Liquor License Board to increase oversight

The head of the Baltimore City Board of Liquor License Commissioners said the board will now require inspectors to make a report every time there is a licensing violation that is not cited.

Details: The report would explain to supervisors why the violation went un-cited. We can only hope this will cut down on the number of “gentlemen’s agreements” that allow serious under-age drinking problems go unchecked like the one at Iguana Cantina that allowed an underage student to participate in a “college night” and get involved in a drunken driving accident.

Dealing with the reality of teaching

A consultant told 7,000 Baltimore City teachers in a pre-school lesson on relating to students they must “challenge them.”

Details: Vanderbilt University professor Donna Ford said: “When you challenge, when their minds are active, they are less likely to cut up and act a fool.” Many teachers — and most taxpayers — cannot grasp the reality of where an inordinate proportion of the city’s 81,500 students are coming from. Dealing with a subculture that somehow thinks of trashy redneck behavior as “black” and academic achievement as “white” is just one insanity teachers must overcome. We all can decry irresponsible parents, poverty and urban chaos, but teachers are the ones who have to deal with it every day. Ford’s message may seem obvious, but sometimes It doesn’t hurt to state the obvious.

How to choose between serving cows or country?

General Assembly Del. J.B. Jennings is sacrificing a lot to join the Maryland Air National Guard.

Details: To beat the Guard’s cutoff age of 35, Jennings lost 51 pounds, prepared to miss his wife for six weeks of basic training and, worst of all, had to find homes for all but two cows of his herd. That is a big deal to dairy farm folks, who birth them and know them by name. And the daily feeding and milking can’t be put on hold for basic training. Jennings does plan to keep his perfect General Assembly voting record going while he serves loading cargo planes at Warfield Air National Guard Base, Middle River. Serving our state and nation is the brightest idea of all, and it always involves some sacrifice great or small.

WORST

Attorney General forced to sue over cleanup

The Environmental Protection Agency orders the Army to clean up its act in Maryland and minimize the damage done to soil by unexploded bombs and chemicals — and the Army didn’t follow through.

Details: The Maryland Attorney General is now saying he’s going to file suit against the Army to force it to do the cleanup the EPA already told it to do. If the Army had done what it was supposed to, the Attorney General wouldn’t have to waste his time and taxpayer money. Hey Army, here’s a lesson you should have learned in kindergarten: If you want to play at our house, you need to clean up after yourself.

Putting informants at risk in prison

A police informant had the word “rat” carved into his skin — not once, but twice.

Details: The word was written into his back, but the first time Timothy Bryce was accused of inflicting himself with those wounds. Instead of protecting the informant, corrections officials put him back in the Baltimore County Detention Center, where the incident was repeated. If the wounds were self-inflicted, Bryce should have been placed under medical observation whether or not he or his lawyer objected. The fact is that someone slipped up. Whether Bryce is hurting himself or being hurt, it needs to stop. Clearly Bryce is unable to help himself in this situation.

CSI Baltimore: Uh, is that camera on?

The city police commission fired 10-year crime lab director Edgar Koch for “a number of operational issues” — whatever that means — according to spokesman Sterling Clifford.

Details: One thing it means is some DNA samples got mixed up. Public Defender’s Office attorney Patrick Kent vows an independent probe. That’s a bright idea because “the theme we’ve seen from Baltimore City is they’re far more focused on media fallout than they are on getting the science right.” This whole episode should raise questions about Maryland’s Orwellian rush to take DNA samples from everyone arrested, whether ever charged and convicted. Will that be an instrument of justice or merely a prop for political show business?

Worst idea meets an even worse one

Running over mailboxes is a dumb enough crime, and so is advancing on someone with baseball bats. But firing a rifle in a residential area tops even those.

Details: Anne Arundel Police report they arrested three men after a routine pickup-truck-mailbox-smashing-bat/threatening-rifle-fire incident in Pasadena. They charged the two men in the truck and the irate homeowner with reckless endangerment because stupid’s not specifically against the law. Citizens may use deadly force to protect their homes when there is no alternative, but firing a rifle, which might kill up to a mile away, at a vehicle is not defense.

Training the fight out of a champion

Gary Russell Jr. lost his shot at Olympic medal when he collapsed after an individual workout.

Details: The Capitol Heights bantamweight was enduring a brutal training regimen to reach fighting weight when he went down for the count. His parents blame the U.S. Boxing training methods, which emphasize weightlifting and body fat trimmed to the point fighters have nothing left to lose. That can diminish the body’s fluid levels to dysfunctional levels. Down you go. Obviously, the U.S. Olympic Committee should review this method.