Sheila Dixon’s resignation as Mayor of Baltimore became effective yesterday, and she was sentenced to probation by the judge, while she was replaced by City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake as mayor.

As to my take on this: Dixon appeared to be an effective mayor, but she was always small scale corrupt, it seemed that every 2-3 years, you had her getting caught putting relatives on the payroll or steering work to firms that employed her friends and relatives.

As to Ms. Rawlings-Blake, she has always seemed kind of a non-entity, somebody who is where she was because her father, the late Howard “Pete” Rawlings, was a major power in Maryland politics.

Well, seeing as how we have what could be one of the largest blizzards on record for the area rolling in on us, she gets a baptism by fire.