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TAXPAYER FUNDED — BDC, MEDCO employees enjoy pricey meals as projects flounder

Tuesday, May 1st 2012 @ 11:10 PM

QUASI-PUBLIC AGENCIES’ WORKERS
LIVE IT UP AT TAXPAYERS’ EXPENSE

The floundering of publicly funded projects in Baltimore and Western Maryland hasn’t stopped employees of two quasi-public agencies that use taxpayer-backed borrowing to fund private business, from dining in upscale restaurants, enjoying pricey meals and drinks, and attending Baltimore Ravens football games at taxpayer expense, according to a report made public Tuesday by Fox45 WBFF-TV.

The agencies in question — the Baltimore Development Corp. (BDC) and Maryland Economic Development Corp. (MEDCO), which are charged with responsibility for assisting economic growth, encouraging increased commerce, and stimulating employment in the city and state — often operate under the radar of watchdog organizations, outside the normal scope of government oversight.

At breakfast meetings, for example, employees and guests feasted on yogurt parfait and Belgian waffles at a cost to Maryland taxpayers of over $1,000.

Other expenditures included $1,400 for Ravens tickets, money for gift cards, and pricey dinners at such upscale restaurants as the Capital Grille and Tio Pepe’s; and beer, wine and liquor for holiday and retirement parties.

On one occasion $1,400 was spent on crabs for a group of 100 employees and guests.

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O’MALLEY’S MARCH — No longer concerned about the ‘gravitas’? (or lack thereof)?

Sunday, April 29th 2012 @ 11:27 PM

Led by Gov. Martin O'Malley, O'Malley's March will play 1812 concert with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in June.

THE BAND IS SCHEDULED TO PLAY A GIG IN JUNE
ALONG WITH BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
AS PART OF MARITIME FESTIVAL ON WAR OF 1812

Not since candidate Bill Clinton played the saxophone on the old Arsenio Hall late-night talk show in 1992 has a potential presidential candidate been as identified with music as Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

Sure, Harry Truman was known for playing the piano, but not before he was President in the 1940s and early 1950s. And World War II-era New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was famous for singing “East Side, West Side” (from the tune, “Sidewalks of New York”).

But LaGuardia, a Republican, never ran for President. And Harry Truman never had to face grueling presidential primaries, having succeeded to office on the death of Franklin Roosevelt.

However O’Malley, a Democrat, is widely expected to run in 2016. Some say, in fact, he’s already positioning himself for the nomination, making national appearances as chair of the Democratic Governors Association.

On June 17, he and his band O’Malley’s March will join the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at a concert in conjunction with the Star-Spangled Sailabration, a maritime festival commemorating the War of 1812, which is scheduled to include more than 40 tall ships and naval vessels in the Inner Harbor.

To be held at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, the concert will be the second high profile appearance this year for the governor’s rejuvenated band, which played at the White House for President Barack Obama and the First Lady to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in March.

Having eschewed his music career as detrimental to what he referred to as his “gravitas” when he became governor in 2007, it appears O’Malley has had a change of heart in that regard.

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LAW SCHOOL DEAN — Assistant U.S. attorney general tapped by University of Baltimore

Wednesday, April 25th 2012 @ 12:30 AM

Ronald Weich was named Dean of University of Baltimore Law School early Wednesday.

RONALD WEICH WAS FORMER CHIEF COUNSEL
TO U.S. SENS. TED KENNEDY AND HARRY REID

EX-LAW PARTNER OF CITY STATE’S ATTORNEY BERNSTEIN

A former chief counsel to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and a former law partner of City State’s Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein was named early Wednesday to head the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Ronald Weich, the new dean, has been an assistant attorney general in the Obama Administration’s Justice Department since being appointed by the President in 2009.

He succeeds Michael Higginbottom, a professor at University of Baltimore who has been serving as interim dean since the resignation under fire of former Dean Phillip J. Closius, who last year split with UB administrators over the law school’s funding.

A Columbia University and Yale Law School graduate, Weich beat out three former and current deans and associate deans of other law schools for the post. Higginbottom did not apply for the permanent position.

