Now, I suspected that the story of the former port of Baltimore executive director James White's resignation last month would have legs--and that it would hurt the Ehrlich administration more than even the O'Rumors--but it's getting quite a bit more byzantine and harmful to the gov than I expected. The Sun today plays it pretty straight, with a story about DOT Secretary Robert Flanagan's testimony before two House committees, in which he ping-ponged between asking everyone to get beyond this, to "lock arms and begin talking up the port," and heavily criticizing White, accusing him of overspending on season tickets to O's and Ravens games and on gift Montblanc pens. Sounds like it's getting uglier.
Also, I'd been meaning to write about this (I swear), but it looks like Bob Ehrlich's most important swing voters (blue-collar Baltimore Countians, aka Reagan Democrats) may be turning against him because of the mess Flanagan's caused (or at least hasn't stopped) at the port. This would hurt the governor badly in 2006, because those voters, who hated Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, like Martin O'Malley. Besides Reagan Democrats' favorite state politicians (former congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley and former everything/current Comptroller William Donald Schaefer), this Washington Post story, by David Snyder, notes that some of those voters' representatives in Annapolis (conservative Democratic delegates Joseph Minnick and John Arnick) also have started criticizing Ehrlich for the first time in the governor's term. I don't know who to put the blame on, but as Harry Truman said, 'The buck stops here,' " Minnick told the Post. "If Ehrlich didn't know what was going on, he should have."
Friday, March 11, 2005
News Hole
Sarbanes retiring: Sen. Paul Sarbanes says he's retiring next year. New York Times story, Washington Post story.
Complete Control: Baltimore City Public School System takes big step back from city's request to assume maintenance responsibility for the system's facilities, metaphorically tearing up a verbal agreement it had made with the city. Now, I had thought that O'Malley would stay away from this hot button--control of the city's schools--and let various bureaucrats and board members kind of hint at how nice it would be if the city could re-take-over its schools. But no, the mayor is jumping right into the fray: "I'm frustrated because we've been 12 months offering them our capacity to improve facilities," he told Eric Siegel, for this Sun story. "Every time it's near completion someone wants to make it more complicated than it is. I think we need to focus not so much on the issue of control as the issue of improving our environment for our kids."
Back on the Job: After being told to retire or be fired earlier this year, injured cops (well, their union, actually) near agreement to keep many of them on the force. Not a perfect deal, but better than everyone getting the boot.
Hack the Vote: Hackers and other miscreants ruin another JHU student election.
Generally Assembled: State Senate Republicans fail to get through tougher medical malpractice reforms (Post story). To no avail, homogynists protest outside House committee hearing on bill that would give queer couples the right to make medical decisions for their partners.
Crime Does Not Pay: Annapolis comic-book collector Art "Gerry" Roberts gets robbed: "This boy is going down," Roberts tells The Capital.
Movin' on Up: Sun promotes State House bureau chief David Nitkin to Maryland political editor. Memo, thanks to Romensko.
Complete Control: Baltimore City Public School System takes big step back from city's request to assume maintenance responsibility for the system's facilities, metaphorically tearing up a verbal agreement it had made with the city. Now, I had thought that O'Malley would stay away from this hot button--control of the city's schools--and let various bureaucrats and board members kind of hint at how nice it would be if the city could re-take-over its schools. But no, the mayor is jumping right into the fray: "I'm frustrated because we've been 12 months offering them our capacity to improve facilities," he told Eric Siegel, for this Sun story. "Every time it's near completion someone wants to make it more complicated than it is. I think we need to focus not so much on the issue of control as the issue of improving our environment for our kids."
Back on the Job: After being told to retire or be fired earlier this year, injured cops (well, their union, actually) near agreement to keep many of them on the force. Not a perfect deal, but better than everyone getting the boot.
Hack the Vote: Hackers and other miscreants ruin another JHU student election.
Generally Assembled: State Senate Republicans fail to get through tougher medical malpractice reforms (Post story). To no avail, homogynists protest outside House committee hearing on bill that would give queer couples the right to make medical decisions for their partners.
Crime Does Not Pay: Annapolis comic-book collector Art "Gerry" Roberts gets robbed: "This boy is going down," Roberts tells The Capital.
Movin' on Up: Sun promotes State House bureau chief David Nitkin to Maryland political editor. Memo, thanks to Romensko.
The Mail
Helen Delich Bentley's proposal isn't to privatize the port of Baltimore; it's to make the Maryland Port Administration a separate state agency from the DOT. It would still be a public entity, run by the state of Maryland. The reasoning, however, is that the port is a vastly different animal than the rest of the DOT's responsibilities (roads, cars, mass transit, airports, etc.), and therefore requires more specialized management.
The idea that the port needs to be run as a business is misleading. The purpose of the MPA is not to turn a profit in and of itself. Its purpose is to run the port in such a way that encourages commercial maritime shipping companies to channel more of their traffic through Baltimore as opposed to other cities. More shipping traffic means more local jobs and a better local economy. The Port Administration itself can operate at a loss, as long as the side effects (increased tax base, etc.) provide an overall net benefit. Most things run by government are done so because they are inherently unprofitable but necessary; otherwise they would be run by the private sector.
Regards,
Scott Shaffer
Baltimore
The idea that the port needs to be run as a business is misleading. The purpose of the MPA is not to turn a profit in and of itself. Its purpose is to run the port in such a way that encourages commercial maritime shipping companies to channel more of their traffic through Baltimore as opposed to other cities. More shipping traffic means more local jobs and a better local economy. The Port Administration itself can operate at a loss, as long as the side effects (increased tax base, etc.) provide an overall net benefit. Most things run by government are done so because they are inherently unprofitable but necessary; otherwise they would be run by the private sector.
