Task Force

Members of the Baltimore Gun Tracing Task Force raided a Glen Burnie pawn shop and the owner's Northwest Baltimore home yesterday, seizing more than 250 guns and multiple crates of ammunition two weeks after the owner pleaded guilty to a felony. Police said the owner of B&A Pawn was not charged with a crime yesterday. The state police licensing division revoked the firearm dealer's license for B&A Pawn yesterday, and investigators from the task force - made up of officers from Baltimore, Baltimore County and the state - are examining weapons and reviewing sales records looking for possible violations.

A citizens task force exploring the feasibility of building a state horse park in Howard County is planning a public hearing at 7 p.m. Jan. 10 in the County Council Chambers in Ellicott City. "I want to bring the public in," said Dr. Michael Erskine, chairman of the Horse Park Task Force. He said his group likely will present the County Council with a range of reactions and options this winter. "This isn't a proposal we're proposing or defending," Erskine said. The task force's charge from the council is to gather information and advise the council members.

Astatewide task force has come up with a number of sensible recommendations to help make more young, black males achieve educational and, ultimately, social success. But considering that the work of a similar task force failed to gain traction a decade ago, it's clear that what will be needed to make these recommendations real is more political will, financial resources and - perhaps most important - a greater sense of urgency. Many young, black males in Maryland are doing fine, but too many others are not. And although some jurisdictions, such as Baltimore County, have done well in closing the school-achievement gap, the state as a whole has a long way to go. In 2003, the high school graduation rate for white males was 76 percent, compared with 53 percent for black males.

Mayor Sheila Dixon announced yesterday that the city will investigate why high arsenic levels in a South Baltimore park were kept quiet for more than 30 years. "Testing in 1976 showed high levels of arsenic in the soil," Dixon said. "I want to understand why we are only learning about this problem now." Heading the inquiry will be the city's health commissioner, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, who ordered the closure of Swann Park on Thursday after tests showed arsenic at levels more than 100 times higher than generally considered safe.

Some people may have had the rare misfortune of being turned down for a loan or being offered a loan at a higher interest rate because of a low credit score. But for low-income people in Baltimore, it's an all-too-common experience, according to a recent report from the Job Opportunities Task Force. Credit scores have increasingly become a screening device to determine not only the interest rate on a home mortgage or a car loan but also whether a poor person can rent an apartment or get a job. It's a problem that calls for more flexibility on the part of financial institutions, closer monitoring of "debt management" companies and targeted campaigns to educate low-income consumers.

"Help is on the way." That's what presidential candidate George W. Bush promised our military seven years ago. Of all the broken promises of the Uniter-Not-Divider's 2000 campaign of mass deception, this has to be the most shameful, because our military, though still the strongest in the world, is under severe duress. Strains can be seen almost everywhere you look. Before he left his position as Army chief of staff last month, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker told the Senate Armed Services Committee that our troops in the field are underserved because of a lack of support personnel, such as translators.

Man sought in sex assault of teen Police asked yesterday for the public's help in identifying a man wanted in the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl yesterday morning in the Bowleys Quarters area of Baltimore County. The attack took place about 7:45 a.m. as the girl walked to her bus stop on Clarks Point Road near Bowleys Quarters Road, according to county police. A man grabbed the girl at knifepoint and demanded money. When the girl said she had none, the man dragged her into a wooded area off Clarks Point Road and sexually assaulted her, police said.

A coalition of Howard County church and community groups won a promise from County Executive Ken Ulman to create a separate housing fund to allow quick action on affordable-housing opportunities. The group, People Acting Together In Howard, or PATH, is pushing Ulman and other elected officials for a range of changes to provide and preserve more lower-cost housing, public transportation and youth employment opportunities. At a packed meeting of about 250 people Sunday night at the Meeting House interfaith center in Oakland Mills, Ulman mostly agreed with the PATH members' requests on all those issues, including the housing fund.

The Allied Chemical Company deliberately withheld test results three decades ago showing high arsenic levels in a South Baltimore park, a city task force concludes in a report released yesterday. The task force found that Allied Chemical allowed local health officials in 1976 to falsely believe that levels of arsenic in Swann Park were low and resulted from the city's routine spraying of weed killer. But internal documents show the company knew that large amounts of arsenic -- a carcinogen -- billowed through torn filters on smokestacks of the Allied pesticide factory next to the park, at one point blanketing the ball fields "like snow," according to the report by the Swann Park Task Force.

