Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Profits and Losses

No charges for officer John A. Ward, who helped Monae Turnages's teenage killers try to cover up her accidental shooting by putting the weapon in his personal vehicle. One of the teen's mom's DNA was found on Turnage's body*, probably from the trash bags the teens appropriated to use to try to conceal her body. The Sun has a photo gallery of Turnage's neighbors and memorial service.*

Dimitri Staten
Randy Owens
Anna Ditkoff, back in full effect after a mere two weeks of maternity leave, recounts last week's four murders of Sean Melton Sr., Dimitri Staten Sr., Randy Owens, and an "adult female," Ahjee Harrod, 16, and notes Kentrell Brown, 18, was arrested for the murder of Queren Thomas. The City Paper also has Audit Failures by The Numbers.

Speaking of $ fails, SRB and co is reportedly considering bids from two other speed camera companies* to operate and profit from speed camera ticketing duties on behalf of the state when Xerox's contract is up: camera manufacturer Redflex Traffic Systems of Melbourne, Australia, (perhaps best known in the U.S. for Chicago's cameras and getting kicked out of Los Angles and a slew of other CA cities following citizen outrage with $175 tickets and "kangaroo courts"), Brekford Corporation of Hanover, MD (which currently "upfits" not-to-be-named government law enforcement vehicles with laptops and cameras and such). All three companies are publicly traded (XRX on NASDAQ, RDF on the Aussie Securities Exchange,  BFDI on the U.S.). The mayor claims the city won't add any more cameras and expects revenues to go down: "$11.4 million from speed cameras next year, $7.5 million in 2014 and $6.9 million in 2015." which doesn't sound like it would incentivize these companies to give the city the best possible deal, but whatever.

A guilty plea for misconduct from PGC's  Tiffany Alson, the delegate perhaps best previously known for stalling same-sex marriage in the House. Alston copped to using campaign funds to help pay for her opposite-gender traditional wedding

Twitters:
 Foxtrot over Federal Hill, loudspeaker saying something like, “if you know whereabouts of Anthony Brooks, please dial 911”

 chase stolen car through Canton:*

After two years of no online reports, new director pledges a more transparent CitiStat. *


UPDATE w clarity on "missing" situation: Principal [of Baltimore Community High School] says Ahjee was "dealing with things that were overpowering her" *
One of those stories that develops throughout the day: Ahjee Harrod's principal said she was NOT missing and had been attending school

Klaus Philipsen takes on West side redevelopment in the Brew

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