GOP can't help overreaching on Obama scandals

Well, that didn't take long.

BGE rate surcharge

The Obama administration stabs itself in the back

Tom Perez and the 'nuclear option'

Republicans accuse Thomas E. Perez, President Barack Obama's nominee for labor secretary, of twisting the legal process in three cases in St. Paul, Minn., to suit his political purposes. But it is they who are twisting the Senate's role to "advise...

MARC gets a boost

Last week presented the sort of opportunity that elected officials crave. As Gov. Martin O'Malley signed the gas tax increase into law, he announced a slew of new Maryland transportation projects — $1.2 billion in all — that can now...

Tough love for Coppin

Coppin State University is a mess, and the problems go well beyond its abysmal six-year graduation rate of 15 percent. A report to the University System of Maryland Board of Regents by a committee assigned to study the school in the wake of former...

The newest thing in Maryland horse racing: optimism

The Kentucky Derby winner and oddsmakers' favorite for the Preakness Stakes isn't exactly a Maryland horse, but he's close — Orb is partially owned by a Baltimore County businessman, and his sire spent some time in Harford County. Attendance at...

Smith Island denial

Even the most jaded observer must acknowledge there's something admirable about the desire of so many living on Smith Island to see their community survive and prosper. Residents of this marshy (and shrinking in both population and real estate)...

Alcohol and traffic deaths

The entire undergraduate student bodies of the Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Naval Academy combined. The population of Bel Air, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. The average attendance at a Hershey Bears hockey game (the highest in the AHL).

Maryland's model for gun regulation

Tomorrow, Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to sign into law the most comprehensive gun control legislation Maryland has seen in at least 25 years, a bill that will not only help guard against a mass shooting incident, like December's massacre at Sandy Hook...

Baltimore's noble but flawed hiring bill

On the face of it, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young's local hiring bill sounds eminently reasonable. When Baltimore spends its residents' tax dollars, why shouldn't it do so in a way that supports hiring city residents, particularly...

Obama administration assaults press freedom

In Washington, as in any seat of power, most acts of folly begin with hubris. Government leaders, elected or appointed, usually don't intend to do the wrong thing, to overstep or cause harm, but they become so convinced, so certain of their purpose,...

Baltimore's new downtown

Harbor East is moving farther east with baker-cum-developer John Paterakis Sr.'s announcement Friday that he will break ground this summer on a new, mega-Whole Foods and later on a new residential/retail building across Central Avenue from the...

Taxing the tea party

Loyal readers of this page are likely aware that we have not been great supporters of the tea party movement. Too often, we have found those anti-tax crusaders who call themselves tea party patriots are simply rebranded John Birch Society members...

IRS targeting of tea party groups

School reform 2.0

With city schools CEO Andrés Alonso's announcement last week that he is stepping down at the end of this school year, Baltimore finds itself in the market for a new leader who can continue and expand upon the reforms he instituted. Whoever...

Stopping the cellphones that foster jailhouse corruption

Gov. Martin O'Malley's announcement of several actions he is taking to combat jailhouse corruption in the wake of the Black Guerrilla Family scandal at the Baltimore City Detention Center is a positive step. It certainly would have instilled more...

Now that's ugly...

Will Minnesota make a marriage equality trifecta?

Six months after Maryland, Maine and Washington voters endorsed same-sex marriage at the ballot box, two more states have adopted laws allowing gay couples to marry, and a third is poised to join them. On Tuesday, lawmakers in Delaware adopted a...

Benghazi deserves real review

Whether the House investigation into the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is a political witch hunt aimed at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her possible run for president in 2016, as Democrats allege, or a principled...

Military injustice

The recent study estimating that there may have been 26,000 cases of sexual assault in the military last year stirred a lot of tough talk from the Pentagon and the White House over the past 24 hours. But the question is whether that outrage will...

A lifeline for the poor

Critics of a federal program that provides free cellphones to thousands of Maryland residents who can't afford regular commercial service are right that some recipients who don't qualify for the benefit are taking advantage of the system. But there's...

Getting answers in Md.'s jail corruption scandal

When federal authorities announced a sweeping indictment alleging widespread corruption by 13 guards at the Baltimore City Detention Center, members of the House of Delegates Judiciary Committee were quick to call for a hearing so they could demand...

The state busts: How Maryland is losing money on table games

In November, voters approved a major expansion of Maryland's gambling program on the promise that allowing table games and eventually building a sixth casino would ensure that the gambling dollars state residents spend would go toward funding...

Whose side is the NRA on?

Terrorism, whether practiced in the U.S. or overseas, can be defined as a deliberate act of violence to instill fear in a target audience. We fight terrorism when we stay calm but resolute; we abet terrorists when our response is to panic or try to...

Alonso resigns poll

WMD deja vu

O'Malley ends domestic partner benefits

Start snitching: the public's role in fighting terrorism

The arrest of three friends of the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing reminds us of the consequences of withholding information from investigators, lying or being an accessory after the fact for a friend or loved one. In other words, if...

Products are cheap, lives are not

Deadly industrial accidents in the developing world are tragically common, but the recent collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh that took the lives of more than 500 workers has captured the American public's attention, and no wonder....