Honesty

I am writing in support of Dean Karen Rothenberg. I was a student at the University of Maryland School of Law during her tenure, and it is my unwavering belief that all of us at the school were so very fortunate to have her guidance, her wisdom and her leadership. Her contributions to the University of Maryland and to the community at large have been significant and substantial. It is due in large measure to her principled leadership that I will always be proud to call myself a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law. Those of us who have the privilege of knowing Dean Rothenberg know that her character is beyond reproach.

It's back to school time, meaning that many parents wonder if their child's school is a good school. After 15 years doing research in more than 100 public schools, I can usually tell in an hour if a school is good enough for my kids. And contrary to what policymakers think, school quality doesn't have much to do with fancy buildings, big budgets, how many reports get filed or how many personnel are certified. (President Barack Obama's kids study under uncertified teachers.) Even high test scores do not necessarily measure school quality - though good schools legitimately improve their students' scores, while bad schools fake or flounder.

Robert McMillan, a five-year employee with the Harford County Department of Public Works, Division of Water and Sewer, has been named Employee of the Month for July. He was nominated by his crew chief from the Division of Water and Sewer, Tim Smith. McMillan recently went above and beyond what was called for to return money and paperwork left behind by a customer of the 7-Eleven where he and Smith had stopped for lunch. The crew chief pointed out paperwork on the counter thinking it belonged to McMillan, not wanting him to forget it. When they returned to their vehicle, McMillan noticed it was not his paperwork or money.

A bipartisan group of high-profile politicians took the witness stand Thursday to vouch for the honesty and integrity of Paul Schurick, a key Ehrlich campaign adviser, who faces charges of election fraud stemming from a 2010 Election Day "robocall" that prosecutors allege was designed to suppress black votes. The day began with testimony in Baltimore Circuit Court from MSNBC analyst and former Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele - who called Schurick "smart and careful" - and ended with Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who praised his former campaign chairman.

HONESTY SPEAKING: Hirsh Goldberg, PR whiz about town and the author of four books -- his most recent is "The Book of Lies" -- has come up with a doozy. Hirsh has created National Honesty Day this Tuesday to honor honest people and companies.He tells us he's looking for nominations to honor outstanding examples of honest people and businesses. If you know someone who doesn't cheat on their taxes, send the name to Hirsh, in care of William Morrow, at 105 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. "Honest Abe" awards will be presented at a ceremony next year on National Honesty Day.A CATERED AFFAIR: It's a sellout for tonight's "Man of the Year" awards honoring catering magnate Marty Resnick, at Martin's West, natch.

Crown Central Petroleum Corp., Baltimore's connection to the world of big oil, is trying something in its advertising that its bigger competitors often seem to eschew -- honesty.In a radio ad campaign that started last month, Crown admits there really isn't much difference between its gas and that of its competitors. All of it gets you from one place to another."As much as big oil companies would like to convince you otherwise, their gas won't change your life," says Crown's pitchman, Orioles great Brooks Robinson.

London. -- After Amnesty International, why not Honesty International, a group of citizens like you and me, to monitor those who are corrupt, whom they, in turn, corrupt, and the banks which hide the proceeds?Corruption has probably never been so rife in so many places. The voters and parliamentarians of Brazil have just unseated their president, Fernando Collor de Mello, because his own brother, not for the best of motives, blew the whistle on how the president took bribes from businessmen seeking government contracts.

NEW YORK -- Faced with high levels of cheating, the University of Maryland recently arranged for students who sign an honesty pledge to receive discounts at several local shops. In effect, students can now reap financial rewards by agreeing -- at least on paper -- not to lie.Without question, it's admirable that the university is taking steps to address its cheating problem, which one student leader has described as ''huge.'' And the decision to use positive reinforcement, the proverbial carrot over the stick, is sound.

Jason Giambi, apparently a little slow on the uptake, has finally learned the biggest truth about baseball's continuing wrangle with the issue of steroids: Honesty will get you nowhere. What honesty got Giambi last week was a date with former Sen. George Mitchell, the leader of baseball's official investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Mitchell must be tickled about it, because 15 months into his investigation he hadn't talked to a single active player, which was making it difficult to find stuff to put between the covers of his report.

