Baltimore officials will begin this month posting the outcomes of all civil lawsuits alleging police brutality and will reconsider their policy of requiring plaintiffs to keet silent after settlements are reached — part of a series of changes made in response to a six-month Baltimore Sun investigation of police misconduct.

City Solicitor George Nilson, who enacted the new policy regarding police settlements and court judgments, said officials also would seek to provide increased training for officers who are most often cited in lawsuits. The moves would give the public more information about the lawsuits, he said Thursday, adding, "I want to end the thinking that we're hiding the ball, because we're not."

Nilson said the moves were made in response to The Sun investigation, which showed the city has paid about $5.7 million since 2011 over lawsuits alleging police brutality and other misconduct — and which sparked a U.S. Department of Justice review of the Police Department. The...

The Maryland Board of Physicians had been alerted to red flags about Dr. William Dando by officials in two states but still allowed him to practice medicine, an inspector general's report has found.

Georgia officials told the board they planned to deny Dando a medical license a year after he was awarded one in Maryland, and Florida officials sent the board documents in 2003 detailing Dando's 1987 rape conviction. Neither notification prompted further investigation by the Maryland board, according to the inspector general's report released Wednesday.

On his initial license application in 1996, Dando had only told the board that he assaulted someone while intoxicated in Florida, which resulted in a prison sentence.

The state health department's inspector general also highlighted two other cases in which doctors lied about their criminal pasts and were licensed by the state board. In one, Maryland officials didn't learn about a doctor's robbery and manslaughter convictions until...

The O'Malley administration backed down Wednesday from its proposal to lease a Kent County farm to a politically connected nonprofit for $1 a year, promising to rebid the contract competitively.

The move likely pushes the decision about whether to pursue the deal into the administration of Gov.-elect Larry Hogan, who might not view it as favorably as his predecessor. A spokesman for Hogan had no comment Wednesday night.

O'Malley administration officials had proposed a two-part deal under which the state would buy the 255-acre Wick Farm near the town of Millington for $2.8 million using Program Open Space money. As The Baltimore Sun reported Wednesday, they were planning to immediately lease the farm to the Eastern Shore Food Hub Corp. for $1 a year.

The company is a nonprofit controlled by Cleo Braver, a Talbot County organic farmer who has contributed more than $40,000 to Democratic candidates over the past decade.

The state Board of Public Works agreed Wednesday to purchase the land...

The O'Malley administration has struck a deal to buy a Kent County farm for $2.8 million and then lease it for $1 a year to a company controlled by an organic farmer and Democratic campaign donor.

The proposal has drawn criticism from businesses that worry about unfair competition.

The agreement is expected to be presented Wednesday before the state Board of Public Works, which deferred action on it last month after Comptroller Peter Franchot raised questions about the terms.

Also in the pipeline — but not on the agenda Wednesday — is a deal in which the same company would receive $500,000 in state bond money toward the cost of establishing a $2.3 million "food hub" in Easton to process and distribute organic and sustainably produced food.

The beneficiary of both deals is the nonprofit Eastern Shore Food Hub Corp., a company led by Cleo Braver, an environmental lawyer-turned-organic farmer who is a critic of the prevailing agricultural practices on the Eastern Shore. Braver advocates...

With Maryland's long campaign for governor now over, the unexpected election of Republican businessman Larry Hogan has given rise to an intense new campaign now just beginning: the jockeying among advocates and interest groups for attention, jobs and influence in a rare GOP administration.

Time is of the essence: Hogan's transition team has less than three months to analyze complex state bureaucracies, identify and evaluate candidates for dozens of top jobs, write two agenda-setting public speeches and craft budget legislation that must be submitted two days after his inauguration Jan. 21.

The stakes — and the tight schedule — are provoking a scramble among individuals and groups representing every interest and coming from every corner of the state looking to snag a seat at the transition table.

"A new administration comes into a crazy situation," said Nelson J. Sabatini, who served on the 2002 transition team of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and later in his Cabinet. "This is the first...

Having been indicted last week for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old boy, Molly Shattuck, the 47-year-old former Ravens cheerleader, faces potential prison time should she be convicted. How much, if any, remains to be seen.

Indicted by a Delaware grand jury on two counts of rape in the third degree and four counts of unlawful sexual contact in the second degree, Shattuck, the estranged wife of former Constellation CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III, theoretically faces up to 62 years in jail. (She also was charged with three counts of providing alcohol to minors, which carries a maximum of 60 days in jail.)

She has pleaded not guilty.

A review of some Maryland cases involving adults charged with sex offenses against minors shows no clear pattern of punishment — understandable given the different circumstances surrounding each case. Here is a sampling of penalties:

Shawn Nowlin, then 27, was arrested in November 2012 on charges of second-degree rape and sex abuse of a minor, among other...