Senate approves same-sex marriage

a 3rd and final vote is scheduled for tomorrow.
Also, "The Obama administration says it will no longer defend the constitutionality of a federal law that bans recognition of same-sex marriage."

BPD and the feds

R-rod has scheduled a press conference to discuss BPD corruption.

.. does this have something to do with the impound lot? Here's a link to WBAL's stream if you want to listen live to the press conference at 3. Officers arrested, oh my!-- MB

Birth, school, work, death

Relatives mourn Anthony "Tyra" Trent

Relatives mourn Brandon Jackson

Dead body found near county elementary school ID'd as that of 20-year-old Vincent I. Thomas

The Ink details last week's five murders and notes that four homicides have been closed by arrest so far this year.

"The state Senate has just one bill on its agenda Wednesday: the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Act." The Post is live-blogging it and the CP has a same-sex marriage infographic.
(Mind-bogglingly assholic quote from Republican Nancy Jacobs, who opposes the bill: "We all love our gay friends in the House and the Senate ... I hope and pray that this does not get personal and does not get taken personally." )

"Prosecutors have dropped all charges against Douglas A. Hicks-Bey, the chief executive of a faith-based mentoring program, who was accused last month of raping a 15-year-old girl." And in HoCo charges dropped against Charles Ray Moore, accused of rape, tried in November but jurors were deadlocked.

CP on the state of Maryland's animal cruelty laws

A PBJ for gun-toting Edwin Hale

Tax evader with cancer sent back to jail

Bullets are bad for ya health! Client at Bally's in White Marsh robbed, shot at

Edgemere arson suspect arrested

Armed with babies and dogs, "Pigtown neighbors beat back Bohager-linked bar" (Bar's lawyer to residents: "What else do you want? Blood?")

Still searching

NPR joins the search for Phylicia Barnes

Williams case to jury

says Tricia Bishop

WMAR's cold case files: The Jeffersons

Fenton follies:
"City police say a 25-year-old transgender woman was found dead in a vacant building over the weekend"

"A 16-year-old boy killed last June in Reservoir Hill was shot by a friend in a dispute over a dice game"

and G-Black was arrested for killing Kevin "Chuck" Anderson with a shot in the back.

Really, JZ?

Man shot on Cliftview Ave Id'd as Mark Saunders, 23

County homicide victim ID'd as 18-year-old high school student Brandon Jackson.

Page Croyder takes on Dan Rodricks' "life means life" column

Yesterday family members of William Torbit Jr., plus talk show host Daren Muhammad, marched from the Select Lounge to city hall ("Almost 100 people," really, JZ?). Here's some shaky-camera'd video of people shouting the same thing over and over, and an Examiner post by Hassan Giordano reports that "The Fraternal Order of Police President Robert Cherry has taken a more criticle approach to the matter"

"Baltimore taken to task over police beard ban"

And a hearing today in Annapolis on decriminalizing small amounts of marijuanica

"Searching for Details Online, Lawyers Facebook the Jury." Would you "friend" the DA's office in exchange for free access to the court's wi-fi network?

AAC police arrested two winners for a shooting outside of a 16-year-old's birthday party in Glen Burnie

ps., watch out for that "whether mix" out there!

Fractured families

One murder in the city this weekend and six shootings, and two murders in the county

Judge allows lawsuit from inmate who claims he was attacked on orders from a gang-tied correctional officer

Have you ever heard of Dead Men Inc.? That Perry "Rocky" Roark certainly has an intense gaze....

"New daddy" goes to jail ... 30 years for Brian Savage, accused of beating his girlfriend's toddler son to death.

Readers gag as Dan Rodricks reports that Parris Glendening now regrets his "life means life" stance.

Lt. Col. Michael J. Andrew, who leaked a memo to the Sun, retired with "no regrets"

The aunt of murder victim Warren Wilmer writes about their fractured family

Irate letters dept: "Sun misleads in sensationalized Werdesheim coverage" and other screeds opinions
Related: WSJ's Robbie Whelan: "Past in Crown Heights Is Baltimore’s Present"

Ponzi schemers convicted of fraud conspiracy and money laundering; they ripped off victims to ride around in chauffeured luxury cars and attend sporting events

Public defender Nancy Forster's wrongful-termination lawsuit was dismissed. More about this here, though still no dirt on what really happened...

