Second Opinion - baltimoresun.com

Egypt's new beginning

Thu, 24 May 2012 16:24:00 GMT

Our view: No matter who wins this week's presidential election, the power of democracy has clearly taken hold in one of the world's oldest nations

For the first time in some 5,000 years of Egyptian civilization, voters went to the polls this week to select a leader in a contest where the outcome was uncertain. Given Egypt's crucial role in maintaining order and stability in the Middle East and the wide range of candidates, from secular to military to Islamist, that fact is unnerving to some in the United States, Israel and elsewhere. But it has been a cause of unbridled jubilation throughout Egypt, where millions of ordinary people lined up to cast ballots and determine their national destiny. It will likely be weeks before we know the victor and still later before we know what shape the government will take. It is entirely likely that Egypt's new leaders will make mistakes or choose paths that are inimical to our interests. But it is impossible to witness what has happened there this week and not share the optimism of a people tasting the power of democracy for the first time.

Rape and prison

Wed, 23 May 2012 18:03:00 GMT

Our view: New Justice Department rules don't go far enough to protect inmates from sexual assaults

The prospect of spending years behind bars in a tiny cell is sufficiently chilling to deter most people from ever committing a crime. Those who willfully break the law anyway and get caught have no one to blame but themselves when a judge sentences them to prison. But even convicted felons shouldn't have to suffer the extralegal indignity and physical trauma of being raped by fellow inmates and prison staff while they're serving their time.

Pensions, bonuses and county budgets

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:41:00 GMT

Our view: For most local governments, helping foot the bill for public school teacher pensions is hardly a financial disaster, now or in the future

This is the season when local governments finalize their budgets for the next fiscal year, and the grousing about their penurious circumstances is in full swing. Some are even complaining that the state's revised budget and tax plan — signed into law by Gov.Martin O'Malleythis week — has put a serious crimp in their finances.

The Bain of Romney's candidacy

Tue, 22 May 2012 18:43:00 GMT

Our view: Bain Capital under Mitt Romney should not be off limits for debate; what the public needs is a more thorough (and balanced) accounting

Newark Mayor Cory Booker was wrong and President Barack Obama is right: Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital deserves closer scrutiny by voters. Whether a brief television ad accomplishes this is another matter.

Playing catchup with the minority birth rate

By David Horsey — Tue, 22 May 2012 17:53:00 GMT

Pudgy, pink Gerber babies are no longer the typical children being born in the United States. According to theU.S. Census Bureau, moms who are Latino, Asian, African American or mixed race are now giving birth to just over 50 percent of American babies.

O'Malley's slots gamble

Tue, 22 May 2012 16:07:00 GMT

Our view: Governor's work group won't have enough time to evaluate the effect of a sixth casino before a July 9 special legislative session

Our biggest concerns about the push to expand gambling at the end of this spring's regular session of the General Assembly were that there had been insufficient public debate about all of the changes slots boosters wanted to institute and that there was too little reliable information about the performance of Maryland's existing gambling program. Gov.Martin O'Malley's announcement Monday of a work group to expanded gambling in time for a possible special session of the legislature July 9 does nothing to erase those qualms. The idea of settling on a proposal for a sixth Maryland casino and for the legalization of table games in time for a referendum on the November ballot is fundamentally flawed and should be abandoned.

Citizens United II

Mon, 21 May 2012 18:01:00 GMT

Our view: Supreme Court has an opportunity to correct the grievous error that created the 'Super PAC' and uphold Montana's 106-year-old anti-corruption law

"While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics."

We need a war on lead poisoning

Sun, 20 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Our view: CDC's revised guidelines on the risks to children from exposure to lead show the need for greater public investment in remediation of older homes

The reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut its threshold for lead poisoning from 10 micrograms per deciliter to 5 micrograms were something of a simplification. What the CDC said, after years of study and discussion, was that no level of lead exposure for children is safe. The 5-microgram level was set somewhat arbitrarily as the point at which doctors and public health officials would recommend parents take action to reduce their children's risk, but there is ample evidence to show that levels of 3 or 4 micrograms — and perhaps even lower — are associated with learning and attention deficit disorders later in life.

