Nothing wrong with Nats Park that a winning streak wouldn’t cure
May 22, 2008
I have only seen Nationals Park on TV, but my colleague, Liz Farmer, visited the stadium in Washington, D.C. just before it opened and we also ran a report from a game there in early April. From the story and my own two eyes I assumed the stadium was completely built and open for business at the end of March.
But I would be wrong, according to Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher, who obtained letters detailing a burgeoning legal dispute between the team’s owners and the city over the completion of the publicly funded $611 million stadium, which everyone thought was built on time and on budget.
The Nats’ ownership is asking the city pay $100,000 a day in damages because, three weeks after the stadium opened, “among other items, the team offices at the new ballpark were not yet completely ready,” Fisher wrote. A city official said the offices made up 3 percent of the total stadium construction, according to the column.
The Lerner family, the Nats’ principal owners, spent much of their own money to buy the team and upgrade the stadium, and are known in the construction business (where they made their money) as meticulous when it comes to details.
But this dispute seems a little petty to me, particularly since D.C. taxpayers ultimately get stuck with the bill. The only solution I see is the one that would cure any of the problems surrounding the Nationals: winning baseball games. The glass always looks half-empty when your team is 20-28 and on a two-game losing streak.
Which reminds me: How ’bout ’dem O’s, hon?
DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentMaryland, helping military leave
May 22, 2008
Most of the talk about military families in Maryland these days has to do with making it easier for people to move here with their jobs as part of the Base Realignment and Closure process. But Gov. Martin O’Malley took a step Thursday that could also make things easier for military families who have to move away.
At his final bill signing, O’Malley signed a bill that would make people eligible for unemployment benefits if they quit a job to follow a spouse in the military. Typically, unemployment insurance is not available to people who leave jobs by choice, but this will be a new exception in state law.
Potentially, these unemployment claims could raise premiums for some businesses that otherwise wouldn’t have seen former employees collect benefits, but on the whole it’s likely to have a small effect on the state’s unemployment system. According to the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, more than 300 people in the state were unable to collect benefits after following a military spouse in fiscal 2007.
ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentMouse wars and cat fights
May 22, 2008
The story in today’s Daily Record about the trademark fight over “Mighty Mouse” computer devices reminded me of the big-cat fight that arose about a dozen years ago.
In one corner was Tony the Tiger, Kellogg Corp.’s animated pitch man, er, feline, for Frosted Flakes. In the other was the tiger from Exxon, now ExxonMobil Corp.
Kellogg sued Exxon, claiming its tiger’s resemblance to Tony infringed on Kellogg’s trademark and created confusion among patrons at the gas company’s Tiger Mart convenience stores, which Exxon had recently introduced.
Exxon sought dismissal of the claim, saying the company had used the tiger as its symbol for about 30 years without objection from Kellogg. The cereal company said true, but argued that the infringement had only recently occurred, when Exxon went into the food-service business.
A federal district court agreed with Exxon and dismissed the case. But the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Kellogg and allowed the lawsuit to proceed.
The Supreme Court, which later that year would jump into a dispute between rivals for the leadership of the free world, chose in 2000 to stay out of the cat fight and let the 6th Circuit’s decision stand without comment. The case ultimately settled, according to Kellogg’s lawyers.
Can anyone think of a more epic (trademark) battle in our nation’s courts?
STEVE LASH, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentDrilling for answers
May 22, 2008
According to the Associated Press, U.S. Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-Frederick) has dropped his opposition to oil and natural gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Representative Bartlett says high oil prices have prompted his change of heart, and that revenue from drilling leases would generate “badly needed funds for alternative and renewable energy programs.”
If a congressperson is looking for some “badly needed” revenue, it seems to me the answer is right under their nose.
Maybe they should examine the spending on wasteful pet projects known as earmarks, or pork, that many members attach to bills to appease their local voters? Or the ongoing joke, and an expensive one at that, that the Capitol Visitor Center has been? Or the billions of dollars under the direction of the Coalition Provisional Authority in the first years of the Iraq war that simply vanished? Or how about the over half a billion dollars that’s been spent broadcasting TV Marti to Cuba despite a miniscule audience?
When it comes to government accounting, and a representative on the Hill talking about “money in the bank,” the taxpayer in me cringes. There is a major disconnect between accountability and Congress’ fuzzy math.
Is this the best idea our government representatives can come up with when it comes to generating revenue for energy programs?
Francis Smith, Special Publications Assistant Editor
Sphere: Related ContentHow do heels stack up in court?
May 22, 2008
This post on the Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog raises lots of questions for female lawyers.
When it comes to court attire — especially in the footwear category — what’s appropriate? Is it more important to be comfortable or fashionable? Has a woman ever lost a motion or a trial because she was wearing flats, or is the impression footwear makes on judges and juries subtler than that? At what height do heels stop looking professional and start looking overdone and inappropriate for court?