WTF?! Poll of Americans says Ronald Reagan was the best president ever, and they admire George W. Bush more than Thomas Jefferson. Related: "Md. gets a C for teaching of U.S. history"

Motorcyclists give city sherriff the finger

Mayhem, and charges ensue (maybe not mayhem, just a some gun pointing)

$10 million lawsuit

Marlow Humbert (I know, right?) former suspect in a series of Charles Village rapes, is suing the police department

Babies and dogs

Things are indeed seldom what they seem in this burg. Remember William Bozman (or Bozeman), 68, who shot muy gordo armed intruder Marvin Cook Jr. last year, then Cook bled all over Bozamn's bed? Apparently Cook was conspiring with Bozman's own son, who was arrested in Florida. "Fun" fact, Cook also once tried to rob and shoot FOP spokesman Bob Cherry and had been sentenced to 10 years for attempted murder, but "good time" had him sprung sooner. He was also arrested "for two misdemeanors after his release ... but a judge decided not to order Cook to serve the remainder of that 2001 attempted murder sentence."

WTF? "A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury convicted Anita M. Jones, 39, of Baltimore of first-degree child abuse, second-degree child abuse, and second-degree assault for attacking an 18-day-old infant."
In other child-abuse news, "Shaken-Baby Syndrome Faces New Questions in Court"

WBAL has more video of the Werdesheim rally/protest. (Whoa, Susan Green, Huggy Bear wants his coat back. And hey look, at 2:11 it's the first tv appearance of Bernstein's new communications director Mark Cheshire.)

Man shot in head at Catonsville gas station

Stats be darned, septuagenarian spitfire Helen Vello really likes Ellwood Park

Have you seen a white Ford Econoline van with the imprint of 29-year-old Jason Cheslik in the front grill? Call crimestoppers...

O'Malley nominates his wife for a 2nd term as judge

More teens in trouble for animal abuse-- is there an epidemic, or are we just hearing more about this lately? Now two 16-year-olds from Severn are facing animal cruelty charges after they were busted at a dogfight.

21, 22

A man stabbed to death in the neck at the bus stop at E. North and Greenmount Avenues

Martez Anthony Hall, 22, was found shot to death in a home in the 1600 block of 31st Street at about 11 p.m. last night

Cleaven Williams, accused of stabbing his wife after she filed a restraining order against him, testified in his own defense and couldn't stand to look at the autopsy pictures. And srsly? "four days before the killing, Williams had tried to turn himself in at the Eastern District precinct in response to a warrant charging him with assaulting his wife, but the warrant could not be located and Williams was told to leave." And the witness who cradled Veronica Williams as she died testified that Cleaven was trying to commit "suicide by cop." And the Sun has creepy pictures of the knives and notes.

More on the Shomrim protest/rally by Nick Madigan... don't miss the awesome video. Looks like the vast majority were Shomrim supporters.

Shomrim protest outside of court

Two sides clash outside court appearance by Shomrim defendants

20

Unidentified man, 1100 block of W. Cross Street.
So far only three of this year's 20 homicides have led to an arrest, says Fenton.

"Opponents file new bills to abolish death penalty in Maryland"

Police are ISO a suspect, one Kedric Lamont Seay, 22, for the stabbing last Saturday at Reisterstown and Seven Mile

Crazy-driving carjackers caught on tape by Sky Eye Chopper 13

Early spring in the city! A floater pulled out of the Harbor near the Museum of Industry

Are you there, God? It's me, Joan Carter Conway

Cleaven L. Williams, accused of stabbing his wife to death in front of the circuit court on North Avenue after she got a restraining order against him, says he's "not criminally responsible" and that it was a spur-of-the-moment act he doesn't remember. Unfortunately for his defense, he left a note found in the family car "in which he talks about killing his wife and describes how he wants their three children raised." Today Judge Doory is to decide if said letter was legally obtained.

Fenton has bloody video of the aftermath of the BP double-stabbing; police say the victims may have been related and police are ISO a man with long dreadlocks.

In the Messenger blotter, a party host robbed by a guest, and in Hampden a pedestrian told to go back to "the ghetto." In the Baltimore Guide blotter, a woman set a mattress on fire, a lesbian chases her girlfriend with a knife over some marijuana and a stolen Snickers bar and doughnut.

PG county's Jack "put it in your bra" Johnson indicted yesterday

PG County Democrat Jim Rosapepe targeted by pro-ss-marriage U of MD student lobbyists, and Joan Carter Conway is "praying" to know how to vote (guess she didn't get the memo r.e. the separation of church & state?).

