Gift Cards

Gift cards have taken hassle of holiday shopping for the folks who have everything. But as we learn every year, not all gift cards are alike. Bankrate.com paired up with CreditCards.com to survey the 63 most popular cards and their features. According to the survey, 8 percent of cards had expiration dates and one in seven have a purchase fee. (Both features sound bad and something to avoid.) Nine out of 10 did not charge a dormancy or maintenance fee. (None of them should.)

A Middle River woman was sentenced last week to six months in jail for defrauding the federal government through the Freestate ChalleNGe Academy at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Lynn Carol Williams, 56, sentenced May 6 by U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett, will also serve six months of home detention with electronic monitoring as part of three years of supervised release for wire fraud in connection with a scheme to misuse the Freestate Challenge Academy corporate purchasing card, causing losses of more than $107,493.  Freestate Challenge Academy is a Maryland National Guard program at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

I 'm afraid to use the gift cards in my wallet. I fear they'll land me on the witness stand in Courtroom 234, explaining how I happened to buy something, no doubt an embarrassing box of double creme Twinkies or Norah Jones CD, with a gift card from Sheila Dixon. Just to be clear, the mayor of Baltimore has never handed me a gift card. But given that one of the revelations during her trial last week is that Dixon and some who received cards from her are apparent regifters, I think we have our own version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon going on right here.

The Laurel Volunteer Fire Department presented its Member of the Month Awards during a recent department meeting. Fire fighters Steve Paratore, Ross Nelson and Robert Grant were presented certificates and gift cards from President Vic Whipple and Chief Trey Kelso. In a new addition to the monthly awards program, Auxiliary President May-Lynn Bayles has started a similar program for the Auxiliary membership. Auxiliary members Sue Frost, Sharon Mitchell and Barbara Sellner received certificates of recognition at a recent Auxiliary meeting.

More than three-quarters of Americans are expected to buy gift cards this holiday season. And why not? They are convenient, and you don't have to fight crowds at the mall or worry about finding just the right present or sweater size. But there is another incentive to buying a gift card this year: more consumer protections. The federal Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act that reformed credit card practices now limits some of the worst features of gift cards — inactivity fees and expiration dates.

Laurel Police will be joining the NAACP in supporting the Prince George's County Police Department's Gift Cards for Guns program in Laurel this weekend. The gun collection will be held on Saturday, Dec. 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, 601 Eighth St. The program, the third of three held by county police, allows gun owners to anonymously turn in a weapon - new or used, functional or not - and in return, get a gift card of up to $100. Firearms should be unloaded and left in the trunk of participants' vehicles.

The purloined gift cards. The fur coats. The bicycling tours of the city with staffers.  And, of course, the famous shoe incident. Former mayor Sheila Dixon's tenure in City Hall is ripe with material for comedians.  On Thursday, seven comics and local media personalities will be poking fun of  Dixon -- to her face-- at a "Roast and Toast" at the Baltimore Comedy Factory. Why would Dixon, who resigned in 2010 as part of a plea deal to settle criminal charges, agree to a such a thing?

A former postal worker admitted Friday that she stole mail and the money inside those envelopes at a Linthicum postal facility, victimizing more than 250 people, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore. Dorothy Jean Gibson, 56, of Windsor Mill, who worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 13 years, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to theft of mail by a postal employee, officials said. When sentenced Jan. 11, Gibson could receive a maximum sentence of five years in prison plus three years of supervised release, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Meg Gardner thought she bought her tech-savvy husband, Bill Bafford, the perfect gift — a Sony Internet television. But when he unwrapped the present Christmas morning, his reaction was less than enthusiastic. "When I saw it, I looked at her and said 'Thanks, but did you keep the receipt?' " the Phoenix resident said with a chuckle. "It was the right concept, but the wrong one. I wasn't explicit enough with my instructions. " Twenty-four hours later, the pair stood in the customer service line with a dozen others at Best Buy in Timonium to exchange Gardner's purchase for the Logitech Revue with Google TV, a model $150 cheaper that Bafford wanted.

  Arts and crafts retailer Michaels will give out more than $100,000 in gift cards Sunday at its stores in honor of "Random Acts of Kindness Day. " The Irving, Texas, -based chain, which has 1,100 stores in the U.S. and Canada, handed out the freebies at random last year too, in hopes of encouraging customers to "craft it forward" with their own random act of kindness. The store asks customers to visit Michaels Facebook page this week and share acts of kindness. And they can check Michaels Random Acts of Kindness Pinterest board for ideas for craft projects to give to others.

