Sheila Dixon

Below are some highlights from this week's entries on The Baltimore Sun's Maryland Politics Blog, along with selected comments from readers. The first motions in the state's case against Sheila Dixon were Friday morning. So what's a mayor to do on such a potentially stressful day? Hold a fundraiser! According to an e-mail from Friends for Sheila Dixon, the mayor hosted a breakfast fundraiser for her re-election campaign hours before her attorneys were in court. Tickets were $250 for individuals or $1,000 for sponsors of the event.

In a city where African-American women represent the largest bloc of primary voters, the prospect of keeping Baltimore's top four elected offices filled by black women never strays far from the campaign conversation. So, on a stage in Druid Hill Park one recent Saturday afternoon, a group of elected officials - all women, all but one of them African-American - stood side by side and celebrated their joint success. "There is a feeling all over this city that it is definitely ... the women's time to take over," said City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake.

Baltimore's mayor fired Leonard D. Hamm, the city's eighth police commissioner in as many years. Dixon, facing a plague of murders that could top 300 by year's end and a pivotal mayorial primary in September, decided to dump Hamm after a poll conducted by The Sun indicated a lack of public confidence in the commissioner's leadership. ?I don't do things for form and fashion, I don't do things because it's politically correct.? Sheila Dixon

Hats off to Mayor Sheila Dixon for finally taking the trash issue in Baltimore seriously ("Dixon's first order of business: trash," Jan. 26). City trash crews do an exemplary job considering what they have to work with - a resident population that often seems clueless and uncaring. It's frustrating that many people with more education than I have can't seem to understand how important it is to bag, secure and cover their trash tightly and put it out at the right time, not three days early.

City Councilman and mayoral candidate Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. is challenging more than $56,000 in campaign expenditures made by his father -- a significant increase over his original estimate -- according to campaign finance reports released yesterday that offer new insight into this year's election. In all, the campaign is challenging 61 expenditures, including 15 that aides said they were not originally aware of when Mitchell announced in early August that his father, Dr. Keiffer J. Mitchell Sr., had resigned as the campaign's treasurer.

Two months ago, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon - then 36 days into her term - walked into a silent conference room on the second floor of City Hall, filled with a dozen cameras and a palpable feeling of uncertainty over how the new mayor would handle her first crisis. Days before, 29-year-old fire cadet Racheal M. Wilson, a mother of two, had died during a live-burn training exercise in a vacant rowhouse. As early reports of what happened emerged, it became increasingly clear that the Fire Department had ignored safety protocols.

If past elections are any indication, thousands of voters will turn out for the general election Tuesday to cast a ballot for whichever Democrat appears on the screen, burying candidates from the other parties under the reality of how politics work in Baltimore. But Elbert R. Henderson, the Republican candidate for mayor, would like voters to know that, technically, they have another option, even if practically few of them exercise it. Henderson, 57, an official in the Washington, D.C., corrections department, is making a second run for mayor, hoping to unseat Democrat Sheila Dixon.

Fatal crash on I-95 under investigation State police were trying to confirm the identity of a person who was killed yesterday morning in a single-car accident on northbound Interstate 95 in Howard County. About 8 a.m., a 2001 Toyota Camry left I-95 north of the Route 175 overpass and went into a wooded area, a state police spokesman said. The driver was uninjured, but the front-seat passenger died at the scene, police said. A passenger in the back seat was treated for minor injuries.

Less than a year ago, many Baltimoreans thought their city was doomed -- doomed not only to persistent crime and poverty but also to weak leadership. Hardly anyone looked forward cheerfully to City Council President Sheila Dixon as the city's next mayor. There was fretful talk of radical opposition: Shouldn't the city's voters try to re-elect Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. so that Martin O'Malley, the Democratic candidate for governor, would have to stay on as mayor? In that event, Ms. Dixon would be confined to the council presidency.

Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, the three-term Baltimore City Council veteran who was the youngest person ever elected to the body, will formally announce her intention to run for council president today - solidifying the field in what has become one of the city's most animated races. Rawlings-Blake, who has served as president of the council since Sheila Dixon became mayor in January, has the backing of the state's top-ranking Democrat, Gov. Martin O'Malley, and has recently used her position to push for more aggressive police recruitment and the ability to padlock homes with noisy neighbors.

