Limits

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court dealt a defeat yesterday to liberal reformers who sought to sharply limit the impact of money in politics. In a 6-3 decision, the court struck down a novel Vermont law that would have strictly limited how much state candidates can spend on their campaigns, as well as how much donors can give them. Had the law been upheld, these reformers saw it as a model for other states to limit campaign spending. Instead, the justices said the law violated the First Amendment and its guarantee of freedom of speech.

An ethics watchdog group is calling for an investigation into nearly two dozen companies and individuals it says broke Maryland's limits on political contributions. Using state Board of Elections data, Common Cause Maryland said it found 18 companies and four individuals who gave more than the $10,000 limit for the 1999-2002 election cycle. Previously, Common Cause had identified more than 60 contributors as breaking the limits in the same cycle, said James Browning, the group's Maryland director.

ANNAPOLIS -- In a major victory for Maryland's property tax rebels, the state's highest court ruled yesterday that voters in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties should be allowed to consider proposed property tax limits petitioned to the November ballot.The Court of Appeals decision overturns the rulings of circuit judges in Towson and Annapolis, who found that the proposed amendments to the counties' charters violated the state constitution."We're overjoyed," said Robert C. Schaeffer, president of the Anne Arundel taxpayer group that petitioned the issue to the Nov. 6ballot.

"WELCOME TO our fair city," reads the road sign near the municipal limits."Take down that eyesore of our fair state," replies the officious State Highway Administration.Mount Airy faces the state's tear-down edict for two signs at its northern Carroll County entrance at state Routes 808 and 27. There's a welcome sign, donated by the Lions Club and other service organizations. And a three-year-old sign that celebrates the city's centennial in 1994.The Draconian measures were adopted by the SHA in response to General Assembly legislation on highway signage that calls for toughening enforcement of the 30-year-old federal Highway Beautification Act and clearing signs from rights of way on state roads.

House and Senate leaders are nearing agreement on new limits to Maryland's historic tax credit program, the first effort to curb a tool described as crucial for the redevelopment of Baltimore's older neighborhoods. The two chambers still differ on whether to place an overall limit on the program. The Senate believes it can change the rules enough to the keep costs under $50 million, but the House leadership wants a firm $50 million cap - a provision included in a bill passed by the House last week.

I doubt they saw the philosophical implications and I didn't either, not at first. See, my editor came by yesterday and said world gymnastics officials had changed their scoring regulations so that a 10 would no longer be, well, perfect. He asked me what I made of this, and my mind leaped immediately to grade inflation. Every parent in the world wants junior to get into Harvard, so nobody can get a C anymore. We all want so badly to think well of ourselves that there is no average. It's like the NBA dunk contest, where Fred Jones gets a perfect score and we're supposed to believe he's slamming like Dominique Wilkins.

CHICAGO -- Corn continued its sharp rise in price yesterday, driven upward by demand for ethanol and an increasingly prosperous world eager for food. The benchmark price of corn reached an exchange-imposed limit of $3.965 a bushel shortly after trading began at the Chicago Board of Trade. To maintain financial stability, the board limits daily increases and decreases in corn to 20 cents per bushel. Limits are rarely needed, the exchange said, and come into play only when prices are highly volatile.

After months of wrangling, Carroll's commissioners strengthened county growth-control measures yesterday to reduce the number of homes built each year and to deter housing developments away from areas with inadequate schools and public services. The revisions to Carroll's concurrency management ordinance, enacted in 1998 to ensure growth does not outpace the county's ability to provide services, take effect immediately and are retroactive to July 1. Nearly 700 homes are set for construction in the county - outside municipal limits - next year.

For the first time in decades, Maryland is about to hit its credit limit. And with a seemingly insatiable demand for more building projects, state leaders could increasingly find themselves saying no to the community groups, churches and individuals around the state who annually seek money for schools, hospitals, museums, ball fields, theaters and more. Maryland is likely to spend a record $400 million this year on school construction, but with thousands of students across the state going to class every day in trailers, parents are demanding even more funding.

As summer arrives, the skyline of Baltimore and almost every major city on the East Coast becomes shrouded in a hazy soup of humidity, noxious gases and tiny particles that can blur the horizon and make it unpleasant to be outdoors.But it also does something else. It sends some people to hospital emergency rooms gasping for breath, and some don't recover.The Environmental Protection Agency, citing more than 250 scientific studies, has proposed new air pollution limits that it says would spare 15,000 lives nationwide and 250,000 trips to the hospital for vulnerable children, asthmatics and others.