Judgment

Gilbert Arenas said he used "bad judgment" in bringing guns into the Wizards locker room. He also denied that he gambles and said there are misconceptions in stories about a dispute between him and teammate Javaris Crittenton . His remarks came following the Wizards' 97-86 loss to the Spurs on Saturday night after two days of reports about the investigation into the guns he kept at the Verizon Center - and about an hour after the family...

Baltimore County Circuit Judge Robert E. Cahill Jr. said Thursday that he will rule next week on whether Robert W. Gladden Jr., the teenager accused in the Perry Hall High School shooting, will be tried as an adult or a juvenile. In a separate court proceeding Thursday, Gladden's mother's live-in boyfriend, Andrew Piper, pleaded guilty to one count of illegal possession of a regulated firearm. After the shooting at the school, county police and officials with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives searched Gladden's mother's home, where they found several rifles and a handgun belonging to Piper.

To The Sun's editorial board I say: Bravo! Bravo! I spent 39 years as a cop and a loyal Baltimore County employee, and it pains me to see the direction the county is headed ("A pension windfall," Dec. 18). Without an honest and unbiased media, the fabric of our government becomes tattered. I think what continues to amaze me is the decisions that Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz continues to make. How does an educated man with over 16 years of government experience continue to make decisions that defy common sense?

Towson Rehabilitation Center LLC, a Towson physical, occupational and speech therapy provider, must restore more than $29,000 in interest to the company's 401(k) retirement plan, according to a consent judgment obtained in federal court by the U.S. Labor Department. In a lawsuit filed last January, the labor department alleged that since January 2006, Towson Rehabilitation and CEO Howard Neels failed to pay employee contributions to the plan, paid some employee contributions late without interest and failed to segregate the plan's assets from the company's assets.

If a girl 16 or younger has had vaginal intercourse, she's been raped ("Plan B is overruled," Dec. 9). Few states allow marriage or consensual sex under the age of 17. Do we really want such a girl, afraid that she may become pregnant, to take her predicament to no other counselor than a clerk in a pharmacy or a Walmart? Moreover, even your editorialist admits that the Plan B pill "does nothing to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted disease. " Perhaps Kathleen Sibelius is trying to address issues of criminal law, public health, and psychiatric peril that are hugely less important to the advocates of "women's rights" than the need to prevent unwanted pregnancy at all costs.

Regarding the answer by Helen Glazer to Paula Simon's commentary on "no problem" ("The problem with 'no problem,'" Jan. 25), I agree with Ms. Simon's judgment of this phrase, but I would go even further. The problem with "no problem" is the idea that what you did may indeed have been a problem, but I have generously judged that it is not, or it is but I forgive you. This implies that you might be at fault, and I am somehow morally superior to you. As to Ms. Glazer's response, I think she is missing the point.

David Petraeus betrayed his wife; that is between them. It does however show a lack of responsibility and judgment. The personal betrayal is compounded in the betrayal of his country by jollying in the CIA director's office with a woman, Angela Jolie, who not only is a publicity hound but who also has no business in that inner sanctum of national secrets. This makes private citizens wonder about the classified information that Patricia Broadwell has in hand; did it come from a man lacking judgment when faced with aggressive women?

I am appalled by the Baltimore Sun's coverage of the recent incident in which a black teenager was allegedly beaten up by a member of Shomrim ( "Tension in Park Heights," Dec. 5). Our justice system requires a presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a court of law. Yet your reporters chose to totally disregard that basic tenet, tried and convicted a young man with no prior criminal record and then chose to interview rabble-rousing clergymen to justify their "verdict" and try to create a rift between the black and Jewish communities.

Regarding your story about Baltimore City school administrators' credit card expenses, I propose that schools CEO Andrés Alonso be sent to the principal's office - in another state ("City school officials play loose with credit," Aug. 26). The reports of ongoing financial irregularities should outrage all taxpayers. Mr. Alonso has chosen to minimize the seriousness of the problem but he simply doesn't get it. He came to Baltimore with sterling credentials and a vision for improving a seriously distressed school system.

NOT ONCE but twice voters have been treated recently to extraordinary displays of the volatility of politics: former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's heart-stopping plunge from Democratic front-runner to primary shutout, and the simultaneous free-fall of the president he seeks to unseat. Less than two weeks after President Bush confidently delivered a status quo State of the Union address crafted to appeal almost exclusively to his conservative Republican base, he was so desperate for a forum to defend himself he voluntarily entered the gladiator pit of Sunday morning talk television.