Reducing the threat of Armageddon

Sun, 20 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Our view: President Obama should heed calls for deeper cuts to the U.S. nuclear arsenal

President Obama achieved a major foreign policy goal in 2010 when he concluded the New START Treaty committing the U.S. and Russia to reduce the size of their long-range nuclear arsenals by a third within six years, to 1,550 warheads on each side. But as the president made clear in remarks at the time, even those cuts didn't go far enough. The world, he said, wouldn't be safe from the threat of these terrifying weapons until they were eliminated entirely.

Another boost for same-sex marriage

Sun, 20 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Our view: The Maryland Court of Appeals decision to recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages fundamentally shifts the terms of the marriage rights debate

How ironic that a divorce will be remembered for strengthening the rights of all Marylanders to be married regardless of sexual orientation.

SpaceX pushes back the final frontier

Sat, 19 May 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Our view: The planned launch today of a privately owned unmanned cargo rocket could mark the beginning of a new era of commercial space flight

If all goes as planned, sometime this morning a spacecraft will blast off from its launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and ride a fiery plume of contrails upward through the pre-dawn darkness to begin a two-week journey to the International Space Station and back. But the flight won't be just another NASA resupply mission. Instead, the Falcon 9 rocket and its unmanned Dragon cargo capsule built by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation — SpaceX for short — will be the first commercially owned and operated vehicle ever to rendezvous with the station's orbiting astronauts.

Baltimore and bigotry

Thu, 17 May 2012 20:05:00 GMT

Our view: Where others might view the unruly mob behavior on St. Patrick's Day at the Inner Harbor as criminal, one delegate sees 'black youths'

It is always tempting to ignore the bluster and bombast emanating from the vicinity of Patrick L. McDonough, the Baltimore County delegate and radio talk show host who considers himself a man of the people but mostly is a self-promoting bomb-thrower. His is a career built on angry sound bites and finger-pointing, particularly at minority groups, while his actual legislative accomplishments in Annapolis can be contained in a thimble — with room to spare.

At Preakness time, a new optimism

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:24:00 GMT

Our view: The racing industry's long-promised boost from slots revenue is taking hold, providing stability and a chance for renewal

The Preakness Stakes arrives at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday absent one of the event's hallowed traditions. Sure, there will be sundresses and hats, black-eyed Susans, drunken infield revelry and, in a recent addition to the bill, faux-mythological mascots. But what's missing this year is the hand-wringing about whether this Preakness will be Maryland's last.

Tea party victories in Ind., Neb., are no boon to the Democrats

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:13:00 GMT

Conservatives have the energy going into the fall election

If it has accomplished nothing else, the tea party insurgency has made Republicans vastly more newsworthy than Democrats. While the party of the left plods along performing the boring old tasks of governing, the party of the right is engaged in high drama worthy of Shakespeare.

The Sun at 175

Wed, 16 May 2012 21:02:00 GMT

Our view: Much has changed since A.S. Abell started his paper, but our mission to provide light for all remains the same — and will for the next 175 years

If Arunah S. Abell dared to imagine 175 years into the future when he produced the first copies of The Sun on May 17, 1837, he almost surely would have guessed that the nature of his business would remain fundamentally unchanged. The news would be printed daily onto broad sheets of paper and sold throughout the city of Baltimore and beyond. In a sense, he would have been right. If he were to be transported to The Sun's printing plant in South Baltimore, he might marvel at the scale, speed and automation of modern presses, but the process would be familiar — blank paper comes in, newspapers come out.

Baltimore welcomes a new archbishop

Wed, 16 May 2012 18:44:00 GMT

Our view: William E. Lori will lead an archdiocese challenged by far more pressing concerns than who pays how much of the out-of-pocket costs of contraception

Today's installation of William E. Lori as the 16 t h archbishop of Baltimore is a noteworthy event, not only for the half-million Catholics in an archdiocese that stretches from Middle River to the mountains of Western Maryland, but for non-Catholics, too. The church continues to wield great influence in the secular world and notably in Maryland, a state with a long history of Catholicism from the Colonial era to the present.

Special session fallout

Wed, 16 May 2012 17:55:00 GMT

Our view: Return to Annapolis highlights the Democrats' dysfunction; Republicans capitalized on it well, but it may not matter at the ballot box

They did what they had to do, and they went home. That's the best that can be said of the special session of the Maryland General Assembly that concluded today. The tax increases, spending cuts, fund transfers and other measures lawmakers approved in 21/2 days this week protect public education, health and public safety and put the state on a path to fiscal sustainability, all while requiring a relatively minimal additional contribution from taxpayers. After a chaotic end to the regular General Assembly session, order has been restored.

