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Park

Perking up the park

Editorial Perking up the park It's welcome news that Baltimore County is taking over operations and maintenance of Robert E. Lee Park, with plans to devote more attention to this hidden gem than the city, which actually owns the land, has been able to offer. The most visible sign of that change is the replacement of the pedestrian bridge just downstream from the dam on Lake Roland; two weeks ago, work crews tore down the old, structurally unstable bridge, and a new one will be built over the coming months. But the county has more plans in mind in the...

New mammogram guidelines

Do you accept a federal panel’s recommendations that women should get mammograms starting at age 50 instead of age 40, and then only every other year?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Not sure
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Baltimore Sun columnists

Kevin Cowherd

Kevin Cowherd

Are Ravens really a playoff team? - November 23, 2009 - Joe Flacco looked like he had just been in a street fight.

Jay Hancock

Jay Hancock

Economic refrain: 'We're forever blowing bubbles' - November 20, 2009 - Thursday's stock market decline was just what Ben Bernanke needed.

Rob Kasper

Rob Kasper

Cranberry condiment conundrum - November 18, 2009 - On a day that is supposed to bring families together, this dish has a tendency to push them apart.

Jacques Kelly

Jacques Kelly

The sights and smells of Thanksgivings past - November 21, 2009 - My mother endorsed Thanksgiving because she felt it was an unemotional holiday. It didn't carry all the...

Mike Preston

Mike Preston

Open letter to the Ravens: Dig out the razzle-dazzle - November 24, 2009 - Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron needs to go back into his lab and become a mad scientist again.

Susan Reimer

Susan Reimer

Fewer screenings doesn't pass smell test - November 23, 2009 - I'm ashamed to say that I didn't see this one coming.

Dan Rodricks

Dan Rodricks

Dixon trial just one of city's problems, but an important one - November 23, 2009 - Of course, there are bigger issues, and bigger offenses against society, than the alleged theft of gift cards by the mayor of Baltimore....

Peter Schmuck

Peter Schmuck

Their cushion gone, Ravens now must face a hard reality - November 22, 2009 - Ravens fans knew a long time ago that they would be staring down the barrel at Peyton Manning this...

Thomas F. Schaller

Thomas F. Schaller

A failure to explain financial benefits of health care reform - November 24, 2009 - Let's say you are in the market for a new car, and the salesman you meet on the dealership lot is...

Ron Smith

Ron Smith

Fort Hood massacre shows how political correctness can kill - November 13, 2009 - The massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, last week has shined a harsh, unremitting light on the hold that...

Our editorials

Awash in gift cards

Now that the prosecution and defense have rested in Mayor Sheila Dixon's trial on charges she stole gift cards meant for the poor, at least one thing is certain: The case has painted an unflattering picture of how charity is handled at City Hall. Let's look at some...

Waves, wind and water

The remnants of Tropical Storm Ida and an early season nor'easter combined to pack a one-two wallop that lashed at Ocean City, along with much of the East Coast, last week. It was a storm of a magnitude that hadn't been seen for more than a decade at the resort...

Tips for an insurer

If there are two groups of people held in disregard these days, it's anyone who works for an insurance company or the government. That makes those employed by the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, the state's quasi-public auto insurer of last resort, something of a twofer in the public's eye.

The lax taxman

It's hard to decide which is worse: the notion that dozens of Baltimore City parking lots might not be paying the taxes they owe, or the fact that the city is so disorganized that it's not sure whether they are.

With no warning

Our view: Odorless carbon monoxide gas can be deadly; Balt. County should require all rental units to install detectors, and it should study reported alarms for patterns

Prosecuting terror

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. made the right decision to try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four accomplices in criminal court in New York rather than before a military commission abroad. A criminal proceeding on U.S. soil that is open...

Guns and the mentally ill

While the mentally ill this country face numerous inequities -- a lack of adequate health care and employment opportunities and ostracism from the mainstream of society are among the more obvious injustices -- it is not an exercise in discrimination but in common sense to try to keep guns out of the...

Smoke-free U

Our view: Towson University did the right thing by banning smoking everywhere on campus; what's taking all of Maryland's other colleges and universities so long?

Parking payouts

Our view: Something's amiss when a $52 ticket mushrooms into a $1,000 fine, but weaning Baltimore off such ill-gotten gains is going to be easier said than done

D.C. archdiocese oversteps its bounds

The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. went too far when it threatened the City Council last week that it would halt its social service programs in the capital if lawmakers there approve a gay marriage proposal next month. According to The Washington Post, the church...

