The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • A2

2 THE BALTIMORE SUN I NEWS I TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2012 1 'JUIN I 1,1 WM, I I L.JLlfrk I JUIN, jIIMARYLAND High court affirms redistricting map Baltimore region population changes under new law Matter could still be put before state's voters in November cyo 0.3 0.2 0.9 Population change 2,024 -233 568 -416 5,703 County Prisoners added Prisoners subtracted Anne Arundel County 777 4,086 Baltimore County 2,024 0 Carroll County 207 440 Harford County 568 0 Howard County 172 588 Baltimore City 7,797 2,094 Anne Arundel County Baltimore County Carroll County Harford County Howard County Baltimore City BY TRICIA BISHOP The Baltimore Sun SOURCE: Maryland Department of Planning, 2070 census issue, and the justices issued an order Monday affirming the panel's finding. A message left with the Legacy Foundation was not returned Monday. Civil rights activists have long conden-med a federal census practice of counting prisoners as correctional-facility residents, even though they can't vote there. "The Supreme Court's ruling is a huge victory for the national campaign to end prison-based gerrymandering," Brenda Wright, vice president for legal strategies at the liberal public-policy group Demos, said in a statement. "This decision sets an important precedent that will encourage other states to reform their redistricting laws." Three others states have since passed laws similar to Maryland's 2010 act, according to Demos: Delaware, New York and California.

triciabishopbaltsun.com twittencorntriciabishop The US. Supreme Court affirmed Monday a lower court's ruling upholding Maryland's new congressional redistricting plan, which counts inmates as living at their last-known addresses instead of in their prison cells. But it may not be the last word on the matter. Some Republican lawmakers opposed to the map, drawn once each decade based on US. census counts, have until Saturday to submit the nearly 56,000 signatures needed to put it on the November ballot and let voters decide whether the plan stays.

They claim Gov. Martin O'Malley and leaders in the House and Senate unfairly separated districts to maximize their party's advantage and give Democrats a good shot at seizing the 6th District seat held by Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett. Civil rights advocates laud the map's new system of counting prisoners as living in their home districts. The change, enacted as part of the state's "No Representation without Population Act" of 2010, boosted Baltimore's population by about 0.9 percent, or 5,700 people, and shrank Somerset County's by more than 10 percent, or 2,700 people.

Liberal groups and urban-area lawmakers hailed the numbers shift as a first-in-the-nation civil rights victory because it stopped padding the population count in rural prison towns, artificially inflating their voting power. But others decried it as a power-play for metropolitan areas like Baltimore and Prince George's County A month after the count was adjusted in October, a conservative group in Iowa, the Legacy Foundation, funded a federal lawsuit organized by a Prince George's County political action committee challenging the redistricting plan. It claimed, among other things, that the changes hurt black voters by diluting their voting strength and violating their constitutional rights, moving them based on race. Maryland's prison population is overwhelmingly African-American. A three-judge panel found no such discrimination, however, and ruled in favor of the state in December.

The plaintiffs in the case appealed to the US. Supreme Court solely on the prison count Mourning an 'all-around great kid' Body of Marine killed in Afghanistan is returned to Maryland BY KEVIN RECTOR The Baltimore Sun ---11, IA! li, 7 x-, i. A 1 1 -r 111'. '4' ''''N 1 e'' I 6 40-t Irl, said, after watching live news coverage of the terrorist attacks on a I3-inch television in his room, unknown to his father. He had come out, a concerned look on his face, and asked his father what was happening.

"So I sat down with him and discussed everything, and I said, 'Everything's going to be all right. We're the United States of America. We can survive this "his father remembered. "And he said, 'Dad, when I'm old enough, I'm going into the military, and I'm going to help protect Corporal Mills never lost sight of that goal and joined the Marines shortly after graduating from high school, on Father's Day 2008, his father said. He was first deployed in 2010 to Now Zad, Afghanistan.

