bill ferguson

A city senator is calling for Baltimore schools Superintendent Gregory Thornton to resign immediately or be fired after a school police officer was caught on video this week slapping and kicking a student. State Sen. Bill Ferguson called it "unacceptable" that the school system couldn't immediately say whether the youth in the video is enrolled at the school.

A new push by state lawmakers to combine the flagship University of Maryland, College Park with the health- and law-focused University of Maryland, Baltimore, could give the state a dual-campus powerhouse that would leverage leverages the strengths of both institutions to launch new programs, discoveries, and businesses, supporters say.

Some business and political leaders are hoping voters will be offered another choice for mayor, saying Rawlings-Blake and Dixon are both weighed down by political baggage.

On Monday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and other city and state representatives announced the grand opening of the job center and brought attention to serving residents and businesses in the South and Southwest Baltimore communities in an effort to fight unemployment.

Amid a debate about whether to allow Baltimore school police to be armed in school buildings, some state lawmakers are questioning whether the district should continue to employ its own police force when it is working to eradicate a $108 million budget deficit.

The Sun makes endorsements in selected Baltimore City races.