NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Friday Dec. 6
[Scroll down for full week’s compendia]
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond. Your weekday morning look (with links) at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Friday:
The 42nd annual lighting of Baltimore’s Washington Monument ush- ered in the 2013 holiday season Thursday evening at Mount Vernon.
With holiday entertainment provided by the Morgan State Choir and Baltimore School for the Arts, the 42nd lighting of the city’s Washington Monument took place Thursday night at Mount Vernon. Some 30 food and community vendors participated in the annual laser, fireworks and searchlight event.
Read More at: WJZ-TV (Channel 13)
• FAST-FOOD PROTESTERS
SEEK DOUBLE MINIMUM WAGE
In 100 cities Thursday, including Baltimore, thousands of fast-food workers walked off the job to demand the minimum wage be doubled from $7.25 to $15 per hour.
Read More at: WBAL-TV (Channel 11)
• NELSON MANDELA DEAD AT 95
South Africa’s first black president spent 27 years in jail after being sentenced to life in prison in 1964, then led his nation out of apartheid in 1990. He was elected president in 1994 and shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with his predecessor, South African President F.W. de Klerk.
Read More at: New York Times
• GANSLER ATTACKS BROWN ON HEALTH INSURANCE
The attorney general believes his leading rival for governor is responsible for the botched rollout of Maryland’s online health-insurance exchange.
Read More at: Washington Post
• TOWSON U. TO SELL COSTLY PRESIDENT’S HOUSE
The lavish residence has cost the university millions in ill-advised spending, and cost the ex-president who got Towson to buy it, his job.
Read More at: Baltimore Sun
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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Thursday Dec. 5
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond. Your weekday morning look (with links) at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Thursday:
BALTIMORE to/from NEW YORK on AMTRAK: $38 (one-way fare)
The $38 tickets are one-way only between Baltimore and New York and must be purchased online no later than Thursday as part of a three-day sale. One-way between Washington and Richmond is $19, and between D.C. and New York is $42. The tickets are for use between Jan. 21 and Feb. 13, 2014.
According to Amtrak, “You can also save by booking your return fare within the same time frame.” Tickets are non-refundable; however exchanges are permitted prior to the original travel date.
Go to Amtrak.com for the reduced fares.
Read More at: Baltimore Sun
• SAKS PLANS 191 ADDITIONAL LAYOFFS IN ABERDEEN
The upscale retailer informed state regulators Wednesday that it intends to lay off the employees starting Jan. 3. Some of the work at the Aberdeen complex, which includes a distribution facility, will be moved to new owner Hudson’s Bay Co.’s Wilkes-Barre, Pa. site.
Read More at: Baltimore Business Journal
• MIZEUR ACCEPTS PUBLIC FINANCING
The gubernatorial candidate badly trails her rivals in fundraising. By accepting public financing she could qualify for $1 million in state funds to run her campaign, provided she agrees not to spend more than about $2.5 million in the June Democratic primary.
Read More at: WJZ-TV (Channel 13)
• BALTIMORE SCHOOLS GIVEN 100,000 NEW, FREE BOOKS
The books were donated by a partnership between the group First Book and the American Federation of Teachers, and include the one-millionth book donated nationwide.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who announced that the city has made a public warehouse available for storing the books and distribution nationwide, was among dignitaries who read to children Wednesday.
Read More at: WBAL-TV (Channel 11)
• JUDGE TO RULE ON TIKI BARGE APPEAL
A Baltimore judge will rule on the appeal of the owners of the controversial Tiki Barge in the Harborview community off Key Highway in the Inner Harbor.
Parkway Swirnow Inc., which holds the liquor license for the Tiki Barge, Tabrizi’s and Sorso Café, wants to expand the license to include Raw Barge Seafood Co., a proposed floating restaurant that was successfully opposed by residents dating back to March 2012, when the Baltimore City Board of Liquor Commissioners first denied the expanded license request.
Read More at: Maryland Daily Record
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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Wednesday Dec. 4
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond. Your weekday morning look (with links) at late- breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Wednesday:
Two women “with heavy builds” are being sought by police in connection with Victoria’s Secret beating in Annapolis. The attack occurred on Black Friday.
• TWO WOMEN SOUGHT
IN VICTORIA’S SECRET BEATING
Anne Arundel County police are searching for two black women “with heavy builds” whose assault of a teenage girl at the Victoria’s Secret store in Annapolis Mall on Black Friday was captured on video and posted on YouTube.
The victim told police the attack occurred around 12:40 a.m., when a woman she did not know came up to her and accused her of assault, and then began to punch her, whereupon a second woman approached and joined in the fight.