Regards,
Scott Shaffer
Baltimore
Feature Hole
Hack the Grid: Speaking of hackers and other miscreants--these ones quite a bit more malevolent--Justin Blum, of The Washington Post, takes a look at how power companies, including Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group (that's BGE), are fighting against hackers trying to break into the nation's power grids. Good story.
Ca-click: Michael O'Sullivan, in The Washington Post, says the Baltimore Museum of Art's SlideShow is worth your time.
Indentured Servitude: The Sun's M. William Salganik explains what the expected changes in federal bankruptcy laws might mean.
Hip-Hop Hugs: Also in The Sun, Rashod D. Ollison promises that 50 Cent and the Game's reconciliation was "a day that undoubtedly will go down in a future chapter of the [hip-hop] culture's history." Um, OK.
Ca-click: Michael O'Sullivan, in The Washington Post, says the Baltimore Museum of Art's SlideShow is worth your time.
Indentured Servitude: The Sun's M. William Salganik explains what the expected changes in federal bankruptcy laws might mean.
Hip-Hop Hugs: Also in The Sun, Rashod D. Ollison promises that 50 Cent and the Game's reconciliation was "a day that undoubtedly will go down in a future chapter of the [hip-hop] culture's history." Um, OK.
Beyond the Beltway
Boston Bound: From the Boston Herald, Baltimore's Struever Bros. Eccles and Rouse to "overhaul gritty streets" around Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.
Missed It: From USA Today, Governor Bob to executive-chair the National Anthem Project--the campaign, according to the web site, "to get America singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' while spotlighting the important role music education plays in giving Americans our patriotic voice"--which kicked off yesterday on Capitol Hill.
Missed It: From USA Today, Governor Bob to executive-chair the National Anthem Project--the campaign, according to the web site, "to get America singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' while spotlighting the important role music education plays in giving Americans our patriotic voice"--which kicked off yesterday on Capitol Hill.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Port of Call
The idea of making the port of Baltimore independent should get some more traction now that former Republican congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley has made that recommendation. As a lefty, I get hives whenever someone brings up privatization, but this proposal makes some sense. "The port is a business and needs to be administered as such," Bentley told the state Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, according to Michael Dresser's Sun story. Ugh, those words make me shudder. "The gummint needs'a be run like a bidness," says every small-town used-car salesman Republican running for Congress or whatever. But the 81-year-old matriarch of Maryland Republicans has a point. The port is in the business of making money through, well, business, while the DOT, which now oversees the port, paves roads and shit, and makes its money through, well, socialistic programs like toll roads and ferry fees. Also my favorite Free State elephant, DOT Secretary Robert Flanagan, is for keeping the port under him. So I gotta root for independence.
Anyway, further down in the story, the dueling form-letter campaigns--port customers criticizing Flanagan and port executive director James White's resignation/push out, then other port customers praising Flanagan's much-criticized port marketing-department hires (one of them a Repub. hack whose experience is as a former pro figure skater)--is just silly and slimy. Stop it.
Missed It: James White, who resigned his post as director of the port last month, and started this whole mess, has found a new job at Weehawken, N.J.-based Ceres Terminals.
Anyway, further down in the story, the dueling form-letter campaigns--port customers criticizing Flanagan and port executive director James White's resignation/push out, then other port customers praising Flanagan's much-criticized port marketing-department hires (one of them a Repub. hack whose experience is as a former pro figure skater)--is just silly and slimy. Stop it.
Missed It: James White, who resigned his post as director of the port last month, and started this whole mess, has found a new job at Weehawken, N.J.-based Ceres Terminals.
News Hole
Free Money: The extension of Key Highway from its endpoint at the Domino Sugar plant to Nicholson Street and Tide Point is much needed. And kudos to the Board of Estimates for coming up with a deal to finance it. But I don't see anything in there about Struever Bros. Eccles and Rouse, surely the biggest winners here, helping to pay for it. Well, a little bit, to help Tidewater Yacht Service move to Port Covington. Just saying.
Mr. Mayor, Tear Down This Elevated Highway: I like it when Dan Rodricks agrees with me: "The Jones Falls Expressway is an icon of that era, an elevated expressway that delivered commuters to and from the city with as little contact as possible with the city. The visionaries think a boulevard could both move traffic and inspire a whole new stretch of residential and retail development." Yes, gentrification, yes, expensive, yes, bourgeois, etc., but it'd be so right, so smart, so, well, pretty even. Also, AP story.
Missed It: The Associated Press reported yesterday that up to 11 percent of Montgomery County voting machines had some problems in November's elections.
Downward Christian Soldiers: Feeling their oats from GWB's victory, out-of-step Md. conservatives just aren't giving up this year. And giving them all this attention makes me feel a little queasy, but it is kinda entertaining watching them get knocked down one by one. Now, if I was in Oklahoma or Montana or something, this'd be less fun, admittedly, because they'd be winning. But anyway, AA Co. boy and his father whine about foreign-language Pledges during National Foreign Language Week, completely missing the point of NFLW (Latin is one of the lingos they do the Pledge in, for crying out loud!), county tells them to fuck off. Well, nicer than that, but just the same. Also, just about every non-Neanderthal in Maryland dismantles bill that would make English official state language. (Speaking of Neanderthals, The Washington Times played this legislative hearing a bit differently.) And all this after the anti-gay-marriage amendment went nowhere … I'm so proud, sniff.
Confusing Storty About Gay Marriage Lawsuit: Several state lawmakers and the AA Co. court clerk, Republicans I'm assuming, want to join a lawsuit, in which same-sex couples are suing the state to get married, in order to protest it; the couples, of course, and the state attorney general's office don't want them to; Court of Appeals to hear arguments on all that today. I think.
