Checks

Legislators are either stupid or lying or both about the universal background checks for gun purchases ("Tyranny of the minority," April 19). They want checks on Internet sales; but they are already done on Internet sales. If you buy a firearm over the Internet, it must be shipped to a Federal Firearms License holder. The licensee does the background check on the purchaser. The only exceptions are if the firearm is an antique, manufactured earlier than 1899, or if it is a black powder firearm.

Stuart Janney III, the co-owner of even-money Preakness favorite Orb, arrived at Pimlico Race Course on Thursday morning to watch the colt once again have an easy trip around the track and then go through his morning routine. Janney, the chairman of the Bessemer Trust, traveled earlier in the week and came back to Baltimore from New York, where the company is headquartered, last night. He said he's pleased with how Orb has progressed after winning the Kentucky Derby, and has warm memories of spending mornings during Preakness week at the track 20 minutes from his Butler home.

Rapper and actor DMX stopped in Baltimore and checked out Norma Jean's gentleman's club. The Custom House Avenue strip joint on Monday evening Tweeted pictures of DMX posing in the club. He's got his arm around a woman who looks to have a mohawk. He's wearing one of his signature polo shirts and at least a few of his trademark chain necklaces. Folks are seen behind him drinking and gawking. The shot was probably snapped over the weekend when DMX was scheduled to perform at Club Dubai, an upscale downtown nightclub.

The Most Interesting Man in Maryland made an interesting presentation to Gov. Martin O'Malley Wednesday -- a $271 check representing royalties owed for an appearance in a movie while O'Malley was mayor of Baltimore. Comptroller Peter Franchot, who has been publicizing his office's unclaimed property programs with a series  of ads spoofing the Dos Equis beer "Most Interesting" commercials, handed the check to the governor at the beginning of a meeting of the Board of Public Works.

When residents pay water bills and civil citations at the cashier's window at Westminster City Hall, the payment stays in a drawer until the end of the day, when the contents are counted by a supervisor and placed in a vault. A city police officer comes each afternoon and transports the funds to the bank. In Howard County, two county employees must be present when putting payments for property taxes or parking tickets in a locked box that stores the cash, check and credit card payments.

Hefty checks from Baltimore super-lawyer Peter Angelos and casino giant MGM Entertainment helped fund the critical final days of Maryland's campaign to legalize same-sex marriage, a new report filed with the state board of elections showed. The ballot measure -- Question 6 -- passed in Maryland by four percentage points. The first Maryland marriage certificates to gay and lesbian couples will be issued in early January. Marylanders for Marriage Equality, the main group supporting Question 6, raised about $5.2 million, according to the report.

Michael Phelps' surprising decision to swim the punishing 400 individual medley at the Indianapolis Grand Prix on Friday was a topic of discussion today as elite swimmers began arriving for one of the last meets before the London Olympics four months from now. Phelps, who flew from his Baltimore home Wednesday morning, practiced with a few teammates from the North Baltimore Aquatics Club and then headed to an event at a local Boys and Girls Club...

Now that the House bank - whose advertising slogan could have been, "No fees ... no matter what!" - is closed, congressmen will have to take their business to the same banks that the rest of us use.And if they continue their check-bouncing ways, they'll soon become acquainted with the area banks' NSF (non-sufficient funds) fees, which are said to average $25 for each bad check. Here's what they'd pay in penalties:*The 8,331 bad checks written by House members in the year ending June 30, 1990: $208,275*The as-yet unnamed congressman who wrote 996 rubber checks in the 39-month period under review: $24,900*The 100 congressmen who bounced at least 45 checks each in three years: $1,125 eachThose fees, of course, don't include any that are levied by merchants, many of whom charge whenever they have to return a check.

A Baltimore church was robbed of thousands of dollars in checks, cash and gift cards last week, police said, when a burglar broke into the church offices and rectory and stole the valuables from a safe. On the morning of Dec. 16, staff at St. Francis of Assisi Church on Harford Road discovered that approximately $1,400 in cash, $4,235 in checks and gift cards of unknown value were missing from a church safe. According to a police report on the incident, one employee's window had been tampered with, and police believe that sometime between the night of Dec. 15 and the next morning, the burglar accessed the church's second-floor offices by climbing onto an adjacent roof using a church ladder lying near the side of the building.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has given to charity $36,000 in campaign donations linked to businessman Jeffrey E. Thompson, a man who has been tied to a sprawling scandal involving Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray's election.  The governor gave the money to the Maryland Veterans Trust Fund. The Washington Post first reported the donation on its blog. Thompson has not been named in court documents as connected to the scandal, but Post sources have reported that authorities believe he funded a secret $653,000 “shadow campaign” when Gray was running for mayor.