No more police

Mayoral candidate says we've spent too much on police in the past and too little on schools. He also wants to slash the property tax rate by 50 percent.

Good old traditional values

Sen. Joan Carter Conway talks to Len Lazarick. She wants you to know she didn't kill the wine shipping bill, and she's "conflicted" on same-sex marriage. "I'm kind of hung up between the constitutionality of what's going on and good old traditional.. my Christian upbringing." .. and another Senator has come out in support of marriage, one Edward J. Kasemeyer of the 12th district.

A unid'd 20-year-old man in critical condition after being shot in the chest in the 2900 block of Edgecombe Circle South

A double stabbing at the intersection of Liberty Heights and Gwynn Oak Aves

What's going on in Cumberland? An inmate found dead in his cell yesterday. Another inmate was killed there on the 2nd.

"Fun" MD legal fact alluded to in this article on what might be the nation's oldest Mikvah/Mikveh: until the charmingly named "Jew Bill" of 1825 (enacted the following year), Jewish people in MD could not hold office, vote, work as lawyers, and if the Sun article is to be believed, couldn't incorporate to own property until 1828.

"From brides to freelance photographers, Darien Small became known for a rip off," now "the stuttering con man" faces fraud charges in the city. His online trackers claim he was still at work in the city as of last August, operating under the name "Daniel Craig" at "Studio 51" or "Great Studio."

Extra-legal liasons

Keep an eye out for missing octogenarian James MacKinnon (or is it McKinnon?), left, who has Alzheimer's
Update: Fox reports he was found, no details on when, where, by whom.

The man shot Friday on Shirley Ave. has died and was ID'd as Jose Estrella, 19

"Death penalty moratorium leaves survivors, convicts in limbo" -- why would O'Malley risk the controversy of pushing for a legal solution if there's a grey-area quasi-legal place to haunt? That would be unOmalleyful!

Altercation at the impound lot leads to man shot in the elbow in a "road rage" incident. "Both the suspect and victim had been at the same nightclub [and] from the club were still intoxicated Sunday morning." I wanner partay at dat club!

Greasy-lookin "Canton Burglar Caught By Craigslist Sting," more from the Sun

Students picketed the former site of Read's drug store, and Sun commentors don't like it one bit.

Starting March 1, you can put two mommies on a birth certificate in MD. (Why not two dads, you may wonder? And how is this biologically possible? In MD whoever is married to mom is legally presumed to be the parent of children born in the marriage-- no matter if the inseminator is the milkman or a turkey baster.)

Structurally unsound

Two men shot last night, not counting the suspect shot on Harwood Ave.
(Gawd that soda lady is annoying-- soda is not "groceries" you "feed your family," fatty!)

A man stabbed early this morning in Pikesville at Seven Mile & Reisterstown Rd

Slumlord Watch notes that an X painted on a vacant building means it's structurally unsound (not that a body is stashed there, necessarily).

Students plan to picket this morning at Lexington & Howard, former site of the Read's drug store and the famous 1955 sit-in, now boarded up and "poetic in its misery". More from Preservation Magazine on the Read's building (orchids and onions, who knew?)

It's going down

On Harwood ave at York Rd (500 block)-- five police cars, one ambulance and the whole street blocked off w/police tape across the road.
UPDATE: The deuce reports an off-duty officer shot a guy, and insinuates guy tried to rob the officer as he pitched woo to his girlfriend in a parked car. But things in this town seldom turn out to be how they seem at first, do they?

ps. love this Google maps picture of city workers relaxing next to a pothole

El Dooce also reports that a thief is targeting gym lockers throughout the state. Says somebody, "We take the safety of our members very why we have all of the cameras installed throughout the parking and within the gym and makes sure that its well light and we patrol it pretty often."

Try, try again

Travers and Tremayne Johnson will be retried in May.

Homicide detectives called to Park Hgts and Shirley Ave in the NW following a shooting in the parking lot of the Food City

Trial begins for Cleaven Williams Jr., accused of stabbing his pregnant wife Veronica to death outside of the North Ave District courthouse

More than 20 pounds of cocaine found in a shipping container at the Baltimore seaport.

Gold fillings stolen in Essex

47-year-old woman from Baltimore arrested for carjacking in Cumberland