Joseph Curran

Religious and political leaders have called for the park at the site of old Memorial Stadium to be used for thanksgiving and meditation. Now, after a ceremony yesterday honoring the patriarch of one of the city's best-known political families, those leaders are adding one more use: remembrance. City and state officials unveiled the new Curran Family Bell Tower - dedicated to the late City Councilman J. Joseph Curran Sr., the father of former Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. and the grandfather of District Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley, wife of Gov. Martin O'Malley.

More than three dozen legal scholars and attorneys — including former Gov. Harry R. Hughes and two former Maryland attorneys general, J. Joseph Curran Jr. and Stephen H. Sachs — are sending a letter and report to members of the General Assembly urging the repeal of the state's death penalty. "There's a lot of misconception about Maryland's law" among legislators and the general public, said Jane Henderson, executive director of Maryland Citizens Against State Executions, which organized the lobbying effort.

Time no longer stands still on York Road. Elected officials gathered in a Northeast Baltimore parking lot yesterday to christen the new Curran Memorial Clock Tower - an iconic clock in Govans that has been stuck at 3 o'clock for years. "Our city's working again. And this corner, and the renewal of this corner, is a symbol of that," said Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is married to District Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley. "The people of our district knew they could always turn to a Curran when they were hurting."

Obama's settlement stand won't help Following is a reader comment on Friday's Sun editorial posted on baltimoresun.com/secondopinion. Obama's stand on the settlements will bring him grief. The Israelis feel besieged by Arab numbers. The Arab fertility rate is higher, and some if not all of the Israelis believe one day soon they will be outnumbered and diminished to a minority status in their own lands. The settlements, in their minds, are one way to keep a toehold where the Arabs are multiplying.

A Jan. 31 editorial misstated Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.'s position on reform of pensions for Anne Arundel's appointed and elected officials. Mr. Curran ruled that the county may retroactively repeal pension benefits (a ruling since superseded by a Circuit Court judge), but not that benefits already received be paid back.

A former nursing assistant at a Chestertown nursing home has been indicted on charges of physically and sexually abusing a vulnerable adult at the home, Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. announced yesterday.Gene Patrick Carpenter, 29, a former certified nursing assistant at the Magnolia Hall Nursing Center, is charged with two counts of intentional abuse and neglect of a vulnerable adult and sexually abusing an 84-year-old resident on Nov. 6 and Nov. 7, Curran said.He said Carpenter was indicted by a Kent County grand jury on Tuesday after two witnesses said they saw him fondle the woman.

More than 82 percent of callers to SUNDIAL say county governments should be forced to abide by signed teacher contracts. Only 17 percent agree with a ruling by state Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. that counties can slash teacher pay and make other reductions under a bill cutting $80 million in local aid. The count was 1,120 in favor of the contracts, 238 backing the local jurisdictions' right to make cuts, out of 1,358 callers."

Mayor Martin O'Malley was honored yesterday as Marylander of the Year by the Maryland Colonial Society at a celebration marking the 368th anniversary of the founding of Maryland. Past winners of the society's awards include Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, the former mayor and governor; the late homeless advocate and city councilwoman, Bea Gaddy; and author Tom Clancy. The mayor's mother, Barbara O'Malley, and his father-in-law, Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., as well as City Council President Sheila Dixon joined him at the late-morning ceremony, held at the Cecilius Calvert Monument at the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse.

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. said yesterday that after reviewing state law, there appears to be no reason to block the pending sale of 4300 N. Charles St., an apartment building in North Baltimore, to the Calvert School. Curran attended a Monday night meeting of about 100 residents, many of them elderly, who will be forced to move when the building is sold. "For now, it would appear the landlord has the right to sell, without telling in advance and without permission from tenants," Curran said.

A former Baltimore councilman and member of one of the city's most politically influential families suffered an apparent heart attack while driving in Northeast Baltimore yesterday morning, ran off a road, crossed an apartment complex parking lot and crashed into a house, police said.Martin E. "Mike" Curran, 64, of the 3700 block of Echodale Ave. was in critical condition at Good Samaritan Hospital, police said.Police said Curran was driving a 1996 Chevrolet Monte Carlo north on Old Harford Road about 10 a.m. when he slumped over the wheel and lost control near Northern Parkway.

