Safer

A Baltimore jury convicted two young men and acquitted another of murder Friday in the death of former City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr., who was killed two years ago after he and a woman stopped by a jazz club to borrow a corkscrew as the facility was about to be robbed. Jerome Williams, 17, and Charles McGaney, 22, were each found guilty on 28 counts, including felony first-degree murder, assault, handgun, and robbery charges. Gary Collins, 22, was acquitted of murder but found guilty on all of the other charges.

A federal appeals court has upheld Maryland's handgun permitting law, reversing a lower court decision by concluding that the state can constitutionally require an applicant to show “good and substantial reason” that he or she needs a concealed-carry license. Fourth Circuit Judge Robert King, writing for the three-judge panel, said the state had shown that the requirement “is reasonably adapted” to its “significant interests in protecting public safety and preventing crime.” Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler cheered the ruling Thursday, saying the state is “a safer place today because of its handgun conceal-and-carry permit laws.” “The idea is to make sure guns are in the hands of responsible people, and not just anybody who wants to tote a gun in public,” Gansler said.

A quarter of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers had three or more outages last year, a rough stretch that included the damaging derecho windstorm and Superstorm Sandy. BGE's annual breakdown of its performance, released by the company Tuesday, attributed nearly half of the 2012 customer outages to those two major storms. But slightly more had other causes, including smaller storms, equipment failure and cars running into poles. BGE attributed 1 in 4 of the outages to equipment problems, a category that could include some failures during bad weather.

A letter to the Baltimore Sun is grossly misleading in its effort to discredit Baltimore's continued progress reducing violent crime ("Rawlings-Blake policies make Baltimore less safe," Sept. 14). The simple truth is that since Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake took office, murder, shootings and overall gun crime continue to decline to historic lows. Despite an inherited $121 million budget deficit, an amount equal to half of our police force's budget, Mayor Rawlings-Blake and the City Council made the tough decisions necessary to fully fund every single police officer position, maintain our smart crime camera technology infrastructure and support our targeted gun suppression efforts.

Your editorial of Dec. 2 declares that the "Interlock program works. " Further in the piece is proffered the only support that has been given, repeatedly, for this claim, the experience of New Mexico. In mid-June 2005 New Mexico passed legislation that imposed ignition interlock systems on any driver found guilty of DUI. Mathematically inclined as I am, I consulted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration database to verify the remarkable efficacy of this intervention.

Horse racing has always had its seamier side - desperate bets, old-time bookies - but the Preakness infield has lowered the bar. While the well-heeled mingled with martinis in box seats yesterday or in the new Turfside Terrace (where the seats went for $250 a person), thousands of raucous revelers set up mini-pubs in the center of the Pimlico Race Course track and preferred to get down and dirty. This year's Mardi Gras-like fete was one of the dirtiest. Blame it on the rain: Early morning storms turned the typically grassy field into sludge soup.

While I agree with Jamie Sinsz's letter to your paper about the state of corruption in Baltimore City ("Baltimore mired in corruption," April 22), the writer sadly offered no suggestions as to how to change the current culture. I believe it starts with citizens' perceptions of the police force. I would begin with eliminating about 70 percent of the police cars in the city. Better to saturate the neighborhoods with foot patrols and cops on bicycles. If asked, I believe most residents of Baltimore would say that police in squad cars are useless.

Jay Hancock 's screed ("Welcome to Md., becoming known as the 'Speed Trap State,'" Dec. 13) about speed cameras on Maryland's highways reads as an apology for speeding (which endangers other drivers, workers, children, and animals such as deer) with the implication that it is good for business. The Connecticut businessman he defends, who claims to go no more than five miles over the limit in his home state, was clocked going 12 (significant because he would need approximately another 25-35 feet to stop)

It looks as if Tupac Shakur is going to be haunting the music world for some time. Just before he died of gunshot wounds sustained during a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas Sept. 7, he had finished work on a new project that he planned to release in an "underground" fashion -- that is, with no hype, no publicity and no mention of his rap moniker, 2Pac. Instead, the album would go out under an alias: Makaveli.Well, the alias part went as planned. But given the circumstances, it's understandable that there was something more than an underground buzz preceding the release yesterday of "The Don Killuminati" (Death Row/Interscope 90039)