Piece of the Pie: From last Friday's Afro-American, a bunch of folks tell H. Allen Hurst they're not happy that the House slots bill didn't include language benefiting the state's Minority Business Enterprise Program.
Crime and Punishment: The Dundalk Eagle's Michelle Ruddle and Joseph M. Giordano go in-depth on 3-year-old Roy Lechner Jr.'s death-by-neglect. Sun story on Roy's funeral.
Community College Follies: More, from Patuxent's Northeast Reporter, on the fallout from Irving McPhail's resignation as chancellor of the Community College of Baltimore County.
History for Sale: From Glen Burnie's Maryland Gazette, circa-1925 Linthicum Apartments on the block. Price tag: about $1 million.
O-bo! From the Diamondback, thieves steal oboes from Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.
Free the Bridge! From the Easton Star-Democrat, speaking of DOT departments seeking independence, some folks--this time also Republicans, including Sen. E.J. Pipkin of the Upper Shore--also want the Bay Bridge out from under Bob Flanagan's fiefdom.
Young Guns: Couple of good stories from the Capital News Service: A good follow-up on the Navy's plan to resume bombing and strafing runs on Bloodsworth Island; and American Society of Civil Engineers study finds that more than half of state's major urban roads "poor" or "mediocre". Well, you probably already knew that.
Mr. Mayor, Tear Down This Elevated Highway: I like it when Dan Rodricks agrees with me: "The Jones Falls Expressway is an icon of that era, an elevated expressway that delivered commuters to and from the city with as little contact as possible with the city. The visionaries think a boulevard could both move traffic and inspire a whole new stretch of residential and retail development." Yes, gentrification, yes, expensive, yes, bourgeois, etc., but it'd be so right, so smart, so, well, pretty even. Also, AP story.
Missed It: The Associated Press reported yesterday that up to 11 percent of Montgomery County voting machines had some problems in November's elections.
Downward Christian Soldiers: Feeling their oats from GWB's victory, out-of-step Md. conservatives just aren't giving up this year. And giving them all this attention makes me feel a little queasy, but it is kinda entertaining watching them get knocked down one by one. Now, if I was in Oklahoma or Montana or something, this'd be less fun, admittedly, because they'd be winning. But anyway, AA Co. boy and his father whine about foreign-language Pledges during National Foreign Language Week, completely missing the point of NFLW (Latin is one of the lingos they do the Pledge in, for crying out loud!), county tells them to fuck off. Well, nicer than that, but just the same. Also, just about every non-Neanderthal in Maryland dismantles bill that would make English official state language. (Speaking of Neanderthals, The Washington Times played this legislative hearing a bit differently.) And all this after the anti-gay-marriage amendment went nowhere … I'm so proud, sniff.
Confusing Storty About Gay Marriage Lawsuit: Several state lawmakers and the AA Co. court clerk, Republicans I'm assuming, want to join a lawsuit, in which same-sex couples are suing the state to get married, in order to protest it; the couples, of course, and the state attorney general's office don't want them to; Court of Appeals to hear arguments on all that today. I think.
Piece of the Pie: From last Friday's Afro-American, a bunch of folks tell H. Allen Hurst they're not happy that the House slots bill didn't include language benefiting the state's Minority Business Enterprise Program.
Crime and Punishment: The Dundalk Eagle's Michelle Ruddle and Joseph M. Giordano go in-depth on 3-year-old Roy Lechner Jr.'s death-by-neglect. Sun story on Roy's funeral.
Community College Follies: More, from Patuxent's Northeast Reporter, on the fallout from Irving McPhail's resignation as chancellor of the Community College of Baltimore County.
History for Sale: From Glen Burnie's Maryland Gazette, circa-1925 Linthicum Apartments on the block. Price tag: about $1 million.
O-bo! From the Diamondback, thieves steal oboes from Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.
Free the Bridge! From the Easton Star-Democrat, speaking of DOT departments seeking independence, some folks--this time also Republicans, including Sen. E.J. Pipkin of the Upper Shore--also want the Bay Bridge out from under Bob Flanagan's fiefdom.
Young Guns: Couple of good stories from the Capital News Service: A good follow-up on the Navy's plan to resume bombing and strafing runs on Bloodsworth Island; and American Society of Civil Engineers study finds that more than half of state's major urban roads "poor" or "mediocre". Well, you probably already knew that.
Feature Hole
Speaking of Christian Soldiers: The Sun's Dan Thanh Dang joins the crusade so that fundamentalists never have to see anyone they disagree with ever again. Wasn't it only a few years ago that every story about religion was about how no one ever goes to church anymore? Was there that big a turnaround after Sept. 11/Bush, or are we worrying about all this way out of proportion? I don't know. I'm asking.
In the LiVE! section, Ann McArthur makes way too much out of Robots lighting technical director Ari Ross' local connections (yes, I know, that's what this blog does, too, but I'm aloud to complain), but wrings a OK story out of him, nonetheless. And Kim Hart gets motherly with Hip Mama editor Ariel Gore, who visits Atomic Books on Saturday.
Story of the Day: The Post's Allison Klein breathalyzes drunken-driving opponent state Sen. John A. Giannetti Jr. (D-P.G. County)'s nonexplanation as to why he's defending his wife's DUI.
Holy Development, Batman! From the Owings Mills Times, Linda Strowbridge renovates Pastor Chris Williams and Rehoboth International Covenant Church's redevelopment of historic Randallstown bank building.
First in Maryland: Bay Weekly's Sandra Olivetti Martin interviews U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-First District).
First Lady: GayLife's Mark Panos Q&As Advocate editor Judy Wieder.
