Overdue

The fast-paced school reforms introduced over the past year by Baltimore County Superintendent Stuart Berger were enough throw a lot of residents for a loop. Many of them were further agitated by what they perceived to be the arrogant style of Dr. Berger and some of his top staffers. Then, when controversies erupted last spring over special-education inclusion and the demotions of principals, Dr. Berger became the most controversial public official the county, maybe this region, had seen in years.

The City Council's decision this week to unanimously approve a bill requiring businesses getting large city contracts to hire 51 percent of new workers from Baltimore was regrettable not only because the measure probably won't have much impact on the worthy goal of reducing city unemployment, but because it may be illegal as well. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's decision to let it go into law without her signature, despite the advice of City Solicitor George Nilson that it is almost certainly unconstitutional, is shameful.

Aday on the presidential campaign trail:8 a.m. -- Addressing a breakfast meeting of the National Assn. of Librarians in Chicago, President Bush accuses Bill Clinton of holding a half-dozen overdue library books and of using an expired library card."

Welcome to Gay Matters, a new home for gay news and commentary at The Baltimore Sun. As website real estate, this blog is something new and perhaps long overdue. But we've been doing this work -- covering news relevant to the gay community -- for a very long time. I took a look back -- all the way back to microfilm -- and found the evidence. In 1955, for example, there were 162 men and women arrested on charges of disorderly conduct at the Pepper Hill Club on North Gay Street in "the largest night-club raid ever made in Baltimore," after male patrons among the club's largely gay clientele were seen kissing each other.

Here is an excerpt of an editorial from the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, which was published Friday.THE presidential salary has not been raised since 1969, when it was set at $200,000.Legislation that would double the president's pay to $400,000 a year is pending in Congress now. The raise, which cannot go into effect until the next president takes office, is overdue and warranted.It would be a shame if the volatile politics of public sentiment and congressional whipsawing were to consume the logic of paying the president of the United States decently.

ATLANTA - The hard-edged movement to roll back reproductive rights has dominated discussion of abortion in recent years - and for good reason. Abortion politics drives elections and is a powerful current rippling beneath the ongoing confrontation over President Bush's judicial nominees. But the focus on the absolutists around abortion has obscured one of the most heartening developments in American politics in recent years: Thoughtful leaders are beginning to coalesce around a movement to make abortion - in former President Bill Clinton's formulation - "safe, legal and rare."

THE WHOLE UGLY incident began with an attempt to return an overdue library book, which is never pleasant, let's face it.There was a time in this country when such a chore would not lead to a full-blown inquisition, but apparently those days are over.In any event, as soon as I handed the book to the former prison camp commandant behind the desk, her face seemed to harden."This book is overdue," she said icily.This was not news to me and yet I suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of contrition, particularly when she picked up a wooden ruler and began tapping it softly against her knuckles.

Union Bridge officials are making progress in collecting overdue water and sewer bills.At 1995's end, 35 of the town's 380 accounts were in arrears for approximately $9,000. By the end of 1996, the town staff had cut overdue bills to five accounts in arrears for $1,900."They've worked hard to get accounts up to date," Councilman Selby M. Black, water and sewer committee chairman, reported at Monday's Town Council meeting.He praised Debra Rippeon, clerk, and Melissa Phelps, assistant clerk, for their work.

Today's little drama contains just enough mystery to invite the kind of speculation even humorless mugs find tempting and, ultimately, delicious. Today's question: What drives a man to return library books 22 years overdue, and to impose a stiff fine on himself?Sudden remorse? Sudden wealth? That Catholic guilt thing, brought on by too many viewings of "The Bells of St. Mary's"? Approaching death and a desire to clean the ledger? And who was this guy anyway? Bill Gates?Was he fulfilling penance ordered by a diocesan priest who'd heard the confession and thought Archbishop Spalding High could use a $3,200 donation?

Getting a jump on the holidays, dozens of Baltimore-area residents rushed to the rescue of a northeast Baltimore children's after-school program yesterday, paying the overdue $3,000 electric bill that threatened to close it.By midmorning, an anonymous donor had paid Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. for the five-month overdue bill after reading an account in The Sun yesterday about the fiscal woes of the Destiny of Hope center, which operates in an old warehouse...

