Rodriguez, Rogers go it alone
November 21, 2007
Alex Rodriguez, the New York Yankees third basemen and recently named American League MVP, sidelined his lawyer, super agent Scott Boras, last week and instead consulted Goldman Sachs bankers and renowned investor Warren Buffett on his way to signing another landmark contract.
Rodriguez’s former teammate with the Texas Rangers, pitcher Kenny Rogers, has also cut ties with Boras and is representing himself in his contract talks with the Detroit Tigers.
Boras has developed a reputation as a tough negotiator, to his benefit — his stable of clients could easily make up an All-Star team — and now, apparently, to his detriment.
Many fans have long held sports agents in low esteem, as interlopers who meddle in the business of players and teams.
Were last week’s decisions to consult money men in lieu of a lawyer or go completely pro se specific to Boras, or have players come to see their lawyers like the fans - as impediments rather than indispensable advisors and advocates?
-BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentLocal IT industry up in arms over new taxes
November 21, 2007
As of Monday morning, legislators agreed to levy a 6% tax rate on “computer support services, data center support, custom programming, consulting and disaster recovery services.”
I know, that’s not news to you.
What is, is this: the state’s IT industry (along with small local businesses and workers) is angrily asking, “What gives?”
After all, “The IT industry is … helping to maintain the competitiveness of Maryland’s businesses.” So says Roger Cochetti, a director at the Computing Technology Industry Association.
Roger keeps going, telling InformationWeek:
“Just at the time that most cities, states, provinces, and countries around the world are encouraging the computer industry to locate there, the Maryland Assembly and Governor chose to discourage the computer industry from locating and providing services in the ‘Free State,” he said.
Cochetti said the tax could encourage Maryland IT users to outsource computer services…. He called the move one of the “least informed and most harmful actions ever undertaken by the Maryland State government.”
Do you think that more companies will keep IT in-house to avoid paying these taxes to local outside vendors? Or outsource operations? Would you?
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentUpdate: New Orleans DA’s office saga nears resolution
November 21, 2007
Turns out that no one wants to be without the District Attorney’s office in New Orleans.
The Associated Press reports that the city and state of Louisiana will pay the majority of a $3.4 million judgment against the DA’s office. The judgment was awarded to 36 employees (35 white and one Hispanic) who were fired shortly after Eddie Jordan took over in 2003.
As the AP puts it:
The district attorney’s office, with a $12 million annual budget, had struggled to find a way to pay the judgment while the city and state argued over who has responsibility for the office.
[Mayor Ray]Nagin had earlier resisted bailing the district attorney’s office out, saying it would set a dangerous precedent, but he said this deal avoids that. “The city is advancing the money to the district attorney’s office,” Nagin said. “They will pay us back.”
You can read my original post on the situation here.
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentDoctors get hooked up for Web
November 20, 2007
If you subscribe to the notion that your Web site is like an online version of your office, then doctors should have a waiting page before visitors are allowed in.
Not so with members of the International Association of Dental and Medical Disciplines. In case you’re wondering what the mission is of such an organization, the group states its membership is “comprised of dentists and physicians who are working together to empower doctors to wrestle back control of medicine from insurance companies.”
One such treatment for the plague of insurance companies?
The group sets up its members with a Web site equipped with online bill pay and prescription refill orders (and Flash).
After all, an online parenting magazine polled parents last month and 76 percent of respondents said they would use a Web site to ask for refills if possible, and 56 percent said their physicians didn’t have a Web site.
The cost of an IADMD membership is $1,899 per year. For a full-service Web site alone, that’s not bad.
Come to think of it, I have no idea whether my doctor has a Web site. I sign up for yoga classes online, but have never bothered to Google my primary-care.
A quick search turned up empty.
Does your doc offer web services? Would you like her/him to?
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentTo bear or to ban?
November 20, 2007
The Supreme Court announced today that it will consider the constitutionality of Washington, D.C.’s long-time handgun ban — and in doing so, the right of individuals to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.
The case stems from a federal security guard who, with the backing of a rich libertarian, challenged the District’s 31-year-old gun control law that prevented him from keeping a gun in his home. In a split-decision, the federal appeals court sided with the security guard in March.
The Supreme Court’s decision had been widely anticipated by the parties, each of which petitioned the Court to hear the case, along with several states who filed briefs, including Maryland, and advocates on both sides of the issue nationwide.
Does the Second Amendment give an individual the right to bear arms, or was it just created to maintain “a well-regulated Militia?”