In the LiVE! section, Ann McArthur makes way too much out of Robots lighting technical director Ari Ross' local connections (yes, I know, that's what this blog does, too, but I'm aloud to complain), but wrings a OK story out of him, nonetheless. And Kim Hart gets motherly with Hip Mama editor Ariel Gore, who visits Atomic Books on Saturday.
Story of the Day: The Post's Allison Klein breathalyzes drunken-driving opponent state Sen. John A. Giannetti Jr. (D-P.G. County)'s nonexplanation as to why he's defending his wife's DUI.
Holy Development, Batman! From the Owings Mills Times, Linda Strowbridge renovates Pastor Chris Williams and Rehoboth International Covenant Church's redevelopment of historic Randallstown bank building.
First in Maryland: Bay Weekly's Sandra Olivetti Martin interviews U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-First District).
First Lady: GayLife's Mark Panos Q&As Advocate editor Judy Wieder.
Beyond the Beltway
Blogghorea: Anyone else tired of the endless series of thumbsuckers about whether or not bloggers are journalists, bloggers taking down newscasters/politicians/(non)journalistis, blahg, blahg, blahg? Too bad: Here's another one, by The American Prospect's Garance Franke-Ruta, which ties together bloggers' take-downs of "Jeff Gannon" and Eason Jordan with Joseph Steffen's take-down of himself, and all the other crap that's been going on.
Way, Way Beyond the Beltway: From The Irish Echo, Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to visit with Mayor Martin O'Malley while in the States over St. Patrick's Day weekend. And from People's Daily, the Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland, the first of its kind in the United States, to start enrolling new students soon.
Way, Way Beyond the Beltway: From The Irish Echo, Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to visit with Mayor Martin O'Malley while in the States over St. Patrick's Day weekend. And from People's Daily, the Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland, the first of its kind in the United States, to start enrolling new students soon.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
In This Week's City Paper
On the cover, Stephen Janis talks with activists, academics, and government officials who are trying to get the lead out of Baltimore City homes. In it, Janis references a Feb. 13 Sun story about Philip E. Parker, who was killed on a state prison bus, and his suspected killer, Kevin G. Johns Jr., who, the story says, was diagnosed with lead poisoning. It's a good story, with or without the lead connection. Other links worth clicking related to Janis' story would include the Abell Foundation's "Childhood Lead Poisoning in Baltimore" report, Rick Nevin's Environmental Research article (though it'll cost you $30), Fordham law professor Deborah Denno's home page, a Johns Hopkins Magazine article about Ellen Silbergeld, and the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning home page.
In Mobtown Beat Jill Yesko closes the door on a quarter century of history at Fells Point's Joseph SeniorLife Center. Here is the Joseph's home page, and here is that of the local Catholic Charities, the senior center's owner/operator, you know, if you want to write a letter or something. In Edward Ericson Jr.'s Quick and Dirty about a controversy surrounding the state of Maryland's new prison health-care contract, he mentions a New York Times investigative series, "Harsh Medicine," on the object of that controversy, Prison Health Services Inc. It'll cost you, but here is the link to the first part of the series (if this stuff interests you--and it should--it's worth the less than $10 that the entire series will cost you).
In the Arts & Entertainment section, Violet Carberry gets crazy with overexposed Hopkins psychotherapist John D. Gartner, author of the new book The Hypomanic Edge, which posits that Americans are so great because we're so, well, hypomanic, or something like that. Like I said, Gartner is way overexposed right now (the book's touched a nerve, apparently), so it should be easy to find dozens of reviews, blog entries, diatribes, etc. I'd start out with Daniel Gross' review at Slate.com and go from there.
In Film, Lee Gardner scares up The Blair Witch Project co-director Eduardo Sanchez, who's finally working on a new movie, Probed. The Hollywood Reporter's Chris Marlowe did the same Monday with Sanchez's BWP co-director, Daniel Myrick, who's working on a new web TV series, The Strand.
In Mobtown Beat Jill Yesko closes the door on a quarter century of history at Fells Point's Joseph SeniorLife Center. Here is the Joseph's home page, and here is that of the local Catholic Charities, the senior center's owner/operator, you know, if you want to write a letter or something. In Edward Ericson Jr.'s Quick and Dirty about a controversy surrounding the state of Maryland's new prison health-care contract, he mentions a New York Times investigative series, "Harsh Medicine," on the object of that controversy, Prison Health Services Inc. It'll cost you, but here is the link to the first part of the series (if this stuff interests you--and it should--it's worth the less than $10 that the entire series will cost you).
In the Arts & Entertainment section, Violet Carberry gets crazy with overexposed Hopkins psychotherapist John D. Gartner, author of the new book The Hypomanic Edge, which posits that Americans are so great because we're so, well, hypomanic, or something like that. Like I said, Gartner is way overexposed right now (the book's touched a nerve, apparently), so it should be easy to find dozens of reviews, blog entries, diatribes, etc. I'd start out with Daniel Gross' review at Slate.com and go from there.
In Film, Lee Gardner scares up The Blair Witch Project co-director Eduardo Sanchez, who's finally working on a new movie, Probed. The Hollywood Reporter's Chris Marlowe did the same Monday with Sanchez's BWP co-director, Daniel Myrick, who's working on a new web TV series, The Strand.
More Stuff
I'm itchin' to get out of here, so just a few more clickables, and I'm gone:
Tear It Down: Yes, tear down the JFX, please. Downtown freeways are bad news urban-planning-wise. Don't think it'll ever happen, but a discussion surely couldn't hurt. But like someone in this kinda lame though thought-provoking Sun story says, it's Supermax, not the highway, that's stopping development between downtown and Johns Hopkins' East Baltimore medical campus.
