NewsTrust - Baltimore Politics - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

The co-opting of the occupy movement

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Charm City Current - By Adam Meister - Oct. 16 (Opinion) - On Saturday I ran by the Occupy Baltimore area at the Inner Harbor. I noticed that metal barricades has been set up to clearly identify the borders of the “occupied” area. It appears that the fountains and the grassy hill have been removed and the flat grassy area has been added to the official area. [...]

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Best Media Watchdog Experiment: NewsTrust

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

City Paper - Sep. 21 (Editorial) - We got used to NewsTrust Baltimore’s e-mails very quickly. More than a thoughtful amalgam of Baltimore stories from around the web, the alerts came with an invitation to think about the stories in a critical way and comment via a strict form included on the site. Inveterate web commenters might at first be offended by this kind of formalism, but it worked: The idea of rating which news sources are “trustworthy” is, of course, not new. But in using this form to guide self-selected readers, NewsTrust helped its readers (and itself) understand something about the news ecosystem from the point of view of both newsmakers and consumers. NewsTrust, launched via a now-concluded six-month pilot program but with its site still active, was filled with thoughtful, constructive criticism of stories and articles both local and global, and was blessedly devoid of moronic flame wars. In this age of partisan rancor, that is no small thing.

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If the School Fits: Who’s Pounding the Drum?

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Re:education in Baltimore - By Edit Barry - Jul. 30 (Opinion) - Baltimore City is a case study in the push for school choice. In November 2004, with the benefit of pro bono services from global lawyering giant DLA Piper, the founders of City Neighbors Public Charter School succeeded in an effort to eliminate the cap on the number of new charter schools that could open here.

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Why do we kill?

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Investigative Voice - By Alan Z. Forman - Jul. 29 (Opinion) - he excessively high murder rate in Baltimore will not decrease significantly until “the borders of the city are opened up to the state,” a forum filmed and aired live online by C-SPAN was told Thursday evening by the publisher of Investigative Voice and a retired chief homicide detective who addressed an overflow gathering at the independent bookstore Atomic Books in Hampden.

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How to keep the Fort Avenue bridge open

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 06:34:06 -0700

Baltimore Brew - By Gerald Neily - Jul. 28 (Opinion) - The city and CSX Transportation think it’s impossible to keep the Fort Avenue bridge over the railroad tracks open during construction. So they have concocted several convoluted ways to detour around the closed bridge during the nearly one-year construction schedule. Residents are highly skeptical.

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Baltimore 9/11 Memorial - I think we can do better

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Skyline - By Chris - Jul. 28 (Opinion) - Under construction right now at the foot of the Baltimore World Trade Center is the spot where Baltimore's memorial to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks will stand.

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Nightmare Scenario

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Center Maryland - By Josh Kurtz - Jul. 26 (Opinion) - Immediately after a statewide election, the annual J. Millard Tawes crab feast in Crisfield doesn’t take on the political magnitude it does most other years. Still, a glimmer of the campaigns to come can be found.

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If the School Fits: The Hospital Analogy

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Re:education in Baltimore - By Edit Barry - Jul. 22 (Opinion) - SteveK writes,”No school can be all things to all children.” There’s a truism. It’s kind of like saying no hospital can be all things to all patients. Here’s a brief meditation on this analogy. How Is a Public School Like a Hospital? The challenge of operating a public school and a hospital are similar in that both institutions have an obligation – call it ethical or professional, doesn’t matter – to improve the life of everyone who walks in the door. So they offer a range of programs and they employ a staff of generalists and specialists capable of customizing approaches to a broad range of cases.

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What a CON » Policy Blog » The Maryland Public Policy Institute

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Maryland Public Policy Institute- Policy Blog - By Marc Kilmer - Jul. 20 (Opinion) - Let’s say you want to open a new restaurant in your town. How would you feel if you had to get state approval to open that restaurant? As part of that approval process, you had to prove that you were meeting an unmet need in the area and that your restaurant won’t have a negative impact on existing restaurants. Ridiculous, right? Well, you don’t have to take these steps to open a restaurant in Maryland (yet), but if you want to open a new health care facility (or expand an old one), this type of central planning is a requirement in the so-called “Free State.”

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Baltimore Data Day » Policy Blog » The Maryland Public Policy Institute

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Maryland Public Policy Institute- Policy Blog - By John J. Walters - Jul. 20 (Opinion) - Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Baltimore Data Day. I, for one, had not until I read this brief write-up from Baltimore Brew, even though it has apparently been going on since 2000. The event is this Friday from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm at the University of Baltimore Thumel Business Center. From looking over the data available on the hosting organization’s website, the Baltimore Neighborhood Indications Alliance (BNIA), it seems like it will be a fascinating time.

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Dan Bongino challenges Sen. Ben Cardin

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Maryland Reporter - By Megan Poinski - Jul. 19 (Interview) - MarylandReporter.com editor and publisher Len Lazarick interviews Dan Bongino, a Republican candidate to unseat U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin in 2012. Video shot and produced by On the Hill Media.

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Gerrymandering is Bad, Regardless of Which Party Does It!