The St. Patrick's Day brawl

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:25:00 GMT

Our view: Why did officials try to downplay the seriousness of a violent disturbance at the Inner Harbor?

New details of the Baltimore police response to a particularly large, unruly and violent crowd of youths downtown over theSt. Patrick's Dayweekend not only raise the question of whether the department has the resources it needs to anticipate and respond to such incidents but also whether it can be trusted to level with the public when similar disturbances occur in the future. City officials are right to be concerned about protecting Baltimore's reputation as a tourist attraction and destination for out-of-town visitors, but not at the cost of whitewashing episodes that might tarnish that image.

Annapolis' unfinished business: Transportation funding

Tue, 15 May 2012 17:20:00 GMT

Our view: For the second time in six weeks, lawmakers will leave Annapolis without having done a thing to address Maryland's transportation deficit

Not long after the Maryland General Assembly last adjourned back in mid-April, gasoline prices were approaching $4 a gallon. Currently, a price-conscious shopper can purchase a gallon of regular unleaded in the Baltimore area for as little as $3.50.

Crowding Balto. Co.'s classrooms

Mon, 14 May 2012 20:36:00 GMT

Our view: Incoming Baltimore County school superintendent Dallas Dance needs to add increased class sizes and overtaxed facilities to his 'to do' list of things to improve the system

The results of Baltimore County Superintendent Joe Hairston's poor decision to cut teachers from high schools are now clear: A sharp drop in the number of classes available to students (including Advanced Placement courses), increasing class sizes and overtaxed facilities, such as chemistry labs with too many students for their lab stations. Mr. Hairston thought it more important to hire new administrators than to preserve teaching jobs, and the result is a lower quality education for students across the district.

High school Romney vs. high school Obama

By David Horsey — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:54:00 GMT

If Obama is a little too cool and aloof, Romney may be too callous

Sure, you may know which man -- Mitt Romney or Barack Obama -- you want to see running the country, but which one would you have wanted to know in high school?

Setting boundaries in Frederick

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:19:00 GMT

Our view: When an ethics panel decides a commissioner's company can't do work of any kind in the county, it's clearly gone too far

How far should a locally elected official have to go to avoid business dealings in his city or county?

Restoring Mount Vernon

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Our view: A public-private partnership offers a way to preserve an iconic city landmark

Baltimore's Washington Monument in Mount Vernon Square is one of the city's most recognizable landmarks, a classical Doric column towering 178 feet above its elegant surroundings. But nearly 200 years after its completion in 1829, the building and its grounds are showing their age, and the city can't afford their upkeep. That's why an agreement signed last month between the Board of Estimates and the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy, a private group formed to raise money and plan for architectural repairs and improvements on the site, may be the only way to preserve this iconic structure for future generations.

Henson verdict a disappointment

Fri, 11 May 2012 17:16:00 GMT

Our view: The bad-acting campaign consultant was just as much to blame for the cynical 'relax' robocall as Paul Schurick was; he deserved the same treatment

Political consultant Julius Henson deserved to be held to account for his role in producing a fraudulent robocall on the night of the 2010 gubernatorial election that was clearly designed to prevent Democrats — and in particular, African-American voters — from going to the polls. It is disappointing, though, that the jury rendered a mixed verdict in the case, convicting him on just one count of conspiracy but finding him not guilty on three other charges. A separate jury last year convicted Paul Schurick, the former aide to Gov.Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Mr. Henson's employer in that election, on all four counts for the same offense. Their culpability was equal, and they should have been judged accordingly.

New Grand Prix deal is worse than the last

Thu, 10 May 2012 18:32:00 GMT

Our view: The Andretti name is impressive, but the terms of a proposed race agreement -- and the short time until Labor Day -- put the city at risk

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blakesays the new organizers she has selected for September's Baltimore Grand Prix — including a member of the legendary Andretti family — "have what it takes to move forward and make this world-class sporting event successful for Baltimore." Isn't that what she said about the last group of people she brought in to save the race? That the lead promoter, Dale Dillon, was a race-savior who would make sure everything went smoothly this year? (Unless, as it happened, he stopped talking to his Baltimore-based partners and dropped off the face of the Earth?) Are we supposed to trust her on this one a third time?