Hack-in-Chief: Michael Dresser's profile of Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan--who's scheduled to go before sure-to-be-hostile legislative committees for the next few days regarding the port of Baltimore and James White's resignation--is a little too soft, but worth a read. Yes, the guy occassionally gets things done (it's his job), but he remains a Republican hack of not quite the worst sort.
Not in Their Back Yard: Matthew Mosk and Fredrick Kunkle, in the Post, get local with anti-slots activists, who, resigned to slots eventually becoming legal in Maryland, are working county and municipality officials to make sure slots don't end up in their counties or municipalities. Good, short story, packed with facts and color.
Litigator for Hire: Phil Jacobs, in the Jewish Times, talks tort with local trial lawyer Stephen L. Snyder (Mr. Snyder's web site is, um, interesting). Jacobs takes a while to get to the gist, but once he does, the story's fascinating.
There Goes the Neighborhood: The Capital's Jeff Horseman details Annapolis blacks' efforts to save their neighborhoods from gentrification and skyrocketing property taxes.
Friends Forever: They may not get along on slots, but when it comes to going after the Republican governor, Maryland's top Democrats--House Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Mike Miller--are on the same page. From The Washington Times, Busch joins Miller in calling for a joint legislative committee to investigate iffy hirings and firings in Robert Ehrlich's administration.
Christian Soldier: From the Carroll County Times, Sen. Larry E. Haines (R-District 5), Maryland's top right-wing fundamentalist, tries to reinstate Christian prayers at public meetings. Sun story.
Missed Them: Couple of interesting stories from Friday's Baltimore Business Journal: H&M and Macy's looking for downtown locations; and Towson University looking for downtown Towson locations for dorms.
National Spotlight: This AP story (that link's from the Seattle PI) on Gov. Bob Ehrlich and his future electablilty (he "still needs a big win," the story says) has been making the rounds. You know everything in it, but it's a good round-up for those not living in the Baltimore-Washington media circus.
Tear It Down: Yes, tear down the JFX, please. Downtown freeways are bad news urban-planning-wise. Don't think it'll ever happen, but a discussion surely couldn't hurt. But like someone in this kinda lame though thought-provoking Sun story says, it's Supermax, not the highway, that's stopping development between downtown and Johns Hopkins' East Baltimore medical campus.
Hack-in-Chief: Michael Dresser's profile of Maryland Department of Transportation Secretary Robert L. Flanagan--who's scheduled to go before sure-to-be-hostile legislative committees for the next few days regarding the port of Baltimore and James White's resignation--is a little too soft, but worth a read. Yes, the guy occassionally gets things done (it's his job), but he remains a Republican hack of not quite the worst sort.
Not in Their Back Yard: Matthew Mosk and Fredrick Kunkle, in the Post, get local with anti-slots activists, who, resigned to slots eventually becoming legal in Maryland, are working county and municipality officials to make sure slots don't end up in their counties or municipalities. Good, short story, packed with facts and color.
Litigator for Hire: Phil Jacobs, in the Jewish Times, talks tort with local trial lawyer Stephen L. Snyder (Mr. Snyder's web site is, um, interesting). Jacobs takes a while to get to the gist, but once he does, the story's fascinating.
There Goes the Neighborhood: The Capital's Jeff Horseman details Annapolis blacks' efforts to save their neighborhoods from gentrification and skyrocketing property taxes.
Friends Forever: They may not get along on slots, but when it comes to going after the Republican governor, Maryland's top Democrats--House Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Mike Miller--are on the same page. From The Washington Times, Busch joins Miller in calling for a joint legislative committee to investigate iffy hirings and firings in Robert Ehrlich's administration.
Christian Soldier: From the Carroll County Times, Sen. Larry E. Haines (R-District 5), Maryland's top right-wing fundamentalist, tries to reinstate Christian prayers at public meetings. Sun story.
Missed Them: Couple of interesting stories from Friday's Baltimore Business Journal: H&M and Macy's looking for downtown locations; and Towson University looking for downtown Towson locations for dorms.
National Spotlight: This AP story (that link's from the Seattle PI) on Gov. Bob Ehrlich and his future electablilty (he "still needs a big win," the story says) has been making the rounds. You know everything in it, but it's a good round-up for those not living in the Baltimore-Washington media circus.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Catch-Up
I've been super-busy the past few days, so let's catch up on some pretty decent and/or distressing stories from over the weekend and other stuff I've found, with maybe a short News Hole later.
Charm City Massacre: The fact that 50 Cent's new album, The Massacre, features a song, "A Baltimore Love Thing," that sorta kinda, but not really, glorifies heroin in the city ("Baltimore" is only in the title, not the lyrics) is interesting, and certainly worth noting. But a fairly long thumbsucker in Saturday's Sun, by Rashod D. Ollison and Stephen Kiehl (it took two people to write this?!), about what the song may mean for the city's image, and whether or not it might somehow actually increase the drug trade? No, not needed, thanks. "All of this is an advertisement saying Baltimore is the place to take your stuff to sell, and that hurts us," Chief Anthony Barksdale of the city Police Department's Organized Crime Division told the daily. "This reaches millions of people and it paints this picture of Baltimore to [drug] organizations and individuals, saying, 'Hey, maybe it's safe in Baltimore to ply the trade.'" Now, there's an argument to be made that hip-hop has given a couple of generations of young males an excuse to be disrespectful toward women, homphoboic, and way too materialistic--though I'm not even sure about that--but I'm fairly certain the drug trade takes care of itself. The mayor's office has a much better attitude (and a 50 Cent fan in the house): "It's just a song," mayoral spokesman Steve Kearney told Ollison and Kiehl. "Some media folks have this small-town insecurity that we have to take something like this seriously. 50 Cent did a song called 'Rotten Apple' about how violent New York is, and I don't remember the press up there fretting about its larger cultural significance."
