Charles Village

Gregory Kane: History captured in glory, shame

The nickname for athletic teams at Iowa State University is "the Cyclones." The nickname for athletic teams at the University of Iowa is "the Hawkeyes."

Sondheim Prize gala

People may come to the Baltimore Museum of Art to see the work of many internationally renowned artists, but a recent gathering there was to celebrate local talent.

Fleisher celebrates 80 years of music

Leon Fleisher will celebrate his 80th birthday this week doing two of his favorite things - playing the piano and conducting. Joining him onstage for an all-Mozart program will be the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which shares with Fleisher a long, strong history.

Artscape prize winner finds his sea legs in the art world

Geoff Grace has been a marine scientist on the Pacific Ocean, a museum educator in Florida, a high school teacher in Overlea and a guitarist in his own band, the Tall Grass.

The week that was

10-hour shifts a hit with officers

Teacher wins annual Artscape Prize

Amid warm applause in a packed auditorium, a Baltimore County teacher and multimedia artist accepted the $25,000 Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize yesterday at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

City to offer refunds

Nearly 2,000 residents in Charles Village and Bolton Hill could receive small property tax refunds because of a city error that inflated their tax bills, Mayor Sheila Dixon said yesterday.

Independence Day

This schedule will be in effect today for the Fourth of July holiday.

Independence Day

This schedule will be in effect tomorrow for the July Fourth holiday.

Independence Day closings announced

This schedule will be in effect Friday for the July 4 holiday.

Nonprofits add jobs

Nonprofits - especially big ones - are continuing to drive employment growth in Maryland, a new report suggests.

Sondheim finalists' works reflect changing world

Paper or plastic?

Local Screenings

Gonzo documentary at the Charles

The Spring 2008 Cinema Sundays series wraps this weekend with documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney's Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Former Cinema Sundays programmer Gabe Wardell, now executive director of Independent Media Artists of Georgia, Etc. (IMAGE), and organizers of the annual Atlanta Film Festival will be on hand for the introduction and post-film discussion. Showtime at the Charles, 1711 N. Charles St., is 10:35 a.m. Sunday, preceded by 50 minutes of no-additional-charge coffee and bagels. Tickets are $15. Information: 410-727-3456 or cinemasundays.com.

City streets close over weekend

It's going to be a challenging weekend for getting around Baltimore.

State raids mayor's home

Maryland state prosecutors raided the home of Mayor Sheila Dixon yesterday as part of an investigation into past spending practices at City Hall, the most aggressive move so far in the years-long probe.

No place like home for vacation in 2008

So you've all but given up on the idea of going on vacation this summer.

Shots defended, and yet regretted

The phone in Harry Goodman's tiny Charles Village dry cleaners kept ringing yesterday.

JHU biologist gets grant of about $2.5 million

A Johns Hopkins University molecular biologist is among the 56 researchers who will share $600 million in grants awarded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Memorial Day schedule

This schedule will be in effect today.

Memorial Day schedule

This schedule will be in effect tomorrow:

Jacques Kelly: As 'hot, buggy' summer returns to city, neighborhood, family traditions blossom

When the Johns Hopkins undergraduates start disappearing from the blocks around my Charles Village home, the Baltimore summer is around the corner. I miss these kids, but there's something relieving about the neighborhood intermission their departure brings. Friends of mine tell me it encourages the locals to show their faces.

Memorial Day schedule

This schedule will be in effect Monday.

Memorial Day schedule

This schedule will be in effect Monday.

Tournament tests skills in chess, life

Sam Macer was the kind of kid who, to put it kindly, didn't care to conform.

Most likely to inspire

It's clear the future holds great opportunities. It also holds great pitfalls. The trick will be to avoid the pitfalls, seize the opportunities, and get home by six o'clock. -- Woody Allen

Jacques Kelly: Musical theater productions once thrived in this Charles Village alleyway

An unassuming little building in an alley just off Charles and 22nd streets has long piqued my curiosity. Brittle 1930s play programs revealed it had been a legitimate community theater, but the rest of its tale remained cloudy.

UMBC community offers views on ROTC proposal

The faculty senate at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County voted this week in favor of establishing a permanent ROTC site on the Catonsville campus, but dozens of members of the campus community protested the proposal yesterday, objecting to the "militarization" of the campus and the Army's treatment of openly homosexual soldiers.

Robert Rauschenberg was a defier of convention

Robert Rauschenberg, the multifaceted artist who pioneered a new sense of openness and unlimited possibility in American painting, sculpture, photography and printmaking, died Monday at his home in Captiva Island, Fla. He was 82.

A whole different animal

Five years ago, John Slaughter had his fingers on the pulse of the stock market.

Kevin Cowherd: Keeping a civil tongue in traffic

P.M. Forni even drives with civility.

Sexual assault suspect is arrested

A 44-year-old man suspected of raping a Charles Village woman at gunpoint and sexually assaulting another was arrested yesterday by Baltimore police.

