The Baltimore City Council passed a proposed local hiring mandate at its meeting Monday night and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake must now decide whether to sign or veto the bill, which the city’s legal department insists is unconstitutional.

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More time, please. That was the request last week from an Atlanta- and New York-based development team to the Baltimore Development Corp. for a sixth extension of their exclusive land sale and development agreement for the $150 million Superblock project on the city’s West Side.

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Call it the fable of the client who wouldn’t abide sound counsel. Just about every lawyer can tell some version of it: The client comes in asking for advice but really only wants permission, a shortcut around the rules, a loophole to make the unlawful lawful.

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A proposal to establish a local hiring mandate was passed Tuesday by the Baltimore City Council’s Taxation, Finance and Economic Development Committee after a brief, 15-minute work session.

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The Baltimore City Council Labor Committee voted Thursday evening in favor of a resolution urging the Hyatt Regency Baltimore hotel to stop hiring contracted workers through staffing companies and to sign a “labor peace” agreement with employees that says the hotel will not interfere with unionization efforts.

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Baltimore’s 50-cent cap on ticket surcharges for events like concerts and sports games could be gone — for a while, at least.

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The debate over fracking had already moved from the farmland of Western Maryland to the State House. Now it has gotten the attention of the Baltimore City Council.

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A few other government headlines for Thursday morning.

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Baltimore City Councilman James B. Kraft said Wednesday he has proposed that the city’s zoning code be amended to allow the installation of energy-producing wind turbines, both near the harbor and in some residential areas.

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Baltimore City State’s Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein has achieved one of the first goals he announced after taking office in January 2011: Finding new space to consolidate roughly 200 prosecutors, investigators and support staff who are now dispersed throughout the city’s circuit courthouses.

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