The Philadelphia DA actually used to have a rule that the female lawyers who worked for her had to wear skirts to court. She finally caved in 2003. (Anyone else think the pants ban wouldn’t have lasted as long if the DA had been male?)
Are there lawyers or judges in Maryland who require their female subordinates to wear skirts, I wonder?
A campus police officer whose women’s self-defense program I wrote about in college used to say, if you can’t run in it if you have to, don’t wear it.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentSo, do u txt wen ur drivng?
May 22, 2008
I do, I’ll admit it. And there’s really no good reason except that I’m bored in the car. My grandmother would kill me.
I’m no road safety expert, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s bad to drive without looking at the road. Apparently people around here don’t care. According to WTOP in Washington, Maryland and Virginia are ranked fourth and sixth in the country when it comes to the number of people who admit to taking their thumbs off the wheel.
In Maryland, 36 percent of people say they text and drive. It’s slightly less common in Virginia, where 35.6 percent own up to it.
WTOP said the stats come from Vlingo, a company that makes voice recognition technology for phones. The company says its product can substitute for text messaging, so they may have a dog in the fight.
South Carolina takes the top spot at 40 percent. The lowest number was in Arizona (14 percent). At first, that surprised me, given the straight desert roads and the wide open spaces. Then again, they have winding mountain roads, too. They also may not have cell service everywhere in rural states. Vermont (20 percent) was the third-lowest. I used to live there and I couldn’t text and drive because there were no cell towers outside of town.
Some lawmakers in Maryland tried to ban texting while driving during this year’s legislative session, but the effort fell short because others in the General Assembly wanted an outright ban on cell phone use and they couldn’t find a compromise. Neither proposal made it through, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see these topics again next year.
ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentVideo: Selling Maryland in Las Vegas
May 22, 2008
If you’ve been following Robbie Whelan’s coverage of the ICSC’s ReCon Global Real Estate Convention, then you know he just returned from Las Vegas, where he was documenting the efforts of developers and state employees to sell Maryland as a great place to do retail business.
He wrote several stories for our paper and Web site on the convention, but lucky for you, he didn’t stop there.
If you’re interested in hearing what the Downtown Partnership’s J. Kirby Fowler had to say, or how Samuel Polakoff of Cormony Development pitched the Inner Harbor to retailers, we’ve got it on video. Watch, listen, and be sure to comment below and tell us what you think.
Pin the rap on the donkey
May 22, 2008
I’m no legal expert, but it seems to me the law has entered a new frontier across the border in Mexico. As if violent drug cartels weren’t enough, now the trusted burros of our southern neighbor have decided to kick up some dust – but not without some repercussions.
The violent offender, “Blacky,” was put in the slammer for biting and kicking two men, resulting in bites to the chest and a broken ankle for one of the men. The result of Blacky’s rampage: three days behind bars for the burro and more than 1,100 U.S. dollars in fines and restitution to be paid by the owner.
This story could be only be summed up by its priceless lead from the Associated Press:
“A Mexican donkey has been freed from jail after doing time for acting like a jackass.”
FRANCIS SMITH, Special Publications Assistant Editor
Sphere: Related ContentWhen it comes to CLE, what works for you?
May 21, 2008
Continuing legal education isn’t mandatory in Maryland, so it’s easy to let it slide — maybe too easy.
Now, the Maryland State Bar Association’s long-range planning committee wants to make CLE easier to take. It’s designed a 27-question survey to determine what lawyers are doing now, what they expect to do in the next year and what times and methods of CLE work best for them. The survey is available online, but only until Friday, May 23.
BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law
Sphere: Related ContentSimultaneous Tasing
May 21, 2008
I know the story about the two guys using Tasers on each other happened last weekend in Boulder, Colo., but I still can’t get over it. In case you haven’t heard: Casey Dane, a private security guard, and Harvey Epstein, a restaurant owner, zapped each other Saturday night in a dispute over an illegally parked car with a “boot” on its tire.
On Monday, Epstein told The Daily Camera in Boulder that he only pulled out his Taser after Dane pointed his Taser at Epstein’s mother. Dane told police he only pulled out his Taser after Epstein held bolt cutters above his head in a “threatening manner,” according to the story. Epstein was arrested but has not been charged, according to the story
The lesson, as with many other dumb criminal stories, is that men are dopes. The moment I heard the phrase “simultaneous Tasing” I knew it was not going to be two women involved. I’ll bet if I asked 100 people to complete the headline “Two _________ use Tasers on each other” with either “men” or “women,” all 100 would choose men.
There’s a reason the phrase is “Don’t Tase me bro!”, not “Don’t Tase me sis!”
DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer
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