NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Friday April 4
[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:
Singer Chris Brown will be extradited from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. to stand trial on an assault charge. In 2009 the R&B hip hop rapper pleaded guilty to felony assault of his then-girl- friend, singer Rihanna, and was sen- tenced to five years’ probation and six months’ community service. He is the recipient of two NAACP Image Awards.
• SINGER CHRIS BROWN TO BE EXTRADITED TO WASHINGTON
The R&B hip hop rapper and his bodyguard are set to go on trial later this month for allegedly hitting a man outside a Washington, D.C. hotel in October. Brown was taken into custody Thursday by U.S. marshals in Los Angeles and is being held without bail following his discharge from a court-mandated rehab program for anger management after violating the program’s rules.
Read More at: WJZ-TV (Channel 13)
• MICA ADJUNCTS SET UNION VOTE
If the adjunct faculty decide to unionize, they will be the first to do so at a four-year institution in Maryland.
Read More at: Maryland Daily Record
• LT. GOVERNOR SAYS ELECTION OPPONENT BROKE STATE LAW
Anthony Brown’s gubernatorial campaign filed a formal complaint Thursday charging Attorney General Doug Gansler with breaking state law by organizing fundraisers during the General Assembly session. Gansler’s fundraising chairperson sent out an email to supporters this week asking them to “save the date” for receptions after the 2014 legislative session ends next Monday.
Read More at: Baltimore Sun
• MD. LEGISLATURE PASSES DOG-BITE LIABILITY MEASURE
The House of Delegates gave final approval Wednesday to a compromise measure that would make all Maryland dog owners equally liable if their pet bites someone. The bill, which does not single out pit bulls as an “inherently dangerous” breed, now goes to Gov. Martin O’Malley for signature.
Read More at: WBAL-Radio (1090AM)
• MINIMUM WAGE HIKE APPROVED BY SENATE COMMITTEE
The Maryland State Senate’s Budget and Taxation Committee approved the measure by a 9-3 vote Thursday, sending the proposed legislation to the Senate floor.
Read More at: WBFF Fox45-TV
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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Thursday April 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 Thursday:
Anne Arundel Co. police dogs are getting bulletproof vests valued at $950 apiece, at no cost to the county.
• ARUNDEL K9 ‘OFFICERS’ GET BULLETPROOF VESTS
The dogs won’t get guns however, or nightsticks, as they’re already equipped with extra-sharp teeth.
The ballistic vests — which cost $950 each — are part of a $335,000 Groupon Grassroots project organized in memory of K9 “Officer” Rocco of the Pittsburgh Police Department, who was fatally stabbed in the line of duty in January. All of the vests will be embroidered with the words “In Memory of K9 Rocco, Pittsburgh Police Department.”
Read More at: WBAL-TV (Channel 11)
• CARROLL COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
VIOLATE JUDGE’S PRAYER ORDER
Defiance by Carroll County commissioners of a U.S. District judge’s March 25 order to refrain from opening their meetings with sectarian prayers may cost the county upwards of $30,000 if the judge agrees to a national humanist group’s request to fine the county’s five elected leaders and hold them in contempt.
The American Humanist Association on Wednesday cited two recent meetings of Carroll’s Board of Commissioners in which prayers invoking Jesus Christ were offered in violation of the order, and asked Judge William Quarles to impose a $30,000 fine as punishment for the infractions.
Two days after Quarles’ ruling, Commissioner Robin Frazier, on willfully violating the restraining order, said she was ready to go to jail for her beliefs. Then on Tuesday, the treasurer of a different commissioner’s reelection campaign addressed the commissioners publicly and asked for the judge’s blessings “in Jesus’s name.”
Read More at: Maryland Daily Record
• CIRCUS ELEPHANTS EAT LUNCH AT LEXINGTON MARKET
Four Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus pachyderms feasted on bananas, carrots, apples and more on Wednesday outside the West Baltimore market.
Read More at: Baltimore Sun
• HOUSE COMMITTEE REJECTS, REWORKS MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION BILL
The Maryland State Legislature won’t decriminalize pot this year, but will likely take a step in that direction two years down the line, as the House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to create a task force to study decriminalization policies.
Read More at: WBAL-Radio (1090AM)
• NEXT D.C. MAYOR COULD BE A FIRST, IN THREE WAYS
Despite defeating scandal-plagued incumbent Vincent Gray decisively in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, Muriel Bowser won’t become Washington D.C.’s next mayor without beating Independent Councilmember David Catania, who is white, openly gay and a former Republican — all of which would be firsts for a mayor of Washington — in November.
Read More at: WBFF Fox45-TV
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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Wednesday April 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 Wednesday:
Morgan State Prof. Manoj K. Jha was convicted Tuesday of defrauding the National Science Foundation of $200,000.
• MORGAN STATE PROFESSOR CONVICTED
OF $200K GRANT FRAUD
Manoj Kumar Jha, a professor in the department of civil engineering at Morgan State University in Baltimore who worked for the Maryland State Highway Administration from 1994-2001, was convicted Tuesday of defrauding the National Science Foundation of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding.
