Trust

TRUST US, the men in the White House keep saying to America: We know what's best for you; this war is best for you. But trust must first be given to be received. Why have President Bush and his men treated us as infants unable to think for ourselves? Why have they trusted us so little as to feel it necessary to tell us fibs that veered perilously close to deception throughout the process that led to this war?The answer is quite simple -- and profoundly insulting. It is clear now that Bush and his advisers believe that to tell the public anything approaching the whole truth might get people thinking and worrying and questioning.

Scoring goals behind his back or behind his head comes naturally for Maryland's Jay Carlson. He was taught to shoot every way possible by his father Chip, who played at Johns Hopkins. “When I was younger, my dad told me to score however you can,” the sophomore attackman recalled Tuesday afternoon. “I remember playing in the backyard and my dad just fed me and I was just kind of having fun with it and it ended up working pretty well for me. So I just kept it going. It can be risky, but I just try to get it in the goal when I can.” As the No. 9 and sixth-seeded Terps (10-3)

Don't be fooled. This baby can't be trusted. Quite suddenly, he cannot be relied upon to stay where he is put. Can you believe that? He's been rolling a bit for the past few weeks (so we've obviously been careful about where we lay him down), but now, he's rolling with purpose . Last night, he rolled across most of the living room to get to his big brother. The night before that, he saw me peeking in on him in his room and rolled -- and rotated himself! -- all the way to one end of his crib.

The Baltimore Police Department's internal affairs chief is leaving the agency, a little more than a year after being brought on to reassure the public that a scandal-weary agency would get tougher policing itself, a spokesman confirmed. Grayling Williams, who joined the department last January from the Department of Homeland Security's counter narcotics office, resigned Thursday to pursue another opportunity, chief spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Williams referred a reporter's questions to the spokesman.

Newsweek publishes a cover story by Niall Ferguson severely critical of President Obama. That is fine; there is ample ground to criticize the president from both the right and the left, and the First Amendment makes criticism of public officials a sacred right. The problem, as Paul Krugman painstakingly pointed out , is that Mr. Ferguson's article is open to repeated challenge on factual accuracy. Evidently Newsweek thought that anything written by a Harvard professor would be beyond reproach, and besides, the magazine dismantled its fact checking staff in 1996 . Instead, Newsweek spokesman Andrew Kirk told Politico, "We, like other news organisations today, rely on our writers to submit factually accurate material.

Mark your calendars for upcoming screenings of the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition 's new documentary, Stealing Trust. The film chronicles how ordinary people across the state have fallen into financial troubles as a result of debt collection, shady contractors and banks that refused to offer loan modifications --- and how regulation failed to protect them. You can watch Stealing Trust at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 4 at the Creative Alliance at The Patterson . UPDATED : Tickets cost $8, but $3 for members.

Recently it has been reported that some members of the House of Representatives are fearful of voting to approve the Senate version of the health care reform bill because they don't trust the Senate to then follow through and pass their proposed changes. Is it any wonder, when one house of the legislative branch of our government doesn't trust the other, that public opinion polls show historically low levels of approval for this Congress? Now is the time for intelligent voters to start thinking about the November elections as being our chance to clean house.

Baltimore's beleaguered school system is trying hard to regain public confidence and trust. That's a key reason why the Board of School Commissioners has insisted that Chief Operating Officer Eric T. Letsinger vacate his post after allegations that he planned to use system funds to pay for a chartered boat trip. While the situation is regrettable, the taint seemed to be too damaging for Mr. Letsinger to continue functioning effectively - and the school board is making every effort to be consistent in applying the same standards of conduct to all of its employees.

Conventional wisdom around the Ravens was that once Jimmy Smith recovered from the high left ankle sprain that had shelved him since the season opener on Sept. 11, the rookie cornerback would quickly overtake Danny Gorrer as the fifth defensive back in the defense's nickel package. But that wasn't the case on Monday night as Gorrer, not Smith, lined up as the nickel back in the team's 12-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Smith, who is still dealing with some soreness in the ankle, was relegated to strictly special teams work against Jacksonville.

IT'S A SCANDAL that predates Enron, Tyco International and WorldCom: Boxes of records have been destroyed, and the fate of the documents covered up. A whistleblower needed protecting. The accounts of about 300,000 people are at stake. And the potential financial fallout could exceed $20 billion. It sounds like the latest example of corporate corruption, but this scandal is a case of colossal bureaucratic bungling. Malfeasance isn't the problem; mismanagement is. At issue is the Department of Interior's shockingly lax management of 56 million acres of Indian land and the royalties paid to individual Native Americans or Indian tribes for use of the land.

