By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982
UPADTE: The Guardian, The Independent, The Baltimore Sun and LabourList all got hooked, lined and sinkered by this, which was a hoax inexplicably deisgned to deceive, arranged by LabourHome's Alex Hilton. Lesson learned: check twice. Question asked: why, Alex? Hopefully he'll let us know in due course. In the meantime, apologies.
The Mayor of Baltimore, Sheila Dixon, has been dragged into the row ignited by Chris Grayling earlier in the week, and has released a statement defending her city's reputation:
"Fellow citizens
This week I was alerted to a speech made by a Member of the British Parliament, a Mr Chris Grayling, who suggested his country should fear becoming like our city of Baltimore as portrayed in the HBO series, The Wire. We all watched The Wire and while it was sometimes a heart-breaking reflection of reality, it was in the main, merely entertaining fiction.
The television show failed to reflect the best we have in this city, our sense of community, our hospitality and our proud history and culture. To present a television show as the real Baltimore is to perpetuate a fiction that dishonours our city. It is as pointless as boasting that Baltimore has a per capita homicide rate a fraction of that in the popular UK television show Midsomer Murders.
The Baltimore Police Department is working hard to protect the people of this city and it should be remembered that The Wire was just a television show. As this video shows, there is so much more to Baltimore than The Wire.
Mayor Sheila Dixon
City of Baltimore"
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Meanwhile. My look at Paul "He's Bananas!" Rowen MP's expenses vs Nick Clegg MP's self righteous twaddle might be amusing (or not, for you to say) but it is also serious. A sense of humour is a valuable thing in politics and Alex has one while which Porky Paul hasn't.
If the only weapon you can lay your hands on is a twig, my advice would be to whistle and pass on by. Shamik will be along soon enough to hoover it up.
I've been a victim of this and I'm not feeling very pleased about it. It costs a lot of time, money, and personal upset to deal with it. Neither Labour nor Labour List were very supportive at the time and I haven't forgotten that.
Deal with it before someone deals with you. Kapiche?
after lighting the blue touchpaper retired to a safe distance.
James Grant - don't let the truth get in the way of a good story...
"A Baltimore grand jury handed up two new indictments against Mayor Sheila Dixon — the first accusing her of three counts of theft, three counts of misappropriation and one count of misconduct in office, and the second indictment charging her with two counts of perjury.
State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh said in a press release that he intends to dismiss the original indictment that he obtained in January, which initially charged the mayor with 12 criminal counts. "
Prosecutors are investigating whether Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon received thousands of dollars in gifts - including fur coats - from a prominent developer whose projects benefited from tax breaks and zoning changes she supported as City Council president, a document obtained by The Sun shows.
Court records, drafted by the state prosecutor's office in November, indicate that Dixon also went on lavish trips to Boston, the Bahamas, Chicago and Colorado with the developer, Ronald H. Lipscomb. In one instance, the two left Baltimore for New York by train hours after she had voted to approve a tax break for one of his company's largest projects.
Yesterday, a Baltimore City grand jury began calling witnesses in the case to testify in a courthouse a block from City Hall.
The documents, presented by prosecutors to a Baltimore County District Court, offer the most detailed accounting yet of the two-year investigation into City Hall spending and provide new information about possible ethical lapses that occurred when Dixon was City Council president.
After receiving questions from The Sun yesterday, Dixon and Lipscomb acknowledged publicly for the first time that they had had a relationship and exchanged gifts, but both denied that the relationship played any role in projects that Dixon helped advance on the City Council and the Board of Estimates.
"In late 2003 and early 2004, I had a personal relationship with Ron Lipscomb," Dixon said in a statement. "We were both separated from our respective spouses at the time, we traveled together and exchanged gifts on special occasions. Our brief relationship was personal, and it did not influence my decisions related to matters of city government."
Under penalty of perjury, the city ethics law requires elected officials to report gifts from people who benefit from city business. Dixon has not reported any gifts from Lipscomb in at least the past seven years. His company, Doracon Contracting, has been involved in several high-profile developments in Baltimore, including those that have received financial incentives from the city. Lipscomb, for instance, is involved in the major development of Harbor East and in the revitalization in East Baltimore near Johns Hopkins Hospital.
