baltimore
- Deep dysfunction in the Baltimore Police homicide unit was allowed to fester amid an unprecedented half-decade of unsolved killings in the city, according to police officials and an internal review of the unit obtained by The Baltimore Sun.
- The 24-year-old man who was shot to death early Saturday in Baltimore’s Federal Hill neighborhood was hosting a “game night” party and broadcasting on Facebook Live when his attacker scaled a fence, according to a review of the video and a woman who attended the party.
- Baltimore officials, using lessons learned from the unrest of 2015, have established a central command post during the coronavirus pandemic to disseminate information that could save lives.
- Baltimore Police Officer Richard Pinheiro Jr. remains on the force more than two years after he was convicted of fabricating evidence and misconduct in office.
- A 22-year-old man was fatally shot near Mondawmin Mall in West Baltimore on Saturday evening, according to Baltimore Police.
- After being on the defensive for weeks about her business ties to disgraced former Mayor Catherine Pugh and an unflattering inspector general report about her vote to sell city property to her church, Baltimore’s incumbent comptroller Joan Pratt went on the offensive this week with a campaign flier and robocall attacking the city councilman challenging her in next month’s Democratic primary.
- A segregated West Baltimore school where the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall received his early education is set to receive a $6 million makeover, turning it into a legal resource center and museum space.
- Attorneys for the family of a deceased Baltimore man who was incarcerated on murder charges for 17 years before being exonerated in 2016 will soon begin collecting evidence in a civil lawsuit alleging a prolonged and widespread “pattern” of misconduct by Baltimore Police homicide detectives, after a federal judge gave them the green light to do so.
- A squabble over the recording of Baltimore police officers during training sessions — and whether it improves outcomes or stifles honest learning — played out this week between Commissioner Michael Harrison and the union that represents rank-and-file officers, further exposing their frayed relationship at a time of great violence in the city.
- Baltimore Police officers were justified in fatally shooting a gunman in a Baltimore methadone clinic in July after he killed an employee and opened fire on them, city prosecutors have determined.
- Dozens of additional businesses in Baltimore have contacted city officials to report issues with their water bills — or lack thereof — since revelations last fall that wealthy waterfront condominium owners at the Ritz Carlton Residences hadn’t paid for their water service in over a decade, Baltimore officials said.
- A prominent trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital who survived being shot as a teen, operates on gunshot victims in Baltimore and advocates for gun violence prevention on the national level says he recently had a “death threat" placed on the windshield of his car.
- Two suspects are being sought in a string of robberies in Northwest Baltimore on Friday, including one that led to a struggle with a victim inside a Park Heights synagogue, Baltimore Police said.
- A voter-approved 2018 measure that separated the inspector general from the mayor’s office also established the requirement for the advisory panel.
- Long-delayed grants from Baltimore’s Youth Fund could begin rolling out to community organizations early next month, according to Associated Black Charities, a nonprofit organization paid to administer the public fund.
- A Baltimore judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by five area tenants claiming an apartment company owned by White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner had engaged in unlawful rental practices, including by charging improper fees and threatening evictions to force payment.
- Warning: you might have to visit Washington D.C. to watch your squad play alongside other supporters.
- J.P. Grant, who was painted in an unflattering light by federal prosecutors in the “Healthy Holly” case against former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, has in recent weeks become a focus of the sprawling scandal.
- A political donor who has drawn heat for his role in the “Healthy Holly” book scandal that took down former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh is still making money from the city, despite concerns about his contracts from some officials in light of allegations by federal prosecutors that he made inappropriate contributions to Pugh.
- An assistant attorney general won a settlement after claiming Marilyn J. Mosby — who she had previously accused of perjury — threw a “tantrum" to get her fired.
- From the city to the suburbs, here's where you can find Mr. Claus before he heads off to deliver presents.
- A sealed supplement to former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh's plea deal could indicate she is working with federal prosecutors. Or not. And the ambiguity is by design — the result, in part, of the city’s pervasive “stop snitching” culture.
- This is the second year that the band, whose member Chris Lucas hails from greater Baltimore, has performed during a Ravens home game at halftime.
- Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby cited a flawed American criminal justice system as the single largest civil rights issue facing black residents in Maryland, saying her office has taken strides toward reducing disparities, but still has more to do.
- Federal prosecutors in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia on Friday said a new Justice Department initiative to stem gun violence by better targeting individuals who trade illegally in firearms will pay dividends in the local region, empowering them to find and punish those subverting existing federal laws.
- Residents have been navigating a range of emotions around the coming end to Perkins Homes, a World War II-era housing complex that the Housing Authority of Baltimore City recently received $30 million in federal funding to demolish.
