Policy

Mayor Sheila Dixon is reviewing a new Police Department policy of withholding the names of officers who shoot civilians, her spokesman said last night. The decision comes as the policy is under increasing scrutiny from the City Council. Earlier in the day, City Councilman Bernard C. "Jack" Young had called for the resignations of Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III and his chief spokesman over what the councilman called misleading arguments in favor of the policy. Bealefeld and police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi say the policy protects officers from possible retribution.

MEXICO CITY -- The United States and its Latin American allies are losing a major battle in the war on drugs, according to indicators showing that cocaine prices dipped for most of 2006 and American users were getting more bang for their buck. Despite billions of dollars in U.S. anti-drug spending and record seizures, statistics recently released by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy suggest that cocaine is as available as ever. Cocaine users and lawmen care about price and purity.

ISSUE: A new requirement that Anne Arundel County police personnel cover up their tattoos - even if it forces bike patrol or animal control officers to don long sleeves, pants or turtlenecks in scorching heat - has the rank and file hot and bothered. The policy, among the strictest in the state, requires that all personnel, including volunteers, cover up visible tattoos when they are on duty. The aim of the policy shift is "to promote the uniformity of appearance ... to maintain neutrality ... to foster discipline and to encourage public confidence," according to a memo sent June 22 by Col. James E. Teare Sr., the police chief.

An incident involving a turban pat-down at BWI Marshall Airport has sparked a growing concern in Maryland's Sikh American community, among the largest in the country, about eroding its civil liberties in the name of security. When a screener at BWI wanted to pat down Prabhjit Singh's turban a couple of months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he had a copy of the federal guidelines handy that said it was not necessary unless his turban set off the metal detector. The guidelines did not help Singh, 27, on Aug. 16 when screeners insisted on patting down his turban, even though he passed through security without beeping.

Stock markets all over have been rocked in the past fortnight by mounting concerns over the United States' subprime mortgage crisis, with the Singapore market losing some $50 billion of its market capitalization in 10 days. Volatility has shot up and central banks have had to intervene, injecting large doses of cash into markets last Friday to prop up confidence and stave off a market crash. Hopes are now high that the U.S. Federal Reserve - whose loose monetary policies earlier this decade were arguably the source of the problem - will now cut its short-term interest rates and ease the pressure in credit markets, possibly within the next fortnight.

Stung by criticism over Carroll's policy restricting students from attending parties where alcohol or drugs are consumed, schools Superintendent William H. Hyde said yesterday that he has ordered his staff to review the policy this spring.Hyde said he wants to ensure the guidelines are clear in restricting students from attending off-campus parties where underage drinking or illegal drug use occurs. Any recommended change in the policy would have to be approved by the five-member school board.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- President Clinton said yesterday that he agreed with his wife that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy in dealing with homosexuals had been a failure, and he accused military leaders of not enforcing it properly."

WARNING TO people considering long-term care insurance: Some of these policies are fatally flawed. Instead of protecting you when you're old, they'll force you to drop the coverage before you can make a claim.Long-term care (LTC) insurance protects the assets of the frail, confused or ill. It will cover a certain amount of custodial care -- help with bathing, eating, dressing -- in your own home or a nursing home. This saves you from using your personal money to pay all the bills.Most policies are sold with a "level premium."

The Baltimore school board voted unanimously last night to set new passing standards for children in grades one through eight, saying it hoped the policy would raise expectations and achievement."

AS THE century ended, the old empire writhed in its death throes. Once the focus of the world's dread and the master of much of Europe, the old imperial power, grown rotten through misrule and incompetence, decayed and crumbled. In the end, it recoiled into its eastern base, scorned by a new world it had never bothered to join.So died the Ottoman empire, in a demise that eerily foreshadowed the disintegration of the Soviet empire and the agonies of Russia a century later.The passing of the Ottomans took longer: Its 500-year empire, which once stretched from Algeria to Vienna, eroded over 50 years of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and casts its shadow to this day. The war over Kosovo may have been the last battle of the Ottoman legacy.

The Baltimore school board delayed a vote on whether to permanently expel students 16 and older involved in serious or violent incidents, one of the most hotly debated issues to come before the panel in the past year. The proposed change in disciplinary policy was scheduled for a board vote Tuesday but was taken off the agenda at the last minute and rescheduled for Nov. 11. School board member David Stone, in an interview earlier in the day, said there had been "a lot of last-minute suggestions proposed" to the policy that was to have been voted on. A year ago, city schools CEO Andr?

