion also would give Beans & Bread staff offices rather than cubicles, so when they’re trying to help someone find services for, say, AIDS treatment, they can discuss that in private.

Some neighbors and area businesses fear an expanded Beans & Bread will draw more homeless people the area. But St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore, which has operated the soup kitchen at Bank and South Bond streets for the past 17 years, insists that will not happen. The dining room will not grow, it says, and the showers and other services will only be available to people who eat there.

Neighbors and businesses who feel the homeless population is growing and dragging the area down are understandably wary. But those 300 people aren’t going away. What’s the downside to getting the line off the sidewalk, helping the homeless clean up and getting them services that could get some off the streets?

Posted by Andy Green at 6:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here's a preview of an editorial we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside it in the print edition.

Maryland, birthplace of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Thurgood Marshall, is endowed with one of the richest legacies of African-American history of any state in the union. Before the Civil War, the state was home to the largest population of free blacks in the country, and it also sat squarely athwart a major route of the Underground Railroad through which thousands of slaves escaped to freedom in the North. After the war, new African-American communities sprang up across the state, centered around hundreds of small, fiercely independent churches that provided their congregants with a sense of belonging and a spiritual and physical refuge in an often hostile world.

Such was mission of the Cherry Hill African Union Methodist Protestant Church, a little building with a big name that reflected the fervent hopes of its founders for a better life in this world and salvation in the next. Established in 1887 in Granite, Md., in southwestern Baltimore County, the tiny, 650-square-foot structure erected on a stone foundation had a peaked roof, three rows of pews, a pulpit and a piano to accompany its chorister’s lilting hymns.

But the community that sustained the church for so long dispersed decades ago, and the building fell into neglect. Now a preservationist group wants to restore the old structure and convert it into a museum commemorating the role it played in the lives of generations of black Marylanders. That’s a laudable goal, but it won’t be easy: Across the country, museums large and small have been hit hard by the economic downturn. Raising funds for construction and operating costs has been a struggle because private donors are tapped out and government has cut back support for the arts and culture. For a new institution just trying to get off the ground, it’s likely to be an uphill climb.

The Friends of Cherry Hill Church can take heart, however, from the fact that there are a wide range of resources they can draw on to realize their goal. The Kennedy Center in Washington, for example, offers workshops that instruct fledgling institutions in the skills and tools needed to operate effectively. And there are any number of smaller institutions, such as the Banneker-Douglas Museum in Annapolis, that can serve as models of how to develop exhibition programs and sustainable funding plans. The Cherry Hill group may decide it can benefit from partnering directly or indirectly with one of these, or with a larger institution such as the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African-American History and Culture in Baltimore.

There’s growing interest in African-American history and tourism, and Maryland is uniquely situated to take advantage of both. If the proposed museum’s backers can get enough people engaged, they can succeed even in these tough times, so long as they keep in mind that partnering with others probably will get them a lot further than trying to go it alone.

Posted by Andy Green at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--The move of the proposed Baltimore City slots parlor onto a parcel on Russell Street may, ultimately, be a good thing for the city. A higher profile location surely would make for a better, more successful slots parlor, and that, in turn, would increase the amount of property tax relief city residents could see and the amount of revenue that would go to the state’s coffers.

But the way it came about only adds to the queasiness that’s been building in the months since bidders first started trying to grab the potentially lucrative slots licenses.

The land now reserved for the proposed casino had previously been slated for another development, a massive “sportsplex” envisioned by a group of developers including Raven Ray Lewis. How exactly the slots developers, the sportsplex developers and the city came to an agreement is unclear, and that raises questions about how transparent the negotiations for a Baltimore slots parlor have been. Other developers declined to bid on a city slots site at least in part because that piece of land was said to be unavailable. That left the city with only one bidder, a politically-connected group that includes former Maryland Democratic Party head Michael Cryor whose initial proposal was for a disappointing 500 machines. Now, with the new land, the group plans to expand its proposal to 3,750 — and stands to make a lot more money.

Is this a case of an astute and lucky business group? Of a city realizing its hopes for meaningful property tax reduction were at risk and brokering a deal to help the developers? A fix from the beginning?

Whatever the case, it certainly would have been better if the possibility of this site being used for slots had been known from the beginning. Baltimore and the state would be in a better position if there were more competition for the site to make sure Baltimore gets the best possible slots operation.

--There are plenty of reasons to be upset about what’s going on in the Congo. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s angry response to a student who asked her what her husband thought about a matter of local importance is not one of them. For more on this, click here.

Posted by Andy Green at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Upcoming editorials
        

Here are previews of editorials we're working on. Let us know what you think. The best comments will run alongside them in the print edition.

--It's unlikely that the General Assembly will seriously consider any tax law changes this year -- the leaders of the House and the Senate say they won't raise taxes after doing so two years ago, and Gov. Martin O'Malley has said the idea is a non-starter. Still, a movement is brewing among progressives inside and outside the legislature to consider "combined reporting," a complicated corporate tax law change they say would make sure everyone pays their fair share. That, supporters say, is always good politics. But tackling such a complicated issue in an election year is a recipe for bad policy. For more on this topic, click here.

--Attorney General Eric Holder appears poised to name a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of abuses by the CIA under the Bush administration. This development is important for two reasons. First, it shows that no one – including the CIA – is above the law. And second, it shows some measure of independence by the Justice Department from the White House; President Obama has been none too keen to spend time, energy or political capital on investigating the Bush administration. At a time when recently released e-mails show the depth of Bush adviser Karl Rove’s role in Justice Department firings, evidence that the attorney general keeps his own counsel is a very good thing.

Posted by Andy Green at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Upcoming editorials