The new administration has now been in office for nine months, an acceptable period of gestation, and it is now not too early for a preliminary assessment. Let us first accentuate some positive developments: 1. The administration appears to have placed the Departments of Public Safety and of Juvenile Services in the hands of fully […]
A year into the new administration, and a few months or weeks before the next legislative session, special or general, there is no sign that any study inspiring public confidence has been undertaken of the state’s revenue and tax structure. Instead there is vague talk of conversations between the Governor and Senate President Miller, inspiring […]
The Calvert Institute’s George Liebmann Preaches The Common Sense Of Thinking Locally And Acting Locally Frank Klein Baltimore has its own conservative think tank, but don’t confuse it with the Heritage Foundation. There’s no sign-in book, no large glass door, and no view of Dupont Circle. The Calvert Institute for Policy Research is discreetly tucked […]
– Endorsement by major media organs like The Washington Post and many “liberals” in the nation’s political establishment of the proposed “hate crimes” bill exists in strange juxtaposition with recent articles and editorials on the U.S. attorneys scandal deploring the abuse and over-centralization of federal law enforcement. But the supporters of the hate crimes bill […]
Lee Casey and David Rivkin, in the latest of their many apologias for the Bush administration, again urge the theory of the unitary executive (Times, May 29). In this scheme of things, the Presidency is an elective dictatorship, and subordinate officers like U.S. Attorneys, once the formality of Senate confirmation is over, are removable for […]
The Calvert Institute announces publication of The Trimmer’s Almanac: Ten Years of the Calvert Institute, 1996-2006, available for $30 including postage (five or more copies, $15 each including postage). The Table of Contents of this handsomely bound 660 page volume appears below: Table of Contents Table of Contents i Preface v I. Criminal Justice Charles […]
The news that the Bush administration has replaced seven U.S. attorneys, none charged with or guilty of wrongdoing, with people fairly describable as Washington apparatchiks should give pause to all those concerned with America’s working Constitution. This was made possible by a provision of the Patriot Act allowing the president to make interim appointments of […]
WASHINGTON – The recent election has seen states adopt constitutional amendments reversing the recent Kelo decision allowing New London, Conn., to condemn private homes for purposes of development. That decision was applauded by city officials, and was decried by many conservatives, including some seeking to ban all redistributive government activity. A dialogue of the deaf, […]
In March 2006, The Institute published a study, The Baltimore City Retirement Systems: Heading for Trouble, available online here. That study pointed out that the Employees’ Retirement System of Baltimore City had consistently produced investment results below its benchmark yields based on comparisons with market indices. The shortfalls were as follows: 2004-05.7% 2003-041.0% 2002-03.81% In […]
A Short Attention Span Ten years ago, a City Council Committee, under a Chairman who shall go nameless (his name starts with “O’” and is neither German nor Ukrainian), took a look at the Baltimore City criminal justice system. Its central focus was Baltimore’s notorious Central Booking Facility, a state-financed facility whose operation has important […]