The Annapolis Housing Authority wants a civil rights lawsuit brought against it thrown out on the grounds that it functions as a private property owner and may ban anyone it chooses from public housing grounds. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland filed suit this year to challenge a policy it claims unconstitutionally prevents friends and family of residents from visiting them. The Housing Authority and the Annapolis Police Department, another defendant in the case, have asked an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge to dismiss the case.

Maryland's public university system is poised to become the first in the country with a policy on student displays of pornographic films, a direct response to legislative demands made after a screening earlier this year of a XXX-rated film at the University of Maryland, College Park. Though work on the policy is continuing, it has stirred many of the same free-speech concerns that raged when the university briefly quashed student plans to screen the pornographic epic "Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge" in April.

In the wake of fatal transit accidents across the nation, the Maryland Transit Administration has adopted a zero-tolerance policy under which any bus or train operator found using a cell phone or text-messaging device on the job will be fired, even for a first offense. The MTA took the action shortly after the Washington Metro system announced a similar change Thursday morning, scrapping a "three-strikes-and-you're-out" policy and vowing to fire violators outright. Texting has been identified as a major factor in rail accidents - and 25 deaths - in California and Massachusetts during the past year.

Eight people who worked at the Maryland Correctional Training Center in Hagerstown have filed a $40 million lawsuit against nine colleagues, alleging that their constitutional rights were violated through "sexually intrusive, humiliating" and unjustified strip-searches performed during a poorly executed drug sweep in 2008. The lawsuit, filed Monday in Washington County Circuit Court, says the plaintiffs were told to strip naked by fellow employees based on readings from drug scanning equipment, then directed to "squat and cough" to see if they were hiding controlled substances in their body cavities.

WASHINGTON -The Obama administration signaled a sharp departure Wednesday from 20 years of federal policy and called on Congress to close the huge disparity in prison sentences for those dealing crack versus powdered cocaine, agreeing with critics who say it is unfair to African-Americans. Newly confirmed Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said the administration believes the so-called mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines are so inherently unfair that they have undermined trust in the country's judicial institutions, particularly among minorities who bear the brunt of the law. Breuer and other witnesses testifying before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee said the policies, launched when authorities feared crack was becoming an epidemic in the mid-1980s, are based on faulty assumptions that have long since been discredited, including that crack users were far more violent and dangerous to the community than powder cocaine users.

Maryland senators rejected an attempt Wednesday morning to tie up funding for public university construction projects if their governing bodies do not set policies on how and when pornographic material may be shown on campus. In the latest legislative reaction to the screening this week of hard-core pornography at the state's flagship university campus, Sen. Andy Harris, a Republican representing Baltimore and Harford counties, tried to amend the state's $1.1 billion capital budget to prevent public universities from accessing their share of the money unless they develop and put in place a porn policy by July 1. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller ruled the amendment out of order, and senators - including several Republicans - concurred, ending Harris' attempt.

Mayor Sheila Dixon is reviewing a new Police Department policy of withholding the names of officers who shoot civilians, her spokesman said last night. The decision comes as the policy is under increasing scrutiny from the City Council. Earlier in the day, City Councilman Bernard C. "Jack" Young had called for the resignations of Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III and his chief spokesman over what the councilman called misleading arguments in favor of the policy. Bealefeld and police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi say the policy protects officers from possible retribution.

A Muslim woman was asked to leave her place in line at a credit union in Southern Maryland and be served in a back room because the head scarf she wore for religious reasons violated the institution's "no hats, hoods or sunglasses" policy, the woman said yesterday. The incident at the Navy Federal Credit Union on Saturday was the second in a month for Kenza Shelley, and Muslim advocates fear it could become a problem nationwide as many financial institutions, intent on curbing robberies and identity theft, ban hats and similar items without accommodations for religious attire.

The police commissioner apologized. "Yes, sir, point taken," he said to a city councilman. "I take full responsibility," he said again, to another elected watchdog. "The fault rests with me," the contrite commissioner repeated. The City Council hauled Frederick H. Bealefeld III in front of the public safety committee to address concerns about a new policy of not releasing, at least not immediately, the names of police officers who shoot people, for fear that angry civilians would seek retribution.