It was with great amusement that I read in the Sunday Sun about the NRA member who was interviewed at the annual convention in Houston and said he would like for the NRA leaders and the leaders of the country to work together to find common ground. According to the polls there is overwhelming support for closing the loophole on background checks. The latest poll from Quinnipiac University found that 88 percent of gun owners support universal background checks. There is your common ground.

The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday it will look into how caffeine in foods and snacks affects children. What spurred this? The FDA didn't say directly, but many people are pointing to a new "Alert Energy" gum by Wrigley that contains caffeine. The addictive ingredient is also showing up in other places, such as trail mix and jelly beans. Health experts have been worried for a while now about the effects of caffeine-packed energy drinks on children and anyone who might have heart issues.

Legislators are either stupid or lying or both about the universal background checks for gun purchases ("Tyranny of the minority," April 19). They want checks on Internet sales; but they are already done on Internet sales. If you buy a firearm over the Internet, it must be shipped to a Federal Firearms License holder. The licensee does the background check on the purchaser. The only exceptions are if the firearm is an antique, manufactured earlier than 1899, or if it is a black powder firearm.

Shame on the senators who defied public opinion and voted to defeat the Manchin-Toomey bill to expand background checks for gun purchases ("Senate rejects expanded checks on gun purchases," April 18). There is blood on the hands of those who voted to kill this bill. Patriotic Americans will move heaven and Earth to make certain they are defeated at the polls when they stand for re-election. Sen. Harry Reid doesn't get away scot free in this incident. He had an opportunity early in the session to modify or eliminate the filibuster rule that has caused so much harm to the nation, and he declined to do it. Without that rule , the measure would have passed.

"We think it's reasonable to provide mandatory instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show. No loopholes anywhere for anyone. " - National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, May 27, 1999. Let's get one thing straight about the Senate's failure Wednesday to support a too-modest extension of the national background check system for gun buyers to cover sales at gun shows and over the Internet.

Now that the way has been cleared for the U.S. Senate to vote on a bipartisan bill to toughen federal gun controls, Americans should remember that the effectiveness of government regulations has limits. Ultimately, new laws will give Americans a false sense of security and further delay efforts to address cultural dysfunctions that give rise to so much violence. The Senate bill would require near-universal background checks, comprehensive federal regulations for gun transactions and tighter school security.

Maryland Transportation Authority Police resumed checking all vehicles entering Baltimore-Washington International Airport for nearly four hours yesterday - a tactic that has been employed sporadically and that authorities said was not prompted by a specific threat. The searches began at 2 p.m. and ended about 5:45 p.m., said a police spokesman, Cpl. Gregory Prioleau. More than 1,700 vehicles were stopped, producing a traffic backup of "a little more than half a mile," he said. Officers checked the interiors and trunks of each vehicle, and used mirrors to look underneath them, he said.

A former insurance claims adjustor pleaded guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court yesterday to stealing fraudulent workers' compensation checks in a scheme involving a former city police officer, according to the Maryland attorney general's office. Prosecutors said Natalie L. Mack, 40, an employee for CompManagement Inc., issued more than $153,000 in fraudulent disability and medical payment checks to former Baltimore police Officer Andre Stover. Stover had pleaded guilty to his role in the felony theft in January.

A Washington-based nonprofit group has offered to test for toxic contamination in city park land that borders a new casino being built in South Baltimore, but City Hall says it's not interested. The Inner Harbor Stewardship Foundation, which bankrolled a lawsuit seeking to block work on the Horseshoe Casino until more cleanup is required on the site, wrote Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Monday saying that it would pay for testing of soil and ground water at Gwynns Falls Trail Park.

How could it be that even a single U.S. senator - no matter how opposed to gun control - could vote to hold up consideration of a proposal to require background checks for gun purchases? This is an idea not only embraced by something in the order of 91 percent of the American public but 85 percent of National Rifle Association members. Yet, there it was. Thirty-one senators voted against allowing the Senate to debate the background check proposal this morning. That was a victory, of sorts, as some senators had threatened to filibuster the procedural vote.