housing and urban planning

Marita Carroll, a retired Annapolis elementary school teacher and civil rights activist who was arrested on trespassing charges in 1960 as she sat at a bus stop lunch counter, died of Alzheimer's disease complications Saturday at Anne Arundel Medical Center. The Eastport resident was 91.

A group of Clarksville residents have long believed that River Hill Garden Center owner Steve Klein pulled a "bait and switch" on the County Council and community when he requested a change in his property's zoning from residential to business.

Life expectancy is up and racial disparities are down in many measures, but rises in emergency room visits and syphilis cases are troubling.

Seven Anne Arundel County women are being honored Sunday. Oct. 6, with the annual Fannie Lou Hamer Awards.

Anne Arundel County volunteer briefs

Residents of the community of Village Towns, a few turns off Route 1 in Elkridge, have seen a lot of development crop up around their neighborhood in recent years

Congress has brought the nation once again up against a deadline to fund the federal government or shut it down. Unless lawmakers strike a deal, federal employees will be sent home when they arrive at work on Tuesday and government services will be suspended. Here's a look at how shutdown would affect you:

What about the government's track record makes anyone think it can run something as complicated and important as the health care system?

Anne Arundel County volunteer briefs

When Tamber's restaurant in Charles Village opened a racy bar called The Den upstairs several years ago, the community was up in arms and City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke went on the warpath to shut the bar down. Now, Tamber's wants to expand the restaurant and Clarke once again is fighting it. This time, however, the community supports Tamber's.

Anne Arundel County volunteer briefs

The Town of Bel Air is taking small steps to create a pedestrian path connecting Rockfield Park with Bel Air High School.

The first-ever memorial to the "civil rights foot soldiers" who attended the 1963 March on Washington will be unveiled in Annapolis on Wednesday, the 50th anniversary of the march and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

More homeowners are crucial to Baltimore's economic development

Justice delayed is justice denied, so the legal maxim goes. Judgments delayed, however, can be downright expensive.

Harbor Point and lead paint settlement appear to be 'done deals' that haven't been fully investigated

Northeast Baltimore residents are appealing a city zoning decision allowing a Royal Farms store and gas station to be built in Hamilton, saying the store would create traffic hazards and disrupt the residential neighborhood.

It's long overdue and comes with a steep cost for the city's poor, but the Housing Authority of Baltimore City has now set a welcome precedent that it will not ignore court judgments against it.

Using funds meant to help poor families find affordable places to live, Baltimore's public housing agency has paid nearly $6.8 million to satisfy long-standing court judgments against it for lead poisoning suffered by six former residents when they were young children years ago.

The two-story mural on a north Baltimore house is the work of the city's "Wall Hunters," a group made of artists and a housing activist seeking to publicly shame absentee landlords and elected officials into addressing the issue of vacant homes. The visual vigilantes, who have put up about a dozen murals across the city the summer, risk trespassing and vandalism arrests because they act without the owners' knowledge or consent.

The president's proposal to unwind Fannie May and Freddie Mac, similar to a bipartisan bill in the Senate, points the way toward meaningful reform in housing policy that doesn't eliminate the government's role in making homeownership possible for the middle class.

The relatives of five people who were killed in a Baltimore house fire last year sued a landlord and the city housing authority in Circuit Court on Wednesday, claiming their failure to fix a faulty furnace or install smoke detectors led to the fatal blaze.

An Upper Marlboro man was convicted Monday of orchestrating a scheme to steal nearly $1.4 million from the Baltimore Housing Authority, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

This summer, a van is bringing the federal free-meals program for children into Baltimore neighborhoods.

The Howard County Council should delegate liquor and zoning board work

The Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis is planning to redevelop the aging, 78-unit Newtowne 20 housing complex.

City Councilman Carl Stokes' resolution calling for payments to Perkins Homes misses some of the facts.

Baltimore's housing agency must pay a public housing resident $150,000 because the city failed to accommodate the resident's request to be moved because of her son's special needs, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Wednesday.

Howard County government is seeking individuals to serve on its Housing and Community Development Board.

Three Baltimore County communities will be eligible for state funding for projects to improve their local economies, housing options, transportation and environment, stat and county officials say.

It's all about the wheat up at the Howard County Antique Farm Machinery Club campus on June 22. The club will host the annual Cutting of the Wheat on June 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the community is invited.

The old low-income Hilltop Housing project in Ellicott City has given way to another world: new apartments in facades of soft-colored siding and stone, and a recreation center with the latest in exercise gear, including a retractable-roof indoor swimming pool.

With a stabbing and three shootings taking place in parts of Edgewood in less than a month, a top Harford County Sheriff's Office official told members of the Edgewood Community Council Wednesday that deputies are working hard to address the issue of violent crime in the community.

Unspecified disciplinary action has been taken against employees at Baltimore's housing authority after it emerged that top agency officials hired staff to do contracting work at their private homes.

Until employment pays a living wage, disability assistance is sufficient for a dignified life and an adequate supply of affordable housing is available, we must supplement the work of religious groups and nonprofits with sensible and compassionate public policies — and hold our elected officials at all levels responsible to develop and implement these policies.

Harbor Bank, a minority-owned commercial bank with nearly $251 million in assets, comes out from under heightened federal scrutiny.

Claims that Section 8 is a landlord's nightmare just aren't true

A Baltimore County Board of Appeals panel this week ruled against a community group fighting a planned medical office building in Catonsville.

Frances M. Finney, who overcame poverty, earned a college degree, and became a city school teacher, died April 19 from heart failure at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. She was 82.

Columnist Marta Mossburg twisted a Hopkins professor's research on discrimination by landlords who don't accept Section 8 vouchers to suit her political purposes.

Columnist wrong to criticize protections for Section 8 renters

Banks, insurers, regulators, rating agencies and Wall Street deserve a lot more of the blame for subprime crisis than the poor

With about $200,000 more in Highway User Revenues coming back from the state than they anticipated, Bel Air officials discussed Wednesday a variety of projects the extra money could be used for in the coming fiscal year.

Low income residents in Baltimore and across the nation already have trouble finding a place to live; federal tax reform could make the problem worse.

Zoning board approved Royal Farms despite overwhelming opposition.

Joseph "Zastrow" Simms, a colorful and compassionate community activist known for bridging racial and social gaps in Annapolis from as far back as the turbulent 1960s, died on Monday night.