Visitation-rights ruling breaks new ground for gay couples

October 12, 2008

In all but one way, the visitation-rights case that was decided in Baltimore County Circuit Court last week was typical of the legal wrangling that follows many a divorce - a couple splits up, the custodial parent doesn't want the ex to see the kid.

Recent columns

• Gone — just when we needed it the most

  October 9, 2008

  One designer jacket: $5.

• Checking in with the folks on that oft-cited Main Street

  October 5, 2008

  Under a crisp and clear sky, their street finally restored after nearly two years of noise, dust and construction, the shopkeepers of Bel Air's Main Street seemed pretty happy Friday afternoon. Baristas steamed espresso drinks at Shamrock Coffee, friends dropped in to check out the just-opened Lavalier jewelry store, and customers and sales reps were downright festive in the newly expanded and very pink digs of the Tiger Lily boutique.

• Rounding up the unusual suspects

  October 2, 2008

  Maybe while the four undercover state troopers - identified in a report released yesterday only as "T1" through "T4" - were wasting their time spying on a few peaceniks, other members of their unit were gathering intel on the kinds of people who actually have some power and influence over our lives.

• Owning up to the Great Bailout of 2008

  September 25, 2008

  WASHINGTON

• Teaching students about dollars makes a lot of sense

  September 21, 2008

  The young business associates were sitting around a conference table last week, telling me about the philosophy and strategy of someone they greatly admire in their field, an investor who doesn't gamble wildly and knows exactly what he's buying.

• Welcome to Md., the Wallflower State

  September 18, 2008

  There we are, the wallflowers at the party. We pretend to be vitally interested in the books on the host's shelf or our very own shoes, anything to avoid interacting with - eek! - other people. Maybe they're boring anyway, maybe they'll talk about us after we leave. Better to go home right now and just deal with the people we already know if not necessarily love.

• All aboard: Green Line, Red Line, Yellow Line, home

  September 14, 2008

  It's not just because yesterday was my birthday - thank you, yes, being another year older does beat the alternative - that I've been imagining my future self lately.

• It's high time Pratt Street gets a little love

  September 11, 2008

  Pity poor Pratt Street.

• Let's make sure officials' ethics aren't on the auction block

  September 7, 2008

  It sounded like just another father-son bonding experience. They could have gone down to the corner bar for a couple of cold ones, or fired up the flat-screen and watched a game. Instead, the Foxxes headed down Pulaski Highway to go ... shopping.

• Pregnancy issue isn't black/white — or Brown

  September 4, 2008

  I miss Murphy Brown.

• From the town, wearing the gown

  August 31, 2008

  During move-in weekend at Hopkins, she was the girl to see - for new students wondering where to get their IDs, for parents trudging around with huge Bed Bath & Beyond bags, for the hundreds of upperclassmen helping to unpack the SUVs and minivans ferrying the class of 2012 to campus.

• Can Hillary save the Democratic Party from her supporters?

  August 28, 2008

  The good news after Hillary Clinton's stemwinder of a convention speech is that at least one Hillary voter has been persuaded to shift her support to Obama.

• As Americans forget about a war, a veteran campaigns to help its victims

  August 24, 2008

  In the end, Stephen Verges collected hundreds of pairs of shoes, even if some were high-heeled or otherwise inappropriate for the intended recipients: needy Afghans in their dusty, rocky, war-torn country.

• Ad Club was relic worth keeping

  August 22, 2008

  My witty neighbor Sebastian has a term for it: al desko.

• Why is Jessamy so upset at study?

  August 19, 2008

  Having gratefully escaped being seated on a Baltimore City jury despite multiple summonses for duty, I would have to agree with what Groucho Marx said in a different context: He wouldn't want to belong to any club that would have him as a member.

• A little less than meets the eye

  August 15, 2008

  That Great Wall, shown in sweeping vistas before the start of every Olympics broadcast? Millions of Legos, roughed up to look ancient and painstakingly constructed on a model railroad layout, complete with the foam mountains and the teeny trees.

• A strange switch in a 'green' world

  August 12, 2008

  It's billed as a clean, "green" source of energy, and most of the citizens who spoke at a recent public hearing voiced their enthusiastic support for it.

• Holes in anthrax case not novel

  August 8, 2008

  In case I ever turn up dead while being investigated by the Feds, and they release all the suspicious stuff they've uncovered about me, let me explain right now why I recently Googled "novel kill scientist poisoned strawberry."

