Wasn't This a Plot Line on the Wire?

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's ties to a local developer are being probed.

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.

Seems very familiar.