Read More at: The (Annapolis) Capital
• STAFF SGT. ACCUSED OF SEVERE CHILD ABUSE
An Army staff sergeant assigned to the Edgewood post in Harford County stands accused of severely abusing and neglecting her four-year-old stepdaughter. The sergeant, who has three additional children under the age of nine, was ordered held without bail during a District Court hearing Tuesday.
Read More at: The Aegis
• 160-YEAR-OLD CHURCH DESTROYED BY FIRE
Damage to the Lazarus United Church of Christ in Lineboro is estimated at $1 million, rendering the chuch, which was built in 1853, a total loss.
Read More at: WBFF Fox45-TV
• DRIVER IN DEADLY CITY HALL CRASH CLOCKED AT 115 MPH
The question is whether he was being chased by a Maryland State trooper who was out of his jurisdiction. The accident occurred in April 2011 and killed 45-year-old Matthew Hersl.
Read More at: Baltimore Sun
• MD. MAN INCARCERATED IN CUBA BLASTS OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
The 64-year-old AID contractor, a Baltimore native, was convicted four years ago of espionage for smuggling illegal electronic equipment into Cuba and sentenced to 15 years in a Havana prison. He claims the U.S. Government has “abandoned” him.
Read More at: WJZ-TV (Channel 13)
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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Tuesday Dec. 3
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond. Your weekday morning look (with links) at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Tuesday:
Goucher College is offering classes in the liberal arts to inmates at the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup.
TO INMATES AT MARYLAND PRISON
The college is teaching liberal arts courses at the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup.
Read More at: Washington Post
• CHILDREN ATTEMPT TO ROB 34-YEAR-OLD WOMAN AT GLEN BURNIE WALMART
The attempted armed robbery — at knifepoint — was perpetrated by two boys, aged 11 and 14 years, who approached the woman as she walked to her car, then fled on foot when she refused to drop her merchandise. Two hours later, the woman saw the two boys at the nearby Glen Burnie Mall and called police, who found the knife on the 11-year-old and arrested them.
Read More at: NBC/WRC-TV Washington (Ch. 4)
• CHARLES PLAZA SUPERMARKET CLOSES AGAIN
Two years after the Superfresh at Charles and Saratoga Streets shut down, laying off 40 employees, the Fresh & Green’s that replaced it, rehiring many of the laid-off staff, is closing as of Dec. 29. The closing is part of a corporate downsizing of six Fresh & Green’s grocery stores in the Maryland-D.C. area.
Read More at: Maryland Daily Record
• NEW DORMS DESIGNED FOR TOWSON UNIVERSITY
The college plans to start construction late next year on a pair of student apartment buildings in the campus’s West Village area, one 300-bed and one 400-bed unit, both of which will feature four single bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a living area in each apartment.
Read More at: Towson Times
• BLUFORD DREW JEMISON S.T.E.M. ACADEMY MAY SHUT DOWN
Baltimore’s only all-male charter middle/high school has been plagued by low test scores and financial problems and is one of seven schools the city school commissioners are considering for closure. Parents, teachers and students have started a petition to keep the school open.
Read More at: WJZ-TV (Channel 13)
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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Monday Dec. 2
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond. Your weekday morning look (with links) at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Monday:
Free courses in casino card dealing are being offered by Anne Arundel Community College to selected students at its Arundel Mills facility.
• ARUNDEL COMMUNITY COLLEGE OFFERS FREE CASINO DEALER TRAINING
Selected county students will be able to train free to become casino card dealers as part of a partnership between the college and Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corp.
Read More at: The (Annapolis) Capital
• BALTIMORE MAYOR DEFENDS THE INDEFENSIBLE ON ‘MEET THE PRESS’
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake defended Obamacare, as Maryland Rep. Christopher Van Hollen, another Democrat, said of the healthcare initiative, “Mary- land’s a mess. There’s no doubt about it.”
Read More at: Baltimore Sun
• NEW ANNAPOLIS MAYOR MAKES INITIAL APPOINTMENTS
Michael J. Pantelides, the new mayor, who was elected last month by a 59-vote margin over incumbent Joshua J. Cohen, on Sunday named Timothy Murnane to be city attorney and Rhonda Wardlaw as the capital city’s public information officer.
Read More at: WBFF Fox45-TV
• KAMENETZ PLANS TOWSON OF THE FUTURE
In a wide-ranging interview with the Maryland Daily Record the Baltimore County executive reiterated his 2013 mantra, “It’s Towson’s time.”
Read More at: Maryland Daily Record
• NYC TRAIN DERAILMENT KILLS FOUR, INJURES DOZENS
The commuter train from Poughkeepsie derailed in the Bronx early Sunday as the first four cars of the eight-car train flew off the tracks and landed on their sides. The operator told rescuers he had “dumped” the brakes, a last-resort maneuver that slams on the emergency brakes of all cars at once.
Read More at: New York Times
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