Overdue

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.

THE SENATE vote Tuesday to pay $819 million of what the United States owes the United Nations is welcome and overdue but imperfect.It comes in a deal to confirm the nomination of Richard C. Holbrooke to be ambassador to the United Nations, also overdue. But a string attached would reduce U.S. contributions from one-fourth to one-fifth of the U.N. budget. That is a worthy goal of negotiations but not something Congress should try to legislate as if the United States unilaterally decides.The worst aspect of the bill is that this is only the Senate.

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...

INDEPENDENCE DAY is a fitting time to recognize overdue improvements to the grandest symbol of American independence that Baltimore has: Fort McHenry.The star-shaped citadel on the Patapsco River withstood British bombardment in September, 1814, inspiring lawyer Francis Scott Key to write a poem, "Defence of Fort McHenry." One-hundred and seventeen years later, the song derived from that verse, "The Star-Spangled Banner," became our national anthem.Unhip and underappreciated, the fort is the quintessential Baltimore attraction.

WASHINGTON -- After holding the documents in her hands, Margaret Tildon returned to her Washington home, closed the bathroom door and began to tremble.After late-night sessions at her computer and exhausting hours at the National Archives, she had found what she was searching for: a yellowed document so old she didn't want to touch it. It revealed that Ephraim M. Tilden, her great-grandfather and a black man, had fought in the Civil War in a Baltimore regiment of the U.S. Colored Infantry.

Dozens of public libraries across the nation have found a new way to get deadbeat book lovers to pay their fines and turn in their overdue books: debt collection agencies.In Carroll and Harford counties, libraries have already tapped bill collectors and Baltimore County will soon follow. With financially strapped libraries carrying thousands of dollars in unpaid debts on the books, collecting can be a lucrative enterprise and help avoid the expense of replacing books and materials.In the past six months, the Harford County Public Library has recovered $24,000 worth of overdue materials and fines through a collection agency.

What was bigger news at Camden Yards yesterday, the Orioles' 8-2 victory over Oakland or Cal Ripken's consecutive-games streak reaching 2,500?The win was bigger in the immediate sense, of course; the Orioles needed to do something to talk any panicky fans off the ledge after losing seven of nine games, and the observance of Ripken's feat, as touching as it was, was due only to the "big, round number," as Ripken called it. He didn't break any new ground other...

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.

75 years agoCharles Scandalis, well-known in this city and having been employed at the Maryland Lunch Room, was shot and killed at Fair Haven, N.J. about a week ago. Scandalis was employed as a general prohibition agent and had charge of New York and New Jersey states until a short time ago. Before being a prohibition officer, he was a bootlegger and accumulated a fortune of $250,000, according to the administrators of his estate. He was killed by his chauffeur, Chas. Papas, who demanded his pay from Scandalis, which was five weeks overdue.

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?

News item: Auditors uncover $39.7 million in an obscure city tax collection account that had been left untouched for years. Baltimore finance director says he is embarrassed by the oversight, which is blamed on staff turnover and poor communications. To: Edward J. Gallagher, director of finance Fm: Baltimore taxpayers Re: Some helpful reminders No offense, but have you checked all the city's collection accounts? Replaced the batteries in the calculators? Read every bank statement?

As the economy slumps, one Maryland bank has not only stayed out of trouble but has burnished the kind of 24-karat lending record that rivals would covet even in a boom. Bowie-based Old Line Bank has lent more than $200 million to local homebuilders, hoteliers, auto repair shops, lawyers, homebuyers and landscapers. But as banks fail nationwide at the greatest rate since 1993, so far every one of Old Line's borrowers is paying interest and principal as planned. A church that was behind on payments is catching up. Other than that, Old Line has zero "nonperforming" loans, defined as at least 90 days overdue.

For the cash-strapped Maryland Zoo, finding money to repair decrepit buildings and an outdated water system and to pay for other overdue maintenance projects is an understandable struggle. What homeowner hasn't let a few repairs slide? But the "to do" list has to get done now - the zoo's national accreditation depends on it. Improvements at the Druid Hill campus also are critical to its viability and support from loyal patrons. The Maryland Zoo has until September to show significant progress on correcting deficiencies cited last fall by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

ISSUE: The Anne Arundel County school board will begin televising its meetings within a year, bringing the school system into step with surrounding counties but not satisfying critics, who want the meetings aired on the district's Web site, too. The idea has been brought before the board several times. Members supported it Wednesday after learning that the cost would be paid through fees already collected by cable companies, although some board members expressed concern that additional funding would be needed or that the technology might soon become obsolete.

ISSUE: The Anne Arundel County school board will begin televising its meetings within a year, bringing the school system in step with surrounding counties, but not satisfying critics, who want the meetings aired on the district's Web site, too. The idea has been brought before the board several times. Members offered their support Wednesday after learning that the cost would be borne through fees already collected by cable companies, although some board members expressed concern that additional funding would be needed or that the technology might soon become obsolete.

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."

A long line of people seeking help with overdue gas and electric bills snaked through the community center of an East Baltimore public housing complex last night - many with homes that had service cut off for nonpayment. The first citywide session this year in Project Reconnect - an energy assistance program co-sponsored by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and the city - came as the National Weather Service was issuing the metropolitan area's first freeze warning of the season. People began lining up at Pleasant View Gardens before the 11 a.m. start.

Baltimore City Council members Agnes Welch and Paula Johnson Branch will stay on the Nov. 2 ballot despite missing campaign finance reports, some more than a decade overdue, the State Board of Elections decided yesterday. Pointing to legal opinions dating to the 1970s, state board staff said yesterday that a law prohibiting people responsible for overdue finance reports from filing for office doesn't apply. Election Board Chairman Gilles W. Burger said state legislators should consider changing the law. "The fix to this is with the General Assembly, not with the Board of Elections," he said, adding: "I would like to see some more clarity here, but the law is the law."

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.

Angela Jones was working against a deadline. "My parents are here from out of town, and they want to see their grandchild," the Eldersburg resident said last week as she received medication to induce her son's birth in Howard County General Hospital's labor and delivery unit. The baby business is booming in Howard and, with many of the mothers older and more affluent than average, some of the spontaneity of having a baby is being eliminated. For more and more Howard mothers, the baby's arrival is something that must be squeezed into an increasingly crowded personal and hospital schedule.