Disclosure

In the first public step toward a General Assembly effort to curb house "flipping," two legislative subcommittees will hear tales from victims tomorrow evening at an East Baltimore hearing."

The angry cries of suburban new-home buyers -- including those who belatedly discovered noisy highways next door or methane seeping into basements -- are prompting a spate of consumer-protection bills in the General Assembly.Legislators from Cockeysville to Columbia to Pasadena are pushing bills that would regulate homebuilders, force disclosure of environmental hazards, require carbon monoxide detectors in new homes and compel real estate agents to tell buyers to check local master plans.

The angry cries of suburban new-home buyers -- including those who belatedly discovered noisy highways next door or methane seeping into basements -- are prompting a spate of consumer-protection bills in the General Assembly.Legislators from Cockeysville to Columbia to Pasadena are pushing bills that would regulate homebuilders, force disclosure of environmental hazards, require carbon monoxide detectors in new homes and compel real estate agents to tell buyers to check local master plans.

DEAR FUND company executives:You don't like me enough to send holiday presents (nor would I accept them, let alone open them without the aid of bomb-sniffing dogs), but here's my wish list, in case the spirit of the season moves you.I'm not getting sentimental and mushy. I want the mutual fund equivalent of appliances -- the toasters, irons and popcorn poppers of the fund world -- utilitarian things that will make my life, and the lives of shareholders everywhere, a lot easier.Don't take this the wrong way, but if you fail to provide these things in short order, I will suggest that savvy investors flip you a big "Bah humbug!"

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is overhauling its Federal Housing Administration home appraisal process in an effort to make it more responsive to those applying for FHA mortgages.HUD plans to replace its existing system of appraisals with the Homebuyer Protection Plan. Currently, FHA appraisers give only a limited review of possible physical problems.The new guidelines will include:* A more thorough basic survey of the physical condition of the home.* Disclosure of defects found by appraisers to potential buyers.

IT IS NO SECRET that independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr's fishing expedition into President Clinton's private life has ridiculed, humiliated and trivialized this nation before the eyes of the world and its own citizens. But that is hardly the end of it.All of it is new ground, everything a precedent. So look carefully. In this massive dragnet for sexual peccadilloes -- faintly disguised as a hunt for the crime of perjury in a civil lawsuit that involves a fishing expedition for sexual material -- Mr. Starr's prosecutors have transformed relationships in government.

WASHINGTON -- The White House stiffened its stance against public disclosure in the Monica Lewinsky controversy yesterday, as first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said President Clinton plans to say nothing more to the American people on the subject."

A 17-year-old Eldersburg honors student, who was a tennis champion and community volunteer, was found strangled in her car early yesterday at a Reisterstown apartment complex -- less than 24 hours after she agreed to baby-sit for a stranger.As friends and relatives mourned Shen Dullea Poehlman, police made a chilling disclosure -- that she had alerted friends to look for her if she failed to phone from the baby-sitting job.John Albert Miller IV, a 26-year-old unemployed store clerk, was arrested and charged in her murder.

WASHINGTON -- Fund managers and analysts remain divided on whether the government should force better disclosure of the fees millions of Americans pay for the operation of their 401(k) retirement plans.Some 25 million U.S. workers have set aside $1.8 trillion in 401(k) accounts, representing more than half of all employees engaged in private pension plans. Critics say workers savings are being eroded by "excessive or undisclosed fees" on many 401(k) plans."A robust economy and a booming stock market have resulted in double-digit returns for 401(k)

NOW THAT the U.S. Air Force has explained the legendary Roswell aliens as "probably" crash-test dummies used for parachute tests over New Mexico decades ago, I would like to offer -- in the spirit of full disclosure -- an explanation for a similar event that occurred much closer to home:Ladies and gentlemen, those were Paul Gregg's 21 rockets that soared over Baltimore in 1993, and the launch was a random act of art.You didn't know about this?Well, they were small rockets. Maybe you didn't notice.

Washington - -Members of Maryland's congressional delegation, including millionaire Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, took a financial hit when the U.S. economy nose-dived last year, according to annual financial disclosure forms released Friday. Cardin saw the value of his reported assets shrink to between $1.3 million and $3.1 million in 2008, down from $1.7 million to $4 million the previous year. Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, who vies with Cardin for the distinction of the state's richest federal lawmaker, took advantage of the depressed real estate market to add to his property holdings.