For months prosecutors have declined to confirm that an investigation is under way, but the documents confirm that the office was investigating crimes of "bribery, perjury and misconduct in office" as late as November. The investigation appears to have widened since the drafting of the affidavit - prosecutors subpoenaed last week new witnesses in the case who were not mentioned in the affidavit, the first of whom testified before a Baltimore grand jury yesterday.
For instance, Patrick Turner, of Baltimore-based Turner Development, testified yesterday. Turner, whose projects include the development of Westport along the Middle Branch, is not named in the November affidavit.
However, the issues raised in the affidavit still appear to be part of the case. As recently as last week, prosecutors were looking for fur coats they claimed in the affidavit that Lipscomb gave to Dixon.
Prosecutors state that Lipscomb gave Dixon a ,000 gift certificate to Lutherville furrier Mano Swartz in 2003, which Dixon used to purchase a Persian lamb coat and a mink coat, according to the records.
The furrier's owner, Richard Swartz, told prosecutors he remembered "a guy coming into the store and [he] requested that no name [be] put on the certificate." The certificate was purchased with a Lowe's Platinum Visa card that investigators traced back to Doracon after subpoenaing the firm's bank records.
Prosecutors were apparently seeking those same furs on the day they raided Dixon's home in the Hunting Ridge neighborhood on Tuesday. After the raid, which refocused public attention on the investigation, Dixon said she owned "several" furs and declined to say whether they were gifts.
"In Mr. Lipscomb's entire business career he has never asked an elected official, including Ms. Dixon, to do anything for him or his businesses, but has devoted his time and effort on behalf of legacy wealth for minorities, often at great personal disadvantage," Lipscomb's attorney, Gerard P. Martin, said in a statement.
Maryland state prosecutors declined to comment on the case or the documents. An attorney for Dixon, Dale P. Kelberman, also declined to comment.
The documents are part of an affidavit prosecutors crafted in seeking a search warrant they used to raid Doracon's Biddle Street offices last November. A similar affidavit for the raid on Dixon's home is under a court-ordered seal.
The Doracon documents also offer a clue as to why the investigation has taken more than two years - prompting Dixon, at one point, to call it a "witch hunt." In addition to their searches through public records, prosecutors had subpoenaed records from at least half a dozen private companies - including United Airlines, AirTran, Amtrak, American Express and several banks - and were investigating 57 limited liability corporations with ties to Lipscomb.
In addition to the coats, prosecutors have delved into a series of extravagant vacations that Dixon and Lipscomb took together, even as Dixon at the same time voted on taxpayer-funded benefits to go to Lipscomb's company.
"They became very close over a two or three month period after he moved from his home in late 2003," according to the affidavit. "At that time, Lipscomb was estranged from his wife."
In March 2004, Dixon traveled to Chicago on a ,518.20 round-trip flight paid for by an MBNA credit card that belonged to Dennis Cullop, Doracon's vice president, according to the documents. Lipscomb arrived in Chicago at the same time.
My old town was certainly destroyed by rubber stamped mass development by Tory councillors who liked the thrill of being next to powerful people. It's embarrassing how cheap they were to buy off. A few bottles of wine here, a party donation there. Sadly, the one who did get nailed died before the case could be prosecuted.
Ah, yes. Then there's Tarmac PLC who leaned on the John Major government to water down sound proofing legislation. The regulations got pushed beneath the already minimal scientifically established minimum and caused a great deal of human suffering. This is only now being corrected under a Labour government via the Human Rights Act.
Will someone charge John Major with corruption please? Will the Tories apologise?
Great line. I'm stealing it.
One would have thought that after five series of The Wire Sheila Dixon would have been fed up dealing with politicians referencing her city to make political points. Let alone UK opposition politicians.
One wonders if, perhaps, someone from Labour HQ asked her specially to weigh into this UK debate.....
Urgh.
The city has still got an awful crime rate anyway. Sheila, sack the police force and bring in the National Guard.
This is almost embarssing as that Sword of Truth nonsense.
Mr Hilton has obvious talents in IT and so forth but perhaps he could engage his brain and put it to good use instead of damaging the party he is supposed to represent. How bad does it have to get?