Fines

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti says the team will make plans for a statue of Ray Lewis to honor The Great Mufasa for his stellar football career in Baltimore. And that's a good idea, but what about Lenny Moore ? First things first, please. "Without a doubt Ray Lewis is one of the greatest middle linebackers in NFL history, if not the greatest," says Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, coordinator of a Lenny Moore statue committee that formed a couple of years ago. "However, there must be a statue made this year, when the great Lenny Moore turns 80 years young, to finally recognize him for his great athletic accomplishments, but also for his outstanding and long-standing contributions to just about every public service and philanthropic cause Maryland has had. "We can talk about many athletes, but none in the history of Maryland has given to the community for as long, in as many areas, to just about every cause imaginable and without due recognition and thanks.

The debate over the redevelopment of downtown Columbia has often focused on how to best utilize Symphony Woods, the park setting that includes Merriweather Post Pavilion and, even more importantly to many, some of the oldest trees in the Columbia downtown. To some, including County Executive Ken Ulman just this past week, this parcel represents the "centerpiece and lynchpin" for downtown Columbia's future development. With such great expectations for the property, there has been a great deal of debate on how to use the land.

The lawyers of Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold concede that he used poor judgment ("Leopold not guilty on one misconduct count," Jan. 25). The same could be said of embezzlers, identity thieves and other convicted criminals. The use of public employees for personal tasks by an elected official is no less a theft than any other white collar crime and should be treated as such in the courts. At the very least, Mr. Leopold should be fined and required to reimburse the taxpayers for the time of county employees in his protection detail and any other public employees used to conduct political activities - such as distributing his campaign signage and driving him around while he tore down his opponents' signs while on the public clock!

Prior to the preseason, so much was expected of Pernell McPhee that the second-year defensive end was already penciled in as a starter. But a nagging right knee forced him to undergo a pair of arthroscopic surgeries during a minicamp and before training camp, and McPhee, who had collected six sacks as a rookie, recorded just 1½ this past season. McPhee eventually began the year as the starting end on the defense's 3-4 front, but after six games, he gave way to Arthur Jones who started six of the next seven contests in which the unit opened with three down linemen.

One of my favorite views of Charm City right now is entering into the downtown area from the 395 off-ramp. Our city is painted with Ravens spirit - purple lights dancing on skyscrapers, "Go Ravens!" posters taped to city windows, and my favorite: the billboard that simply said "WOW" after the Ravens' win Sunday over the Patriots. In fact, as I sit down to write this at the Towson Public Library, a woman just pointed out that the bookshelf next to me contains an entire collection of books with purple covers, complete with a border of purple stars cut out of construction paper.

The operator of three coal-fired power plants in Maryland has agreed to pay a total of $2.2 million in penalties and fix long-standing pollution problems at the landfills in Southern Maryland and Montgomery County where it disposes of the ash from those plants, according to court documents. In a proposed consent decree filed recently in U.S. District Court, subsidiaries of GenOn Energy, a Houston power company, agreed to settle lawsuits by Maryland and environmental groups alleging that the company's Brandywine, Faulkner and Westland coal-ash landfills have been polluting groundwater and nearby streams.

In the next few days, the NFL will announce any disciplinary action relating to last weekend's first playoff round, which means that there will likely be another big wire transfer headed from Baltimore to the league's central office in New York. If so, this week's contribution to the NFL charities will come from veteran safety Bernard Pollard, who was flagged during Sunday's victory over the Indianapolis Colts for a nasty hit on receiver Reggie Wayne. Pollard said Tuesday that he hasn't heard anything from the league yet, but he isn't worried about the fine.

Midseason used to be a time for networks to put on series that weren't good enough to make the fall lineup. The thinking was: The money has been spent to make these episodes, so let's try to get something out of them by plugging them for shows that have bombed. But thanks to cable and huge changes in the way that people access and watch TV, midseason is in many ways now the best season for TV viewing. This is especially true when it comes to drama, the genre that network television has by and large abandoned to cable, PBS and now Web operations like Netflix because it has been deemed too expensive and risky for efficient (read: cheap)

Catonsville developer Steve W. Whalen Jr. pleaded guilty Thursday in Baltimore County Circuit Court to five counts of election-law violations for illegally funneling money to a county councilman's campaign and exceeding political contribution limits. Whalen, 62, was fined $53,000 in a plea agreement worked out by his attorneys and state prosecutors. He already has paid $5,000 in civil fines related to the case, his lawyer said. Each count had carried a potential of one year in prison.

Veteran safety Ed Reed was not the only Raven fined for actions during the team's 33-14 victory over the New York Giants last week. Ravens left tackle Michael Oher was fined $10,000 for a chop block on Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka  early in the third quarter. Oher was called for a personal foul on the play, one of his two penalities on the Ravens' 16-play, 82-yard drive that ended with Justin Tucker's 21-yard field goal. Earlier in that drive, Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith was called for a personal foul for a crack-back block.