A Baltimore City Circuit Court judge is set to hear another round of arguments about the $1.5 billion State Center redevelopment, an ambitious overhaul 28 acres in midtown Baltimore. Judge Althea M. Handy has been asked to determine whether there still are disputed facts in the case, launched by a group of downtown businesses and landlords in 2010. A hearing on the issue is schedule for Tuesday afternoon. Opponents of the development, in the pipeline since the mid-2000s, allege that it would siphon tenants from downtown office buildings and that a noncompetitive process was used to select the developers.

David Petraeus betrayed his wife; that is between them. It does however show a lack of responsibility and judgment. The personal betrayal is compounded in the betrayal of his country by jollying in the CIA director's office with a woman, Angela Jolie, who not only is a publicity hound but who also has no business in that inner sanctum of national secrets. This makes private citizens wonder about the classified information that Patricia Broadwell has in hand; did it come from a man lacking judgment when faced with aggressive women?

The plaintiffs in a high-profile land dispute with Johns Hopkins University filed for summary judgment in their case against the university on Tuesday, one day after JHU filed a similar motion. The lawsuit was originally filed in November by family members of Elizabeth Beall Newell, who along with her siblings sold 108 acres of their family's Belward Farm near Gaithersburg to JHU in 1989 for $5 million. The sale, of land the family said was valued at $54 million, came with certain stipulations, including that the land be used for research or education purposes.

Attorneys for the Johns Hopkins University on Monday filed a motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit claiming the university is violating a land-use agreement it signed with a Montgomery County family more than 20 years ago. Elizabeth Beall Banks and her siblings sold 108 acres of their family's Belward Farm to the university in 1989 under specific stipulations, including that the property be used for research or education purposes. The suit, led by Banks' nephew John Timothy Newell, claims Hopkins' plans to construct high-rise buildings on the land violate the agreement and are out of line with what Banks and her siblings were told would be a low-rise campus.

Regarding your story about Baltimore City school administrators' credit card expenses, I propose that schools CEO Andrés Alonso be sent to the principal's office - in another state ("City school officials play loose with credit," Aug. 26). The reports of ongoing financial irregularities should outrage all taxpayers. Mr. Alonso has chosen to minimize the seriousness of the problem but he simply doesn't get it. He came to Baltimore with sterling credentials and a vision for improving a seriously distressed school system.

A former Anne Arundel County Police corporal was offered probation before judgment Tuesday as long as he first spends two months in jail for warning drug suspects of an imminent raid by police, officials said. Prosecutors told the judge that residents of a Shady Side home told SWAT team members who arrived to search the home last February that then-Cpl. Rick Bobby Alexander, a 14-year veteran of the force, called a female resident to say police were nearby getting ready for a raid, but he didn't know where, said Kristin Riggin, spokeswoman for the prosecutors' office.

I was chagrined to see another blaring headline generated by senior officials accusing low-level subordinates of gross wrongdoing without a shred of evidence ("EMT training halted by city," July 19). City leaders must deal with viral publicity every day. The appetite for news, particularly scandal, is almost impossible to satisfy. But that moment of panic and dread when bad publicity is at its worst is the time for true leaders to stand tall and remain steadfast in commitment to due process.

A Baltimore jury on Wednesday awarded $1.3 million in damages to a 17-year-old girl, finding that negligence by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City was a substantial factor in lead-paint poisoning she suffered as a young girl. Amafica Woodland lived in a now-demolished house in the Flag House Courts housing project in East Baltimore until she was nearly 3. Her attorney, Scott Nevin, said he expected the award to be reduced to $690,000 because of a state cap on non-economic damages.

Chick-fil-APresident and CEO Dan Cathy surely knew that his corporate opposition to same-sex marriage would spur controversy. He is more than justified in stating his position, given that his company will either reap the benefits or suffer the consequences of his words. What is more disturbing is his statement that "we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say 'We know better than you as to what constitutes marriage.'" That attitude smacks frighteningly of the radical Westboro Baptist Church philosophy that celebrates the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan because, it says, the U.S. tolerates homosexuality.

Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano met last month with an influential state lawmaker to discuss more than $8 million in unpaid court-ordered judgments against the city's housing authority, which have resulted from lead-paint poisoning lawsuits brought by former public housing residents. But Del. Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg said Graziano did not cover new ground at the June 5 meeting. “There was nothing new that I was told,” said Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat who is vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.