A chance for redemption

We treat children differently from adults in all sorts of ways because we recognize they are not fully formed intellectually, emotionally or ethically. We restrict their ability to see R-rated movies, to buy alcohol, to get tattoos or vote.

Courage on campus

In deciding not to become the first university system in the nation to adopt a policy about how and when pornography can be shown on campus, the University System of Maryland Board of Regents showed admirable courage and stood up for the traditions of academic...

Nostalgia has its limits

Baltimore's a-rabs, men who sell fruit from horse-drawn carts, are a charming tradition. But the city's health department was right that it could not ignore the poor conditions in which horses were being kept in the city's largest a-rab stable, which was infested...

Walk this way

It's not hard to spot the flaws in the study released this week that ranked Maryland 49th among 50 states in per capita spending of federal transportation money on pedestrian and bicycling projects. In looking for big projects, researchers missed the far more...

Cleansing actions

When proposed environmental regulations draw criticism from polluters as too tough and from advocates as not tough enough, it's possible the proverbial "sweet spot" of middle ground has been hit. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's latest plans for the...

Blaming the victim

The case against Carlos Silot, whom police last year accused of running a brothel near Patterson Park, seemed clear cut. Officers put his rented rowhouse under surveillance, then watched as more than a dozen men entered and left over a span of hours. When...

The anti-choice

Our view: Women's reproductive rights come under assault on Capitol Hill as House passes health-care reform with unnecessary and onerous restrictions

Major Hasan's turmoil

Perhaps no one could have anticipated that the stresses of his job as an Army psychiatrist counseling traumatized veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with his own conflicted feelings about Islamic terrorism and dread of being deployed to a war zone, would...

Questions for Mr. Karzai

Our view: President Obama must lay out clear benchmarks for reforms in Afghan governance before committing thousands more troops to an unpopular war

Wheels off the bus

While headed to a football game last weekend, more than a dozen members of the Morehouse College "House of Funk" marching band were injured in a crash on Interstate 75 south of Atlanta. Not one of them was wearing a seat belt, as the vehicle lacked passenger...

Time for answers

Our view: Mayor Sheila Dixon promises the truth about the accusations against her will come out in court; let's hope so, because we've gotten little of it so far

Mickey's makeover

To baby boomers, Mickey Mouse is the perpetually cheerful and wholesome host of the "Mickey Mouse Club." To senior citizens, he's the star of movies and shorts dating back to 1928. But to youngsters today, he's mostly a corporate icon - a shill for Walt Disney...

Speeders get a second chance

Public whining over speed cameras appears to have, at least momentarily, softened hearts at the Maryland State Highway Administration. The SHA has decided that motorists shouldn't have to pay a $40 fine for driving too fast in construction zones for another two weeks.

Compounding failure

Just as the Baltimore Fire Department failed Racheal M. Wilson in life, now it has failed her in death. A dispute between the city and the U.S. Justice Department over little more than paperwork could cause her two children to be denied the nearly $300,000 death...

Fearless or foolhardy?

You'd think that after 14-year-old Destinee Parker, a Montebello Elementary/Middle School student with no underlying health conditions, died this fall from the H1N1 virus, city parents would be rushing to get their children vaccinated. And with news of the vaccine'...

High cost of pretrial jailing

Eighteen days after his marijuana-possession arrest, one of our clients, a 25-year-old Baltimore man,...

Don't look to 'Twilight' series for strong female role models

N- If you've been spending time in proximity to teenage girls recently, there's a strong chance you've...

Sarah Palin doesn't speak for me

An evangelical Christian parts ways with the GOP star

Too much credit to political correctness

The Fort Hood massacre was not the first violent tragedy that conservatives have blamed on political...

Strangers – or neighbors

My wife and I and our dog attended my aunt's funeral recently. We drove from our home in Washington early...

Pelosi and Reid's health-care monsters

Just before Halloween, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled her latest Obamacare proposal: H.R. 3962, a 2,...

America's leadership deficit

Tired old ideas won't fix our problems

Dan Rodricks: Another idea to save the a-rabs: Broaden their appeal

As stated here previously, I support a new deal for the a-rabs of Baltimore, so that this tradition of...

Opportunities abound in Indian prime minister's visit to U.S.

Next week, India's prime minister will be the first international leader to make an official state...