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Freestater Blog - By Todd Eberly - Jul. 18 (Opinion) - I want to thank the Washington Post for inviting me to write a column on redistricting for their Sunday edition. It was an opportunity for me to write about an issue that I care for a great deal. As I've been reading reader comments and e-mails I decided that I should follow up a bit on the issue and address (though indirectly) some of the reader comments.

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David Harvey: A View From Federal Hill Revisited (at the City From Below in 2009)

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Indypendent Reader - By David Harvey - Jul. 17 (Opinion) - In 2009, The Baltimore Development Cooperative, Red Emma's, and the Indypendent Reader organized a conference on grasroots responses to urban injustice called The City From Below, which kicked off with a presentation by radical geographer and ex-Baltimorean David Harvey. In his talk, he revisited his classic 1991 essay "A View From Federal Hill," which appeared for the first time in the Baltimore Book, and which presented a still essential overview of the way in which private interests had shaped the public urban landscape of Baltimore City. For the City From Below, David Harvey updated his analysis in light of two more decades of development and the global financial crisis which began in 2008, presenting this all to a rapt crowd gathered on Federal Hill itself and overlooking the neoliberal city.

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Core pillars for growth and job creation focus on nurturing opportunity

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Center Maryland - By Donald C. Fry - Jul. 15 (Opinion) - Maryland’s government leaders usually bristle at the suggestion that our state’s tax policy, regulatory environment, or other policy issues detract from its strengths as a location of choice for expanding existing business facilities or for moving a business to Maryland from elsewhere. But, to virtually everyone on the ground in the world of business and economic development, the notion that Maryland’s strengths in technology, education, workforce, and quality of life far outweigh other significant factors in the tough competition among many states for business growth is, in their words, “fantasy, not fact.”

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With Eye on White House, O'Malley Shifts Tactics

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Freestater Blog - By Todd Eberly - Jul. 13 (Opinion) - The Washington Post is reporting that Governor Martin O'Malley is considering whether to sponsor legislation in the 2012 Legislative Session that would legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland. O'Malley was largely silent on the issue when it was considered, and defeated, during the 2011 session.

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The Walmart Struggle in Baltimore

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Indypendent Reader - By Betty G. Robinson - Jul. 12 (Opinion) - Last summer and fall the Baltimore CAN Coalition publicly challenged the way economic development is done in Baltimore. Formed by Progressive Maryland, the Coalition had a membership of forty labor, community, and environmental groups.

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The Machine Strikes Back for State Center

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Red Maryland - By Mark Newgent - Jul. 12 (Opinion) - The machine is pushing back against the Maryland Public Policy Institute’s blistering critique of the $1.5 billion State Center boondoggle. MPPI pegs the cost of phase one to taxpayers at $127 million.

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My Baltimore's Next

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Bmore Media - By Mike Subelsky - Jul. 12 (Opinion) - I want Baltimore to become obsessed with creating and growing businesses the way other towns are passionate about their sports teams.

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O'Malley's Whopper

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Red Maryland - By Mark Newgent - Jul. 11 (Opinion) - At the Bel Air Independence Day Parade Governor O’Malley told Patch.com, after roughing up a few straw men opponents of the MD DREAM Act, “I’ve had to cut the state budget by more than any governor in Maryland history...”

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Poe House Schmoe House: Lit Prof Says Let Doors Lock

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Fishbowl - By Mikita Brottman - Jul. 11 (Opinion) - Baltimore Fishbowl readers may recently have learned that the Poe House at 203 Amity Street can expect no further financial support from the city. In certain quarters, this revelation will no doubt cause much brow-beating and hand-wringing, but I have always seen the Poe House as something of a “purloined letter”—that uncanny object which, as Poe aficionados well know, cannot be properly seen because it is lying right in plain view.

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New jobs data is sending Maryland a message

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Center Maryland - By Donald C. Fry - Jul. 08 (Opinion) - Maryland’s employment data for May, recently released by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, has to be disheartening for state elected leaders who pledged to focus on “jobs, jobs, jobs” before the last election.

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On either end of North Howard Street – no tenants

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Baltimore Brew - By Brew Editors - Jul. 08 (Editorial) - What do the Superblock and State Center redevelopment projects share in common? Aside from being politically controversial, they have no committed tenants other than the state employees who already work at State Center.

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Baltimore Grand Prix Initiates Community Mitigation Fund Over $100,000 Earmarked for Community Projects

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Citybizlist Baltimore - By Baltimore Grand Prix - Jul. 08 (Press Release) - The Baltimore Grand Prix and its owners, Baltimore Racing Development, delivered the first of three checks to a neighborhood surrounding the Grand Prix circuit as part of a Community Impact Mitigation Fund they created.

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MDOT Letter Requesting the withdrawal of recent report from the Maryland Public Policy Institute

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Maryland Department of Transportation - By Michael A. Gaines, Sr., Christopher Patusky - Jul. 08 (Press Release) - We are writing on behalf of the Maryland Department of General Services and the Maryland Department of Transportation to request that you withdraw your recently issued report on the State Center Phase I Project (the "Project") because it contains serious misstatements of fact about the Project.

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The Battle For Baltimore's 7th

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Mobtown Shank - Jul. 06 (Opinion) - The race for Baltimore City's 7th District just got a lot more interesting with former HCC President Allen Hicks running against incumbent Belinda Conaway.

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