Attorney General

Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler has reached a settlement with California-based CleanWell Company and OhSo Clean Inc, the makers of a hand sanitizer that claimed it was "proven to kill 99.99 percent of germs that can make you sick. " Gansler's investigation revealed no actual proof that those statements were true. CleanWell must pay $100,000 in penalties and costs, and will no longer be allowed to assert that its hand sanitizer can prevent disease or infection. “Companies that make unsubstantiated claims about their products deceive consumers into spending their hard-earned money on something that may not live up to its billing,” Gansler said in a statement.

Morton A. Sacks, a retired trial lawyer and former Maryland assistant attorney general, died of heart disease Aug. 29 at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. The Linthicum resident, who lived for 40 years in Bolton Hill, was 74. Born in Baltimore and raised in Lochearn, he met his future wife, Marylou Botten, at Milford Mill Junior High School. "We sat next to each other in the eighth grade," she said. The couple went on to graduate from Milford Mill Senior High School in 1956.

The Maryland attorney general's office on Friday asked the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to block a lower court's ruling that would drastically increase the number of people eligible to carry concealed firearms in the state. Law enforcement agencies will "suffer irreparable harm to their ability to protect public safety, an indisputably compelling government interest, in the absence of a stay," attorneys wrote in a 38-page filing. U.S. District Court Judge Benson E. Legg earlier ruled that a state law requiring gun carry permit applicants to show they have a "good and substantial reason" to carry violated the Second Amendment.

Francis X. Pugh Sr., a former assistant attorney general for the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, where he had been chief counsel, died July 17 of cardiac arrest at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury. The longtime Timonium resident was 80. The son of a Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. worker and a homemaker, Mr. Pugh was born in Baltimore and raised on Virginia Avenue. He was a 1946 graduate of Loyola High School and earned his bachelor's degree in 1950 from what is now Loyola University Maryland.

Longtime Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee chairman Brian Frosh may throw his hat into the Attorney General race in 2014, he confirmed to The Sun via text message. “I want to be attorney general," Frosh said in an interview. "If it looks like the stars are aligned, that's  what I'm going to do.” Frosh said that in the past two days, he's been calling friends and colleagues and "getting a great response. " In the "next few weeks," he will likely announce an exploratory committee.  It is widely believed that current Attorney General Doug Gansler will run for governor in 2014.

A controversial court ruling in April that pit bulls are "inherently dangerous" is not yet in effect and must survive an appeal before it can be applied as Maryland law, according to an opinion released this week by the state attorney general's office. The opinion, written by Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Rowe in response to a request from Montgomery County Del. Heather Mizeur for advice on how to understand the ruling, says a motion for reconsideration of the ruling now before the Maryland Court of Appeals "delays the effect of the decision.

An unlicensed driveway paver working in the Annapolis area was ordered to pay nearly $500,000 in fines and restitution after the Maryland Attorney General's office found that he "preyed" on customers, charging them far more than he said he would. The attorney general's office said Friday that it has ordered Tommy Edward Clack, who also goes by Tommy Clark and Ed Clack, to repay at least $204,000 to customers. The office's consumer protection division also levied $284,000 in fines and ordered him to pay $5,000 in agency expenses.

Baltimore activists say they're launching a campaign to vote down a change to the city charter that would push local elections back one year - effectively giving MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blakeand others an extra year in office. "Once voters realize they're adding an extra year for themselves, they're going to vote it down," said Hassan Giordano, who - along with civil rights leader Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, members of the League of Women Voters and State Del. Jill Carter - is heading the Baltimore Election Group.

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has been elected president of the national association that represents his peers around the country, becoming the second Marylander to hold that post. Gansler, 49, was chosen Thursday by at the National Association of Attorneys General summer meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. The nonpartisan group brings together the chief legal officers of the states, territories and District of Columbia to deal with issues they face. Presidents of the group typically choose a particular issue to focus on during their yearlong terms.

Two University of Maryland, Baltimore County employees resigned or were fired after a state audit and an internal investigation uncovered about $9,000 in questionable expenditures on their corporate credit cards. Their activities have been referred to the criminal division of the attorney general's office for further review, though no charges have been filed. One of the employees purchased $4,400 in gift cards — a violation of university policy — according to the audit, released Tuesday morning.