I was surprised to read in the BBJ today that CEO Seth Goldman has sold a 40 percent stake of his Bethesda-based Honest Tea to the Coca-Cola Co. Especially since there is an option for Coca-Cola to buy the rest of the company after three years.

On his blog, Goldman writes, “While Coke is now our largest shareholder, the agreement was negotiated to ensure that Honest Tea will not be managed or controlled by Coke. We will continue to operate as an independent business with the same leadership and mission.” He cites the need for a larger impact, increased sales and the distribution help that Coca-Cola can provide.

Most of the comments to his blog announcement have been cautiously optimistic – assuming that Honest Tea keeps the high fructose corn syrup at bay.

What do you think – is Honest Tea selling its soul or growing stronger by partnering with Coke?

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor

Our sister paper in Long Island recently posted a blog about legislation introduced by New York Senator Charles J. Fuschillo Jr., R-Freeport, to increase the penalty for impersonating an attorney.

According to Fuschillo, it is a felony to impersonate an architect or a doctor, but only a misdemeanor to pretend to be an attorney. This is his fourth attempt to get this legislation passed.

Why do you think New York is so hesitant to up the penalty for this crime?

Also in Maryland, impersonating an attorney is a misdemeanor, unless of course you also add use of fake government documents to the mix. Should Maryland make it a felony to impersonate a lawyer? And what do you think should carry a higher penalty: impersonating an attorney or impersonating a police officer?

CHRISTINA DORAN, Assistant Legal Editor

The baseball steroids saga continues today, with pitcher Roger Clemens giving private, sworn testimony to congressional lawyers before his big day on the Hill next week. The seven-time Cy Young winner will be testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Feb. 13.

With all the issues facing this country, from a failing foreign policy to looming energy problems to a bloated federal budget, do we really need the slow-moving dinosaur that Congress is turning its attention to overpaid athletes?

Even with the current commissioner, who some may say has been an absolute disaster, shouldn’t Major League Baseball be able to get its own house in order?

FRANCIS SMITH, Special Publications Assistant Editor

Above: Former New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, left, followed by one of his attorneys, Lanny Breuer, arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 5.

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is expected to dine in The Free State on Thursday. He’ll be hosted by the Baltimore County Republican Party at their annual Lincoln/Reagan dinner in Halethorpe.

The chairman of the county Republican party, Chris Cavey, told the AP: “We are thrilled that Governor Romney’s campaign has agreed to make its only pre-primary stop our annual dinner.”

(Although, after the results of today’s primaries are in, who knows what the state of Romney’s 2008 campaign will be…).

Speaking of presidential candidates on this Super Tuesday, GMU law prof David Bernstein posted at The Volokh Conspiracy blog on Barack Obama’s tenure as editor of the Harvard Law Review.

He writes specifically about the choice of Robin West, a graduate of U-Md. Law and then-professor at U-Md., to write the Supreme Court term Foreword in 1990 (“in theory completely irrelevant to her credentials to write the Foreword, but if I know my elite law review editors, something that gave many of them significant pause”).

“West … was an inspired choice from outside the usual group of elite law school professors the HLR would consider. Call this the Obama effect, perhaps, though I’d be interested in hearing from readers who were editors that year about his effect on HLR culture.“

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor