Hearings

Opponents of the luxury island compound built by Daryl C. Wagner without Anne Arundel County permission asked a state appeals court this week to return the dispute to the county Board of Appeals for further hearings, contending that they did not get a fair shake when Wagner belatedly sought approvals for the construction. But lawyers for Wagner and the county told the Court of Special Appeals that there was nothing to gain by having more than the 24 hearings already held that ended with the board allowing Wagner to keep his house and replica lighthouse on Little Dobbins Island, but ordering him to raze most of the rest of his construction, including a swimming pool.

Being called to a congressional hearing can be an intimidating experience for national leaders, business executives and even elected officials. But Gorman Crossing Elementary School fifth-grader Tobi Arewa is getting used to it. "At first when I am called to do public speaking I would be so scared. There was a time when I would speak and I just froze," Tobi said. "Now that I know I just did it, it's fun and awesome to do it. " Tobi and other Gorman Crossing fifth-graders recently took part in the Howard County school system's Simulated Congressional Hearings, a performance-based assessment that challenges groups of four students to present oral statements before a panel of professionals who portray a congressional committee.

In his Dec. 17 article, "Parking agents are no-shows," Peter Hermann informs his readers about a day in Baltimore City District Court, at the Patapsco Avenue location, when 75 parking tickets were dismissed because the parking agents did not appear in court. The mandate of the District Court of Maryland, a part of the Maryland Judiciary, is to adjudicate disputes, in a process providing equal and exact justice for all of the litigants; it does not and should not favor one litigant over another, even when one of them is a government entity.

Maryland's in-state undergraduates will pay a few hundred dollars more per semester this fall under a new tuition-and-fee plan approved Wednesday by the university system's Board of Regents. Out-of-state students will be hit a little harder, paying as much as $1,060 more, for example, at the University of Maryland, College Park. The plan marks the fourth year that tuition for resident undergraduates at most Maryland schools has gone up 3 percent — an increase characterized by university system officials as moderate and lower than many states.

The Maryland Senate turned back efforts Thursday to allow taping of committee voting sessions and to make it more likely that people who come to Annapolis to testify on bills will be heard. On the recommendation of the Rules Committee,  senators rejected an effort by Sen. Allan Kittleman, a Howard County Republican, to make public an audio record of the discussions that take place before committees vote on whether to kill bills or let them move to the floor for action. The vote was 41-6 against.

The Orioles have not gone before an arbitration panel with a player since prior to the 2006 season, but with potential hearing dates approaching, it's becoming more likely that that trend will be broken. According to multiple sources, the Orioles have tentative hearings scheduled with right-handed starter Jeremy Guthrie on Monday, Feb. 6, with swingman Brad Bergesen on Wednesday, Feb. 8, and with center fielder Adam Jones on Friday, Feb. 17. All are scheduled for mornings at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club in St. Petersburg, Fla. Guthrie is the first on the slate for the Orioles and seemingly is the most likely to go before the three-person arbitration panel.  Guthrie, who was 9-17 with a 4.33 ERA and made $5.75 million in 2011, has proposed a $10.25 million contract for 2012 while the Orioles countered with $7.25 million.

Marylanders will get a chance to make their views known at a pair of upcoming hearings on whether fishing for Atlantic menhaden ought to be curtailed to protect "the most important fish in the sea," as some have dubbed it. Hearings are scheduled from Oct. 16 through Nov. 1 from Maine to North Carolina on whether to cut commercial harvest of menhaden, and if so by how much.  The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is weighing reductions of...

Marylanders may comment on the merger between Constellation Energy Group and Chicago-based Exelon Corp. at hearings scheduled in Bel Air, Baltimore and Annapolis. The Maryland Public Service Commission will entertain public comment at hearings in the Rotunda of Town Hall of Bel Air on Nov. 29, the Wohlman Assembly Hall of the War Memorial Building in Baltimore on Dec. 1 and the Joint Committee Hearing Room of the Department of Legislative Services Building in Annapolis on Dec. 5. All the hearings are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Residents may also send written comments to the commissioners by Dec. 9. Signed comments should be addressed to David J. Collins, Executive Secretary, Maryland Public Service Commission, William Donald Schaefer Tower, 6 St. Paul St., 16th Floor, Baltimore 21202.

The Maryland Transportation Authority will hold the first of two public hearings on its toll plan for the Intercounty Connector from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday in Beltsville. The hearing at High Point High School, 3601 Powder Mill Road (Route 212), is the closer to Baltimore of the two hearings. The other will be held during the same hours Thursday at Shady Grove Middle School, 8100 Midcounty Highway in Gaithersburg. Under the plan, motorists driving passenger vehicles could be charged as much as 35 cents a mile during peak driving times and up to 30 cents a mile for off-peak trips.

Barring a last minute change, the Orioles are expected to go to arbitration hearings with starter Jeremy Guthrie and swingman Brad Bergesen -- which would be the first time the club has met with the three-person, independent panel since before the 2006 season. Guthrie's hearing is Monday morning, Bergesen's is Wednesday morning and both will be at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Orioles also could face a hearing Feb. 17 with center fielder Adam Jones, but the sense is that it could be settled before the hearing date.

The other day I sat down to watch some of the coverage of the Benghazi hearings and almost spit out my drink in utter dismay at the ignorance and incompetence of Rep. Elijah Cummings ("U.S. diplomat details attack in Benghazi," May 9). Now, mind you this is the big bad congressman who was mad as heck and tried to convict baseball stars of perjury for lying to Congress under oath on an issue many Americans could care less about - steroid doping. In the Benghazi hearings, he could care less about the whistle blowers and suggesting death was a part of life.

In the Dunloggin, Beaverbrook and Font Hill neighborhoods of Howard County, residents say they've spent thousands on home generators and on food to replace the stuff that spoils when the power goes out for days. There have also been other expenses, they say: motel stays, flashlights, lanterns, gas hot plates and long, heavy-duty extension cords - the kind used to hook up to a neighbor's generator. "You see people running across the street with extension cords," said Cathy Eshmont, who lives in Dunloggin, one of several Ellicott City neighborhoods where residents say they've contended for years with frequent power failures.

Frank James MacArthur, the blogger known as the Baltimore Spectator, could go on trial in May after pleading not guilty Monday to gun and resisting-arrest charges that have kept him in jail for months. MacArthur is accused in connection with a December standoff as Baltimore police tried to arrest him on a probation violation charge. During the standoff, MacArthur protested his arrest on an online radio station and live-streamed his telephone discussions with a police negotiator over the Internet.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled that a jury will be able to hear the taped confession of a teenage defendant in a murder case, rejecting his lawyers' claim that the police had coerced the statement from him. Markell Shelton Jones and his mother, Lakisha Jones, testified Monday that they had been influenced by police, an argument Robert Linthicum, Jones' attorney, made again Tuesday. "The whole thing basically reeks of coercion," he said. But Judge M. Brooke Murdock said police had done nothing improper in the way they conducted the interviews and said she did not find the defendant's mother credible.

Former Baltimorean Katherine Bouton abruptly lost the hearing in her left ear at age 30. One minute she could hear, and the next, she could not. Over the decades, her impairment worsened. By the time she was 60, she was functionally deaf. But her reluctance to disclose her ailment only increased. And who can blame her? She worked in a highly competitive environment, as a senior editor at The New York Times. In retrospect, Bouton says, remaining silent was a mistake; her hearing impairment contributed to her abrupt departure after 22 years at the newspaper.

A lawyer for John Joseph Merzbacher, a former Catholic school teacher imprisoned for raping a student decades ago, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case after a federal appeals court rejected an earlier argument that he should be set free. In a 21-page petition, Merzbacher's attorney H. Mark Stichel asks the high court to resolve several legal questions, including whether a defendant's claim that he would have taken a plea deal if offered, even while proclaiming his innocence, demonstrates a "reasonable probability" that he would have followed through.

The Sun is again offering a free fax broadcast of schedules for Maryland General Assembly committee hearings. To use this service, you must have a fax machine that can answer automatically. Hearing schedules will be transmitted over the weekend for the following week's hearings. To sign up for the service, call 410-783-1800 and enter code 7575.

Allegations that a cabal of Black Guerrilla Family gang members effectively took over the Baltimore City Detention Center have prompted a rare out-of-session legislative hearing on the state's prison system. The House Judiciary Committee scheduled a May 8 public inquiry into the matter, according to committee members and staff.  The House Appropriations Committee, which oversees funding for the prison system, has been invited to attend the 1 p.m. meeting.  A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday alleged the BGF gang, under the leadership of inmate Tavon White, established a lucrative smuggling operation that involved corrupt female corrections officers.

Harford County's top prosecutor said Wednesday that he does not have enough evidence to show that Alexander Kinyua is criminally responsible for killing a family friend and eating his organs last year. A state psychiatric hospital previously found that Kinyua, 22, was not criminally responsible for his actions in a separate assault case because he was suffering from severe psychosis. In the assault case, Kinyua has already been committed indefinitely, and a team of doctors and an administrative law judge would have to agree to his release.