Free Republic

When Baltimore’s previous mayor, Catherine Pugh left office, it was because she was preparing to do a three year stretch in prison for scamming nearly a million dollars out of various organizations using her self-published children’s books. She was replaced by City Council leader Jack Young, who has thus far been doing a competent and honest job by all accounts. Unfortunately, Young said from day one that he was only an interim mayor and he had no intention of running for a full term of his own. That means that a new election will be held this year to...

On Capitol Hill, Representative Chris Van Hollen is, literally and figuratively, a Democratic fair-haired boy. An American son of diplomats born while his parents served in Pakistan, he has used his fund-raising savvy, policy smarts and easy manner to position himself, party elders assumed, as a potential Democratic speaker of the House. Instead, Mr. Van Hollen, now running for the Senate in his home state of Maryland, is fighting for his survival in an identity politics primary that raises an explosive question: Should a white man, or a black woman, inherit the seat held for 30 years by Barbara A....

Just one day ahead of the anniversary of the worst riot Baltimore had seen in more than 40 years, its residents will head to the polls to determine who will lead the city for the next four years. […] Shortly after the April 27, 2015, unrest, Democratic Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake instituted a mandatory 10 p.m. curfew. Four months later, she announced she wouldn’t seek re-election. The open race attracted a flood of hopefuls declaring their candidacy; before the Feb. 3 deadline passed, 13 Democrats jumped into the primary. The two most politically entrenched candidates emerged as front-runners: Sheila Dixon, who...

Chalk one up for Lady Justice with the decision of a Baltimore federal court judge to toss out a bogus lawsuit brought by the city’s convicted thief Mayor, Sheila Dixon. The City’s Chief Executive, who was convicted last month of stealing gift cards she solicited from “a wealthy developer”, pressed forward with her ridiculous lawsuit alleging Wells Fargo “triggered millions of dollars in damages… by causing increased foreclosures through racist predatory lending.” In making his ruling, U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz said, “The alleged connection is even more implausible when considered against the background of other factors leading to...

What's the difference between a criminal conviction and "probation before judgment"? For Mayor Sheila Dixon, it's hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement money - one of the biggest things at stake in her legal troubles. By technically avoiding conviction under a plea deal reached Wednesday, she remains eligible for an $83,000 annual pension that not only starts paying out immediately after she leaves office but rises over time along with the salary of whoever is mayor of Baltimore. So the mayor who put Baltimore through two years of hell will get a handsome check from city taxpayers for years...

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, convicted last month on one count of embezzlement, is stepping down. WBAL AM-1090 reported Wednesday afternoon Dixon would leave office Feb. 4. The decision by Dixon, a Democrat, was revealed Wednesday as her lawyers were set to argue in court that the mayor deserved a new trial because of juror misconduct. She was scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 21. Under the state constitution, Dixon would have been required to step down as mayor upon her sentencing, with City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake assuming Dixon’s mayoral duties. Speculation had run rampant in recent weeks that city leaders...

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, convicted last month on one count of embezzlement, is stepping down. WBAL AM-1090 reported Wednesday afternoon Dixon would leave office Feb. 4. The decision by Dixon, a Democrat, was revealed Wednesday as her lawyers were set to argue in court that the mayor deserved a new trial because of juror misconduct. She was scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 21. Under the state constitution, Dixon would have been required to step down as mayor upon her sentencing, with City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake assuming Dixon’s mayoral duties. Speculation had run rampant in recent weeks that city leaders...

Jurors in the theft trial of Sheila Dixon convicted the Baltimore mayor Tuesday on a single charge of taking gift cards intended for the city's poor. Although Dixon was acquitted of a felony theft charge, her conviction could force her from office. The jury found Dixon not guilty of the most serious crime, felony theft. The jury decided that Dixon did not knowingly steal about $530 in Target and Best Buy gift cards purchased in December 2005 by developer Patrick Turner, who testified they were intended for "the children of Baltimore." Dixon was City Council president at the time. The...

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon is about to put her political future in the hands of a jury. Dixon goes on trial Monday on theft charges. She's accused of hitting up her wealthy developer pals to donate thousands of dollars' worth of gift cards to needy families. Prosecutors say she used those gift cards for her personal shopping instead.

The Baltimore mayor's chief of staff and two other government officials sued an Ocean City Domino's pizza and related businesses for $30 million after employees at the beachfront pizzeria refused to serve them and allegedly imprisoned them in the restaurant for five to 10 minutes about 1:30 a.m. Aug. 15. The owner of the Ocean City restaurant, John S. Basil, said service was refused because the three were "uncooperative," "belligerent" and "intoxicated," and denies that the three were held against their will, according to court papers. A Worcester County Circuit Court judge ruled that most of the business entities connected...