I'm afraid to use the gift cards in my wallet. I fear they'll land me on the witness stand in Courtroom 234, explaining how I happened to buy something, no doubt an embarrassing box of double creme Twinkies or Norah Jones CD, with a gift card from Sheila Dixon. Just to be clear, the mayor of Baltimore has never handed me a gift card. But given that one of the revelations during her trial last week is that Dixon and some who received cards from her are apparent regifters, I think we have our own version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon going on right here.

Yet another man in Sheila Dixon's life could wind up getting hauled into court. We already have Developers A and B. Now prosecutors want Developer C, Glenn Charlow, to testify about gift cards he donated to Dixon "in connection with her church activities," court documents say. Which could lead us to Pastor A: The Rev. Frank M. Reid III. If prosecutors put Charlow on the stand, they might want to hear from Dixon's pastor, to ask if Charlow's gift...

There's a new parlor game in Maryland political circles, one that's way more fun than guessing who's behind omalleywatch.com: Who's FakeSheilaDixon? "I am having [Chief of Staff] Demaune [Millard] look into whether I can tax people for dressing poorly," FakeSheilaDixon wrote on Twitter yesterday. "It should be UnderArmour jumpsuits or DolceGabbana." Another bit from the Twitter feed: "I keep telling my citizens, if they are stuck in traffic just get your driver to turn on the sirens. People move right out of your way."

Call me the mad recycler. It's been an obsession of mine for decades. I'm the guy who goes around the tables after the church dinner, collecting those red plastic cups - you never noticed they have that little recycling symbol, did you? - and bringing them home in a plastic bag while my family members indulgently roll their eyes. I invented a recycling game with my kids: Hey, who can find the little raised triangle on this container? (The entertainment value is increased by the fact that a lot of packaging manufacturers do their darnedest to make the thing practically invisible.

They do it in St. Petersburg, Fla., Toronto and Long Beach, Calif. But is Baltimore the proper setting for an IndyCar race on a looping, 2.4-mile street course around the convention center and Camden Yards? Organizers of the proposed Baltimore Grand Prix know that the prospect of racing cars around the Inner Harbor area sounds scary. The group is using the example of other cities that have staged such downtown races to try to make a case to Baltimore that they are safe - and an economic boon.

A Baltimore group is in serious negotiations with the city and the IndyCar Series about staging an annual street race beginning in 2011 near the Inner Harbor that state and city officials say could rival the Preakness in its economic impact and national exposure. Baltimore Racing Development, a limited liability company, is proposing five years of what it calls a "Baltimore Grand Prix" beginning in the late summer or early fall of 2011. BRD has been meeting with city and state officials - including representatives of Mayor Sheila Dixon - and with the Indy Racing League's IndyCar Series.

For months, I've rifled through the day's mail, looking hopefully for something most people dread: a summons to jury duty. Yes, I am that strange person who longs to be a juror. Called upon to be judgmental rather than criticized for it? A columnist's idea of heaven. But receiving no invitation to jump into the current pool, State of Maryland v. Ronald H. Lipscomb will go to trial Monday without me in the jury box. I'm particularly chagrined now that I've gotten a look at what Lipscomb's defense attorneys want to ask potential jurors.

Prosecutor should reindict mayor I agree with the thrust of your editorial in which you criticize the prosecutor's error and urge him to reindict the mayor on the main charges against her ("Off on a technicality," May 29). Political leaders must have a moral compass and operate in government according to well established rules of conduct. Sheila Dixon - ironically, a talented politician who, in many respects, has been a good mayor of Baltimore - has failed to demonstrate in her long public career that she owns such a compass.

A decrepit railroad bridge in the shadow of Interstate 95 could find new life as the linchpin of a 5 1/2 -mile trail encircling the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River - opening up recreational opportunities along a stretch of Baltimore waterfront that some are calling "the next Inner Harbor." For now, the century-old CSX swing bridge carries little traffic except the occasional trespasser with a crab pot. But city officials and a prominent developer envision a restored span that would serve runners, bicyclists and folks who simply want to take a stroll along a stretch of shoreline that is being reclaimed from industrial development.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon may have felt victorious Thursday when several of the criminal charges she faces were tossed out by Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney. The ruling may reduce her legal exposure, but she is by no means vindicated. Beyond the legal technicalities and political spin, here's what Baltimore citizens should remember: Ms. Dixon is accused of accepting thousands of dollars in gifts and travel from a developer whose projects received millions in city tax breaks - gifts that she failed to report on her ethics forms.