Sanctions

Lawyers for Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold have asked a federal judge to impose fines on the lawyer representing a former county employee who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Leopold. County Attorney Jonathan Hodgson filed the motion on Nov. 3, asking the court to penalize attorney John M. Singleton, for making allegations without "substantial basis in fact" against Leopold in September in an amended complaint to the lawsuit. Singleton represents former county employee Karla R. Hamner, who initially filed the $10 million suit against Leopold in August, claiming sexual harassment, gender discrimination and workplace retaliation.

Sweepstakes company Publishers Clearing House will pay $3.5 million to Maryland, 31 other states and Washington D.C. as part of an additional court agreement resolving allegations of deceptive marketing practices, the Maryland Attorney General's office announced Thursday. Maryland will receive $40,000 for consumer education as part of the payment. A supplemental consent judgment was filed in Baltimore Circuit Court Thursday, modifying the terms of a 2001 consent judgment against Publishers Clearing House.

The city liquor board on Thursday fined two clubs on The Block after a man was found to have exposed himself in one and a dancer fondled the genitals of a patron in the other. Circus Bar at 427 E. Baltimore St. was fined $3,000 after a liquor board inspector said he observed a man with his penis exposed receiving a lap dance from a dancer June 16. The bar's owner testified that he immediately fired the dancer and told the board there was nothing more he could have done to stop the incident.

After months of lobbying by the U.S. for additional sanctions against Iran, the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday finally passed, by a vote of 12 to 2 (with one abstention), a package of measures aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear program. But don't hold your breath waiting for Iran to start dismantling its reactors and centrifuges under international pressure. As loath as we are to agree with anything Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says, his description of the U.N. sanctions meaning as much to that country as "used napkins that need to be thrown in the garbage can" sounds about right.

Forty-seven heads of state are now in Washington attending a Nuclear Security Summit, at President Barack Obama's invitation, "to enhance international cooperation to prevent nuclear terrorism." While Iran's nuclear weapons program and support of terrorist groups — it arms, funds and trains Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and, according to recent reports, the Taliban — are not on the agenda, Iran undoubtedly will be on the minds of summit participants and observers.

The Obama administration warned Tuesday that Maryland and other states that drain into the Chesapeake Bay face federal sanctions, including roadblocks to growth, if they fail to meet new cleanup goals - though federal officials said they're counting on not having to wield the rod. Environmental activists, in turn, questioned the administration's resolve to do what is needed to restore the bay in the wake of the states having repeatedly failed to...

In the interminable efforts to halt Iran's uranium enrichment program, the Iranian regime has once again demonstrated its recalcitrance. The recent pronouncement of Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, that policymakers have reached a "dead end" appears prophetic. Bureaucrats in Brussels, Whitehall and Washington surely are scrambling back to their drawing boards and are likely looking to "crippling" sanctions as the next step. History has proven, however, that while sanctions rob the regime of capabilities and resources, they fail to alter its intentions.

BEIJING - - Polite applause and attentive smiles greeted President Barack Obama as he traveled through China, but there was no indication that his powers of persuasion budged the Chinese on key positions. To the contrary, the Chinese appeared to be digging in their heels on the issue of currency and remaining noncommittal on nuclear nonproliferation. Hours after Obama, standing side by side with Chinese President Hu Jintao in the Great Hall of the People, praised China's commitments to "move toward a more market-oriented exchange rate over time," a senior Chinese official called a news conference to defend China's policy of sustaining the yuan's position against the dollar, which helps keep the price of Chinese goods low. "We maintained a stable yuan during the financial crisis, which not only helped the global economy but also the stability of the world's financial markets," He Yafei, deputy foreign minister, said Tuesday.