Blamed

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

In response to Page Croyder's article on one-party rule having evil consequences for the state of Maryland ("One-party rule in Maryland exacerbates jail scandal," May 10), that sounds like a condemnation of the Republican Party's failure to present an agenda that would promote cross-party votes. True, Gov. Martin O'Malley's political ambitions have caused him to become myopic and hopefully he will come to his senses and realize he doesn't stand much of a chance for president because of this scandal (and other issues)

Officials are blaming a house fire in Pasadena Tuesday night on a portable space heater being too close to combustible furnishings. Firefighters called to a house in the 800 block of Old Mill Road shortly at 9:06 p.m. arrived seven minutes later to find heavy fire in a second-floor bedroom above a garage, Anne Arundel County Battalion Chief Steve Thompson said. No one was injured in the fire, he said. Twenty-nine firefighters brought the blaze under control by 9:42 p.m. Thompson said it appeared that a portable space heater was close to a bed and curtain.

In her column ("An Annapolis tradition, grounded," May 13), Susan Reimer writes that Congress should be ashamed that because of sequestration the Blue Angels will skip the U.S. Naval Academy graduation this year. Really? How about President Barack Obama, shouldn't he be ashamed? After all, sequestration was his idea, and Congress wanted to give him the power to decide where the cuts would take place, which Mr. Obama refused to do. Lets see, if the president agreed to that it would have required him to take responsibility for one of his polices, which he never does.

A pot of food left cooking on a stove when no one was home was blamed for a small fire in Glen Burnie Wednesday night, Anne Arundel County Fire Department officials said. A neighbor spotted flames in a kitchen in the 7900 block of Parke West Drive around 9:48 p.m. and called 911, Battalion Chief Steve Thompson said. Firefighters arrived to see smoke coming from the roof, he said. The blaze was under control at 10:14 p.m. No one was injured. The room and its contents were damaged, Thompson said.

A pot of food left cooking on a stove when no one was home was blamed for a small fire in Glen Burnie on Wednesday night, Anne Arundel County Fire Department officials said. A neighbor spotted flames in a kitchen in the 7900 block of Parke West Drive at 9:48 p.m. and called 911, Battalion Chief Steve Thompson said. Firefighters arrived to see smoke coming from the roof, he said. The blaze was under control at 10:14 p.m. No one was injured. The room and its contents were damaged, Thompson said.

BOGOTA, Colombia - The Colombian government blamed leftist rebels yesterday for the killing of 34 coca pickers in a rampage that has aroused fears of a new wave of drug-fueled violence. The attack, Tuesday morning in the cocaine-rich La Gabarra municipality, was the worst since hard-line President Alvaro Uribe Velez took office in August 2002. He began an aggressive military offensive against Colombia's armed outlaws and opened peace talks with right-wing paramilitary death squads. The government blamed the massacre on rebels.

Blame it on the finance mergers?Top business executives in the Baltimore region assign "industry consolidation" the top blame for corporate downsizing in recent years, in slight contrast to their peers in other cities.In a survey by the Gallup Organization for phone company MCI, 555 chief executives, owners and presidents of mid- to large-size businesses were questioned about competition. The poll included 116 bosses in the Baltimore area, plus people in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

OCEAN CITY - Speed, not faulty construction, has been blamed for the failure of steel restraining cables in an Ocean City parking garage where two men were killed Saturday. Brian T. Donnellan and Stefan Forpin, both 23-year-old New York residents, were fatally injured when their Chevrolet Blazer broke through the barrier and fell 40 feet to the ground, according to a report. Witnesses said the truck was traveling about 30 mph when it hit the cables. Ocean City's chief building official, Mike Richardson, said the cables appeared to have been structurally sound.

Analysts saw little to cheer about in Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s just-released third quarter results, but seemed willing to blame tough market conditions for the steelmaker's sharp drop in earnings.The Bethlehem, Pa.-based steelmaker yesterday posted a profit of $10 million, or 5 cents a share, for the quarter, a fraction of the $47 million, or 53 cents a share, it earned during the same period last year. Sales of $1.2 billion were down nearly 5 percent from a year ago.The company blamed the decline on a drop in sales and prices for steel and on higher operating costs.

As I assessed the situation at the Baltimore City jail, and the subsequent indictments that came down because of the corruption of a few, I realized that while the rosy portrait painted by Gov. Martin O'Malley may not have been as bright as he would have liked the public to believe, it certainly was nowhere near as gloomy as your recent editorial portrayed it ("O'Malley can't spin his way out of the jail scandal," April 30). It's easy to point the finger after the hard work has been done; as they say, "hindsight is 20/20.

