Background Checks

According to news reports regarding the Tucson shootings, the suspect, Jared Loughner, used a Glock 19 9mm, a semiautomatic pistol, bought by him about a month prior to the shooting after he passed a federally required background check. Mr. Loughner is reported to have been kicked out of community college recently and to have been perceived as a danger to fellow students and the school. His former math teacher, Ben McGahee, is quoted as saying, "I was getting concerned about the safety of the students and the school.

Every new student at the University of Virginia attends an orientation where they break into small groups to discuss sexual consent and respect. October brings a flurry of public events pegged to Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and students are confronted with ubiquitous "red flag" posters. Then in April it's the weeklong Take Back the Night program, with students sharing their own harrowing stories of abuse. The inadequacy of those anti-violence strategies materialized in graphic detail last week, with the discovery of 22-year-old Cockeysville native Yeardley Love dead in her off-campus apartment, allegedly murdered at the hand of a former boyfriend who acknowledges kicking in her bedroom door.

Local and state officials are at odds over who is responsible for conducting background investigations as they seek a replacement for former Baltimore school board chairman Brian D. Morris. Most involved suggest it is someone else's job to search for the kind of troubling history of bad debts and court judgments that led Morris to resign last week from a $175,000-a-year system job, which he received after serving for six years on the city school board. Gov. Martin O'Malley's office says the state school board is responsible.

Man admits role in fatal bank robbery plot ERIE, Pa.: A man admitted in federal court yesterday that he helped plot a bizarre bank robbery that ended when a bomb strapped around a pizza deliveryman's neck exploded and killed him, the first conviction in the five-year-old case. Kenneth Barnes pleaded guilty to conspiracy and a charge of aiding and abetting at a hearing in which prosecutors also revealed new details, based on a statement by Barnes, about deliveryman Brian Wells' involvement in the scheme.

One by one, the e-mails started popping up this week in very important inboxes at very big schools. At Southern California, at Florida, at Texas. At every university that belongs to a Bowl Championship Series conference, in fact. "Our new service is designed to assist clients who understand the consequences of relying on perfunctory certifications of high-profile prospects," it read. Huh? Here's the interpretation: Your school can't properly research a prospective student-athlete's background.

The gun charge lodged against Baltimore youth football coach Aaron McCown came as organizations in Maryland and across the country were adopting new measures to prevent misbehavior by coaches and parents during games. Last fall, the Maryland State Youth Soccer Association began requiring more than a thousand coaches to be licensed. At a minimum, they must complete an 18-hour training course. On Oct. 12, Baltimore's Parks Department announced guidelines under which verbal or physical abuse of officials, coaches or players could lead to lengthy bans.

Maryland's top federal prosecutor is in the final stages of the process to fill a vacancy at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, according to sources close to the procedure. U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein's name has been linked to the judgeship for more than a year. The vetting process has accelerated in the past several weeks, with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice asking former colleagues about Rosenstein as part of background checks. Supporters have called Rosenstein a sharp attorney, a successful and low-key leader of the highest integrity.

About 750,000 truckers, longshoremen and others who work at the nation's ports - including about 20,000 at the port of Baltimore - will face background checks and be required to buy identification cards beginning in March, according to long-awaited rules released yesterday by the Transportation Security Administration. The cards were required by Congress more than two years ago to enhance security at ports of entry. But the program proved difficult to implement because of its size and the advanced technology needed at 361 seaports.

WASHINGTON -- When a state-owned Arab company attempted to take over the management of some U.S. port facilities this year, the result was a bipartisan uproar in Congress and a wave of initiatives aimed at tightening security on the waterfront. Most of the proposals have foundered. But now, with Republicans and Democrats jostling for the upper hand on national security as the November midterm elections near, a port security bill is headed for approval. The measure, which the Senate is expected to pass this week, would, among other things, impose deadlines on background checks for port workers, expand a program to screen for "dirty bombs" and authorize $400 million to help ports bolster anti-terrorism defenses.

The principal of Govans Elementary School in Baltimore will not return to her job after writing a letter urging a federal judge to have leniency on a convicted drug dealer teaching special education, her lawyer and city school system officials said. Principal Edith Jones wrote a letter supporting Martius Harding before he was sentenced last month to seven years in prison. Jones was given the choice of resigning by Aug. 1 or being fired, according to her lawyer, Ron Kowitz. She likely will resign in the next few weeks, he said.