Vanguard

A Baltimore developer is sprucing up several of the stores that front Reisterstown Road in downtown Pikesville as part of a $5 million project that will also include the first Maryland location for a Florida-based restaurant chain. The Courtyard @ Centre Court project, by Vanguard Equities, is the latest for an area that county officials say has attracted more than $57 million in private investment in the past five years - improvements that they and an area business representative said are helping to revitalize the aging community south of Interstate 695. For a long time, "people didn't go to urban areas," said Sherrie Becker, the executive director of the Pikesville Chamber of Commerce.

Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. did not play fast and loose with judicial ethics rules in a 2002 appeal involving the Vanguard mutual fund company, as some recent reports suggest. Eight Senate Democrats have initiated an inquiry into the case, requesting information about Judge Alito's initial decision not to recuse himself even though he held a six-figure investment in Vanguard funds at the time. They will discover that Judge Alito's conduct in the matter, though not perfect, actually provides a good example of how judges should ultimately handle financial conflicts of interest.

WASHINGTON -- Democrats directed new attention yesterday to the question of Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s possible conflicts of interest, sending a letter to his supervising judge in New Jersey requesting documents related to his failure to recuse himself from a 2002 case involving Vanguard Group, the mutual fund company. After a three-judge panel including Alito ruled in favor of Vanguard, the investor who sued the company objected that Alito should not have heard the case.

I own shares of Van- guard Windsor Fund in my retirement account. What do you think of this investment? - H.S., via the Internet In existence since 1958, this fund was once the nation's largest and the domain of famous contrarian John Neff. In recent years it has been a bit streaky because its new managers often take large positions in individual stocks and sectors. Returns were hurt by an untimely jump into telecommunications stocks, avoidance of energy stocks and disappointing technology investments.

A LOT of people got excited when Fidelity Investments announced recently that it was cutting fees on five index mutual funds. You heard talk about price wars with the Vanguard Group, of a new "low-cost leader" in fund investing and more. But the real story is not so much about the change in cost structures as it is about investment strategies and opportunities. For die-hard index fund investors, the good news has more to do with tax benefits than lower costs. Fidelity announced that it was putting a fee waiver on its Spartan 500 Index, Spartan U.S. Equity Index, Spartan Total Market Index, Spartan Extended Market Index and Spartan International Index funds.

ONE WAY TO GET cranked up for voting on Nov. 2 is to examine how your mutual funds voted this year. Last week, in filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission, hundreds of mutual fund companies reported for the first time how they voted in elections of directors and other proxy voting matters at the companies their funds own. It was the first of a huge annual data dump that is certain to generate many doctoral dissertations and, if you pay attention,...

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. - Vanguard Group, the second-largest U.S. mutual fund manager, withheld votes from at least one corporate board nominee at 60 percent of the companies in which it submitted proxies. In all, Vanguard didn't support 30 percent of board candidates during the 12 months that ended June 30, the company said yesterday in a posting on its Web site. The year before, Vanguard voted against 40 percent of individual nominees and opposed at least one director at 70 percent of the companies.

Take heart, weary investors: While you are having breakfast, walking your dog or heading to work, thereM-Fs someone from corporate America watching out for your interests. HeM-Fs a former chief executive officer who was never indicted, never accepted excessive rewards and never hid financial information. In fact, he despises leaders guilty of transgressions and all who aided them. His agenda has you in mind: Investing should be low-cost and devoid of all unreasonable fees. There must be transparency in the policies of companies and mutual funds.

Ten police officers were sworn in yesterday as officers and board members of Vanguard Justice Society, signaling an overhaul of the advocacy group for minority police officers. Each officer and board member was newly elected -- including the president, Sgt. Darryl Massey, a homicide detective supervisor known for his interrogation skills. Massey said the 650-member group would have discussions with police leaders about what he described as a dearth of minorities and women in leadership positions.

A bitter dispute between Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark and the president of a group that advocates for black officers is playing out in e-mails to the entire 3,300- member force, with Clark calling the group's leader "reckless" for lobbing heated accusations at a top police commander last week. The battle began on Thursday when Officer Jeffrey Redd, president of the Vanguard Justice Society, and several other members of the organization gathered at police headquarters to hold a news conference attacking Clark's chief of staff.