Flag Day

Don't worry, though the number of homicides may be down, Charm City retains the "Bodymore" title, with the highest per capita large-city murder rate.

Fucked. Up. From Dan Ostrovsky in today's Duly Wretched:
"Take a deep breath. Have a good day"

Firefighters, police officers, postal inspectors and sheriff's deputies descended upon a room in Baltimore's Courthouse East yesterday, after an employee of the clerk's office discovered white powder inside an envelope addressed to the circuit court. The incident left some courthouse employees uneasy -- not just about the scare, but about the response to it.

"Take a deep breath. Have a good day," was the message written in ballpoint pen on a loose-leaf sheet of paper Francis R. "Frank" Sherry found in a letter-sized envelope. The paper was folded into a square held together with tape, and Sherry said the powder became visible only after he removed the tape.
"This white powder fell out on my lap and in my hands," he said.
The return address on the envelope indicated it was sent by an inmate at the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center ... A hazmat team determined that the substance was likely foot or baby powder and was not hazardous, according to Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman Kevin Cartwright ... When he found the powder, Sherry notified his colleagues in those divisions, one of whom, Pat Smith, called the sheriff's office ... Sheriff's deputies arrived in about 10 minutes and called the fire department, which responded in another 15 minutes; the hazmat team arrived approximately 15 minutes after that, Gillis said. Margaret Biuk, who works in foreclosures, said Gillis told her to leave the area around 9:20 a.m. -- nearly an hour after the powder was first found.
"I didn't like it," Biuk said. "The minute something was found, we should have been evacuated."

Clerk's office employees have been trained for emergencies, but not specifically suspicious powders, Conaway said.
That point was underscored by Adonis Johnson of the civil division, who said he found powder in an envelope he opened approximately a month ago. "I threw it away and kept on slicing the mail open," Johnson said yesterday.

A 52-year-old woman was killed on the west side, and yesterday 22-year-old Anthony Hill was shot in the face but survived, bringing the # to 119.

Trial of "Itchy Man" is starting and... ten tons of marijuana? Former employees of Central Booking? Twenty-eight defendants? Jayzis H!

Tragic: 400 pounds of high-quality chronic is going stale in an evidence room somewhere.

The Ink reports murders to #118. Wayne Matthews, Marlow Hill, Darryl Duppins and an unidentified man have joined the shadowy ranks of the Baltimore dead.

Trial has been delayed for Liquor Board Commissioner Edward Smith Jr., who threatened his babymomma and her special friend with an ax.

Psychiatrist Roman Ostrovsky pled guilty to defrauding Medicaid of $200,000.

An AAC man got three years for slitting a dog's throat to intimidate his ex-girlfriend.

Robbing the Family Dollar, setting fire to a Ford, stealing bikes... that's how we roll in Bumberg, dawg.

Five hundred words might make an editorial. Or 300. But 95? Why bother?

Edward Thatcher, a Howard County police officer, has been suspended for showing a female employee his indecent parts.

Speaking of editorials, happy pride week!