June 25

... back from a business trip (yes, I do have another job), so let's see what happened this week...

in the "are you effing kidding me" dept., ANOTHER Maryland inmate has died, this time at Central Booking. Twenty-three-year-old Lennard Benjamin was removed from life support Thursday night. Has O'Malley made some kind of statement about this? Have people been fired? Until now I've adored O'Malley, but if there's no statement by next Tuesday at the latest I am not voting for him ever again and I mean it. As our city is more and more reknowned worldwide as a cesspool of violence (thanks in no small part to yours truly, the irony is not lost), businesses move out of town, tourists stop coming, and we all lose. At least the City Council is holding a meeting, la te dah, why am I not impressed? The city has a budget surplus. There is no reason, besides weak leadership, that Booking and Intake shoule be proccessing more than twice as many "clients" as it was designed to support.

Shootings, shootings and then some shootings in the Sun Blotter.

Baltimorean Tavon Nelson, a student at the College of Charleston (SC), was arrested and charged with drug trafficking, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine near a school and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.

In Broward County Florida, Patrick Shaw Callahan pled guilty to traveling from Baltimore to Coral Springs to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he met online (3rd story down).

Three baggage handlers at BWI have been charged with stealing from soldiers who were en route to Iraq and Afghanistan.

A book review of "Street Diva," the tragic tale of one of Baltimore's most notorious drug-addicted citizens.