Quotas

Public universities should set goals - but not quotas - for minority enrollment, state university system Chancellor William E. Kirwan said yesterday. He said they "need to be pushing the limits of the law" to increase diversity on campuses. For too long, Kirwan said, universities have been afraid to aggressively promote diversity out of fear of lawsuits. The University of Maryland, College Park, for instance, retreated after a federal court struck down its blacks-only Banneker scholarship in 1994.

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency rejected yesterday a request to cut the quota for the use of ethanol in cars, concluding, for now, that the goal of reducing the nation's reliance on oil trumps any effect on food prices from making fuel from corn. EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson said that the mandate was "strengthening our nation's energy security and supporting American farming communities" and that the it was not causing "severe harm to the economy or the environment."

The days of the fall striped bass slaughter on the southern Chesapeake Bay are over. It's pay the piper time. After six years of catching more striped bass than allowed and fearing possible regulatory repercussions, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission cinched up its belt and toughened its fall catch limits. Federal regulators set a summer and fall quota for the entire bay and Maryland, Virginia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission divide it up. Virginia's share last year was 3.1 million pounds, split equally between its recreational anglers/charter boat fleet and commercial fishermen.

A Baltimore County police lieutenant enacted a short-lived policy requiring officers under his supervision to write an average of at least three traffic tickets each day they worked on patrol. Under the order, patrol officers' ability to get time off was linked to the number of tickets they wrote. Officers who did not meet the "expectation" and averaged fewer than one citation per day would be last to choose their days off, regardless of their shift seniority, according to the order. Lt. Dean E. Brubaker informed his officers of the requirement in March and documented it in a written order in May. County police spokesman Bill Toohey said the initiative was ended as soon as supervisors learned of it. "It was one lieutenant on one shift in one precinct three months ago," Toohey said yesterday.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Maryland's lucrative and popular trophy striped bass season will be a shell of its former self this spring after regulators decided yesterday to drastically reduce the state's catch. By a vote of 7-6, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission rejected a proposal by Maryland to eliminate the spring quota and allow recreational fishing under regulations similar to other Eastern Seaboard states. Instead, it overwhelmingly approved a target quota of 30,000 fish - about half the total catch in each of the past two years.

WASHINGTON -- A young Baltimore man with flashing eyes and an infectious grin - a nonstop charmer - Dolton Goolcharan might hold part of the answer to the nation's military recruiting problem. Goolcharan, from Penhurst Avenue in Northwest Baltimore, is a 21-year-old immigrant from Trinidad and a private first class in the Maryland National Guard. He is also a conspicuous success in an initiative that pays soldiers to scour the streets for recruits and persuade them to sign up. It has always been difficult to find people willing to serve, doubly so during wartime.

Maryland's striped bass fishermen had too much of a good thing this spring on the Chesapeake Bay. Now the bill comes due. Recreational anglers vastly exceeded their early-season quota for the second year in a row, despite efforts by state fisheries managers to curb their enthusiasm through tougher regulations. Over the four-week season that began April 15, anglers caught 67,000 striped bass, 25,000 more than the allotment set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), or 60 percent above their quota for the second straight year.

SINGAPORE -- International Monetary Fund members approved yesterday the first stage of a voting overhaul to give China, South Korea, Turkey and Mexico a bigger voice at the fund to reflect their growing influence in the global economy. In a poll that won 90.6 percent support, the IMF said its members agreed to increase votes for the four countries in the face of opposition from some Latin American and Asian nations. "The state of the world has changed very rapidly over the past 20 years and it's only right that the institutions that manage it change to reflect that," said Paul Donovan, senior global economist at UBS AG in London.

WASHINGTON -- A lot of people have their shorts bunched in a knot over a decision by the CBS reality game show Survivor: Cook Islands to divide its competing "tribes" by race and ethnicity. No surprise there. We have enough wars to worry about these days without having one put forth as prime-time entertainment, even if it's all in good fun. Hispanics Across America founder Fernando Mateo called the Survivor move an "offensive and cheap trick" to boost ratings, which is undoubtedly true, but hardly the first time networks have done that.

Two City Council members said yesterday that they believe two internal Baltimore police statistical documents offer further evidence that the department is requiring officers to meet arrest quotas, an assertion vehemently denied by top police officials. "There's an awful lot of concerns from police officers who have brought to my attention that they're under a quantitative measurement as opposed to a qualitative measurement to do their jobs," Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr. said. "It gives the appearance of a quota system."