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Editorial Advisory Board: Currie’s ethics hearing should be open to the public
There are times when doors to the usually secret hearings of the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics should be flung wide open. The case of state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie, which the committee is expected to hear soon, is one of them. After a month-and-a-half trial in federal court last fall, a jury […]
C. Fraser Smith: Currie’s acquittal teaches the wrong lesson
Maybe now it’s official: Maryland’s elected leaders live in — and nurture — a culture of corruption. And yet, how sad for those lawmakers — the overwhelming majority — who work hard and play by the rules. There’s no platform on which to display good work and integrity. Time after time, it seems, you’re defined […]
Witnesses defend former Shoppers execs in Currie trial
Witnesses for two Shoppers Food Warehouse Corp. executives on Thursday called the pair honest, hard-working men whose contacts with state Sen. Ulysses S. Currie were above-board and fully documented in a valid consulting agreement. But federal prosecutors, through cross-examination, got the witnesses to concede they lacked full knowledge of the working relationship among Currie, D-Prince […[...]
C. Fraser Smith: The culture of Annapolis on trial
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 — on occasion — succumbed to the blandishments of an environment rife with temptation. The […]
Week in review: 7/29/11
Federal impasse stalls BWI work A party-line stalemate in Congress over reauthorizing funding of the Federal Aviation Administration has halted $681 million worth of construction projects, including a new radar system for Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Currie awaits ruling The federal law that bars legislators from exploiting their “official duties” for financia[...]
Week in review: 4/22/11
Baltimore, state mourn Schaefer William Donald Schaefer, Baltimore’s former mayor and Maryland’s former governor and comptroller, died Monday at 89. He will lie in repose Monday at the State House in Annapolis and Tuesday at Baltimore City Hall. His funeral will take place at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Baltimore, with […]