Sarah Dorl and James Frieson both regularly took care of many jobs that helped their respective teams, tasks that wouldn't show up in a score sheet. But the work Dorl did for the Dulaney basketball team and Frieson put in for Towson football finally earned some notice Monday night when they won top honors at the 73rd Annual McCormick Unsung Heroes Awards banquet at the Hunt Valley Inn. Dorl and Frieson became the 70th and 71st winners of the Charles Perry McCormick Scholarship, established in 1969.

NBA center Jason Collins says he has gotten "incredible" support since revealing in Sports Illustrated that he is gay and thus becoming the first openly gay male athlete in one of the major team sports in this country. As that support includes congratulations from a current and former president and some of the biggest stars in his sport, perhaps that's even an understatement. What Mr. Collins has done is significant, of course, and he deserves all the good will and public support he can get. Pro basketball, baseball, football and hockey seem to be the last bastions of the "don't ask, don't tell" approach to the sexuality of their employees, if not outright hostility toward gays.

As a strong proponent of abolishing Maryland's death penalty, I was pleased to learn that the General Assembly recently voted to eliminate the practice ("Reason over revenge, at long last," March 17). I oppose the death penalty because it is an inhumane act that serves no purpose and because it has led to wrongly convicted individuals being sentenced to death. I encourage skeptics to read the compelling story of Kirk Bloodsworth, a Marylander on death row who became the first inmate in the nation ever to be exonerated by DNA evidence.

There is little question that Art Modell would be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame by now if he had not uprooted the financially strapped Cleveland Browns and moved the franchise to Baltimore almost two decades ago. The rest of his legacy as one of the NFL's most visionary owners is unquestioned, and no one can look at the amazing popularity and profitability of the sport and deny that Modell's fingerprints are all over it. So, here's hoping...

As Washington politicians search for budget solutions, imagine if there were a magical revenue source that operated not unlike a national consumption tax that many conservatives prefer and would mitigate global warming to please liberals, all while helping repair America's infrastructure and strengthening our national security, to the delight of almost everyone. Actually, such a tax already exists: It's called the federal gasoline tax, and it's been stuck at 18.4 cents per gallon for two decades.

Dr. Charles E. Rath Jr. and Charles Shyab both earned the Bronze Star for their valor in battle, but neither soldier collected his medal. At a recent ceremony at Fort Meade, the two veterans, who served in battles more than two decades apart, stood together and received the Bronze Star, awarded for valor and meritorious service. Officials also awarded each a congressional citation and an American flag that has flown over the Capitol against a background of plaudits from a U.S. senator, Army officers and a roomful of young soldiers.

Baltimore officials expect thousands of people to line up today and tomorrow to pay their overdue parking tickets during a two-day amnesty on late penalties. Drivers will be required to pay the original fine and any fees for booting, towing, storage of impounded vehicles, bad checks or court costs, according to city officials. Late penalties will be waived. In anticipation of the crowds at the Abel Wolman Municipal Building, 200 Holliday St., the city is closing Holliday Street from Saratoga to Lexington streets today and tomorrow, city officials said.

A long overdue blast of winter weather bore down on Maryland today, bringing thunderstorms, wind gusts in excess of 60 mph, falling temperatures and snow late today to Western Maryland.The National Weather Service said 3 to 6 inches of snow was possible in the extreme western portions of the state late today in the wake of a cold front moving across Maryland, dropping temperatures out of the 50s and 60s toward the teens tonight.For central Maryland, the clash of cold, arctic air to the west and warm tropical air pushing up from the south brought downpours and thunderstorms, with winds increasing as the colder air approached.

Two Army veterans, who tended to comrades injured in battle in wars that were more than two decades apart, received long overdue military honors Friday before an audience of family, friends and some 200 members of the Armed Forces at Fort Meade. Dr. Charles E. Rath Jr., an Army captain and surgeon 67 years ago during World War II, and Charles Shyab, a medic during the Vietnam War 45 years ago, both received the Bronze Star from Col. Jeremy Martin, commandant of the Defense Information School at the Army post in Anne Arundel County.

Only in Baltimore do we have to vote for table games ("Path to jobs or bad bet for Md.?" Oct. 25). Only here in Maryland is the table player at the mercy of the Maryland General Assembly and the voters. We should give any casino that opens the right to automatically have table games. It's bad enough that we have to vote for something that should be an automatic given. A lot of money is being wasted to influence a vote on Question 7. Frank F. Braunstein, Pikesville