Hungry mouths

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'...

An unhappy electorate

Tuesday's election results were certainly no good sign for President Barack Obama and the Democrats. But they weren't exactly a boon for Republicans either.

The cost of bringing up baby

You don't have to tell most parents that raising a kid isn't cheap. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated this year that parents who earn less than about $57,000 a year spent between $8,330 and $9,450 per child annually on child-rearing costs in 2008. And...

A wrenching choice

For more than a century, Black & Decker has been a part of the Maryland business community, and so this week's announcement that a planned merger with rival toolmaker The Stanley Works will mean the loss of a corporate headquarters and 250 high-paying jobs is far...

A tougher line on dropouts

A report last week that Montgomery County officials now favor raising from 16 to 18 the minimum legal age at which students can drop out of school signals a growing awareness that Maryland's future depends on a well-educated work force capable of competing in a...