Conduction: As a follow-up to the announcement that José-Luis Novo is taking over the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, read this story from the Capital.
Clash of the Titans: Also from Sunday's Capital, David Abrams details the division that slots have caused between the state's top Democrats, House Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Mike Miller. Not much new to learn, but a good primer on what exactly is going on, and why, in the General Assembly.
Let's Never Speak of This Again: The Orioles played the Nationals Saturday in a spring training exhibition game (the O's lost), which offered the opportunity for the latest long, boring think piece (this one by the Sun's Jeff Barker), in a long, indistinguished line of such pieces, about the clichéd, boring D.C.-Baltimore rivalry. You know the score: Baltimore is blue collar (since when?), Washington is white collar; D.C.'s mayor wears a bow tie, ours sings in a rock band; blah, blah, blah. Let's all promise to make this the last such story, for at least, say, a year. Can we do that?
It's Only Business: Also from Sunday's Sun, David Nitkin tarnishes Gov. Ehrlich's pro-business reputation by getting a couple of pols and industry types to say bad things about Baltimore port chief James White's resignation last month. Now, Ehrlich did make a royal ass of himself by appointing a former pro figure skater to a well-paid, semi-powerful postion at the port and possibly pushing White out, but I think it's safe to say that, as a Republican, business types aren't deserting the governor yet. Anyway, as UMd government professor James Gimpel tells Nitkin, "Business casts its contributions quite widely, because they want to work with whoever is in office. … Businesses are very opportunistic. What they most want is access."
More sensible is Sunday Sun columnist C. Fraser Smith, who warns us not to get too self-righteous and outraged about politcal patronage in and of itself. Like he points out, everyone does it--R's, D's, liberals, fascists, etc.--and it's not going away anytime soon. The thing to get angry about is when such patronage gets in the way of a smoothly operating bureaucracy, which looks like the case here. Smith writes: "Every governor wants his own team. It's only fair. It's even OK if some members of the team have to be carried. … But it's bad form when the trash doesn't get picked up. It's really bad when big shipping companies say they might not want to do business with you anymore. It's what's happening at the Port of Baltimore. It's a crime, actually, because the port is one of the few remaining economic engines of Baltimore. It almost makes you wonder if letting the port founder isn't part of the Ehrlich administration's sometimes hostile approach to the city."
All Getting Along: Finally, while Stephen Kiehl's Monday Sun story about Remington's Dizzy Issie's is kinda perfunctory, though very sweet, it gets a link because DI's is one of The Third Floor's favorite bars.
Charm City Massacre: The fact that 50 Cent's new album, The Massacre, features a song, "A Baltimore Love Thing," that sorta kinda, but not really, glorifies heroin in the city ("Baltimore" is only in the title, not the lyrics) is interesting, and certainly worth noting. But a fairly long thumbsucker in Saturday's Sun, by Rashod D. Ollison and Stephen Kiehl (it took two people to write this?!), about what the song may mean for the city's image, and whether or not it might somehow actually increase the drug trade? No, not needed, thanks. "All of this is an advertisement saying Baltimore is the place to take your stuff to sell, and that hurts us," Chief Anthony Barksdale of the city Police Department's Organized Crime Division told the daily. "This reaches millions of people and it paints this picture of Baltimore to [drug] organizations and individuals, saying, 'Hey, maybe it's safe in Baltimore to ply the trade.'" Now, there's an argument to be made that hip-hop has given a couple of generations of young males an excuse to be disrespectful toward women, homphoboic, and way too materialistic--though I'm not even sure about that--but I'm fairly certain the drug trade takes care of itself. The mayor's office has a much better attitude (and a 50 Cent fan in the house): "It's just a song," mayoral spokesman Steve Kearney told Ollison and Kiehl. "Some media folks have this small-town insecurity that we have to take something like this seriously. 50 Cent did a song called 'Rotten Apple' about how violent New York is, and I don't remember the press up there fretting about its larger cultural significance."
Conduction: As a follow-up to the announcement that José-Luis Novo is taking over the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, read this story from the Capital.
Clash of the Titans: Also from Sunday's Capital, David Abrams details the division that slots have caused between the state's top Democrats, House Speaker Michael Busch and Senate President Mike Miller. Not much new to learn, but a good primer on what exactly is going on, and why, in the General Assembly.
Let's Never Speak of This Again: The Orioles played the Nationals Saturday in a spring training exhibition game (the O's lost), which offered the opportunity for the latest long, boring think piece (this one by the Sun's Jeff Barker), in a long, indistinguished line of such pieces, about the clichéd, boring D.C.-Baltimore rivalry. You know the score: Baltimore is blue collar (since when?), Washington is white collar; D.C.'s mayor wears a bow tie, ours sings in a rock band; blah, blah, blah. Let's all promise to make this the last such story, for at least, say, a year. Can we do that?
It's Only Business: Also from Sunday's Sun, David Nitkin tarnishes Gov. Ehrlich's pro-business reputation by getting a couple of pols and industry types to say bad things about Baltimore port chief James White's resignation last month. Now, Ehrlich did make a royal ass of himself by appointing a former pro figure skater to a well-paid, semi-powerful postion at the port and possibly pushing White out, but I think it's safe to say that, as a Republican, business types aren't deserting the governor yet. Anyway, as UMd government professor James Gimpel tells Nitkin, "Business casts its contributions quite widely, because they want to work with whoever is in office. … Businesses are very opportunistic. What they most want is access."