A task force appointed by the county to examine tax breaks for senior citizens may expand its work to include other segments in need of relief. "There is a consensus among the [County] Council that the scope of our investigation should be broadened," Ted L. Meyerson, chairman of the task force, told the group Thursday. He characterized the prospect as a "high probability." The needs of renters and the disabled are the sectors most likely to be examined, although Meyerson said that the council might wish to include the "general poor," as well.

At the age of 9, April Haines witnessed the death of her mother at the hands of a drunken boyfriend. "It happened when my brother and sister were in the house," she recalled decades later. "My brother was trying to fight him off, stop him, and he hurt him, too. They took her away, she went into a coma, and I never saw her again." The murder of a parent by an abusive spouse or domestic partner is a devastating event in the lives of families and children that inflicts psychological wounds that never fully heal.

Guy Salomon of Gwynn Oak writes: I read with interest your recent column about the Task Force on Fisheries Management and have some questions. I checked the August meeting summary and noted a list of attendees that included you under "Other Attendees." Can anyone attend these meetings, and if so what is the process to be able to? Can attendees add their two cents? Who appoints the attendees? Seems that there are a lot of "official groups" (read money and backing). How are they selected?

It's been a busy summer at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The joint task force in charge of the 226 remaining detainees is spending about $440,000 to expand the recreation yards at Camp 6. At nearby Camp 4, which offers communal living for the most "compliant" captives, the soccer yard is being enlarged. At Camp 5, a maximum-security facility, a $73,000 classroom is under construction. In March, the task force added art classes to the thrice-weekly instruction it offers in Arabic, Pashtu and English, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

You pay your money and you take your chances. In the case of the 2007 law that nearly doubled some fishing license fees in return for a review of state fisheries operations by a task force of citizens, it wasn't exactly an instance of us having any say over the opening of our wallets. One could argue that over the years, the General Assembly neglected its responsibility for all Department of Natural Resources operations and then papered over its willful disregard with another helping of anglers' money.

People convicted of driving while impaired twice within five years will have their licenses suspended for a year, according to a state law that will go into effect Oct. 1. The change is among new laws announced Monday during a news conference at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup. Noting that 152 people were killed last year on Maryland roadways in alcohol-related fatalities and that there were 68 DUI arrests made per day throughout the state, Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown said drunken driving is "a public health issue, it's a highway safety priority and it's a crime."

Big changes are likely on the horizon for Maryland fishing licenses, and we're not just talking about swapping out a 9 for a 10 and a 10 for an 11. The reasons are simple: The 2007 law that temporarily raised license fees to put more money in the Fisheries Service piggy bank kicks the bucket June 30. And the federal government says that beginning in January, states must count and record all saltwater anglers, including those who have never before been...

All Maryland high school graduates would be prepared for college-level math and science courses, and the state's universities would triple their production of teachers in those fields, under a five-year, $72 million plan unveiled Thursday by a state task force appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley. The plan also calls for a 40 percent increase in the number of science, technology, engineering and math graduates produced by state universities and for a sweeping effort to convert research and development into job-producing industry.

In the wake of a spate of highly publicized cases of animal cruelty, Baltimore has created a task force to curb such crimes. Mayor Sheila Dixon announced Tuesday the creation of the Anti-Animal Abuse Task Force, a group including representatives from city offices, the police, the state's attorney's office, animal welfare organizations and city residents. Over a year, the task force will assess the effectiveness of Baltimore's cruelty laws and brainstorm ways to raise awareness of animal abuse.

State officials are about to go after the last of the mute swans - beautiful to some, a menace to others - living in Maryland. In what many believe will be the final word in a long fight, Secretary of Natural Resources John Griffin on Monday accepted the report of a task force on the swans, saying that his staff is "unfortunately compelled" to continue population control efforts on the fewer than 500 birds still living on the Chesapeake Bay and its...

Why are the lives of 220 men, women and children considered so meaningless in Annapolis? Why do their deaths not set off alarm bells, trigger outrage, rally our elected leaders to action? The General Assembly's indifference to the carnage wrought by drunken and drugged drivers on Maryland roads is staggering. This year, they had a chance to do something significant about the problem - to strike a blow for the 220 who are killed by impaired drivers annually. What did they do? Oh, they passed some bills, but for the most part they are watered-down, milquetoast efforts.