Did I Hear A Briefcase Opening?
Our City Council, under pressure from federal prosecutors, has surrendered on the issue of their $5,000 personal slush funds. Council members will now have to submit reciepts for their expenses, which will then be reimbursed. The council slush funds have a long and seedy history:

The old system was secretly created by the city in 1968 as a way to slip extra cash to the council without requiring members to face public scrutiny, said a Sun article from April 1970.

Articles at that time said council members were advised to "keep it quiet" when they picked up the quarterly checks, which grew over the years from $750 a year to $5,000.

The members were to use the money to cover incidental business expenses. Some deposited it into personal checking accounts without keeping records or paying taxes on it, council members told The Sun.

These checks were on top of their annual salaries, $48,000 last year, and the more than $80,000 that each received from the city last year to cover the expenses of his or her office.

Council president Sheila Dixon defended the expense accounts with this bit of SGA rhetoric:

"I don't have anything to hide," said City Council President Sheila Dixon, who as head of the legislative body receives an $80,000-a-year salary, more than $500,000 a year to run her office and a $7,000 expense account. "These perks are perks that everyone has gotten over the years."

Stuff like this made me especially nauseated this tax season, when we had to fork over $800 to this crooked burg.

Another round of applause for Thomas DiBiagio, who has made like Rex Banner since his appointment as US Attorney for Maryland. DiBiagio can add this triumph to a list that includes the conviction of former city police commissioner Ed Norris and the recent indictment of Stephen Amos for funneling $6.3 million in federal crime grants to pay for Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's political staff.

This guy DiBiagio has big, shiny balls, which he will need if he plans on running for statewide office in Maryland. Here's how he said goodbye to his former boss and predecessor as US attorney, whom DiBiagio thought insufficiently committed to prosecuting corruption:

The tension between DiBiagio and Battaglia led to an infamous incident at his goodbye ceremony in spring 2000. DiBiagio stood in front of the more than 100 attendees gathered and spoke about how, as a young assistant, he assumed that the office had to be run by a prosecutor with outstanding legal skills, judgment and integrity.

He then paused, looked over at Battaglia and said that he guessed he'd been wrong, according to several people who attended. People gasped in disbelief.

ZING!!! Man, I can't wait until 2006, when DiBiagio will most likely be running for Attorney General against Montgomery County state's attorney Doug Gansler.

Marc