by William Hughes
On Thursday evening, Aug. 5, 2010, Baltimore City’s Planning Commission held a public hearing in the Benton Building, near the City Hall. The matter before the panel is officially known as “The 25th Street Station” project. Walmart, however, will be the biggest tenant in the development. It is looking to open a “93,000-square-foot store,” according to Baltimore Brew reporter, Elizabeth Suman (see: http://www.baltimorebrew.com/2010/08/05/baltimore-v-wal-mart-showdown-tonight-at-planning-commission-hearing/).

One of the witnesses testifying at the hearing was Benn Ray, a resident of Remington. He is also the President of the Hampden Village Merchants Association and co-owner of Atomic Books. Mr. Ray expressed his concerns about the “size and scope” of the project and his fear that it would “not fit in,” but “dominate” the neighborhood. Some of his other considerations can be found in Ms. Suman’s very detailed report, which is cited above.

by William Hughes
On Wednesday morning, June 30, 2010, workers at ESPN Zone in Baltimore held a press conference to protest the Disney-owned ESPN Zone’s recent and sudden closing. The protesters claimed that ESPN Zone failed to give proper notice to the employees as required under the federal WARN Act. The event was organized by United Workers (unitedworkers.org).

The Baltimore City Council approved yesterday, June 24, 2010, an ordinance that will restore $481,681 for operating expenses to the Mayor's Office of Cable and Communications which runs the government channel, Channel 25. According to a letter from the city's budget office to the City Council, the money will fund four positions. An earlier version of the budget had cut all operating funds for the MOCC. Its employees received pink slips on June 1, 2010, and their last day was to be June 30, 2010.more...

Apparently employees of the Mayor's Office of Cable and Communications (MOCC) received pink slips on Tuesday, June 1, 2010 as part of Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake's spending cuts, and their employment with the city is scheduled to end at the end of the month which is also the end of the city's fiscal year. The MOCC runs the city's government cable channel, Channel 25, the G part of public, education and government (PEG) cable access. The city has not disclosed it's plans for continuing functions of Channel 25 nor what will happen with the MOCC office facility which the city's public access channel, Channel 75, (the P part of PEG) also uses to upload it's programming to Comcast.

City Council battles over budget
Council member calls hearing 'a bad situation'
May 11, 2010 By Julie Scharper, The Baltimore Sun

Baltimore City Council members railed against Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake's spending plan, complaining of a lack of transparency, in the first of what could prove to be a series of contentious hearings on the budget proposal.

A Monday afternoon hearing on the budget for the Mayor's Office of Cable and Communications stretched on for more than two hours — four times longer than originally scheduled — as council members griped over a plan that would essentially eliminate salaries for all employees of the office with the hope that they would be funded through other sources of revenue.more...

by William Hughes
On Thursday morning, March 4, 2010, a spirited protest action was held in front of the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, on North Gay Street, not far from the City Hall. The demonstrators -- students, teachers and community activists -- demanded "$100 million [in Maryland's state budget] be converted from youth jails to youth jobs and education," according to their press release. About 13 of the protesters made their way into the lobby of the building where they engaged in civil disobedience.

"The police didn't arrest them when they did a sit-in, so ... they are picketing around, blocking the metal detectors and the doors," said Abeni Nazeer, a spokesperson for the protesters.

As I left the event to cover another assignment, the students in front of the building were continuing to chant, "Arrest O'Malley!" A flyer, picturing Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, read, "Wanted for Incarcerating Youth!" It appeared the police were prepared to simply wait out the protesters inside the building. Updates on the action are to be posted at the website of one of the groups that sponsored the event: BailOutPeople.org.

by William Hughes
At an event on Feb. 24, 2010 sponsored by Investigative Voice (investigativevoice.com) in Baltimore, Ed Norris, former Police Commissioner for Baltimore City, urged legalizing all drugs and said prohibition doesn’t work. He said, “As long as it is illegal, they’re [the drugs], going to be in demand...They’re not killing each other for the drugs. They’re killing each other for the money. And, that’s the problem... You can’t legislate morality.” Sheila Dixon, Baltimore's recently resigned mayor, also participated in the exchange of views. As a result of video difficulties, only the audio portion of this program is available.

by William Hughes
On Wednesday evening, Feb. 17, 2010, John Yoo gave a talk on the campus of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Before the controversial law professor could get into his talk, however, it was interrupted by two activists. They stood to his right in front of the auditorium and held a banner, which read: "TRY YOO FOR TORTURE." The protesters refused to sit down, but they were not arrested and remained in the same position during Yoo's entire speech. Yoo had served in the Bush-Cheney administration in the Justice Department. He authored two controversial legal memos which claimed sweeping presidential power to commit torture. The two memos are referred to by his critics--and there are many--as the "torture memos."