He left home for his second deployment in the country in March. His family would send him care packages, and he would give most of what was in them to Afghan children, his father said. "Gene was just the all-around great kid," his father said. "He wanted to make a difference" Corporal Mills' superior officers have recommended he receive the Purple Heart. Though funeral arrangements have not been completed, Mills will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery after a service at Grace Community Church in Fulton, his father said.

krectorbaltsun.com twittencornfrectorsun "Pops, when I come home, Natty Bohs and crabs?" Marine Lance Cpl. Eugene C. "Gene" Mills III asked his father, Gene Mills II, during an impromptu phone call early last week, about a month before the younger man was due to return home to Laurel from Afghanistan "One more -r-, mission, Pops, and I'll be the son told his father. "Love you, Pops." Eugene Mills III Those were the last words his father a retired Prince George's County police officer known as "Big Gene" would ever hear from "Little 21, a High Road Academy graduate stationed in Helmand province, on his second deployment to the country On Monday, Corporal Mills' remains were returned to the United States at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where family and friends including his father; mother, Theresa Mills; stepmother, Melissa Mills; and brother, Jacob lake" Mills, a rising senior MARK WILSONGETTY PHOTO Marines at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware move the coffin of Lance Cpl. Eugene C.

Mills Ill of Laurel, killed in a fire-fight last week in Afghanistan. His father said Corporal Mills resolved to join the military after the 911 attacks. at Atholton High School were waiting on the tarmac. On Friday, Corporal Mills, a member of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Lejeume, N.C., was leading his five-man infantry team on a patrol in the province's Sangin Valley when they became involved in a firefight Corporal Mills was shot in the upper left chest, his father said. He was treated by another Marine on the ground, then transported to a medical facility in Afghanistan, where he died, his father said.

Two Marines and Laurel Police Chief Richard McLaughlin brought the family the news. "There's nothing worse," Gene Mills said, choking back tears. "You know it's not good. I prayed that it was just he was injured, I prayed that he lost a leg, I prayed that he lost two legs but was OK." The news of Corporal Mills' death quickly swept through Lau rel, where the Mills family has deep roots. Mayor Craig Moe announced flags in the city will be flown at half-staff in honor of Corporal Mills until his funeral services, which have not been scheduled.

"Everybody's coming together," Jim Coffins, president of the Laurel Volunteer Fire Department, said of the city's support for the family. Corporal Mills had first announced his desire to join the military on Sept 11, 2001, his father Council rejects bill seeking more audits of city agencies Rawlings-Blake, Pratt continue dispute over city phone equipment Stokes wanted to put issue before voters in November Comptroller rejects city solicitor's opinion approving purchase BY LUICE BROADWATER The Baltimore Sun GENE SWEENEY JR.BALTIMORE SUN Baltimore City Comptroller Joan M. Pratt uses visual aids to emphasize a point about the difference between telephones and computers. BY JULIE SCHARPER The Baltimore Sun and James Kraft joined Stokes in voting for the measure, which was sent back to committee. As the vote on the bill neared, a member of Rawlings-Blake's staff rushed to alert Councilman Brandon Scott, who had stepped out of the chamber.

Scott, an ally of the mayor's, cast a deciding vote against the bill. Councilman Wiliam "Pete" Welch also voted no, despite being listed as a co-sponsor. Both Councilmen Nick Mosby and Bill Cole made speeches in favor of the concept of audits, but voted against the bill. "Sending it to the voters and changing the charter isn't the solution," Cole said. "Fundamentally, we should be doing audits of taxpayer funds as frequently as possible, and I support that effort.

I cannot support a charter amendment." The Department of Audits, which has 37 auditor positions 31 of which are filled falls under Comptroller Joan M. Pratt's office. She has said conducting the audits would be possible if Rawlings-Blake provided the funding in her budget. In other action, council members confirmed by a 9-6 vote their decision to reject millions of dollars in budget cuts, giving final approval to the mayor's $2.3 billion spending plan. The $6 million in cuts had been part of an effort, led by Young, to redirect funds to prevent the closure of recreation centers and fire companies.

