LETTER ERRONEOUSLY SENT TO PARENTS
  GRANTS ELIGIBILITY TO EVERY STUDENT
  THAT  TOOK  TEST  FOR  G&T  PROGRAM
 
  By Alan Z. Forman
 
  What does it mean to be “gifted and talented” in Howard County? Is every   student in the public school system a G/T scholar?

  That’s the question parents of Howard County elementary and secondary schoolchildren were asking this week, as the county’s public school system mailed a letter to parents of students who had taken a test for eligibility to Howard’s Gifted & Talented Education Program telling them their child had “qualified.”

The county is famous for attracting families from more expensive areas in Maryland who move to Howard because it’s known for having excellent public schools combined with more affordable living arrangements. But does that translate into all its students being gifted and talented? and far above the national average intellectually and academically?

The letters mailed a week ago Thursday to parents of learners who are not way above average would make it seem so. But the information contained in the letters, telling all parents their children had been accepted into the G&T Program, was incorrect.

“We had a quality control error, a coding error,” the county school system’s director of communications told Voice of Baltimore in a telephone interview at week’s end.

“All of the kids who tested got a letter saying their ‘cut score’ had met the requirement for G/T eligibility,” Rebecca Amani-Dove explained.

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A VOICE OF BALTIMORE EXCLUSIVE
First reprint from our innovative predecessor
 
Four years ago last month Investigative Voice burst on the Baltimore news scene, bringing innovative award-winning journalism to Maryland’s largest city and beyond.  The groundbreaking news website was universally lauded and acclaimed until being usurped in mid-2011 by a disgruntled former editor who immediately caused the site to go fallow.  I.V. is now offline, presumably for good.

Founded by former Baltimore Examiner reporter Stephen Janis, who served as lead investigative journalist and content director and who is now investigative producer for Baltimore’s WBFF Fox45-TV, the first-of-its-kind website was edited by ex-Baltimore Sun reporter/copy editor and political speechwriter Alan Z. Forman, who brought innovative style and story layout to I.V. and is attempting to continue its groundbreaking work with Voice of Baltimore, which picked up in September 2011 where Investigative Voice left off.

In its heyday the innovative website was named “Best of Baltimore” by both Baltimore City Paper and Baltimore Magazine and was commended by such prestigious journalistic organizations as Harvard University’s Nieman Fellowships Foundation, among others.

As such, Voice of Baltimore is proud of its association and heritage in Investigative Voice, and it is our intention to reprint archives from VoB‘s illustrious predecessor from time to time.  At present, Janis and Forman are collaborating on a prospective television series based on their book Why Do We Kill? a survey of recent murder cases in Baltimore investigated by retired City Homicide Detective Kelvin Sewell, which was published in conjunction with Baltimore True Crime in 2011, as well as investigations led by retired homicide Lt. Stephen Tabeling.

This is the first of VoB‘s archival reprints of what we consider to be among the best stories covered by Investigative Voice.
 
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A.F. James MacArthur in his online radio studio, from which he held an hours-long debate early this month at his North Baltimore home with BPD Lt. Jason Yerg. MacArthur was denied bail for the second time at a Friday hearing held at Baltimore City Circuit Court.

A ‘THREAT TO PUBLIC SAFETY’
 
For the second time in as many weeks, gadfly journalist/ blogger A.F. James MacArthur was denied bail Friday based on allegedly threatening messages against Baltimore City police posted to his Facebook page and Twitter feed in the days and hours leading up to his Dec. 1 arrest.

In his third bail review hearing since being arrested following a five-hour standoff when his Waverly area home was surrounded by a SWAT team and other heavily armed tactical police officers — featuring an on-air ‘debate’ broadcast live on his website BaltimoreSpectator.com — MacArthur was told by Maryland Circuit Court Associate Judge Lynn K. Stewart that his Twitter and Facebook messages caused her to consider him a “threat to public safety” and that, despite his having no record of violence, he was potentially dangerous.

When the 37-year-old cab driver asked for permission to “speak” (address the court), Stewart emphatically responded, “No.”

MacArthur is charged with violation of probation on a 10-year-old gun-possession conviction and with failing to report for an end-of-probation hearing which he says he was never notified about. He is also charged with two counts of illegal firearm possession, which could result in as much as 10 years in prison if he is convicted.

When police tried to serve a warrant on the probation violation charge last summer, they found his listed residence vacant because he had moved.

