Corrupt Catherine

It's not every week that I take aim at a local issue, but this week was truly special here in Charm City. This week we learned that our very own mayor, Catherine "Le" Pugh, managed not to disclose for more than eight years that she had been selling 30,000 copies of her blockbuster best seller, Healthy Holly, to various institutions over which she had played various direct and indirect oversight roles. Conflict of interest? Nah. Poor judgment? Absolutely not! Good reason to resign? Never.

What's the next book in the series? Corrupt Catherine?

And folks wonder why Bmore is such a hot mess - what with the city literally and figuratively bleeding people between the continued middle class flight and spiking violent crime rates, respectively. Just another example of inner city decay? More like city officials' inner moral decay. Some quick background: Pugh won the last mayoral race here in Bmore, beating out former mayor Sheila Dixon, mainly for one reason: she didn't have a sordid past involving nearly being convicted by a jury of her peers of a felony theft charge.

Le Pugh might actually one up her predecessor on that count, once the dust settles and she chooses to come back from her extended "leave of absence." I'm not sure she has much to look forward to. Several major public and private sector institutions, including the city council (by a unanimous vote) and the Greater Baltimore Committee, have asked her to resign, but she's not having it. No siree! She's one committed pol; committed to what exactly, outside of self-enrichment, is any one's guess.

But just as surely as spring has finally arrived in full bloom here in Baltimore, Mayor Pugh is not one to let a few naysayers get in the way of her being of service to this fine city. So the next time you walk out onto your back porch and catch a whiff of that all too familiar stench coming from your alley way, don't call 311. That's not your garbage sitting there (STILL) going uncollected. No, it's just her honor, Catherine Le Pugh, proving that she is indeed the real embodiment (and scent) of all that is right (and ripe) about our beloved city.