Heard and By the Numbers

BY: Daily Record Staff
POSTED: November 20, 2009

“It’s almost as if she’s phoning in her order.”
Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Shelly Glenn, during closing arguments in Mayor Sheila Dixon’s criminal trial, on allegations that Dixon asked developer Patrick Turner to donate gift cards for needy children, and then kept them for herself. Dixon claimed in her defense that she thought cards were gifts [...]

Police sergeant accused of misconduct over Cardin proposal

BY: Associated Press
POSTED: November 20, 2009

Baltimore police say a sergeant who authorized the use of the department’s marine unit as part of a Maryland lawmaker’s marriage proposal has been charged with misconduct.

On Aug. 7, police boarded a boat Delegate Jon Cardin and his fiancee were on with friends in the Inner Harbor and pretended to search for contraband until Cardin [...]

Electrician auctioning bayside island

BY: Associated Press
POSTED: November 20, 2009
Tags: Ocean City, Real Estate, worcester county

OCEAN CITY — A West Ocean City electrician who needs money to keep his business going is auctioning a private bayside island that features a sandy beach and hunting lodge.

The 30-acre parcel, called South Hammocks, is comprised of two separately deeded isles in the Assawoman Bay wetlands.
Gary Frick bought the island in 2001 from another [...]

Tiny Iowa town has the chargers, awaiting drivers

BY: Associated Press
POSTED: November 20, 2009
Comments: 1

ELK HORN, Iowa — Hoping to see the USA in your Chevrolet Volt or Nissan Leaf? The tiny Iowa town of Elk Horn will have plenty of electric charging stations and no wait — if you can get there.

The town, more than 1,500 miles from the electric car mecca of California and hundreds of miles [...]

Breaking: Dixon jury sent home until Monday

BY: Brendan Kearney
POSTED: November 20, 2009

Judge Dennis Sweeney dismissed jurors until Monday after a note from the one of the jurors said that ‘things’ were getting ‘a little overheated.’

Go to twitter.com/mddailyrecord to read our tweets from inside the courthouse.

City gets 19 applications for federal Recovery Zone bond money

BY: Robbie Whelan
POSTED: November 20, 2009
Comments: 1

The Baltimore Development Corp. Friday announced that interest from developers in federal Recovery Zone Facility Bonds far outstrips the available money to be offered under the stimulus program.
The city received 19 applications, totaling $185.4 million, seeking uses for the city’s $30.8 million in tax exempt bond funds authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
In [...]

Jury notes continue in Dixon trial

BY: Brendan Kearney
POSTED: November 20, 2009
Comments: 1

A note from the jury foreperson in the theft case against Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon indicates that the first day of deliberations was marked by some tension.

U.S. survey shows southern counties most obese

BY: Associated Press
POSTED: November 19, 2009

The first county-by-county survey of obesity reflects past studies that show the rate of obesity is highest in the Southeast and Appalachia.
High rates of obesity and diabetes were reported in more than 80 percent of counties in the Appalachian region that includes Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, according to the new research from the U.S. [...]

Fraser Smith: A case built on a house of cards 

BY: C. Fraser Smith
POSTED: November 19, 2009

No one ever wants to acknowledge the elephant in the room.
Closing arguments Thursday in the trial of Mayor Sheila Dixon left out almost entirely the underlying issue: Cozy relationships between developers and public officials are corrosive and costly to the taxpayer — and to the system.
If millions of dollars in taxes are forgiven in exchange [...]

Cordish courting applicants for casino jobs at Arundel Mills

BY: Nicholas Sohr
POSTED: November 19, 2009
Comments: 1

Cordish officials courted applicants for 4,000 jobs on Thursday — from butchers to bartenders, equity partners to concrete workers — for a proposed Anne Arundel County casino that has yet to receive state and local approvals.