Source Found

For those who had been doubting the Mayor O'Malley marriage rumors—like us—but wondering what the source was, wonder no longer. It was Gov. Ehrlich associate Joseph Steffen, director of communications at the Maryland Insurance Administration, who posted the rumors on FreeRepublic.com. He resigned. Sun story; Post story. Money quote: Steffen says of the guv's knowledge of the Freepers, "I don't even think he knows where the Web site is."

Update: O'Malley responds

In This Week's City Paper

Christina Royster-Hemby

her two-part series on West Baltimore's historic Pennsylvania Avenue.

is the first part. Ever visited the Billie Holiday statue on the Avenue? Until you make it over there, take a

. While you're at it,

isn't a bad place to visit, either.

In Mobtown Beat, Gadi Dechter writes about a family's

against Johns Hopkins Hospital due to a possibly botched hemispherectomy surgery. We wondered what a hemispherectomy was, too. Go to

to learn more.

Bunch of good interviews in the A&E section. Dechter

Dante James, creator of the PBS documentary

Slavery and the Making of America

. Check out the

for the series. And Bret McCabe

Peabody Institute percussion instructor and renowned composer Jonathan Haas. Haas also has his own

.

Redemption

Priestly abuse victim Dontee Stokes' transformation into a folk hero of sorts is problematic—he did end up shooting that priest—but his story is fascinating. As the sexual child abuse trial of Rev. Maurice Blackwell approaches,

The Sun

with Stokes.

Around the State

GM's Broening Highway plant

a closing date: May 13.

Prisoners

.

The Sun

has a good suite of stories and columns on the developing Montana lawsuit against Columbia-based chemical giant

,

, and

. The

Post

's second-day stories on same

.

In other business news, city seeks development proposals for the old

near the Charles and Everyman theaters.

Yesterday's federal budget reveal pretty much proclaimed the end of the

. Tom Howell Jr. at UM's

Diamondback

has a good

. Also from the

D-back

, you can't go wrong with a story about

due to huge turbines in West Virginia.

From the

Capitol

, Annapolis gets a

, a huge armored vehicle that looks, according to one guy quoted, "like something out of Northern Ireland."

C- debate

at Towson U.

Forty-five bucks, by plane, from BWI to Ocean City?

, according to the Salisbury

Daily Times

.

Alleged underage drinking leads to

at Loyola College.

Shock: In

The Catholic Review

, on the same day pro-stem cell research bill proposed in state legislature, Maryland Catholic Conference/Right to Life-sponsored poll

about 70 percent of Marylanders against it.

Goucher College seems like such a pleasant place, but

.

Elsewhere

The New York Times

: Baltimore City murderers and their victims?

.

Sounds tacky, but

you-are-the-slave (in Maryland) game from National Geographic is actually tasteful and educational.

Also from the

Times

: Good

on the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's semi-move to North Bethesda's Strathmore Hall and its implications for Baltimore, symphony orchestras, etc.

In Other Alt-Weeklies

Seattle Weekly

's Brian Miller nearly died climbing in the North Cascades last summer. He tells his story

.

It's tough when

are the gentrifier (residents of Columbia Heights, in this

Washington City Paper

story). A similar story could probably be done about the messboard denizens of, say,

.

Pretty amazing story in the

LA Weekly

about a guy trying to

murderous prison gang the Aryan Brotherhood.

City dog pounds suck everywhere, including, according to the

Press

, in

.

Trend worth tracking: Not only are the numbers of minorities declining at major state universities, but also

. Atlanta's

Creative Loafing

takes a look at the University of Georgia.