We are told now and then that a “culture of corruption” exists in Annapolis. It’s not true. But there are aspects of life in the lawmaking arena which can be toxic to the process of lawmaking. Legislators and lobbyists have ...

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On Election Day this year, I saw the perfect democratic tableau several times: A mother or father walking in bright sunlight toward the local polling place, son or daughter in hand. The children would be watching citizenship and democracy. They ...

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Does Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake have a mandate to govern Baltimore? Of course she does. She took over 52 percent of the vote over an above-average field of opponents in last Tuesday’s election. The suggestion that she’s a mayor without a ...

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It’s one of those moments when you remember where you were. You remember, in this case, when life as we thought we knew it changed profoundly. I was waiting for an elevator in the lobby of The Sun, my former ...

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There are those among us who really do keep the faith. They see the problems. They think government can help. They run for office. They brush aside the odds and soldier on through long campaign days. They have passion. They ...

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I struck a nerve the other day when I suggested the tea party had fomented a crisis around the debt ceiling. There was this email: “I find it amazing that you so quickly pointed to the TEA Party as causing ...

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ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — It’d be easy to get on the Old Course here, “the spiritual and cultural home of golf.” That’s what the website said. So when I got to Edinburgh, I called. You might get on if you ...

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EDINBURGH, Scotland — Rupert Murdoch, who was driven off Page One, may be the only one to find something good in the recent implosion of confidence and credit in governments around much of the world. President Barack Obama and Congress ...

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CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — If there’s a remake of the 1966 Truffaut film “Fahrenheit 451,” it should be filmed here. You remember the movie. It’s about life in an era of book burning. Men and women have memorized — and essentially ...

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Sheila Dixon’s return to politics says as much about the crop of challengers in this year’s race for mayor as it does about her. It’s vintage Dixon, though. Here she is, more or less announcing her candidacy for mayor in ...

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