So who is this mysterious "Developer B" who shows up buying gift cards in the indictment of Mayor Sheila Dixon?
Among the names being tossed about is Patrick Turner, the Turner Development Group president, who appeared before the grand jury in June.
The Baltimore Sun's Annie Linskey asked Turner if he's the guy. Turner denied it, adding that he's never been "B" at anything.
Whoever he is, Developer B must rate an A-plus in our ex-schoolmarm mayor's book.
The indictment suggests that Developer B dropped everything and dashed out to the store when Dixon asked for gift cards on Dec. 13, 2005.
At 11:04 a.m. on that day, then-Council President Dixon asked Developer B to buy gift cards for "needy families in Baltimore," the indictment states.
Dixon would eventually spend many of the gift cards on herself, according to the indictment, but Developer B either didn't know that or didn't care. (The indictment is silent on whether Developer B thought he was being charitable or shaken down.)
An hour and 17 minutes after Dixon made her request, Developer B was in Best Buy using a personal credit card to buy $500 in gift cards, the indictment states. Just 40 minutes later, the indictment states, Developer B popped into Target for another $500 in cards.
Now, that's a lot of errands. Could Turner possibly have been the speed-shopping Developer B if he was also busy around that time trying to win city approval for his Silo Point condo project?
Turner is something of a magician. He managed to create those luxury condos out of an old Locust Point grain elevator. What's more, Turner told Linskey that the condos are actually selling, even in this market.
Just salmon, folks
And you thought Mayor Dixon's lawyer was focused on picayune points.
There was Dixon spokesman Ian Brennan featured the other day in the Baltimore Examiner's "Quote of the Day." He was taking that paper to task for its reporting on a City Council luncheon, a public meeting from which news photographers were ejected.
"They were not eating crab cakes; it was salmon cakes," Brennan is quoted saying.
"We need to clarify that. ... They looked and smelled like crab cakes, but they were, in fact, salmon cakes."
Full disclosure: the aforementioned Ms. Linskey reported crab cakes, too, in The Sun's first edition. She changed it to salmon cakes for later editions after another Dixon staffer dashed off a late-night text message alerting her to the error.