The presidential campaign entered September rife with negativity, as the Republican National Committee launched a long-awaited assault on Democrat Al Gore's honesty and the major-party candidates strafed the countryside with increasingly vitriolic exchanges. An RNC ad - due to begin running today in 16 states - accuses Gore of perpetually "reinventing" himself and spotlights his controversial 1996 fund-raising visit to a Southern California Buddhist temple. The ad, approved by the Bush campaign, coincides with a sharply hostile turn in the tone adopted by the Republican and Democratic tickets.

Alexander Hamilton "Ham" Bishop III, a respected headmaster who led five independent schools during his lengthy career in education, died of kidney failure complications Saturday at Manor Care Health Services Dulaney. He was 85 and lived in North Baltimore. Educational colleagues said he was often sought out as a school administrator. In 1994, he was the first head of the Odyssey School, founded by parents of dyslexic children. "He gave the new school instant credibility," said Marty Sweeney, Odyssey's head.

Upon reading articles in the Baltimore Sun and the Howard County Times (Aug. 18, "Practice violation costs Atholton first game of 2011"), the thought occurred to me that nobody from Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association has commented on the situation. This was one 7-on-7 football practice that was inadvertently held less than one week prior to the time when no violation would have occurred. Further, as far as the kids, families and coaches were aware of at the time, no violation had occurred.

Robert McMillan, a five-year employee with the Harford County Department of Public Works, Division of Water and Sewer, has been named Employee of the Month for July. He was nominated by his crew chief from the Division of Water and Sewer, Tim Smith. McMillan recently went above and beyond what was called for to return money and paperwork left behind by a customer of the 7-Eleven where he and Smith had stopped for lunch. The crew chief pointed out paperwork on the counter thinking it belonged to McMillan, not wanting him to forget it. When they returned to their vehicle, McMillan noticed it was not his paperwork or money.

When I was a young man, I loved Moliere's "The Misanthrope. " Alceste, the hero (or rather, comic antihero) of the play, fed up with the artifice and false manners of 17th century Paris, resolves to tell everyone exactly what he thinks, whether or not the truth-telling serves his own interests. Which, of course, it never does, the lesson being that for people to get along — and, by extension, for society to function — one can't simply blurt out what one thinks without regard for the consequences.

Samuel Leo Dutton, who founded his own moving business and once transported the Johns Hopkins library, died of congestive heart failure Saturday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 80 and lived in Northwood. He was the 10th of the 13 children born to John and Ollie Dutton, who lived on Boone Street in Waverly. He attended Baltimore City public schools and at age 16 took a job with a neighbor, Beotria Oglesby, who had a moving business, Oglesby Transfer, which operated throughout Waverly and Northeast Baltimore.

Said it before, say it again: It's a great country, and one of its beauties is freedom of expression, freer now than ever before, and another is a general amiability that you find everywhere, the helpfulness of strangers, the pleasure of small talk. Of course it's spring and the air is brisk, and this makes for public happiness. And I've just come from Nashville and Seattle, two mightily congenial cities. The young and restless stroll the downtown honky-tonks and a sweet breeze blows, laden with flowers, and it is darned near idyllic.

The inspiring heroine of Innocence is Claire, an Australian woman who feels she has never been known for who she is until Andreas, her lover in Belgium 50 years ago, realizes they've been living in the same city, Adelaide. He was her first love - the once and future man of her dreams until his father broke up their relationship. Pushing for a reunion, Andreas rekindles their passion despite her marriage to another man who respects her as a fond, efficient mate. Andreas wins her not with blandishments or flattery, and not even by expressing his ache to retrieve what they'd lost.

Standing in the heart of a revived East Baltimore neighborhood, Mayor Martin O'Malley formally entered the race for governor yesterday, pledging that the urban turnaround he helped engineer can translate to a better Maryland. Maryland is directionless and needs new leadership, the 42-year-old mayor said before an estimated 2,000 supporters in an evening speech in Patterson Park. "While other states and nations are moving forward, with leaders who bring people together, I submit to you sadly that Maryland is adrift," O'Malley said.

I am writing in support of Dean Karen Rothenberg. I was a student at the University of Maryland School of Law during her tenure, and it is my unwavering belief that all of us at the school were so very fortunate to have her guidance, her wisdom and her leadership. Her contributions to the University of Maryland and to the community at large have been significant and substantial. It is due in large measure to her principled leadership that I will always be proud to call myself a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law. Those of us who have the privilege of knowing Dean Rothenberg know that her character is beyond reproach.