Benefactor

This week's nitwit award goes to the multimillionaire lawyer who wrote an e-mail to the University of Washington president offering to donate a $100,000 scholarship to the Washington law school if football coach Ty Willingham were fired. The Huskies finished 4-9 this season. Oh yeah, and another scholarship of 100 grand for the termination of athletic director Todd Turner. Turner, as a matter of fact, subsequently resigned.

Seeking the right art Members of Baltimore's recently reconstituted Public Art Commission know bad art when they see it. Their thoughtful consideration of a 9-foot statue of former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor William Donald Schaefer proposed for the Inner Harbor promenade effectively killed it. The commission had serious doubts about the $500,000 memorial sought by banker Edwin F. Hale Sr. - its scale, design and proposed location. The panel offered to consider alternative designs and locations, and the sculptor obliged.

TIME GOES by, and stuff happens. And sometimes, when stuff happens, somebody gets indicted, or even convicted, or at least humiliated or dragged through the mud. And you know what? Same stuff happens again. Wait around long enough, and somebody somewhere tries to get away with a fast one. I guess it's greed. Or stupidity. Or poor memory. Or involuntary sleaziness. I dunno. Some guys are just so arrogant they believe they can't be touched. They think the stuff they do doesn't smell.

Developers, auto dealers, energy companies and port businesses were among the interests that helped Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. raise more than $620,000 in a 2 1/2 -week period this month for his campaign for governor. The GOP candidate, whose fund raising eclipsed that of Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend during the period, raised more than 90 percent of his money from Maryland sources, according to campaign finance reports filed yesterday. Townsend's fund raising, meanwhile, seemed to melt away during the Aug. 7 to Aug. 25 filing period.

J. HAROLD Grady became a leading judge because he didn't like being Baltimore's 40th mayor. His three years at City Hall were times of transition. He was the bridge between two legendary mayors, Democrat Thomas J. D'Alesandro Jr. and Theodore R. McKeldin, the last Republican to rule Charm City. Behind-the-scenes political power was also changing - from Jack Pollack to Irv Kovens, who was Mr. Grady's benefactor. Downtown also was changing. Construction of Charles Center, the city's first ambitious business rejuvenation project, started in 1961 during his administration.

A coalition of environmental groups asked Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. yesterday to cancel the proposed sale of state preservation land to a politically connected contractor for use as a tax shelter, saying the secretly negotiated transaction violates good-government principles and threatens a sensitive ecosystem. "First, the approach to the proposed land sale does not reflect a fair and open government process," representatives of 1000 Friends of Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, the Wilderness Society, American Farmland Trust and the Trust for Public Land said in a two-page letter.

Tel Aviv -- NEVER HAS there been such a chapter in the history of relations between nations: A world power nourishes and supports a small, faraway country, which instead of being understanding and grateful mocks its benefactor. For many years, the tail not only wagged the dog; it also barked while keeping the dog muzzled.The United States has held positions, even clear ones, on several substantial matters concerning Israel. The United States was, however, permitted to express these positions only on the condition that Israel could reject and negate them completely.

Construction magnate Willard J. Hackerman said yesterday that it was not his idea to keep his identity secret in discussing his plan to buy St. Mary's County preservation land from the state. In his most detailed explanation yet about the aborted land deal, Hackerman, the chief executive of Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., also confirmed in a written statement that he planned to partially develop the parcel. Hackerman said he wanted to "set the record straight" on the plan. It has been criticized by lawmakers and environmentalists and has been scrutinized during four legislative hearings, including one yesterday by the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Matters Committee.

CLARIFICATION A headline accompanying a front-page article in Oct. 20 editions of The Sun, "Ehrlich OK'd deal for land," may have left readers with the impression that Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. had given final approval to a plan for sale of public lands. The article reported on testimony by Maryland Department of General Services Secretary Boyd K. Rutherford, in which Rutherford said Ehrlich was briefed in 2003 and "said it was worth pursuing." Only the Board of Public Works, on which the governor serves, can authorize final approval of any public land sale.

Julie Thompson had a hard time establishing curbside recycling in her Jarrettsville neighborhood when she left bins for glass, cans and plastic at the dead end of Trout Farm Road."