If the Supreme Court decides next year that the ban is unconstitutional, what effect do you think that will have on Maryland’s gun laws, and on gun-related crime in places such as Baltimore City and Prince George’s County?
-BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentNational Harbor looks for buyers
November 20, 2007
In an email that our Presentation Editor received this morning, National Harbor offered him an “exciting opportunity”: an invitation to schedule a sales appointment.
Developers of the project, on the banks of the Potomac River in Oxon Hill, claim to have 9,500 people interested in “all that National Harbor has to offer.”
In today’s real estate market? Must be nice.
According to a Daily Record cover story about the construction of the mixed-use Mecca, “National Harbor will include (PDF) the Gaylord resort, five other hotels, 2,500 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, four piers and two marinas.”
That’s a lot of space, even with 9,500 people on a waiting list. No wonder they’re applauding Todd Zimmerman’s “longtime interest in National Harbor.”
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentDoes Rosenstein lack "Maryland perspective" for 4th Circuit post?
November 20, 2007
Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy has a post mocking The Sun for its editorial Sunday supporting Sens. Mikulski and Cardin in their efforts to block Rod Rosenstein’s path to the 4th Circuit.
The Sun said Rosenstein does not have deep roots in Maryland and lacks the “Maryland perspective” the conservative appeals court needs.
Kerr writes:
Can any one explain this “Maryland perspective” of the law? Is it genetic? Are there classes you can take to learn it? Books you can read? Can it be acquired quickly, or must it age like a fine wine during decades of residence?
Or is it supposed to be a proxy for political views, with the idea being that a true Marylander isn’t particularly conservative?
-CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentNotes from the (state house) floor
November 19, 2007
We journalists were packed like sardines into a legislative office Sunday, watching senators and delegates negotiate critical details of a $1.4 billion tax package (PDF). In some cases, it was almost like trading baseball cards as members of key House and Senate Committees bargained and compromised away differences between the chambers’ tax proposals.
This was not exactly quid pro quo, but the respective chambers made it clear that there were things they just could not do. Time was short, as the special session of the General Assembly drew close to the end of its third week. Legislators were determined to finish by Monday, so it was time for “consensus.”
House members, for instance, made it clear, that delegates could not support a change in the in-state residency requirement for the personal income tax. The Senate wanted to change it from six to three months. Senators would not go above 5.5 percent on the income tax rate, contrary to a House proposal to set the top bracket at 5.75 percent.
It was interesting to watch such momentous decisions take place so quickly, but special sessions are short. Do you think there was enough time for our solons to fully consider the budget changes?
-ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentBaltimore: becoming safer by comparison?
November 19, 2007
A new list of the nation’s most dangerous cities is out, and Baltimore didn’t even make it into the top 10 - just a lowly 12. (In context, Washington, D.C. is No. 27, and New Orleans is No. 65).
The controversial report, issued by CQ Press and based on the FBI’s crime statistics, considered 378 cities with at least 75,000 people. It took into account per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft.
Here’s their top 10 most dangerous:
1. Detroit, Michigan
2. St. Louis, Missouri
3. Flint, Michigan
4. Oakland, California
5. Camden, New Jersey
6. Birmingham, Alabama
7. North Charleston, South Carolina
8. Memphis, Tennessee
9. Richmond, California
10. Cleveland, Ohio.
The AP reports that critics argue the study isn’t making accurate comparisons:
“You’re not comparing apples and oranges; you’re comparing watermelons and grapes,” said Rob Casey, who heads the FBI section that puts out … the data for the Quitno report.
As for the safest, here’s the top 5:
1. Mission Viejo, California
2. Clarkstown, New York
3. Brick Township, New Jersey
4. Amherst, New York
5. Sugar Land, Texas
It should be noted that the media blitz may be motivated, in part, by CQ Press’s publication of a $49 book, City Crime Rankings.
Based on your travels, which cities would be in your top 10 list?
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentLaw blog round-up
November 19, 2007
Your blog round-up for this Monday morning — er, afternoon:
—“There’s something hilarious about an institution as staid as the Supreme Court awkwardly sitting around trying to hash this one out,” says the DCist blog of the possibility that SCOTUS will take the Maryland buttocks case.
—The Sun weighed in yesterday on the Rosenstein nomination. Unsurprisingly, they’re not pleased.
—In further 4th Circuit news, another of the President’s nominees, Duncan Getchell, has been sued for defamation. Hat tip: How Appealing.
—What a mess in South Carolina! Thanks to Feminist Law Professors for the link.
—Volokh Conspiracy writes about candidates jockeying for law prof support.
-CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
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