An issue of (gun) control
October 31, 2007
One of the contributors to Red Maryland scoffed today at City Councilman Jim Kraft’s attempt to bring legislative powers to the Baltimore City Council to regulate guns.
“The faith of liberals in laws, no matter how sporadically or inefficiently enforced, never ceases to amaze,” writes RM’s streiff.
For his part, Kraft argued at Monday’s council meeting, “Our colleagues in other parts of the state don’t really understand the severity of the gun problem in Baltimore. We need to be able to pass our own laws.”
streiff’s argument:
1. The criminals in Baltimore who use firearms — and there are many — wouldn’t be deterred by the prospect of breaking a law.
2. It has been “fairly well documented” that Baltimore juries are reluctant to convict accused felons. (Can any attorneys speak to this?)
The situation’s definitely a bleak one, but Streiff seems to be of the opinion that there’s nothing we can do to curb the illegal use of firearms in the city (”assuming for the sake of argument that criminals can be deterred at all”).
Would a stricter gun control law have any effect on violent crime, and should the City Council be able to pass one?
Is there anything that can be done legislatively, or are outreach programs and community centers a better approach?
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentBlack bear brouhaha
October 31, 2007
After a lot of protesting and politicking, Maryland’s black bear hunting season ended much more quietly than it started.
The hunt ran from Monday, Oct. 22, to Thursday, Oct. 25, with 51 bears killed. Our Department of Natural Resources had a target of between 50 and 70 bears, with 59 percent of the successful hunters living in the hunt area of Garrett and Allegany counties.
DNR opened up Maryland’s first bear-hunting season in 2004 after 51 years. This year, 2,804 hunters put their name in the lottery for a permit, with 452 getting to participate. Doesn’t exactly sound like a free-for-all bloodbath to me.
All these numbers may seem cold and meaningless to those groups who vehemently campaigned against the hunt, but I would be curious to see how many of those upset with the hunt actually live in the western counties where the bear population is centered. Also, if the DNR couldn’t use a well-managed hunting program to control the population, what other methods could they use for a species that has bounced back in recent years?
The DNR is not the NRA, and it would seem to me that the biologists in the field have a better understanding of the issue than those on their soapbox several counties away.
-FRANCIS SMITH, Special Publications Assistant Editor
Sphere: Related ContentUnder Armour’s next challenge
October 31, 2007
Now that they’ve conquered the sports world, Under Armour is looking to take over the malls of America.
The apparel maker is kicking off its crusade at the Westfield Annapolis Mall Thursday when it opens up a 4,500-square-foot store — just a fraction of a 240-000-square foot addition at the mall.
The store is worthy of a TV studio — with CNBC in town to do a live spot that’s exactly what it was when I visited yesterday. You walk into it from the mall through a tunnel and are welcomed with gray walls and lights hanging down. The company was going for the look and feel of a stadium’s underbelly — sans the musty smell of standing water, I would assume.
Like most stores these days, there are bright colors, blaring bass-driven music and videos. In all, it’s designed to attract the younger sports enthusiast.
But the question is, will this work? Are amateur athletes really going to go to the mall for their gear when they can run into the nearest Dick’s Sporting Goods? Will they undertake the challenges of holiday traffic and parking lots filled with minivans to buy their latest running shoes when they can go online?
Only time will tell. But I’m not one who likes to wait. So let me know: Will you frequent the mall for the latest Under Armour gear or will you keep going to Dick’s, Modell’s or the World Wide Web?
-LOUIS LLOVIO, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentOn the agenda: freedom for cable?
October 31, 2007
Reports are swirling today, suggesting that the FCC will change the rules that keep apartment-dwellers from choosing their own cable providers.
The change, which would allow residents in apartment buildings to choose providers similarly to how cell phone service operates, is on the agenda for today’s hearing.
NYT quotes Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the commission: “Exclusive contracts have been one of the most significant barriers to competition.”
Mr. Martin has also pressed the cable companies to offer so-called “a la carte” plans that would permit subscribers to buy individual channels, or groups of channels, at lower rates than they now pay. Here’s what cable operators say about prices at present (PDF).
Are your choices for cable service limited, like mine are? I have only one choice in my building: Comcast, which is notorious for terrible customer service.
Would you be interested in an a la carte plan? If so, which channels would you want?
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Pandering and porn
October 30, 2007
This morning, SCOTUS began the process of deciding whether the “pandering” provision of the PROTECT Act is too vague.