Time no longer stands still on York Road. Elected officials gathered in a Northeast Baltimore parking lot yesterday to christen the new Curran Memorial Clock Tower - an iconic clock in Govans that has been stuck at 3 o'clock for years. "Our city's working again. And this corner, and the renewal of this corner, is a symbol of that," said Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is married to District Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley. "The people of our district knew they could always turn to a Curran when they were hurting."

Religious and political leaders have called for the park at the site of old Memorial Stadium to be used for thanksgiving and meditation. Now, after a ceremony yesterday honoring the patriarch of one of the city's best-known political families, those leaders are adding one more use: remembrance. City and state officials unveiled the new Curran Family Bell Tower - dedicated to the late City Councilman J. Joseph Curran Sr., the father of former Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. and the grandfather of District Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley, wife of Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Former Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. was hired this week as a top executive at the Injured Workers Insurance Fund, the quasi-public workers' compensation insurance provider. Curran, 75, was selected for the $125,000-a-year job by IWIF management, which reports to a board of gubernatorial appointees. Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley, Curran's son-in-law, has not yet named any members to the board. Curran had expressed his interest in the top job at IWIF when the agency's former head, Thomas L. Bromwell, was forced to step down to answer a public corruption indictment stemming from his time in the state Senate.

THE PROBLEM -- A clock and carillon bells atop a memorial tower near York Road and Woodbourne Avenue in Govans have not worked for many years. THE BACKSTORY -- Peg Massey of North Baltimore wrote Watchdog asking about the "lovely tower with bells & a clock in the center." She said the bells haven't rung and the clock hands haven't moved past 3 o'clock in many years. "Perhaps," she wrote, "if it were put into working order it would be more meaningful to the neighbors." Massey's question takes the Watchdog down memory lane.

The man told the judge that he had been picked up for trespassing by a police officer who didn't really want to make the arrest. "He said, `I only have to do this for the man who wants to be mayor, I have to make my quota,' " the defendant said during an appearance at the Eastside District Court earlier this week. He didn't get the details quite right -- the man whose administration is accused of having an arrest quota is Martin O'Malley, and he is already the mayor but wants to be governor.

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. has been doing a slow burn. Two years ago, he and a group of fellow attorneys general asked Hollywood executives to insert anti-smoking messages into DVDs and videos of any movie that depicts people lighting up. All they got in return was lip service. Yesterday, the retiring Curran, joined by 40 attorneys general, sent a follow-up letter to 13 studio heads. This time, he enclosed three public service announcements produced by the American Legacy Foundation.

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. has been doing a slow burn. Two years ago, he and a group of fellow attorneys general asked Hollywood executives to insert anti-smoking messages into DVDs and videos of any movie that depicts people lighting up. All they got in return was lip service. Yesterday, the retiring Curran, joined by 40 attorneys general, sent a follow-up letter to 13 studio heads. This time, he enclosed three public service announcements produced by the American Legacy Foundation.

A former insurance agent pleaded guilty yesterday in Prince George's County Circuit Court to defrauding and stealing about $123,000 from a retired federal employee, said Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.Curran said Peter J. Collier, 29, a former agent for New England Life Insurance, befriended Marlin F. Spence of Laurel, who served in the Navy and worked for the Department of Defense for 38 years, and persuaded him to liquidate his investments.Curran...

Debate during next week's planned special session of the General Assembly could expand beyond electricity rates to include tougher penalties on sex offenders. House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller have said they would be willing to take up a sex-offender measure that was nearly approved during the regular Assembly session that ended in April, as long as it doesn't interfere with crafting a BGE rate-relief plan. "I think we should do it," Busch said.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. suggested yesterday that he might support a partial rollback of the state's gasoline tax as a way of easing the burden of rising fuel prices, an idea he has resisted in the past. The governor's comments on possibly easing the tax - which other officials said could not be done until the next General Assembly session, currently set for January - came at the end of a news conference on another subject and were highly conditional. Ehrlich noted that any such action would have a downside because the state's 23.5-cent gas tax is a dedicated source of funding for state and local transportation projects.