State lawmakers, using a system of patronage that persists in Annapolis despite tight budgetary times, are seeking to direct hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to projects at nonprofit organizations they help run. In Baltimore, Del. Hattie N. Harrison has requested $75,000 for the Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition and an affordable housing development. The Democrat is president of the nonprofit, and her son, Phillip, is employed as a counselor there. Sen. Robert J. Garagiola, a Montgomery County Democrat, wants as much as $250,000 to expand the BlackRock Center for the Arts, a theater and teaching venue where he sits on the board and his daughter takes jazz classes.

WASHINGTON -- Consumer advocates say better disclosure of fees for 401(k) plans will lead to bigger retirement nest eggs for millions of Americans. But business groups last week made clear they will fight legislation that would require a comprehensive listing of all such expenses. Too much disclosure, they argued, would overwhelm employees with unnecessary detail, raise expenses for plan administrators and ultimately fail to benefit retirees. The requirements "are numerous, burdensome, complex and likely to increase participant confusion rather than enhance ... knowledge," said Lew I. Minsky, an attorney testifying in Congress on behalf of major business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

There are two possible ways to interpret the temporary or permanent departure of four top executives and two traders from securities brokerage Ferris Baker Watts. One: Maybe the company is bending over backward to cooperate with a federal investigation that will turn out - for Ferris - to be a minor problem of paperwork and procedures. Two: Maybe the disruption signifies that Ferris Baker abetted an alleged $50 million Ponzi scheme. In either case, there is only one label for the way the Baltimore firm has handled disclosure of the situation.

WASHINGTON -- In a windowless office at the Federal Election Commission, a 10-year-old printer churns out 500 pages an hour - hour after hour. "It's a mule," says J. Arnold Queen, the man who tends the Hewlett-Packard 8100-N, a discontinued model. Overnight, the HP-8100 had spewed forth 2,000 pages. It can't crank out more until its trays are emptied. Tens of thousands more pages are backed up in the queue. It will be working through the day, into the night and over the weekend. Like most beasts of burden, the machine is a throwback, part of an anachronistic and costly system that exists in large part to serve the members - the Luddites, some would say - of the Senate.

Federal regulators need to boost their oversight of 401(k) retirement plans and adopt a series of changes to ensure full disclosure of hidden costs that can cut into the savings of millions of American workers, a government report recommends. With companies abandoning traditional pensions, 401(k) plans have become a cornerstone of retirement security for an estimated 47 million people. Yet regulation and oversight have not kept pace, the recent report by the Government Accountability Office concluded.

The financial disclosure records of candidates running in Harford County's Sept. 12 primary can provide a glimpse into the personal lives of the hopefuls for public office, from their businesses and vacation homes to their salaries and debts. That is, if the form is filled out. Many candidates' files with the county's law department appear to have been hurriedly completed and in some cases ignored. Some candidates did not answer simple questions such as how property was acquired or from whom.

WASHINGTON -- A plan to force companies to disclose salaries of high-paid employees who are not corporate officers is in jeopardy after a backlash from Hollywood, where film and TV stars often get bigger paychecks than executives. Opponents claim the measure could put media companies at a competitive disadvantage by forcing them to disclose detailed compensation packages for luminaries such as Tonight Show host Jay Leno, film director Steven Spielberg and Today anchor Katie Couric. The new rule was proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission this year to ensure that top corporate policymakers cannot evade disclosure rules.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin has ordered an investigation into whether dozens of television stations have aired advertisements as if they were news reports, people familiar with the inquiry said. The sources said Martin acted after a study by the nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy found at least 77 stations - including seven each owned by Hunt Valley-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. and Tribune Co., owner of The Sun - have ignored an FCC warning to disclose sponsors.

When Christopher Cox got in front of the Senate banking committee late last month and said that improving mutual fund disclosure is the "central focus" of the Securities and Exchange Commission, there was a scary and disappointing sense of deja vu. Improving disclosure has been a big issue with the last five chairmen of the SEC, so Cox is hardly alone in pandering to the enormous chunk of the investing (and voting) public that owns funds. So if Cox is serious about improving disclosures - rather than just adding to the list and clogging the paperwork even more - here are a few things he might consider: Give an assessment of how funds work together.