Circuit Court Judge Dennis M. Sweeney on Thursday dismissed four perjury charges and one misconduct charge against Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon. Seven other criminal charges against the mayor, including accusations that she stole gift cards intended for the needy, still stand. The judge also dismissed the entire bribery case against City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton. The councilwoman responded in an e-mail to her supporters: "God that can do anything but fail has found favor with this child of his ... HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!"

Snubbed again. (Baltimore)Mayor Sheila Dixon got the big brush-off after being shut out of a conference with the nation's most powerful mayors. It's the latest fallout from her indictment on criminal charges. ---snip--- In a WJZ Exclusive interview, the mayor says she was hurt when Obama made his first public snub. That's when the president failed to mention her name during his big Baltimore visit last month. ----snip--- Both snubs follow Dixon's indictment on perjury, theft and fraud charges.

"Madness is rare in individuals, but in groups, parties, nations and ages it is the rule" - Nietzsche This is the third time I have headed my post with that Nietzsche quote. This time, however, instead of using it to reinforce my position, I am going to juxtapose it against its uglier creature cousin that was created out of Obama's left leaning witches crew. The brew runs in the following way: "Financial health and virtue is rare in individuals, but in groups, parties, nations and ages it is the rule." The strategy used to destroy capitalism once and for...

A Maryland grand jury on Friday indicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon on 12 criminal counts, including theft and perjury, for alleged official misconduct beginning when she was a councilwoman. A number of the charges relate to gifts that prosecutors say Ms. Dixon received from developers, including her former boyfriend, Ronald Lipscomb, and didn't properly disclose. Mr. Lipscomb isn't named in the indictment but was charged with bribery this week in Baltimore. His lawyer has said he is innocent. In addition, the Maryland prosecutor's office charged that for four years Ms. Dixon misused holiday gift cards that were intended to be...

BALTIMORE — Mayor Sheila Dixon of Baltimore was indicted Friday, accused of stealing gift cards donated to the city for needy families and failing to report trips, fur coats and other luxuries paid for by a local developer who was her former boyfriend. Mayor Sheila Dixon of Baltimore at her inauguration ceremony in 2007. The indictment, which follows a nearly three-year state investigation, charges that from 2003, when she was City Council president, until shortly after she became the first woman to be elected mayor of Baltimore, in 2007, Ms. Dixon, a Democrat, committed perjury, theft, fraudulent misappropriation and misconduct...

Dixon, a Democrat, has been the target of a nearly three-year probe by State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh into corruption at City Hall, an investigation that has centered on allegations that Dixon has used her office to award lucrative contracts to various people including her sister, her then-boyfriend and her former campaign chairman.

BALTIMORE — Mayor Sheila Dixon was indicted Friday on charges that she accepted illegal gifts during her time as mayor and City Council president, including travel, fur coats and gift cards intended for the poor that she allegedly used instead for a holiday shopping spree. A grand jury indicted Dixon on 12 counts, including four counts of perjury and two counts of theft over $500. She was also charged with theft under $500, fraudulent misappropriation

PHILADELPHIA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - A grand jury on Friday indicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon on 12 counts including perjury, theft and fraudulent misappropriation stemming in part from gifts she received from a former boyfriend, prosecutors said. The indictment alleges that in 2004, Dixon received gift cards used to buy electronics including a PlayStation 2, CDs and DVDs. The cards were intended to be given to needy families but Dixon used them to purchase items for herself, it says. Those actions violate the city's Ethics Disclosure Law under which public employees are required to disclose gifts, the indictment says. Dixon,...

BALTIMORE -- Maryland's state prosecutor said a grand jury has indicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon on 12 counts of corruption as part of a long-running investigation that saw a councilwoman indicted earlier this week. The prosecutor's office announced the indictment on its Web site on the final day of a four-month grand jury session in which a City Council member and a prominent developer who once dated the mayor were indicted on public corruption charges. The indictment followed a three-year investigation by the state prosecutor's office into City Hall finances. Dixon's attorneys said they and the mayor would make statements...

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon said today that she intends to keep a $3,700 pay increase quietly granted last month by a powerful city spending panel on which she serves. Dixon said that she, City Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake and other members of the City Council all deserved increases because city employee union members this year also got pay hikes.