The income classes according to Mr. Romney

Mitt Romney's ill-considered remark about the destitute, "I'm not concerned about the very poor," and his subsequent awkward explanation of it represented something more noteworthy than a rich man's gaffe. The question raised by the episode is not...

Republican nomination

City justified in gambling raid

If city workers and union officials think busting up a party in which municipal employees were drinking and gambling on the job is overzealous, then Baltimore could use a lot more zeal. The fact that the city inspector general's 2011 raid on a...

A vote of conscience

With a Senate committee hearing tomorrow, the General Assembly begins its debate over same-sex marriage, an issue that has closely divided the state. Polls suggest that Maryland residents support and oppose legalizing gay unions in about equal...

Md. needs an assessments assessment

To our knowledge, The Sun's newsroom staff has received no special training in tax assessment and record keeping, yet reporters armed with no more than foot leather and personal computers seem to have a gift for uncovering gross errors — more...

For city schools, a promising vision

The proposal to rapidly overhaul Baltimore's aging school facilities that district CEO Andrés Alonso presented to a state Senate committee last week represents one of the most important and innovative ideas the city has offered in recent years...

The feds investigate the mortgage mess: What took so long?

In this week's State of the Union address, President Obama announced to cheers the formation of a new Justice Department unit tasked with going after the big banks and mortgage companies whose reckless lending led to the collapse of the housing...

Setting a minimum standard

Last Tuesday, a Delaware state senate committee approved legislation to raise that state's minimum wage to $8.25 by 2014, making it $1 above the federal government's (and Maryland's) current standard. If the measure becomes law, the Diamond State...

The flush tax blues

There's an old joke about "denial" being more than a river in Egypt. Far less amusing is the denial some in Annapolis seem to have about pollution in the Chesapeake Bay and what's required to bring Maryland's sewage treatment plants into compliance...

Is the GOP handing the election to Obama?

The last time a Republican candidate for president defeated an incumbent Democrat running for reelection, the primary returns were a lopsided affair. Ronald Reagan won convincingly in New Hampshire and South Carolina (after George H.W. Bush took...

Big Brother on your bumper

In George Orwell's novel "1984," the unblinking eye of government surveillance is omnipresent and inescapable. Orwell could not have known what technology would one day make his nightmare scenario possible, but he could foresee that whatever it was,...

State of the Union, or State of the Campaign?

Was that a State of the Union address or was it President Barack Obama's first big campaign speech of 2012? It certainly sounded like the latter, but given the state of Washington, what else could we expect? His opening lines, a tribute to the...

Playing games with Baltimore voting

As elected officials in Baltimore and Annapolis seek to address the debacle that was the city's voter turnout during the mayoral primary and general election last year, it's clear that the thing they care about the most is what voters care about...

Offshore wind farm

A Ravens fan's stages of grief

The season began with a thrashing of the Steelers and had the promise of ending with the Superbowl in Indianapolis, of all cities, where the Ravens had the prospect of facing off against either the 49ers (coached by our John Harbaugh's little...

Eat less fat and exercise, y'all

Celebrity chefs have become a big business in recent years. Rare are the kitchen products, from pots and pans to garlic presses, that do not carry an endorsement from some chef with a cable television show and a chain of restaurants.

Now or never for O'Malley

The next two and a half months appear destined to provide a defining moment for Gov.Martin O'Malley's second term in office. If his agenda for the remainder of this General Assembly session doesn't match the intensity of his effort during 2007's...

The winner of South Carolina's primary: Super PACs

It has been two years since the Supreme Court issued its decision in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and we are only now just beginning to see how its overturning of a century of campaign finance law is distorting the...

An unhappy 'Kodak moment'

The bankruptcy filing of Eastman Kodak Company this week marked the end of a chapter in American manufacturing history. The venerable corporation that gave the world the Brownie camera and the slogan "You push the button, we do the rest" once...

The 'other' tobacco tax

Over the past decade, Maryland has gradually raised its tax on cigarettes to the current $2 per pack, and the results have been striking. Fewer people smoke cigarettes today than before the tax was implemented, and that's particularly true among high...

Newt the demagogue

Rick Perry's withdrawal from the presidential race and his endorsement of Newt Gingrich give a boost to a campaign that has been gaining momentum in the days before the South Carolina primary. Much of the analysis of this latest turn of events...

Thumbs down on Keystone

President Barack Obama's State Department is not going to issue a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline in its current form, and for this, even the project's most ardent supporters should be grateful. That includesTransCanada Corp. which was reportedly...

A tough budget

Gov. Martin O'Malley today submitted what is likely to be among the most controversial budget proposals in his two terms in office. Faced with a $1 billion gap between projected spending and revenues, and committed to a goal of finding real solutions...

Baltimore County Council term limits

In Baltimore County, limiting thinking

Just on their handling of council members' pensions alone, few legislative bodies in Maryland have shown themselves more richly in need of term limits than the Baltimore County Council. Councilman David Marks' recent announcement that he is...

Schools come up short

When it was announced recently that Maryland public schools were rated top in the nation for the fourth straight year by Education Week magazine, the state's interim schools superintendent was quick to give credit where it's due — to the...

Death and farming

Last year, Gov. Martin O'Malley testified in favor of legislation that would allow small farms to be excluded from Maryland's estate tax. The bill failed, but it's almost certain to get serious consideration this year since Senate President Thomas V....

Sales tax increase: A trial balloon that needs to be popped

Hours before the 2012 General Assembly session started, Gov. Martin O'Malley dusted off the frustrating passivity he employed to such ill effect in 2011. Speaking to Marc Steiner in the radio host's annual pre-session show, Mr. O'Malley casually...

The week that was: Tragedy in Harford County

A quick take on this week's Md. news from The Sun's editorial board

Romney's trump card: 'electability'

New Hampshire Republicans are practical people.