Policy Issues

Candidates for high public office like to say that color should not be an issue in their races. They know it is, of course. It was there last week when three men running for the U.S. Senate met for a debate in Baltimore. They tried to avoid the proverbial elephant in the room, to no avail. The debate setting, the sponsor and the field of candidates - not to speak of the strategies employed by the parties - make race as politically prominent as any policy issue. The candidates stood at lecterns positioned near the pulpit of the old Orchard Street Church - in lore, at least, a depot for the Underground Railroad.

County Council candidate Mary Kay Sigaty, a Democrat running in west Columbia's District 4, got the biggest crowd response last week at a candidates forum in Harper's Choice. The question from education activist Stanley Daniello was: "How can we trust any of you?" It began when UNcommon, a rival Democratic candidate whose name is Jeffrey L. Underwood, responded that he was probably the only Eagle Scout among the four candidates seeking the seat on the all-male County Council. Democrat Josh Feldmark then said he also had been an Eagle Scout, whereupon Sigaty, the only woman on the panel spoke up. "I think I'm the only one up here who couldn't be an Eagle Scout.

Aword of advice to the folks at the Baltimore Police Department: Let's not get personal, people. That's just what Deputy Commissioner Marcus Brown did in a letter to City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr. Brown's letter, dated June 5, 2006. It was in response to one Harris sent Brown on May 30. In his letter, Harris told Brown he had received a number of complaints from both cops and civilians about the department's arrest policies. "It has been brought to my attention that officers are being forced to make quota arrests," Harris wrote, "and are being penalized if arrest stats are not high.

Ehrlich administration official Dilip Paliath's run for the state Senate does not violate a law prohibiting partisan electioneering by state government employees who administer federal funds, according to an advisory opinion the candidate released yesterday. Paliath, who is counsel to the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention, requested the opinion after another official in Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration, Phillip D. Bissett, resigned as commuter rail chief so that his campaign for Anne Arundel County executive would not run afoul of the federal Hatch Act. Erica N. Stern, an attorney in the Hatch Act Unit of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, wrote June 8 that because Paliath's job duties deal with state legislative and policy issues - not the federal grants the crime control office administers - the Hatch Act doesn't apply to him. Paliath is seeking the Republican nomination in the Towson-area 42nd District, which is represented by Sen. James Brochin, a Democrat.

R. Richard Geddes, senior staff economist of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, will present "The Application of Property Rights to Current Policy Issues" at 3:30 p.m. today in Room 312, Stephens Hall, at Towson University. Geddes, a Towson University alumnus who also serves as associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University, will discuss Social Security reform, environmental economics and other policy issues. Admission to the talk is free. For more information, call Jim Dorn, professor of economics, 410-704-2956 or e-mail jdorn@ towson.

OMAHA, Neb. - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission requested information on insurance policies that may help companies smooth earnings. Berkshire's reinsurance unit, General Re Corp., received the request and will cooperate, the company said. The regulator is scrutinizing whether the policies, often sold to other insurers as reinsurance, disguise losses and distort earnings. The SEC's request signals that Berkshire may also get a subpoena from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who has broadened his investigation of the insurance industry beyond bid-rigging and kickbacks since starting the probe this year.

WASHINGTON - For the first time since the Vietnam era, voters consider terrorism, war and foreign policy the most pressing issues facing the country, and they do so by a large margin, a development with strong implications for the presidential election. Forty-one percent of voters believe national security and foreign policy are most important, according to a poll released yesterday by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. In contrast, 26 percent of those questioned said the economy was the most important concern, and 26 percent cited other domestic issues.

WASHINGTON - In a campaign where national security looms larger than at any point since the Cold War, Sen. John Kerry has yet to take a high-profile stand that would distinguish him from President Bush on major foreign policy issues. The Democratic challenger generally shares Bush's goals on Iraq, Afghanistan, the war on terrorism and preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, while insisting he would pursue each goal more successfully by working with, rather than alienating, other nations.

The Baltimore County Council held its first public confirmation hearings for county department heads yesterday, but in contrast to the sometimes heated rhetoric that has accompanied Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s personnel moves so far, the discussions were cordial and focused on policy issues. The council interviewed Smith's appointees to head five departments - Arnold J. Eppel, acting director of the Department of Aging; David A.C. Carroll, director of the Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management; Fire Chief John J. Hohman; Health Officer Michelle Leverett and acting Recreation and Parks Director Robert J. Barrett.

WASHINGTON - Three decades after the height of the civil rights movement, fewer than 10 percent of African-American churches can be considered activist congregations, deeply involved in public policy issues including education, welfare reform and affirmative action, according to a national survey released yesterday. Black clergy are also sharply divided over such issues as welfare reform, school vouchers and government grants to faith-based institutions for charitable work, the survey showed.