The crux of today’s arguments (PDF): whether the Act (which criminalizes the possession and distribution of child porn) is so broad that it includes fictional material and legitimate promotions for films such as Traffic, Lolita or American Beauty, which feature sex scenes involving under-age characters.
A reporter from our sister blog, DC Dicta, was present at the arguments and blogged on the proceedings.
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentTowson U president plays nicely online
October 30, 2007
Bob Caret, president of Towson University, has a Facebook profile and a blog - and he’s proud of it.
In a recent BBJ article, the school administrator discussed the level to which he’s embraced social media to “connect” with his students.
“I don’t think we have any choice when it comes to using the new technology,” Caret told the BBJ.
And even though he only has about 50 friends (the average college student has a couple hundred, at least), Caret only befriends students that he knows personally - a rarity on the site, where students often compete for the most “friends”.
Caret’s level of restraint wasn’t echoed by Salisbury Univ. President Janet Dudley Eshbach, who came under fire earlier this month when her family photographs - and captions - were considered inappropriate by some viewers.
Do you have a Facebook profile? Have you checked out your son or daughter’s? What kind of privacy settings would you set?
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentUnwedding day
October 30, 2007
Married couples all over Pennsylvania are freaking out after a judge in York County — my old stomping ground, and just across the Mason-Dixon line from Baltimore County — ruled that only clergy with a regular congregation can perform marriages.
Court of Common Pleas Judge Maria Musti Cook made the ruling last month in a case where a wife sought to void her marriage because the “minister” who solemnized the occasion was ordained online by the Universal Life Church.
The ruling currently applies only in York County. At the same time, Pennsylvania state legislators have introduced a bill that would exclude those ordained by mail or over the Internet from performing marriages.
What do you think of the ruling and the proposed law? Are Cook and the legislators taking a stand against phony clergy? Or are they setting themselves up as arbiters of whose faith is real and whose isn’t?
-CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentHaunted halls of academe
October 30, 2007
According to a story on the Capital News Service wire, several buildings at some of Maryland’s colleges and universities are haunted.
At the University of Maryland, College Park, the Rossborough Inn on U.S. Route 1 is home to “Miss Betty,” who is rumored to have been a nurse at the inn during the Civil War. She has been sighted by several people wearing a yellow dress.
At Morrill Hall, mysterious noises and smells have been detected, and on stormy nights, according to Anne Turkos, an archivist at Hornbake Library, people have heard a piano playing in Marie Mount Hall, even though there hasn’t been a piano in the building for years.
For more ghostly tales, check out the Web site of the Maryland Ghost and Spirit Association, which tracks and documents apparitions around the state.
What ghostly spirits have you seen or heard?
-PAUL SAMUEL, Associate Editor
Sphere: Related ContentDoing the minimum
October 29, 2007
The U.S. Congress is doing its best to do nothing with the alternative minimum tax (AMT) yet again. It seems the tax that was intended to affect only a certain higher-income tax bracket will hit a larger swath of taxpayers than it did last year. What’s the reason? No adjustment for inflation.
Is there a reason for not having this adjustment that a regular accounting-impaired individual like myself could understand? Better yet, does anyone think the AMT will ever simply do what it was intended to do?
Of course, our representatives and senators have known all year long that this had to be dealt with, yet it’s still on the books with no real resolution. So, now the IRS is only a few weeks away from having its paperwork and software ready for this upcoming tax year, and our lawmakers’ inaction or action will have serious consequences.
Either more income-earners fall under the AMT than last tax year, or the whole filing process is delayed from the get-go (due to new forms and software required to deal with congressional changes) if Congress does the unexpected — and does something.
-FRANCIS SMITH, Special Publications Assistant Editor
Sphere: Related ContentBusiness news anchor or adult film star?
October 29, 2007
According to Radar magazine, I know Fox Business better than Rupert Murdoch himself.
That’s because I scored an 8/10 on its “Fox Business Anchor or Porn Star?” quiz.
Now, the attractiveness of cable news anchors is no secret; neither is its influence on hiring decisions.
You can view pictures and descriptions of the anchorwomen on newsgroper.com, where the reviewer says he watches the channel on mute. Some of their advice (”Always take your receipt”) and backgrounds (reporter for Lifetime Television) is slightly hair-raising. However, one is a former Goldman analyst and CNBC correspondent and another worked for CNN.
Are Rupert’s cronies better-looking (or less qualified, or both) than their counterparts at CNBC or MSNBC?
Or, are they unfairly targeted because Murdoch makes waves?
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
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