Torrey Smith has heard it before. About three months after the wide receiver was drafted, the Ravens released three popular and productive offensive players, and Smith remembers the talk that the team was headed for some struggles. "They had cut [ Derrick] Mason , [ Todd] Heap and Willis McGahee [and] everybody was panicking and saying, 'Oh, you're going to be terrible,'” Smith said Saturday before hosting his charity basketball game at Stafford High School, his alma mater.

My wife and I are lifelong Columbians. Three months ago, our first child, Elijah, was born. I am writing in support of the Inner Arbor Plan not for myself, but because it will be an amazing place for our son to learn and grow. For the first time, Columbians of all ages enthusiastically supported a Columbia Association project. The CA board listened, and voted 8-2 in favor of instituting an independent Inner Arbor Trust to design and implement the plan. Developing the Trust was insightful, as it should not be under the CA board's purview to micromanage the establishment of this focal point.

We've come too far in taking a positive step forward for the future of Columbia to be dragged down into the endless negativity of conspiracy, stagnation and paralysis. In the interest of creating a new vision for Symphony Woods greater than anything the Columbia Association could ever do on its own, the board has voted to create a non-profit 501(c)(3) trust. This trust would allow the receipt of county, state and private funds, while protecting Columbia lien-payers from liabilities undertaken in the pursuit of the Inner Arbor Plan.

Key to the Columbia Association's wholesale revision of its "People's Plan" for Symphony Woods - i.e., the plan developed collaboratively by renowned architects, residents and CA Board and staff   - is a proposed "Symphony Woods Trust. " At CA's meeting on Jan. 31, I was surprised to learn that this entity would not actually be a "Trust. "  Rather, it would be a non-stock corporation, which will apply for IRS designation as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. In 1984, CA's application to the IRS for 501(c)

For the fifth year in a row, Del. Eric M. Bromwell has introduced a bill to authorize slot machines at BWI Marshall Airport It's Bromwell's attempt to infuse the state treasury — specifically the Transportation Trust Fund — with gambling money, and the Baltimore County Democrat said he has no intention of giving up. "I consider this to be the ultimate alternative to a gas tax," he said. "This is exactly how we pay for roads. " The bill would authorize up to 2,500 slot machines in the airport's main terminal beyond the security screening area.

The new plan for Symphony Woods that includes several buildings and restaurants and aerial walkways looks like it is going to cost CA many tens of millions of dollars. The CA staff is suggesting the board establish a trust to oversee the construction, maintenance and operation of new Symphony Woods development as well as presumably collect the rent from these buildings. This trust is supposed to have a five-member board comprised of the CA president, two...

Bill Clinton used the words "change," "new" and "better" some 20 times in his acceptance speech in New York. He emphasized that theme in his recent swing through California. George Bush responded Monday in speeches in Michigan and Wisconsin. "Change has a flip side," he said, "and it's called trust." He used the word "trust" some 40 times in two speeches.Bill Clinton made it clear he means to change the nation's economic policy. George Bush says trust is important in a world leader who must deal with war-and-peace, life-and-death issues.

The Maryland Historic Trust has recommended against allowing the state to approve the National Sailing Hall of Fame on a waterfront property in Annapolis because of the site's significance in city history. Director J. Rodney Little advised the Department of Natural Resources, the property owner, not to negotiate a lease unless the museum backers could come up with plans that preserve the Burtis house, one of the few remaining vestiges of the state capital's blue-collar maritime roots. "It would be ironic for the State to facilitate the destruction of a place so closely associated with the history of Chesapeake Bay conservation, or for the NSHOF to erase this maritime history in the name of sailing heritage," Little wrote Feb. 27. While the DNR does not have to follow the trust's recommendation, Little said, Maryland law requires the agency to take it under consideration.

Baltimore police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts announced Friday the creation of a new unit to oversee internal affairs, audits and the writing of police procedures, a move he hopes will strengthen public confidence in his agency. Jeronimo "Jerry" Rodriguez, a 26-year Los Angeles Police Department veteran, was named deputy commissioner in charge of the new Bureau of Professional Standards. Rodriguez will report directly to Batts and joins Deputy Commissioner John Skinner at the top level of Batts' staff.

Chemical maker W.R. Grace & Co. said Thursday it will adjust the estimated cost of settling its asbestos-related liabilities to $2 billion from the previous estimate of $1.7 billion. The increase reflects higher estimated values of a common stock warrant and deferred payment obligations to be paid to a trust to compensate personal-injury claimants and property owners under the company's bankruptcy reorganization. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2001, partly as a result of asbestos-related lawsuits filed by residents of Libby, Mont., and others.