The council also approved a bill, sponsored by Mosby, to ban liquor stores from selling food, soda and other merchandise to anyone under the age of 21 luke.broadwaterbaltsun.com twittencornlukebroadwater take. But as far as I'm concerned, the legality of the purchase is a closed question." When reporters pressed Rawlings-Blake on the topic, she said, "You seem obsessed with this." At issue is a purchase made by Rawlings-Blake's technology office of $659,000 worth of phones and other equipment that Pratt says would facilitate a switch-over to an Internet-based phone service. Rawlings-Blake says only about $55,000 of the total purchase was used to buy 80 phones some with video touchscreens and related equipment. The technology office bought the items from Digicon Rockville office in May and June of last year, at the same time the comptroller's office was seeking bids to overhaul the city's phone system. Pratt says the mayor's technology office worked with her on the bidding process.

The dispute between the two officials came to a head this month when Pratt's office recommended awarding the phone contract to IBM. Rawlings-Blake, who like Pratt is a member of the city's Board of Estimates, asked that a vote on the contract be postponed three weeks. The comptroller's office has overseen the city's Municipal Telephone Exchange since 1949. Rawlings-Blake aides say her technology office is better positioned to supervise the transition to an Internet-based phone system. On Monday, Pratt reiterated accusations that the technology office attempted to circumvent The Baltimore City Council defeated legislation Monday aimed at requiring city agencies to be audited at least once every two years.

The council voted 8-7 against the measure sponsored by Councilman Carl Stokes, who appeared disheartened by the outcome. "I'm almost too stunned to speak," Stokes said. "The young people, fire, police, citizens in general, they're asking me, 'You don't care enough to show us how you're spending the money we're entrusting to you? You won't be "Everyone else is doing it. It's already a best practice," Stokes said. "We're one of the very few jurisdictions in the country to not share with their citizens how their tax dollars are being spent." The legislation would have put a charter amendment requiring the audits before city voters in November.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake opposed the measure but asked the city comptroller's office to examine several agencies that have not been audited in years, starting with the Department of Recreation and Parks. The mayor argued the bill would be too expensive because all 55 city agencies would need to be audited. City Council President Bernard C. lack" Young and council members Bill Henry, Warren Branch, Mary Pat Clarke, Helen Holton Baltimore Comptroller Joan M. Pratt and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake continued to spar Monday over the purchase of phone-related equipment by the mayor's technology office, purchases Pratt says violate city procurement regulations.

Pratt, who has released records documenting the purchase of hundreds of thousands of dollars of phone equipment, said she disagreed with City Solicitor George Nilson's recent written opinion that the transaction was appropriate. "Mr Nilson can describe this purchase in any way that he wishes, but the fact remains that there was no basis for the Mayor's Office of Information Technology to procure a telephone system outside the charter-mandated Pratt said Monday after a meeting of the city's spending board. "Mr. Nilson cannot make a wrong right simply by saying it's right," she said. Rawlings-Blake countered that Nilson's opinion had settled the issue.

"The city solicitor is the chief legal officer for the city, and he made an opinion," Rawlings-Blake said. "If Pratt disagrees, she has other avenues she can the formal bidding process by making the phone purchases from Digicon under an existing blanket contract for computer-related equipment. Nilson, who reviewed the purchase at the mayor's request, said that although the city's blanket contract with Digicon did not specifically mention phones, the latest technology, known as "VoIP" or "voice over Internet protocol," has blurred the lines between phones and computer devices, thus making the purchase legitimate. Pratt disputed his reasoning. "Mr.

Nilson says a computer is a telephone and a telephone is a computer," she said, holding up a VoIP phone in one hand, a laptop in the other. "This is a telephone, and this is a computer." Pratt said she is contemplating hiring an outside attorney to review the deal. The city's inspector general is still reviewing the matter. Nilson, who is appointed by the mayor, is in the process of renewing his contract with the city. The City Council on Monday gave preliminary approval to his reappointment juliescharperbaltsun.com twittencomjuliemore.