On Friday it appeared as if Stewart had already made up her mind to deny bail prior to the 8:30 a.m. review, which resulted from MacArthur’s lawyer’s application for a writ of habeas corpus just over a week ago. The judge never asked the prosecutor to speak, and ignored attorney Jill P. Carter’s plea for leniency based on MacArthur’s having never been charged with a violent crime.

“And you call yourself a justice,” MacArthur blurted out as he was led away by sheriff’s deputies at the conclusion of the hearing.

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Supporters of jailed blogger A.F. James MacArthur held a vigil Thursday evening outside Baltimore’s Central Booking facility. (VoB photo/Alan Z. Forman)

FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES GATHER
ON EAST MADISON ST. TO PROTEST
‘UNJUST’ JAILING OF CITY BLOGGER

HELD WITHOUT VISITORS FOR THREE WEEKS
 
By Alan Z. Forman
 
Waving hand-lettered signs with messages like “Free James MacArthur, Journalist,” and chanting “Free MacArthur! Free MacArthur now,” a contingent of 20-30 supporters of the controversial Baltimore blogger incarcerated three weeks ago after a BPD SWAT team surrounded his Waverly home and a police negotiator “debated” with him on live streaming radio for nearly five hours, gathered on East Madison Street outside Central Booking Thursday to support their friend and colleague and protest what they consider to be his “unjust” treatment by city police.

Except for his lawyer, MacArthur has been held without visitors — or bail — for nearly three weeks.

“We view James as a ‘political prisoner,’” Nadrat Siddique, of the Baltimore-D.C. Jericho Movement, which advocates for “freedom of all political prisoners,” told Voice of Baltimore as she shouted through a bullhorn to passing motorists: “We’re here today because our brother is locked up, one of the few independent journalists. This brother was speaking out for all of us. They’re locking up our journalists.

“James had the gall and the balls to speak out,” she asserted.

MacArthur runs a website titled “The Baltimore Spectator,” whose stated mission is “to deliver ‘Truth to the Masses.’” Portions of his dialogue with BPD Lt. Jason Yerg immediately prior to his Dec. 1 arrest at the end of his five-hour standoff with city cops on violation of probation involving gun charges may be heard on the Spectator’s website, BaltimoreSpectator.com.

As a gadfly journalist MacArthur has worked with Voice of Baltimore and VoB’s predecessor website Investigative Voice to report crime and what he considers to be police malfeasance in Charm City. He has often broken stories for VoB, frequently beating other Baltimore news outlets, including mainstream legacy media, by hours, sometimes days.

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A.F. James MacArthur in his online radio studio, from which he held an hours-long broadcast ‘debate’ early this month with Baltimore Police negotiator Lt. Jason Yerg.

FAMILY SUSPECTS MacARTHUR’S INCARCERATION
MAY BE RETALIATION FOR CRITICISM OF POLICE

Gadfly journalist appeared regularly at city crime scenes,
frequently lambasted  law enforcement officials’ actions

REPORTED TO BE ‘LUCID AND CALM’
 
By Alan Z. Forman
 
The family of controversial blogger A.F. James MacArthur, who held nearly 100 Baltimore Police Department SWAT and tactical team officers at bay for more than five hours two weeks ago before surrendering peacefully, is concerned that their relative’s continued incarceration may be retaliation for his habit of observing city police at crime scenes and regularly criticizing their activities.

MacArthur was arrested at 11 p.m. Dec. 1, ending an hours-long telephone “debate” with a police negotiator broadcast in real time on his website, BaltimoreSpectator.com, and has since been denied bail and even visitors in the 17-day period following.

In an email to Voice of Baltimore, his sister, who is a legislative analyst for the Montgomery County Council, expressed concern that “no one has been able to see him yet, not even Jill Carter,” his attorney.

However, Baltimore Sun Crime Reporter Justin Fenton informs VoB via email that “Jill Carter met with him last week. She told me he was ‘lucid and calm,’” Fenton said.

Last week, Carter — a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, representing the state’s 41st Legislative District — filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus after MacArthur was denied bail, despite having never been charged with a violent offense.

“As of last week,” his sister, Jean C. Arthur, told VoB “there was no hearing set for her [Carter’s] motion and she believes at this point that it probably will not happen until the January hearing,” which has been set for the end of the first week of the new year.

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