Weich is a former partner of the Washington-based law firm Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, whose Baltimore office was headed by Bernstein prior to his election as State’s Attorney for Baltimore City in 2010.

Founded in 1925, UB is the sixth-largest public law school in the U.S., currently with 1,100 students.

— VoB Staff report

READ MORE ABOUT UB’S NEW LAW SCHOOL DEAN (click here) and (here)

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BLACK OCTOBER — The killing of a drug-dealing state delegate

Monday, April 23rd 2012 @ 2:30 AM

Flyer left at scene of grisly 1973 murder of Maryland State Delegate James ‘Turk’ Scott.

A Voice of Baltimore Feature, an excerpt from

BLACK OCTOBER AND THE MURDER OF TURK SCOTT
The Case Files of Homicide Lt. Stephen Tabeling

A SOON-TO-BE-PUBLISHED MINI-eBOOK ON AMAZON.COM

By Stephen Tabeling and Stephen Janis

Baltimore City, like most communities, has a split personality.

Within its borders, alleys and back-ways two parallel worlds exist side by side. Distinct civic selves, which become self- evident if you spend enough time immersed in both.

I know this because I was… and still am, a cop.

During my career as a Lieutenant in Baltimore City Homicide, I often worked at a crossroads where the two worlds met. At the point where healthy productive communities and the criminal element clashed.

And while I worked dozens of murder cases and headed a variety of investigations, there is one case that to this day stands out as emblematic of the split personality that characterizes this town.

This case defined just how destructive the burgeoning drug war in Baltimore was to become; and just how complicated and costly fighting it would be.

It was a case that pitted the city against itself, and revealed how scars of divisive racial mistrust would be slow to heal — if ever they would heal at all.

It was a case that has all but been forgotten, although it sowed the seeds of many of the problems that hamper the effectiveness of our justice system even today.

It was also a story of a social movement that threatened to engulf the city in civil war, a vigilante movement which still remains in part, a mystery.

I’m talking about the murder of Maryland State Delegate Turk Scott.

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‘DO IT NOW’! — William Donald Schaefer musical previews in Little Italy

Friday, April 20th 2012 @ 12:01 AM

As Mayor of Baltimore in 1890s swim- suit, William Donald Schaefer swam with the seals of the National Aquarium. The late mayor and governor is subject of a new musical previewed here earlier this week.

LOCAL SHOW DEPICTS BALTO. MAYOR
AS COLORFUL CAPTAIN OF CHANGE
FOR LANGUISHING CHARM CITY

By Anthony C. Hayes

In the twilight of his years at City Hall, before going on to become governor and later state comptroller of Maryland, William Donald Schaefer garnered a well deserved national reputation as one of the great mayors of the 20th century in America.

Earlier this week Hizzoner, now deceased, was once again at center stage, this time in the footlights at Germano’s Trattoria in Little Italy where a near capacity crowd of 90 spectators saw a preview of scenes from a new musical based on Schaefer’s life entitled, “Do It Now.”

Composed by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Jensen, with book by award-winning local playwright Rich Espey, the show seeks to recall the tumult and triumph of Schaefer’s last decades at City Hall, where he presided as Mayor of Baltimore for 15 years.

The “musical in development” was narrated by Aaron Henkin of WYPR.

Boiling nearly a score of years of the iconic mayor’s life down to a two-hour play is indeed a tall order. With Schaefer, the possibilities might seem endless.

In a telephone interview subsequent to the opening at Germano’s, Jensen told Voice of Baltimore he initially got the idea to write the show from his wife.

“In the weeks after Schaefer’s death” — which occurred a year ago this week — “with all the tributes and press coverage,” Jensen said, “I felt there is a story here with a very broad appeal.”

So, following his wife’s suggestion, he mentioned the idea to Schaefer biographer C. Fraser Smith, who, as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun, had covered the former mayor and governor for much of his political career. (Smith is now a senior editor and news analyst at WYPR-88.1-FM.)

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