by William Hughes
On the evening of Jan. 27, 2010, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) spoke before a capacity audience at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore. He urged the U.S. Congress to pass a law authorizing the auditing of the Federal Reserve System. Rep. Paul was also sharply critical of the bailout of Wall Street banks and how their policies, and the policies of “The Fed,” have contributed to the recession.

by William Hughes
On Jan. 18, 2010, Baltimore City celebrated the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday with its annual parade. Under sunny skies, Maryland's governor, Martin O'Malley, made an appearance as did the current mayor, Sheila Dixon. The president of the City Council, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, was also there. She will succeed Dixon in the office of mayor, on Feb. 4, 2010. Suddenly, the festivities were interrupted by a 30-Second police chase.

by William Hughes
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon was convicted on Dec. 1, 2009 of a single misdemeanor charge of "fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary" of gift cards worth about $525 intended for needy children. As a result, she could be forced to step down as mayor, lose her $83,000 yearly pension, and may spend time in jail. She was acquitted on three other counts and a verdict was not reached on a second misappropriation count.

by William Hughes
On the evening of Sept. 16, 2009, a protest was staged at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, just north of Baltimore City, on the appearance of Karl Rove on campus as a guest speaker. Rove was a senior advisor, 2001-2007, to former President George W. Bush. Just as Rove was being introduced, at least three activists stood up in the audience and denounced him. They were quickly escorted out of the auditorium by the police and instructed not to return. As far as this observer knows, the police took down their names, but the protesters were not arrested. According to the protest announcement on the ANSWER Coalition website, Rove "should be on trial for carrying out a war of aggression in Iraq, and implementing a system of torture, secret prisons, racial and religious profiling, and massive spying on the people of this country."more...

by William Hughes
On Monday evening, April 6, 2009, anti-electricity-rate-hike activists staged a candlelight march and demonstration. It ended up at the residence in north Baltimore of Mayo Shattuck, CEO of Constellation Energy, the parent company of BGE. The activists are demanding the reregulation and "roll back of gas and electric rates" in Maryland and a halt to any planned shut-offs by BGE of electric utilities to about "84,000 households." The protest action was cosponsored by the Bailout the People Movement and Maryland Coalition for BGE Reregulation.

On Sunday evening, Feb. 8, 2009 the Take Back WYPR community organization held a forum and discussion at 2640 St. Paul Street on the "precarious state of public radio in Baltimore and across the country, and how to take back the public airwaves and make them a community resource once again."more...

This week's episode of "NAACP Report" public access TV show, hosted by NAACP Baltimore City Branch president Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, covers a rally against violence that was held Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009 from the steps of the War Memorial Building.more...

On May, 15, 2008 at about six p.m. on the third day of a student encampment in front of City Hall to get $3 million funding for Peer-to-Peer youth programs, Mayor Sheila Dixon, accompanied by an entourage, engaged the students in an impromptu, often heated meeting for about half an hour. At the outset the mayor insisted that the conversation not be video taped or she would leave. Dixon claimed that she had already provided $13.5 million for youth programs and that they needed to go through the Family League of Baltimore City for funding. The students explained that their Peer-to-Peer Youth Enterprises initiative is fundamentally different than other programs in that it is youth-led and would provide many knowledge-based jobs. Earlier the students were told they must leave before dark and that their permit for the following day had been revoked.

On Monday, May 19, 2008 at 8 a.m. Democracy Now! will begin airing regularly on WEAA-FM (88.9) in Baltimore City. Currently the daily news hour is only available to Baltimore radio listeners as a distant, often intermittent signal from WPFW-FM (89.3) out of Washington, D.C. The program has been viewable on the Baltimore City's Comcast cable television channel 75 weekdays at 6 p.m. with repeat broadcasts at 8 a.m. since April of 2003. WEAA is a 12,600 watt National Public Radio Station licensed and owned by Morgan State University.

This week's NAACP Report public access TV show is a wrap-up of the 2008 Maryland State Legislative Session guest-hosted by the branch's political action committee chair Dr. Rodney Orange. The panelists are the following representatives to the state legislature from Baltimore City (in order of appearance): Del. Melvin Stukes (District 44), Sen. Nathaniel J. McFadden (District 45), Del. Keith E. Haynes (District 44), Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg (District 41), Del. Frank M. Conaway, Jr. (District 40), Del. Nathaniel T. Oaks (District 41), Del. Barbara Robinson (District 40), Del. Cheryl D. Glenn (District 45), Del. Jill P. Carter (District 41), Sen. Lisa A. Gladden (District 41), Del. Shawn Z. Tarrant (District 40) and Sen. Catherine E. Pugh (District 40). The panel discussion is in two parts. Part one, the first hour, is the legislator's opening statements. Part two covers the second hour as legislators answer questions from the audience.