As overseer of Morgan’s transportation engineering graduate program, Jha fabricated an elaborate research proposal through a private company he founded, and then applied for more than $200,000 in funding through the NSF’s Small Business Technology Transfer Program.
His project’s stated purpose was to enhance current models used by highway planners to optimize horizontal and vertical highway routes, and ultimately to commercialize the result, but instead he used the money to make personal mortgage and credit card payments, paid his wife $11,000 for work she didn’t do and wrote himself a $6,000 check, prosecutors charged.
He also stated falsely on grant applications that University of Maryland would be a collaborating research institution on the project, and applied for an additional $500,000 but did not receive it.
Read More at: WBFF Fox45-TV
• STATE EMPLOYEES BUY PERSONAL ITEMS WORTH $260 MILLION
An audit released Tuesday by the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits charges at least four state employees with using state-owned credit cards to purchase all sorts of personal items valued at nearly $260 million. Two of the offenders have already spent time in jail for their crimes.
Read More at: WBAL-Radio (1090AM)
• SETTLEMENTS NEAR IN UNNECESSARY STENTS LAWSUITS
According to Catholic Health Initiatives, Inc., the former owner of St. Joseph Medical Center, agreements have been reached in two class-action lawsuits over unnecessary stents placed in heart patients at the Towson area hospital, mostly by disgraced cardiologist Mark Midei.
Terms of the settlements were not disclosed with the announcement Tuesday. Midei is described in the federal lawsuit as the hospital’s “haloed rainmaker.”
Read More at: Maryland Daily Record | WJZ-TV (Channel 13)
• BALTIMORE TO SPEND $30M ON NEW COP CARS, OTHER VEHICLES
The city will replace 338 aging vehicles, including police cruisers and firetrucks.
Read More at: Baltimore Sun
• ULMAN PROPOSES $260M BUDGET FOR HOWARD COUNTY
The Howard County executive, who is running for lieutenant governor on the Anthony Brown ticket, released his capital budget for FY2015 on Tuesday.
Read More at: Howard County Times
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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Tuesday April 1
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:
Artist’s rendering of redesigned Rotunda shopping center on West 40th St., which will include luxury 7-screen ‘CinéBistro,’ to replace Rotunda Cinemas.
• LUXURY THEATER, BISTRO PLANNED FOR ROTUNDA
Hekemian & Co., the West 40th Street shopping center’s developer, announced Monday it has signed a long-term lease with Cobb Theatres for “CinéBistro,” a luxury seven-screen movie and upscale dining complex that will replace the long-running Rotunda Cinemas.
There’s nothing like it in Baltimore on such a large scale; “we’re looking forward to hopefully being the first,” said Cobb CEO Jeremy Welman, who declined to discuss the cost to build the theater, other than to note it is “significantly” more per square foot than for a traditional theater without dining.
Read More at: Maryland Daily Record
• ORIOLES DEFEAT RED SOX 2-1 IN 2014 OPENER
The Birds started the season with a win in Baltimore as free agent Nelson Cruz celebrated his Orioles debut with a tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning.
Read More at: WBAL-Radio (1090AM)
• GENERAL ASSEMBLY ENTERS FINAL WEEK
Unfinished business and tough issues are still pending, although fewer than in legislative sessions past.
Read More at: WBAL-TV (Channel 11)
• FCC MOVES TO BREAK UP TV STATIONS
Despite intense GOP opposition, the Democratic-controlled Federal Communications Commission voted Monday to crack down on media consolidation.
The move comes just weeks after the agency attempted to put investigators in TV, radio and newspaper newsrooms throughout the country in a failed effort to influence independent news coverage.
Read More at: National Journal
• D.C. MAYOR GRAY SIGNS MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION BILL
It now goes to Congress for review, which rarely acts to invalidate District of Columbia laws.
Read More at: WBFF Fox45-TV
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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Monday March 31
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:
Workers implode the former Bethlehem Steel Mill at Sparrows Pt.
• SPARROWS POINT STEEL MILL IMPLODED
The former Bethlehem Steel mill was once the largest in the world.
Read More at: Baltimore Sun
• MD. REPLACES HEALTH EXCHANGE WITH CONNECTICUT’S SYSTEM
And Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who was put in charge of the failed system by Gov. Martin O’Malley, gets the blame.
Read More at: Washington Post
• RAY RICE, FIANCÉE MARRY DAY AFTER INDICTMENT
The Raven’s running back’s fiancée married him the day after he was indicted on third-degree aggravated assault charges for knocking her unconscious at an Atlantic City hotel in February.
New Jersey law however provides an exception to spousal privilege, so she may still be compelled to testify against him. Because she’s the alleged victim she cannot invoke the privilege.
Read More at: WBAL-TV (Channel 11)
• UNEXPECTED SUNDAY SNOWFALL SURPRISES MARYLANDERS
Slush and snow covered the ground Sunday from Owings Mills and Towson to Carroll and Harford Counties, as The Winter That Refuses To End! hasn’t ended.
Read More at: WBFF Fox45-TV
• ANNAPOLIS CRAB FEAST RAISES $71K FOR NONPROFITS
Last summer’s 68th World’s Largest Crab Feast was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Annapolis.
Read More at: The (Annapolis) Capital
