Victims of violent crime brief lawmakers
January 24, 2008
Sometimes there’s nothing like hearing it straight from someone who’s been there. It felt like that today during a briefing on victims of violent crime when Cheryl Kravitz, executive director of the National Capital Area Region’s National Conference for Community and Justice, told her own story to the House Judiciary Committee in Annapolis.
Flanked by four other advocates for victims of violence – all men – Kravitz told the committee about how her “perfect guy” turned into an abusive terror within a few years of their marriage. He was Ivy League-educated and the executive director of a religious organization in Chicago, she said, but when they moved to Tulsa after he lost his job, her world became smaller and smaller and her husband desired more and more control over her life.
As the verbal outbursts and pushes turned into full-on beatings, she hid the evidence under long-sleeved shirts and pants even in the summer. She said she felt too embarrassed to reach out for help from her friends.
Sphere: Related ContentBattle for state dessert designation
January 24, 2008
Delegate Page Elmore, R-Somerset, is hoping to win a sweet victory in the legislative session: to pass his bill that proposes naming Smith Island’s 10-layer cake the official state dessert. (In the newsroom, we’re wondering: what about Baltimore’s Berger cookies?)
On Tuesday, Elmore sought to win the hearts of lawmakers through their stomachs when he had about 500 slices of the cake delivered to the State House.
AP writer Kristen Wyatt watched Del. Melony Griffith, D-Prince George’s, tuck in to a thin slice of the most common flavor: yellow cake in 10-centimeter thick layers with chocolate frosting. “I make a pretty mean sweet potato pie, but oh, this is good,” said Griffith.
About 50 lawmakers have agreed to co-sign the bill, but there are some doubters. Maryland already has 21 state symbols, from the Calico cat to the state sport of jousting, and though some of them are well known, many are not.
Elmore is hoping the bill will boost Smith Island, as pollution has hurt the seafood industry and the working population of the island is dwindling, something former Daily Record reporter Steven Overly discovered when he visited the island for a feature story in August.
On the bill, anyway, we’ll just have to see how the cookie crumbles.
JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Above: Del. William J. Frank, (R-Baltimore County) accepts a wedge of 10-layer Smith Island cake Tuesday, Jan. 22.
UPDATE: Read the extended version of this post for the recipe for Smith Island cake.
Sphere: Related ContentNew paper warehouse opens at Locust Point
January 23, 2008
A new 215,000-square-foot paper warehouse officially opened this morning at South Locust Point Terminal (… insert your joke from “The Office” here).
Finnish company M-real, one of the world’s leading paper manufacturers, owns the warehouse near the Ft. McHenry tunnel. After the ribbon-cutting, a ship in port began offloading the first rolls of paper (weighing 7,000 pounds apiece), which will be used for magazines, brochures and newspaper inserts.
Photos above and below by Eric Stocklin
Goin’ to the Tax Court and we’re gonna get married…
January 23, 2008
As if the U.S. Tax Court didn’t have enough power already, some Maryland lawmakers want to add its judges to the list of those who can perform marriage ceremonies here. A hearing on the House Bill 130, co-sponsored by Delegates Frank M. Conaway Jr. and Joseph F. Vallario Jr., will be held this Thursday.
Currently, the only federal judges authorized to perform ceremonies in Maryland are U.S. District and Appeals Court judges.
What do you think prompted these delegates to introduce this bill? Are we experiencing a shortage of judges who can (or are willing to) perform marriage ceremonies in Maryland?
Are people afraid of getting married by Internet-ordained ministers after an October ruling by a Pennsylvania judge that such marriages are invalid?
CHRISTINA DORAN, Assistant Legal Affairs Editor
Sphere: Related ContentBaltimore students to get cash for test score improvements
January 23, 2008
We had a lot of interest in recent news of a cash reward offered to HoCo high schoolers who “snitched” on the perpetrators of a food fight.
If you felt that a cash bribe for information was iffy, this might go entirely over the line in your estimation: students in Baltimore high schools will soon get a cash incentive to boost their scores on state graduation exams.
The AP reports:
Students who have failed at least one exam under Maryland’s High School Assessments will earn $25 for improving test performance by 5 percent. If they improve an additional 15 percent, they will get an additional $35. Another 20 percent improvement will earn an additional $50.
I wonder, now, what is the incentive to do well on the exam the first time?
JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Update: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports here that Fulton County, Ga. students will be paid $8 per hour to attend after-school tutoring programs.
Sphere: Related ContentMarc Steiner: ‘We have to rethink the way we fight crime’
January 22, 2008
Today, WYPR host Marc Steiner speaks out on his past work as a juvenile counselor and what he thinks needs to be done in Baltimore on the Open Society Institute’s “Audacious Ideas” blog.
In Make things work NOW, he writes:
What I am proposing is that the city, state, philanthropies and businesses spend millions of dollars in gang prevention and youth intervention. Hire, train and supervise hundreds of ex-felons to work in the streets with youth and families. Take the health department experiment of Operation Safe Streets and expand it city-wide. In one sector where OSS is working there hasn’t been a murder in a year. We don’t have time to do this piecemeal.
Read Marc’s proposal and tell us what you think.
JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentFed cuts interest rate in attempt to boost economy
January 22, 2008
The Fed’s decision Tuesday to slash the federal funds rate — the interest that banks charge each other on overnight loans — apparently was the biggest one-day move by the central bank in recent memory, the AP reports. The Fed cut the rate to 3.5 percent from 4.25 percent.
Below is the statement from the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Open Market Committee has decided to lower its target for the federal funds rate 75 basis points to 3-1/2 percent.
The Committee took this action in view of a weakening of the economic outlook and increasing downside risks to growth. While strains in short-term funding markets have eased somewhat, broader financial market conditions have continued to deteriorate and credit has tightened further for some businesses and households. Moreover, incoming information indicates a deepening of the housing contraction as well as some softening in labor markets.
Sphere: Related ContentIs work making you feel ill?
January 21, 2008
My desk mate just returned from a week-long illness, my Web colleague is out sick today, and to be honest, I’m not feeling that well myself (though maybe it’s the working-on-a-federal-holiday blues?). I think it’d be safe to estimate that one third of my newsroom cohorts are sniffling.
If this sounds like your office, then you might find this piece on germs lurking at the office useful. I never wipe down my cell phone, press the “copy” button with my knuckle, or clean my workstation every day, but with every cough out of my cubicle-mate, I’m inclined to start. Maybe Howie Mandel is on to something.
JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentLaw Blog Round-up
January 21, 2008
Greetings, fellow people who don’t have today off. Here are a few links to get you started on what’s sure to be a pretty sleepy day, law-wise:
* Why is there so much turnover among law-firm marketers? And why do marketers say it’s essential to hire one? (Besides, of course, the fact that they’d like you to hire them.)
* A New York newspaper has put together a multimedia extravaganza on a possible wrongful conviction. Hat tip: The Carnegie Legal Reporting Program’s Lawbeat blog.
* Do you think law school was a waste of time? This is from the Boston Globe via How Appealing.
* Is the Supreme Court a bunch of slackers?
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentOrioles to Astros: Thanks for taking Tejada
January 21, 2008
When the Orioles shipped shortstop Miguel Tejada to the Houston Astros for five young players in December — one day before the release of the Mitchell Report (PDF) on performance-enhancing drugs — the home team saved itself more than just money in the deal.
It would seem that the Orioles’ front office saved itself what must be a monstrous off-season headache for the Astros, who have pretty much clammed up since the FBI announced a preliminary investigation into whether Tejada lied in 2005 to a congressional committee investigating steroid use. (Tejada, a U.S. resident with a green card, has maintained his innocence and reportedly says the only supplement he’s used is Vitamin B-12.)
Now the Houston Chronicle is reporting the four-time All Star, currently spending the winter in his native Dominican Republic, may not be able to return to the U.S. if he admits he lied and obstructed justice or is found guilty of doing so.
“If Tejada is convicted,” it went on, “his chances of staying in the U.S. are stronger if he has had legal residency for more than five years” but that result is not always a given. The newspaper was unable to reach a source who could say how long Tejada has had a green card.
Even Foxsports.com baseball writer Ken Rosenthal berated the Houston management last week for its “impatience” in not waiting until the Mitchell Report came out before trading for “alleged steroid user” Tejada.
Now Houston is facing the possibility that its $13 million-a-year shortstop could be deported while the O’s are rolling the dice with some top prospects. Any chance that Houston could retaliate legally, either against Tejada or the Orioles?
LIZ FARMER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related Content-
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