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
 

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Cal Ripken Jr.’s autograph on his rookie baseball card is priced at over $300. In his playing days the Orioles’ ‘Iron Man’ signed autographs, especially for kids, for free.

ONE COLLECTOR’S PHONY SIGNATURE
CAN BE ANOTHER’S PRIZE POSSESSION

For the right price, celebrities
will sign anything but checks
 
By David Maril
 
What is the big deal about celebrity autographs? The whole process is often superficial and impersonal.

I’ve never understood why so many of us are obsessed with memorabilia related to the expanding group of rich and famous people.

I’m not completely against autographs, especially with kids and a sport like baseball. There’s nothing wrong with youngsters who have become fans of the great summer game looking up to players like Adam Jones and Chris Davis, wanting to emulate them on the field.

I hope, as the Orioles begin what seems to be a very promising season, players will be as affable and outgoing with kids seeking autographs as greats from the team’s past like Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken.

What I do find offensive, however, are adults who approach autographs from a mercenary direction.

When I covered Major League Baseball in Boston, it seemed astounding, if not pathetic, to see dozens of adults crawling around with their faces pressed down on the sidewalk outside the players’ parking lot at Fenway Park after games.

They were  trying to get a glimpse, through the gap at the fence’s base, of the shoe-tops of their favorite Red Sox players getting into cars, before running out on the street to stop them for autographs.

What possesses middle-aged and even elderly fans to behave in such an embarrassing fashion?

Granted, there are collectors who make plenty of money wheeling and dealing by selling and trading autographs, turning this fixation of celebrity worship into a business.

Selling autographs has become such a big deal that many retired and still active athletes appear at events to get paid to put their names on baseballs, footballs, hats, slips of paper, bats, photos, magazines and anything else that can retain the ink-scratching of a pen. The joke is they’ll sign anything but checks.

Occasionally the athlete will look up and smile and exchange a few words.

Read more »

 
NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Friday March 28

[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:

BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport is moving its ‘cellphone lot’ as of April 1st for drivers waiting to pick up arriving passengers.

•  BWI ‘CELLPHONE LOT’ TO BE RELOCATED

As of April 1 the airport’s waiting area for drivers picking up arriving passengers will move from one side of Terminal Road to the other, adjacent to the airport’s daily parking garage.

Read More at:  Baltimore Sun

•  RICE INDICTED IN NEW JERSEY ON AGGRAVATED ASSAULT CHARGE

The Ravens’ star running back is accused of knocking his fiancée unconscious in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino in February. The third-degree aggravated assault charge, a felony, carries a potential sentence of 3-5 years in prison.

Read More at:  WBFF Fox45-TV

•  FROSH KILLS 70 MPH SPEED LIMIT BILL

The chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, Maryland Sen. Brian Frosh, said Thursday he won’t allow the bill — which was passed by the House of Delegates — to receive a Senate vote because he believes higher speed limits would lead to more deaths and pollution.

Read More at:  The (Annapolis) Capital

•  STATE CENTER FOES RULED ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH

Clearing the way for the $1.5 billion State Center redevelopment to proceed, the Maryland Court of Appeals said Thursday that opponents of the planned project “slumbered unreasonably in asserting their claims.”

Read More at:  Maryland Daily Record

•  HENSON APPEALS PROBATION VIOLATION

The former Ehrlich political operative convicted of making illegal robocalls in the 2010 gubernatorial election cited Wednesday’s appeals court decision to allow convicted former Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold to run again and says he should receive the same consideration.

Read more »

In the 1973 Woody Allen-Diane Keaton film “Sleeper” a futuristic society discovered that the health foods of the 1960s and 70s were actually unhealthy and caused dis- ease, and that greasy fried foods and chocolate, as well as cholesterol and candy, were actually good for you.

Why does Baltimore not have a solid
round-the-clock radio news station
like Washington D.C.’s WTOP?
 
By David Maril
 
While wondering how far television ratings would nosedive for the NCAA hoop tournament if it weren’t for office pools and people everywhere wagering on the Final Four and eventual champion, it’s interesting to note the following:

  Speaking of ratings, you have to wonder whether CNN will learn something from the fact its ratings have zoomed back into respectability during coverage of the International story of the missing jetliner Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

With in-depth reporting on the mysterious disappearance on March 8th of the flight with 239 people on board, viewership has gone up.

The pioneering all-news cable network was founded as a hard-news station. But in recent years, caught up in the ratings competition between the conservative propaganda of Fox News and the liberal dogma of MSNBC, CNN has gotten away from its mission of providing news.

CNN is at its best when it sheds its opinion-based feature-entertainment prime-time focus and goes back to comprehensive reporting on national and International news.

  Why doesn’t Baltimore have an all-day all-news radio station like Washington’s WTOP? While WNEW (99.1FM), an all-headline type news station focused mostly on Washington, is trying to expand into the Baltimore market, it’s still more of a traffic-weather reporting outlet for the nation’s capital.

WTOP does address traffic and weather but it also blends in news coverage with a style that allows depth. If you listen for more than half an hour you will hear different features and other reports instead of nothing but repetition and updates.

Read more »

 
NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Friday March 21

[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:

Marylou Yam was named Thursday as the new president of Notre Dame of Maryland University, effective July 1st.

•  NOTRE DAME OF MD. NAMES NEW PRESIDENT

Marylou Yam, who is currently provost at Saint Peter’s University, a Catholic liberal arts institution in Jersey City, will assume her new post in Baltimore July 1.

Read More at:  Baltimore Sun

•  DAILY RECORD PARENT FILES BANKRUPTCY

The Dolan Company, parent of Baltimore-based Maryland Daily Record, announced Thursday it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. However company officials said they expect to continue publishing in the 19 local markets Dolan serves and that employees will continue to be paid as usual.

Read More at:  Maryland Daily Record

•  MIDSHIPMAN ACQUITTED IN SEX ASSAULT CASE, QUITS ACADEMY

Former Navy football player Joshua Tate was found not guilty Thursday of sexually assaulting an unnamed female classmate during a 2012 party at an off-campus house in Annapolis.

Tate chose to be tried by a judge rather than a military jury, who found that the woman he was accused of assaulting — currently a U.S. Naval Academy senior — was not too drunk to consent to sexual activity.

In return for not being prosecuted on three counts of having made false statements, Tate agreed Thursday to resign from the academy.

Read More at:  WBAL-Radio (1090AM)

•  DISTRACTED DRIVING BILL PASSES MARYLAND SENATE

Known as “Jake’s Law,” the measure will increase penalties for distracted driving, including text messaging on hand-held cellphones.

Read More at:  WBFF Fox45-TV

•  SENATE PASSES INCREASED ESTATE TAX EXEMPTION

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