- Attorneys representing condominium owners at the Ritz Carlton Residences in Baltimore say their clients repeatedly asked the city’s Department of Public Works for water and sewage bills between 2009 and 2017, and want to “pay their fair share” of an estimated $2.3 million in uncollected debt.
- Baltimore’s spending panel has approved paying an $8 million settlement to a police trainee who suffered brain damage and other serious injuries when he was accidentally shot in the head during an exercise in 2013.
- T.J. Smith, a former spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department, is running for mayor. He says his local roots, past career as a police officer and years of communicating local government policy to the public have prepared him to take the helm of Maryland’s largest city.
- SoulCycle CEO and Baltimore native Melanie Whelan said she wants to put an outpost of her famous fitness chain in Baltimore. She's not the only one with a great idea that Charm City exercisers want to see here.
- Elected leaders in Baltimore want to revisit a long term, multimillion-dollar deal under which major nonprofit institutions make annual payments to the city in lieu of taxes.
- The Station East redevelopment is a showcase of what could be in Baltimore’s forgotten pockets: a creative pairing of public and private funding to turn a neighborhood that was nearly 80 percent vacant into one full of young professionals. But complaints from residents show cracks in the vision.
- When Sgt. Bill Shiflett arrived at the Man Alive methadone clinic in North Baltimore that midsummer morning in July, one of his men, Officer Chris Miller, told him shots had already been fired inside.
- Baltimore will conduct a sweeping audit of its water billing system after discovering the city failed for more than a decade to collect a total of $2.3 million from the Ritz Carlton Residences, a high-end waterfront condominium development, Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young’s office said Wednesday.
- Thousands of signs alerting human trafficking victims to a phone number and text line where they can seek help, required to be posted in every Baltimore hotel room by city legislation approved earlier this year, were purchased and printed using the wrong text number.
- Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh has sued an apartment management company owned by senior White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, alleging it routinely used “unfair or deceptive” rental practices while running rodent-infested apartments in Baltimore and the surrounding region.
- Baltimore’s spending board is set to approve a $40,000 payment to a man who was shot by an on-duty Baltimore Police officer during a 2014 incident that also led to the officer’s conviction and imprisonment.
- Not only for a generation of legislators and politicians in Maryland and throughout the halls of Congress, but for an army of young men and women with aspirations to change Baltimore or reach beyond it, Elijah Cummings, 68, was a titan.
- Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott on Wednesday urged Mayor Bernard C. "Jack" Young to use an estimated $34 million city budget surplus on heating and cooling in city schools. Young said coming costs under the Kirwan Commission must be prioritized.
- As costs from this spring’s ransomware attack on Baltimore continue to come due, officials are set to buy $20 million in cyber liability insurance to cover any additional disruptions to city networks over the next year.
- The Greater Baltimore Committee announced on Wednesday its “strong support” for putting aerial surveillance planes above Baltimore, urging city officials to adopt the technology in an effort to reduce crime.
- For the fifth winter in a row, Baltimore will pay kids to shovel snow for seniors and residents with disabilities.
- The Ministers’ Conference of Baltimore and Vicinity on Monday tabled a proposal that it endorse putting crime-fighting surveillance planes back into the skies above Baltimore, deciding its members needed more time to study the proposal before staking out a position.
- Baltimore leaders were going around town this week hinting at a trend not seen in any sustained way in Baltimore in a while: Crime, they’ve repeatedly said, is going down. Is it?
- Residents in Baltimore broadly support putting crime-fighting surveillance planes back into city skies, according to a new poll commissioned by a prominent Baltimore pastor.
- A 2-year-old boy was shot in the stomach in Baltimore early Saturday morning in what Police Commissioner Michael Harrison denounced as "an act of road rage,” spurring federal officials to offer a $15,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
- Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young and City Council President Brandon Scott both are in favor of a ban on all plastic bags at Baltimore stores, not the partial ban backed by a City Council committee this week.
- The union that represents rank-and-file Baltimore Police officers issued a scathing report Tuesday blaming intense violence in the city on severe mismanagement of the police department, accusing Commissioner Michael Harrison and other city officials of ignoring available solutions in favor of political platitudes.
- Baltimore City Councilman Ryan Dorsey has proposed legislation that would require elected leaders to disclose clients of their private businesses, a reform he said "closes the loophole” in city financial disclosure law following the scandal involving former Mayor Catherine Pugh.
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City Council amends proposed plastic bag ban to allow for continued use of thicker bags in Baltimore
A Baltimore City Council committee sided with retailers and against environmentalists in amending a proposed ban on plastic bags so that it only applies to particularly thin bags.