Government

Catherine R. Kane, a Harford County government administrator who earlier had worked for the Baltimore County Department of Social Services, died Feb. 12 from colon cancer at her Bel Air home. She was 65. "She really was an important part of Social Services when I was director," said Camille B. Wheeler, who had been director of Baltimore County Social Services for 19 years before retiring in 1998. "She was hard-working and understood everything about the mission of the department.

Kudos to Sun investigative reporter Ian Duncan ("Maryland police seek federal help to take ill-gotten gains" Feb. 17) for exposing the high-handed and excessive practices of federal prosecutor Rod J. Rosenstein. He attempted to seize the home of the wife of an alleged (but never convicted) drug dealer who committed suicide. Add to this a chorus of loud boos for our federal government whose vicious, vindictive, and abusive actions are reminiscent of the practice of fascist governments who seized the assets of innocent people just because they could.

Residents of the city are used to surviving under the burden of a high cost of living index. We are also used to the heavy-handedness of government in a region dependent on government employment levels and proximity to Washington. Private-sector employees, who do not receive automatic yearly raises and are not cushioned from the real economy by a blanket of comprehensive government fringe benefits, read the newspaper every day in dread of learning about the next government drain on their over-extended pocketbooks.

Mika J. Cross, a human resources manager for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sometimes uses a laptop issued by the agency. But she is far more likely to check email or collaborate with colleagues on one of her two personal computers. As someone who frequently works from home, she finds using her own technology more convenient. "It allows for greater flexibility," said the 39-year-old Waldorf woman, who oversees a program that helps employees balance work and personal commitments.

Your recent front page article about criminal asset seizures and the Diffenderffers was good investigative reporting ("Seizing assets to take profits from crime," Feb. 17). To recap, Michael Diffenderffer had marijuana plants in his basement. The police discovered them, but he turned up dead, so there was nobody to convict. The government then moved to confiscate the house from his evidently innocent widow in a forfeiture action. Nowadays, it is apparently routine for the government to take property as punishment before, or without, a conviction.

Local governments and police on Wednesday attacked a sweeping proposal to change Maryland's speed camera law. During the first hearing on whether to revamp a law that has been lucrative for local governments but also has sparked concerns about fairness, speed camera proponents defended what has been called a "bounty system" of paying contractors based on the number of tickets issued to drivers. Program supporters also rejected as unfeasible a proposal to require precise time-stamped photos and painted lines on roadways that would more easily allow motorists to challenge the $40 tickets in court.

It would be ironic if Maryland, for the first time in the history of municipal bond ratings, lost its AAA status now. Thanks to a combination of spending restraint, tax increases and other reforms, Maryland's balance sheet is stronger that it has been in more than a decade. Gov. Martin O'Malley's budget proposal leaves nearly $1 billion in various reserve accounts, and the legislature stands poised to change the way it funds employee pensions to make the system more solvent. But thanks to the dysfunction in Washington, that's just what may happen.

It's like a recurring bad dream. March: Hackers allegedly steal the credit card numbers from 1.5 million Visa and MasterCard customers by breaking into the computer systems of the company's payment processor in New York. The thieves stockpiled the stolen credit card numbers for months before beginning to use them. August: Cyber attackers disrupt production from Saudi Aramco, the world's largest exporter of crude oil, taking out 30,000 computers in the process, according to press reports.

The decision last week by Morgan State University's governing board to oust Dallas R. Evans as chairman appears to have been the culmination of a bitter struggle over the school's leadership between Mr. Evans and University President David Wilson. In December, Mr. Evans tried to orchestrate Mr. Wilson's dismissal after only 21/2 years on the job by persuading the school's 15-member Board of Regents not to renew the president's contract when it ends in June. But then an outpouring of support for Mr. Wilson from students, faculty members and community leaders forced the board to reverse its decision a few weeks later.

On a recent weeknight evening at the North Point Government Center, four young women were singing the barbershop classic "Goody Goodbye" in the auditorium. Upstairs, boys tangled on wrestling mats as parents and coaches watched. In the six decades since it was built, the center at Wise Avenue and Merritt Boulevard has become a gathering spot for Dundalk residents. Kids play soccer on the fields during spring, residents gather for fireworks in July, and theater buffs act in plays throughout the year in a community performing arts program.