"Echoing her housing commissioner, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Monday that Baltimore's public housing authority has decided 'it is not possible' to pay lead-poisoning judgments that could one day exceed $800 million because the money is needed to improve living conditions for thousands of poor families.

But Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, who helped write Maryland's 1996 lead law, said Monday that the authority cannot plead poverty when children suffered brain damage while living in public housing.

'The housing authority has to find a way to meet its legal obligation to the children whom a jury and a judge found were poisoned for life because of the negligence of the housing authority,' the Baltimore Democrat said."

Scott Calvert reports for the Baltimore Sun April 5, 2011. [2]