More sensible is Sunday Sun columnist C. Fraser Smith, who warns us not to get too self-righteous and outraged about politcal patronage in and of itself. Like he points out, everyone does it--R's, D's, liberals, fascists, etc.--and it's not going away anytime soon. The thing to get angry about is when such patronage gets in the way of a smoothly operating bureaucracy, which looks like the case here. Smith writes: "Every governor wants his own team. It's only fair. It's even OK if some members of the team have to be carried. … But it's bad form when the trash doesn't get picked up. It's really bad when big shipping companies say they might not want to do business with you anymore. It's what's happening at the Port of Baltimore. It's a crime, actually, because the port is one of the few remaining economic engines of Baltimore. It almost makes you wonder if letting the port founder isn't part of the Ehrlich administration's sometimes hostile approach to the city."
All Getting Along: Finally, while Stephen Kiehl's Monday Sun story about Remington's Dizzy Issie's is kinda perfunctory, though very sweet, it gets a link because DI's is one of The Third Floor's favorite bars.
Beyond the Beltway
Missed It: As a journalist, I'm practically required to check out Jim Romenesko's media news blog daily, but I don't, so I missed C-Span CEO Brian Lamb's Feb. 27 interview with Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. In it, Steele, says he has "no use" for The Sun due to that long-ago editorial that said the only reason Gov. Ehrlich picked him as his running-mate was the color of his skin, and explains the governor's ban on state workers from talking to Sun reporter David Nitkin and columnist Michael Olesker: "[T]hey just were outright printing
falsehood. They weren't accurately reporting the stories, or commenting accurately on the facts that were, you know, true to any particular situation. And so, the governor just got tired of it. He said, look, you know, if you're going to report on what we're doing, be fair about it. We don't care if you agree with it or disagree with it, but report it accurately so the reader can make up their own mind. Imagine that." Nothing new, in other words, but nice to look at all in one place.
Syndicated columnist Richard Reeves followed up a few days later with a column about the necessity of "mainstream media"--I know, yawn--and pounds on Steele some for his comments: "Lamb’s interview with Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor, Michael Steele, was a sobering conversation. … Steele argues that the press has no public role, that it is not part of the checks and balances scheme that has made America what it is. 'They (reporters) were trying to tell the governor why, you know why they had a right to ask questions,' said Steele. 'And he was telling them, well, you may have a right to ask questions, but I don’t have to answer you.' 'I have no use for them," Steele said of reporters. … 'Have they been pounding on you?' asked Lamb. Steele answered: 'Oh, every chance they get. …Who cares?' Well, we care, that is the people who do this for a living. But we are not sure anymore what place there is for us."
Besides for sort of taking Steele's comments out of context (the lt. gov. also says: "I love newspapers. I mean, I read--I read my Washington Post, and my Washington Times. You know, I read the local newspapers. I love local newspapers. … All I'm saying is, if you're going to write, if you're going to put it in print, be fair about it."), Reeves does make a good point.
Start Fucking Filming: You may have already seen this one--it's been one of the New York Times' "Most E-Mailed" stories for three days now--but if you haven't it's worth a glance. In it, Elizabeth Van Ness ponders whether, as the headline reads, a cinema studies degree is "the New M.B.A." She writes: "[I]t is not altogether surprising that film school--promoted as a shot at an entertainment industry job--is beginning to attract those who believe that cinema isn't so much a profession as the professional language of the future." Van Ness ties her thesis in with Baltimore's own infamous Stop Fucking Snitching DVD: "In recent weeks, members of a Baltimore street gang circulated a DVD that warned against betrayal, packaged in a cover that appeared to show three dead bodies. That and the series of gruesome execution videos that have surfaced in the Middle East are perhaps only the most extreme face of a complex sort of post-literacy in which cinematic visuals and filmic narrative have become commonplace." Kind of a stretch, but worth a look-see.
Crash Test Dummies: Robert Zimmerman's story for UPI about NASA never performing a formal risk analysis of a shuttle mission to rescue the Hubble Space Telescope before it decided to cancel the mission on grounds of risk gets Slashdotted.
Flat-Lined: From Editor and Publisher, Newsday's Pulitzer/Polk/Peabody-winning medicine and science reporter, Laurie Garrett, tears Sun (and Newsday) owner Tribune Co. a new one in her exit memo.
falsehood. They weren't accurately reporting the stories, or commenting accurately on the facts that were, you know, true to any particular situation. And so, the governor just got tired of it. He said, look, you know, if you're going to report on what we're doing, be fair about it. We don't care if you agree with it or disagree with it, but report it accurately so the reader can make up their own mind. Imagine that." Nothing new, in other words, but nice to look at all in one place.
Syndicated columnist Richard Reeves followed up a few days later with a column about the necessity of "mainstream media"--I know, yawn--and pounds on Steele some for his comments: "Lamb’s interview with Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor, Michael Steele, was a sobering conversation. … Steele argues that the press has no public role, that it is not part of the checks and balances scheme that has made America what it is. 'They (reporters) were trying to tell the governor why, you know why they had a right to ask questions,' said Steele. 'And he was telling them, well, you may have a right to ask questions, but I don’t have to answer you.' 'I have no use for them," Steele said of reporters. … 'Have they been pounding on you?' asked Lamb. Steele answered: 'Oh, every chance they get. …Who cares?' Well, we care, that is the people who do this for a living. But we are not sure anymore what place there is for us."
Besides for sort of taking Steele's comments out of context (the lt. gov. also says: "I love newspapers. I mean, I read--I read my Washington Post, and my Washington Times. You know, I read the local newspapers. I love local newspapers. … All I'm saying is, if you're going to write, if you're going to put it in print, be fair about it."), Reeves does make a good point.