A video posted Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008 on YouTube.com shows a Baltimore City police officer grabbing a 14-year-old skateboarder around the neck, throwing him to the ground, forcefully pushing him back down when he tries to get up, and confiscating his skateboard at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. According to a report by WJZ, the officer, Salvatore Rivieri, a 17-year veteran of the force, was suspended with pay Monday morning pending an internal investigation of the incident which took place sometime in the late summer.

Watch the video:

Anna Sowers, whose husband Zack Sowers is still in a coma after being beaten and robbed on June 2, 2007 while walking to his Patterson Park home, is a guest on the "NAACP Report" TV show to discuss their story and her new role as an anti-violence activist. Also appearing are Ramsey Flynn, a friend and supporter of the Sowers family, and Luke Broadwater, a reporter for the Baltimore Examiner who has covered the story.

Baltimore Algebra Project and the Baltimore City Branch of the NAACP held an event on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2007 at Baltimore City College high school called "The 25th Anniversary of the Algebra Project: A Community Forum". A keynote address was given by Robert Moses, founder of The Algebra Project, followed by audience comments and a panel discusion featuring Baltimore City Public School System CEO Dr. Andres Alonso, Rev. Heber Brown III, Dr. Tyrone Powers of Children 1st Movement, and Chelsea Carson and Maryland Shaw of the Baltimore Algebra Project.
more...

The Baltimore City Board of Elections will post Primary Election results starting around 9 p.m. Tues., Sept. 11, 2007 with half-hourly updates at the web page http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/government/elections/results/.

Tune in to Baltimore City cable Ch. 75 Monday, Sept. 10 at 10 p.m. for a last chance to see the candidates for City Council President square off. The August 21, 2007 debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Baltimore City and WYPR 88.1 FM, aired on the radio station, but this will be the first TV broadcast of the video produced by Baltimore Grassroots Media. The participants are Democrats Kenneth Harris, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Michael Sarbanes and Charles Ulysses Smith along with Green Party candidate Maria Allwine. WYPR's Marc Steiner hosts. The winner of the Democratic primary this Tuesday, Sept. 11 will face Allwine in the Nov. 6 general election.more...

At a City Hall press conference June 26, Mayor Sheila Dixon held a meet and greet with Esther Coaline–Warbey, the mayor of Baltimore’s first sister city, Gbarnga, Liberia.more...

Less than two weeks ago, Baltimore City police arrested seven-year-old Gerard Mungo, Jr. and took him to jail. This Saturday, a short time after a noon rally in support of the boy and his family, police arrested his mother, Lakisia Dinkins, in a bizarre turn of events that many suspect was retaliation or an attempt to intimidate her for speaking out about the incident.more...

Former Baltimore City Council President Sheila Dixon—who technically became the city's mayor yesterday when Martin O'Malley was sworn in as Governor of Maryland—ceremonially became mayor today inside the War Memorial Building across the plaza from City Hall. It is now her Mayor's Office of Cable and Communications (MOCC) which operates the government channel, TV25, and is temporarily running public access TV, channel 75, until a public access facility is available.

At the Baltimore Leadership Alliance for Quality Education (BLAQE) conference held at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) on October 14th, educators, parents, and concerned citizens gathered together to discuss how to improve the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS). Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) organized the conference, and he and Bishop Walter S. Thomas, Sr., served as hosts. It included educators and administrators who have achieved success in the school system. One was Jason Botel of the KIPP Academy (Ujima Village), who invited everyone to come to his school and see the outstanding progress it has made with its students. A Johns Hopkins University health official, as well as the CEO and President of the Philadelphia School system, also participated.more...

Maryland State Board of Elections election results for Baltimore City. Over 11,000 absentee ballots (as of Tuesday afternoon) to be counted beginning Thursday, November 9 at 10 a.m.

The candidates for U.S. Senate in Maryland (from right to left) Ben Cardin (D), Michael Steele (R) and Kevin Zeese (G)

Baltimore Grassroots Media (BGM) will be videotaping the first Maryland U.S. Senate candidate debate since the September 12th primary. The town hall forum will include the nominee of the emergent Green Party as well as those of the Democratic and Republican parties.more...

Award-winning journalist Amy Goodman, host of the daily, grassroots, global, radio/TV news hour Democracy Now! (broadcast on public access Ch. 75 weekdays at 6 PM with repeats at 8 AM the following day), is on a national speaking tour to mark DN!'s 10th anniversary and launch her second book with journalist David Goodman, Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back.more...

Group prevails despite misleading assurances and contradictory rationale from consultant to city school system

Were it not for the last-minute actions of a group of parents and staff from Dickey Hill Elementary/Middle School, the school would have been designated for demolition in the current round of school closings.more...