Former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon should not re-enter the political world. If not for a particularly egregious lapse of common sense (thieving gift cards intended for less fortunate people), people would very likely remember her in a more positive light. She could have murdered another, and I believe I would not see her in a lesser light. If memory serves me correctly, Ms. Dixon pilfered the gift cards around the Christmas and Kwanzaa season. For me to think that she literally and figuratively stole Christmas or Kwanzaa from a child makes me nauseated.

Why would the Associated Black Charities want former Mayor Sheila Dixon, a convicted criminal, to speak at their event ("Dixon plans decision on return to politics," March 27)? Ms. Dixon was convicted of stealing gift cards intended for the poor. If I had done this crime, plus violating my probation, I would have been fired and sent to jail, and I certainly would not be receiving an $83,000 (of our tax money) annual pension. I guess it pays to be a politician. It seems that there is a wide disparity between the honest, everyday, taxpaying citizens and politicians!

Former Mayor Sheila Dixon plans to kick off a local foundation's speaker series next month as she weighs a possible return to politics, having completed probation on the criminal conviction that forced her from office. "This is the year I'm going to decide," Dixon said of her desire to run for office again. "I'm not going to hide the fact that I enjoyed what I was doing during my 27 years in public office. " Dixon, who in 2009 was convicted of stealing gift cards intended for the poor, is scheduled to launch this year's Associated Black Charities speaker series April 16. The series, now it its fourth year, also will feature talks in subsequent months by former Legg Mason CEO Mark Fetting and Robert M. Bell, the chief judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals.

  Arts and crafts retailer Michaels will give out more than $100,000 in gift cards Sunday at its stores in honor of "Random Acts of Kindness Day. " The Irving, Texas, -based chain, which has 1,100 stores in the U.S. and Canada, handed out the freebies at random last year too, in hopes of encouraging customers to "craft it forward" with their own random act of kindness. The store asks customers to visit Michaels Facebook page this week and share acts of kindness. And they can check Michaels Random Acts of Kindness Pinterest board for ideas for craft projects to give to others.

Hours after Karen Brocklebank's son posted pictures online late last month of his forearm marred with a series of self-inflicted cuts and a threat to kill himself on his 13th birthday, she sat in an uncomfortable emergency room chair, sleepless and in despair. The Columbia family had spent more than a year in therapy sessions for treatment of Noah's depression. They pleaded with his Howard County school and the parents of his bullies to intervene. But it wasn't until that night in the hospital that Brocklebank came up with an idea that seemed to work like nothing before.

The "Gift Cards For Guns" program is ridiculous as is the reported goal of this absurdly wrongheaded program, "to reduce gun violence by eliminating the number of firearms on the street" (Laurel Leader, Dec. 20). There is no such thing as "gun violence. " Guns are inanimate objects that in and of themselves do nothing until acted upon by an outside force - a person using one for a good purpose (self-defense) or a person using one for an evil purpose (mass murder). Those Mothers Against Drunk Driving moms got it right when they chose not to combat "car violence" but rather drunk drivers.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's theft case, which remains before a jury this week, has shed light on little-known charitable efforts she ran from City Hall with few controls over solicitations and vague guidelines for who should benefit. As City Council president, Dixon requested or distributed donations for needy families, frequently in the form of gift cards, courtroom testimony and grand jury records show. Others who have held that office say they did not handle or seek donations in the same way. Dixon, a Democrat, is accused by State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh of stealing some of the gift cards intended for charity and using them for personal items.

Now here's a courting ritual perfect for a big-city mayor: Leave $1,000 in Target and Best Buy gift cards in a plain envelope -- no note, no name -- at her office in City Hall. It might look fishy, especially if the guy dropping off the cards is a big developer doing business with the city. But at her trial Thursday, Sheila Dixon's defense claimed that what looks like corruption was actually romance, with a mad-cap mix-up thrown in. The mix-up is this: Dixon assumed the gift cards delivered to her office in December 2005 were from Ronald Lipscomb, her one-time boyfriend.

It soon became obvious last weekend at the Westminster Senior Center that there are certainly different approaches to wrapping presents. Westminster Police Chief Jeffrey Spaulding had a no nonsense approach, cutting fast and flipping a box quickly. Detective John Emminizer was more meticulous, helping his 7-year-old companion, Caleb, even the sides and wrap tight. "I do all the gift wrapping at home," Emminizer said with pride. "I'm a perfectionist when it comes to wrapping.

Laurel Police will be joining the NAACP in supporting the Prince George's County Police Department's Gift Cards for Guns program in Laurel this weekend. The gun collection will be held on Saturday, Dec. 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, 601 Eighth St. The program, the third of three held by county police, allows gun owners to anonymously turn in a weapon - new or used, functional or not - and in return, get a gift card of up to $100. Firearms should be unloaded and left in the trunk of participants' vehicles.