Category: Baltimore News

In August 2008, Baltimore City Police Maj. Melvin Russell realized he wasn’t going to combat crime and help build sustainable neighborhoods solely through police tactics. “We need a holistic approach and we need help from everyone – the community, faith leaders and the business community,” he said. His East Baltimore district is the smallest in […]

Roughly 11 weeks remain until Baltimore’s mayoral primary, but Democratic candidates are already dominating airwaves, television and print media, publicizing how they would transform Baltimore if they were mayor. Current Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who, by far, boasts the most money in her campaign coffers and the most endorsements, made her official announcement before a crowd […]

More tailored, expedited services for drug-addicted residents could help reduce Baltimore City’s crime rate, according to a Northeast Baltimore pastor. The Rev. Milton Williams, of New Life Evangelical Baptist Church, says that’s why he’s launching a walk-in component to his drug addiction treatment center on July 5. It will allow patients to receive doses of […]

One in 30 Maryland residents is a problem gambler, according to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The label refers to someone who is, according to substance abuse experts, at risk to become a gambling addict. The conclusions were drawn from a study conducted by phone by the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis […]

Former Del. Ruth M. Kirk, a longtime community activist who represented West Baltimore’s 44th district in the Maryland General Assembly for nearly 30 years, died of heart failure June 17. She was 81. Dubbed a “street-wise, tooth-and-nail politician” in her early years, Kirk advocated for “those who others had left behind,” according to U.S. Rep. […]

The state and the coalition representing students and alumni from Maryland’s four HBCU’s in a controversial legal case are discussing a settlement. But, adding to the complexity of the case, the state has hired Kenneth L. Thompson, a prominent Black attorney with private law firm Venable, LLP and two of his colleagues to assist with […]

State Center, as it stands today, can be a very foreboding place, especially at night after thousands of state employees have vanished at the end of a work day. After hours, the sprawling complex is like a ghost town except for a sporadic trickle of people who ride the subway at night. And during the […]

In the struggle to improve educational outcomes for African-American boys as a whole, the most important battles must be fought during the first nine years of their lives — a crucial period that lasts from about the time they are in the womb until about the fourth grade. That was the heart of a message […]

Theresa Rigby, a three-year veteran Baltimore City Police officer, was in critical but stable condition June 22, after being thrown off an elevated embankment on I-83 while tending to a car accident. Rigby plummeted 25 to 30 feet to a concrete parking lot after a Saab slammed into the back of her cruiser, June 21. […]

As the Baltimore City mayor’s race heated up last week, the sense of urgency among those who want to take the title from current Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake seemed to rise. During last week’s second mayoral forum sponsored by the Baltimore chapters of the NAACP and the Urban League at Coppin State University in West Baltimore, […]