• Why did What's-his-name decide to come to our city?

  August 5, 2008

  Looks like the Fauxfeller picked the wrong town to disappear in.

• In here, Cosby's point is old stuff

  August 1, 2008

  Bill Cosby was the big draw at yesterday's Park Heights block party, despite the controversy the actor-pitchman has stirred up since switching from soft-selling Jell-O to hard-selling a message of black self-responsibility.

• Shift control of schools? Why now?

  July 29, 2008

  Test scores are up, and the centralized North Avenue bureaucracy is being busted up. After years of woe - from a massive fiscal crisis to the rotating door to the CEO's office to the bottom-scraping graduation rates - things are finally looking up for the city public school system.

• A fan seeks to retrieve lost time

  July 25, 2008

  Someone told me once that the two most evocative things, the two things that could hurtle him back to a place and time, were scents and songs.

• In the market for some solitude

  July 22, 2008

  I drove out to the future of grocery stores yesterday, but when I stopped for gas, I ended up on a detour to the past.

• An odd theory, odder clients

  July 18, 2008

  Well, this certainly gives support to the fool-for-a-client adage.

• The show goes on

  July 15, 2008

  Housing foreclosures have hit record numbers. It can cost $100 to fill up an SUV. Even Fannie and Freddie might need an advance on their allowance from Uncle Sam.

• What do you get for a mink?

  June 27, 2008

  You know how you get a song stuck in your head? Ever since the fur started flying in the state prosecutor's investigation of Mayor Sheila Dixon, I keep hearing that song from Guys and Dolls, the one sung by a doll who was shocked, just shocked, at what a guy expected in return for his gifts:

• The elephant in the room

  June 20, 2008

  I'd like to take the opportunity of all those microphones that have been shoved in my face these past couple of days since my house was raided, and speak directly to you, the citizens of Baltimore.

• Multiple missteps in life of inmate

  May 23, 2008

  You probably shouldn't take his word on it, but a fellow inmate diagnosed Kevin Johns thusly: "He was zapped out."

• Horse racing is beauty, tragedy

  May 6, 2008

  This time, it happened off-camera, and post-race.

• Bus case points to sad truth about us

  April 25, 2008

  Many words have been spilled on the bus beating case in which a group of middle school students attacked a fellow passenger and nearly blinded her, and Circuit Judge David W. Young has heard just about all of them - in the courtroom as he presided over it, of course, but also in e-mails, on the phone and even on the street, where passers-by would accost him.

• Fielding the setup for papal event

  April 18, 2008

  Even though he's planned events for presidential inaugurations and managed rock tours for the likes of the B-52s, and even though his company is known for staging hooplas like official election night parties and museum anniversaries, there are still some things beyond Ajay Patil's considerable multitasking, detail-wrangling skills.

• Children casualties in divorce warfare

  April 1, 2008

  Lynn Shiner heard the news as she drifted off to sleep Sunday night, and when she awoke yesterday morning, she thought maybe she had dreamed it. A few taps on the keyboard, though, confirmed that the crime, however nightmarish, was no dream.

• Md. views the final act before the voting

  February 12, 2008

  One candidate lauded those serving in Iraq because they "did everything they were asked to do."

• Primary spotlight for Md.? Imagine

  February 8, 2008

  Call it Sorta Significant Tuesday.

• Trying to break the cycle of violence

  November 21, 2006

  You see it all the time in crime stories: "The victim was taken to Shock Trauma ... "

• Nikki's death stands out amid blur of statistics

  November 14, 2006

  The tributes flowed, from intimates and strangers alike, and some were read at Nicole Edmonds' funeral this weekend. Appreciative murmurs rippled through the mourners at the east-side church when a particularly famous name followed the "sincerely," like Martin O'Malley, the newly elected governor, or Ben Cardin, the just-minted U.S. senator.

• A modest people, a respectful distance

  October 4, 2006

  The customer awkwardly approached the young Amish woman, as many of us have done these past couple of days.

• Evil can lurk in even the smallest, most remote communities

  October 3, 2006

  Night had already cloaked the valley by the time I arrived, and snow had started falling, gently as it does in the mountains in springtime. Under the twin covers of darkness and snowfall, I didn't realize until the next morning just how beautiful and idyllic Littleton, Col., was.