In 1967, historian Lynn White Jr. ignited a firestorm that burns still today. In a widely discussed article titled "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis," he laid a charge at the doorstep of the Judeo-Christian community: The Bible is responsible for the world's environmental degradation. The Bible and its story of creation, he argued, sowed the seeds of the destructive mandate that animates Western civilization. Humans were given the right, the calling, by God to "be fruitful and multiply, fill the Earth and master it. " Charged by this narrative, the Western world has taken "dominion" to be one of the highest callings of human existence.

The Federal Reserve Board announced Thursday that it terminated an enforcement action against Baltimore-based Harbor Bankshares Corp. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond issued the action in July 2010, reaching an agreement with the holding company to take steps to shore up its finances. The company, parent of The Harbor Bank of Maryland, agreed to comply with consent orders from other regulators as well as not to pay dividends, take on more debt or redeem shares without the approval of the Federal Reserve Bank first.

I am not a fan of former President George W. Bush, but I must comment on the hatchet job that was The Sun's editorial about the opening of the Bush library in Dallas ("Misoverestimating Bush," April 28). During the last two years of Mr. Bush's presidency both the Senate and House had Democratic majorities, and the policies enacted by that Congress led to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. The policy of forcing banks to give loans to people who could not afford them was pushed by Democratic Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd.

Sunday morning I read with interest the editorial, "Misoverestimating Bush," (April 28). It appears to me that both the writer and The Sun's editorial board forgot a valuable lesson of moral guidance that our parents and others in our lives imparted to us: When you point the finger at someone, it is also pointing back at you. The way I like to phrase it is what someone says about someone else, particularly in politics, says much more about the...

Chemical maker W.R. Grace & Co. said Wednesday that its net income in the first quarter fell about 13 percent from the year-earlier period, in line with its warning to investors and analysts earlier in the month. The Columbia company said sales volumes didn't drop, but revenue took a hit as a result of lower pricing and an unfavorable change in the Venezuelan exchange rate. "Sales and earnings were below our expectations," CEO Fred Festa said in a statement. W.R. Grace said it produced $52.9 million in net income during the first three months of the year, compared with $60.9 million in the first quarter of last year.

A head-on collision that killed two people today on Md. 136 near Cool Spring Road in Harford County was being blamed on icy roads.State Police spokesman Chuck Jackson said the drivers of both cars died in the 6:40 a.m. crash that closed Md. 136 in both directions between U.S. 1 and Md. 22 near Churchville.Their names were not released.Jackson said the ice on Md. 136 formed suddenly sometime after 6 a.m.. State highway crews were called out to treat roads in parts of Harford County.State Police at the Bel Air barracks investigated "numerous" accidents blamed on icy roads.

Despite a recession that has crippled the housing industry, lumber prices have jumped more than 30 percent in the past six weeks, home builders and industry members have said.The National Association of Home Builders, a trade group based in Washington that represents builders' interests, laid the blame on proposed logging restrictions on millions of acres of forest land in the Pacific northwest and California to protect the habitat of the northern spotted owl.That has sent timber buyers scrambling to buy supplies to protect themselves from possible shortages, said Mark Ellis Tipton, a Raleigh, N.C., home builder and president of the national builders association.

The U.S. public and the government have shown great tolerance toward Muslims after the 9/11 attacks perpetrated by Islamic extremists. However, the other side of the coin is the necessity after a terrorist attack to identify the culprits, determine their reasoning and bring them to justice. Contrary to 9/11, the current situation in Boston does not appear to be an organized assault on our citizenry and culture, as the motive behind it is yet unknown. However, initial indications are that the action was perpetrated by two Muslim brothers, one devout and the other younger and a follower.

We baby boomers get blamed for just about every economic hiccup, because there are so many of us. And our children are particularly furious because they believe the crisis in Social Security, which may affect their ability to retire, can be laid at our feet like kindling for a burning at the stake. They are convinced we boomers, with our outsized appetites and sense of entitlement, are going to consume everything on our way to the cemetery, right down to the amount of ground we leave for those who die after us. But data from the Social Security Administration itself, provided by chief actuary Stephen Goss, demonstrates that boomers are not the pig-through-the-python that we have been described as being.