Start Fucking Filming: You may have already seen this one--it's been one of the New York Times' "Most E-Mailed" stories for three days now--but if you haven't it's worth a glance. In it, Elizabeth Van Ness ponders whether, as the headline reads, a cinema studies degree is "the New M.B.A." She writes: "[I]t is not altogether surprising that film school--promoted as a shot at an entertainment industry job--is beginning to attract those who believe that cinema isn't so much a profession as the professional language of the future." Van Ness ties her thesis in with Baltimore's own infamous Stop Fucking Snitching DVD: "In recent weeks, members of a Baltimore street gang circulated a DVD that warned against betrayal, packaged in a cover that appeared to show three dead bodies. That and the series of gruesome execution videos that have surfaced in the Middle East are perhaps only the most extreme face of a complex sort of post-literacy in which cinematic visuals and filmic narrative have become commonplace." Kind of a stretch, but worth a look-see.
Crash Test Dummies: Robert Zimmerman's story for UPI about NASA never performing a formal risk analysis of a shuttle mission to rescue the Hubble Space Telescope before it decided to cancel the mission on grounds of risk gets Slashdotted.
Flat-Lined: From Editor and Publisher, Newsday's Pulitzer/Polk/Peabody-winning medicine and science reporter, Laurie Garrett, tears Sun (and Newsday) owner Tribune Co. a new one in her exit memo.
Monday, March 07, 2005
News Hole
Play-by-Play Man: Personally, I can't eulogize Chuck Thompson, as I grew up listening to Jon Miller on the radio (and didn't pay much attention to the Colts at all), thinking Thompson was just a guy who did commercials. But obviously the guy was huge in Baltimore, and his death is today's top story. Besides Ed Waldman's just-linked obituary, there's at least five other stories/columns in The Sun, so just look around. Matt Schude does the Post's obit. (Hate to be catty at a moment like this, but Page B04? C'mon, the Nationals are only, like, 5 days old.) And the AP story, via The NYT.
Thornton Wild: Like argument over control of the city's schools, I am woefully ignorant about the Thornton plan, what it means for the state's schools, and whether or not any of it got implemented. There are just too many twists and turns for anyone not following schools full-time to follow. Anyway, part of Thornton goes before the Maryland Court of Appeals starting today; the state's high court is supposed to figure out whether the state shortchanged city schools by $400 to $800 million over the past few years. Like I said, it's confusing.
Sorry, Hack: Instead of going with first-choice Whiting-Turner, city to bid out construction of $290 million publicly financed convention headquarters hotel.
Campus Growth: Coppin State University to get two new buildings thanks to $50 million in state funding.
Card Sharks: Anne Arundel Co. bingo-hall operators, in order to compete with slots they say, ask state for increased pot sizes. Am I the only one who feels dirty following this whole effort by our elected officials to separate old and poor folks from even more of their money?
Slots Sermons: State's churches celebrate "Stop Slots Sabbath." This is interesting, because Gov. Ehrlich was hoping to use churches to his advantage on the anti-same-sex marriage bill, which just died in a House committee. So, that's a nonstarter + churches pretty much united against him on slots = not looking good for Bobby. In other slots news, racetrack developer William Rickman says he'll gladly build gambling facility on property he owns in Frederick.
Dirty Money: From the Sentinel, Montgomery Co. Council member says--shock!!--that campaign contributions influenced Gov. Ehrlich's decision to support the Intercounty Connector. More interesting is the ways ICC boosters went around campaign-finance laws to give the gov somewhere in the neighborhood of $130,000.
O'Rumors: On Saturdy, The Sun caught up on Joe Steffen's e-mails story.
Pee-yew: Western Marylanders worry about stink bug invasion.
Is This "News"? Due to crowded downtown hotels, poor Miss USAs forced to stay in Columbia. Is anyone else embarassed that Baltimore is hosting this year's Miss USA pageant?
Dem Bones: Construction turns up town founder's grave discovered in Salisbury.
Thornton Wild: Like argument over control of the city's schools, I am woefully ignorant about the Thornton plan, what it means for the state's schools, and whether or not any of it got implemented. There are just too many twists and turns for anyone not following schools full-time to follow. Anyway, part of Thornton goes before the Maryland Court of Appeals starting today; the state's high court is supposed to figure out whether the state shortchanged city schools by $400 to $800 million over the past few years. Like I said, it's confusing.
Sorry, Hack: Instead of going with first-choice Whiting-Turner, city to bid out construction of $290 million publicly financed convention headquarters hotel.
Campus Growth: Coppin State University to get two new buildings thanks to $50 million in state funding.
Card Sharks: Anne Arundel Co. bingo-hall operators, in order to compete with slots they say, ask state for increased pot sizes. Am I the only one who feels dirty following this whole effort by our elected officials to separate old and poor folks from even more of their money?
Slots Sermons: State's churches celebrate "Stop Slots Sabbath." This is interesting, because Gov. Ehrlich was hoping to use churches to his advantage on the anti-same-sex marriage bill, which just died in a House committee. So, that's a nonstarter + churches pretty much united against him on slots = not looking good for Bobby. In other slots news, racetrack developer William Rickman says he'll gladly build gambling facility on property he owns in Frederick.
Dirty Money: From the Sentinel, Montgomery Co. Council member says--shock!!--that campaign contributions influenced Gov. Ehrlich's decision to support the Intercounty Connector. More interesting is the ways ICC boosters went around campaign-finance laws to give the gov somewhere in the neighborhood of $130,000.
O'Rumors: On Saturdy, The Sun caught up on Joe Steffen's e-mails story.
Pee-yew: Western Marylanders worry about stink bug invasion.
Is This "News"? Due to crowded downtown hotels, poor Miss USAs forced to stay in Columbia. Is anyone else embarassed that Baltimore is hosting this year's Miss USA pageant?
Dem Bones: Construction turns up town founder's grave discovered in Salisbury.
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