Suspect named in rape, assault

Baltimore police publicly identified yesterday a suspect in connection with the rape of one woman and the sexual assault of another in Charles Village - news that the director of the neighborhood association said would help ease fears in the community.

Stem cell study grants awarded

Maryland has handed out its second round of grants for stem cell research, awarding a total of $23 million for 62 projects ranging from basic studies of the cells' properties to potential therapies for human disease.

Proposed ROTC unit at UMBC protested

Faculty and other members of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County community have started circulating an online petition to protest a proposed ROTC unit at the Catonsville campus, which could open this fall.

City to accept Frank Zappa statue

"What's new in Baltimore?" Frank Zappa used to sing at the end of a long, characteristically off-the-wall rock jam he called Clowns on Velvet.

Go Today

Hopkins is pledged $10 million

Construction magnate A. James Clark has pledged $10 million to endow the deanship of Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering, his second $10 million gift to the private Baltimore college and the latest in his string of multimillion donations to Maryland schools.

Rape, assault raise fears

Women who work and live in Charles Village were on edge yesterday as news spread that police are searching for a man they say raped one woman in their neighborhood and tried to sexually assault another in two separate incidents.

Project stall

More than $1 billion in development projects - offices, residences, stores and hotels that would change Baltimore's skyline and help to revitalize the city - have stalled in the face of the nationwide housing slump and faltering economy.

Despite protests, WYPR says Steiner won't be rehired

The board of directors of WYPR yesterday said its removal of talk-show host Marc Steiner from the Baltimore public radio station in February "will not be undone," in spite of a room full of protesters and a recommendation that it do so from its hand-picked community advisory board.

Steiner fans sound off to panel from WYPR

Ellen from Baltimore, Tim from Waverly and Jo-Ann from Annapolis joined more than 300 fellow callers, listeners and fans of WYPR's freshly canceled The Marc Steiner Show last night to display their anger in hopes that station managers would reverse their decision.

Engineering their futures

In a cramped engineering classroom at the Johns Hopkins University yesterday morning, 40 students set out to solve problems.

Music Column

Tim Smith: Hear 'Messiah,' watch 'Messiah' or sing it yourself

It's Messiah time again, when choral groups large and small tackle Handel's stirring oratorio. Looking around at this year's many performances, some offer extra points of interest.

A high-tech look at the art of Matisse

A mechanical engineer by training, Jeff Mechlinksi used to spend his days poring over 3-D images of helicopter parts and other industrial gizmos on the glowing screen of his high-tech computer work station.

Transgender man allowed to remain as church pastor

The highest judicial body of the United Methodist Church announced yesterday that a transgender man can remain pastor of a congregation in Charles Village.

Glimpsed

Emily Vollherbst

Wearing a work uniform often seems to me like it would be a great gift. At the very least it would eliminate 20 or 30 minutes of closet-scouring every morning. And at best, it would save you money to buy the clothes you really want to wear in the rest of your life.

John Shields, chef and public TV host

John Shields chef-author-public TV host, is a busy guy. When he's not overseeing the kitchen at Gertrude's restaurant and scouting for local food sources for the restaurant, he's out and about searching for new locations for his Maryland Public Television series, Coastal Cooking. Lately he's been planning new menus to coincide with the Baltimore Museum of Art's new Matisse exhibit, which opens this month. And to top it all off, he's working on a new Chesapeake cookbook. Shields lives in Roland Park with his dog, Babo, and partner and Gertrude's co-owner John Gilligan.

Police Blotter

Man fatally stabbed in West Baltimore

An man whose name was not released died yesterday morning at a hospital after he was stabbed on a West Baltimore street by an unknown assailant.

City is fighting battle against violence - and hopelessness

Dondrea Ross' backyard is no longer her own. It belongs to the drug dealers who stalk the playground behind her house.

A sage collection

At a celebration of H.L. Mencken's life and works in 2003, a guest speaker from Ohio stood before a crowd of admirers of the "Sage of Baltimore" at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. George Thompson, an accountant and book collector, detailed 44 years of collecting books, letters, photographs, even T-shirts associated with Mencken, some 6,000 items in all.

Well-versed

Four decades ago, an 11-year-old girl sat up front during a play at Center Stage.

Would-be rescuer stabbed 3 times

A 27-year-old Annapolis man was recovering at Johns Hopkins Hospital yesterday after he was stabbed three times in the stomach while trying to save someone from being beaten in Charles Village.

Ripple effect

Each year the organizers of Artscape, Baltimore's annual outdoor arts festival, boast that the event has gotten bigger and better. But this year that growth wasn't found in a larger crowd or a big-name concert act, but at the core of the festival's mission: the artwork on display.

Pushing the velvet envelope

As a guy who painted portraits of his family on black velvet, Tony Shore had to have a lot of nerve to even think that what he was doing was art. People said it was too lowbrow to ever be taken seriously, that it was kitsch, or worse.

St. John's and its pastor are reborn

The pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church wasn't worried about the congregation's reaction to his transition from Ann Gordon to Drew Phoenix.