Blogs: The News Hole

Free Lunch: In yesterday’s Post David Snyder gets a leg up thanks to the General Assembly’s very generous and, um, nepotistic scholarship program. Volkoff’s Victory: Did you know that Nikolai Volkoff (think, and Iron Sheik), aka Josip Peruzovic, is a Baltimore County code enforcement officer? Well, he is, and in the next few days...
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Sorry ’bout no blog yesterday. The Third Floor needed a day off. Friday, too, so Monday will be the next update. That’s What You Get When You Fire Louis Rukeyser: After 35 years on the air Maryland Public Television cancels landmark PBS show Wall $treet Week. Ah-choo! UM School of Medicine to help test...
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False Profits: I doubt they planned this, but today’s Sun houses two features on somewhat odd, ethically questionable ways to make prophets: Tom Pelton innoculates the Curtis Bay medical-waste incinerator, now under new ownership; and Stephanie Desmon butchers Hagerstown prison‘s meat-processing plant/state moneymaker. Headlights: In the Towson Times, Bob Allen dodges traffic along with...
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Haven’t I Read This Story Before, Like 100 Times: You could of fooled me, but apparently, at least according to this Sun featurey newsy story by Andrew A. Green, but this year’s General Assembly session is “rougher than usual”. All sarcasm aside, pretty good story. A much shorter but similarly themed story–focusing on the...
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Good News, Bad News: Jamie Smith Hopkins finishes up her three-part Sun series on the local housing market with a look specifically at Baltimore City, where hot neighborhoods, she says, are hiding getting-even-worse ones. Parish Rwanda: The Sun‘s Joe Burris oureaches to local Rwandan immigrants with Northeast Baltimore’s St. Matthew Roman Catholic Church. Perfection:...
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When it comes to next year’s fight for U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes’ seat, political junkies are rooting for Mfume vs. Steele. According to this Sunday Sun story, Lt. Gov. Michael Steele said on Saturday morning, on WBAL Radio, that he’s seriously considering running; former congressman/NAACP chief Kweisi Mfume, of course, is already in. As...
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Up in Smoke: City Councilman Robert Curran to propose smoking ban in city restaurants/bars bill tonight. O’Rumors: For whatever reason, we’ve been warned continually in the past week or so to be careful of what we e-mail at work. Joseph Steffen and the Ehrlich administration, of course, are finding out the hard way. In...
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Who’s Up for Dundalk? This thoroughly depressing Sun series, by Jamie Smith Hopkins (minisite), on skyrocketing home costs in the Baltimore area makes the The Third Floor wonder if he’ll ever be able to afford the house, or at least consider getting a job in PR or something more lucrative. O’Malley’s Last March: The...
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While the wait was excrutiating, all praise to HBO for renewing David Simon’s masterpiece of a TV show, The Wire, with the fourth season set to focus on Baltimore’s school system. For more info, start off with the official press release, move on to Sun TV critic David Zurawik’s too-insidery story, the Reuters/Hollywood Reporter...
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Breaking News: Maryland’s U.S. Attorney calls off federal investigation into City Council ethics lapses. Sounds like the right call here. Former U.S. Attorney Thomas DiBiagio and his fishing trips had been completely discredited as purely political attempts to hurt state Dems, while his bosses wanted him to go after terrorists or something like that....
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KKT Lives: From the Scranton Times, Kathleen Kennedy Towsend makes an appearance at the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner in Scranton, Pa. Green Thumb’s Up: Mayor Martin O’Malley charms The Irish Echo for this puffy profile. And Scotsman.com covers O’Malley’s meeting with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern on Wednesday. Ban This: Editor and...
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The battle between General Assembly Democrats and Ehrlich administration Republicans suddenly become more interesting and/or tedious yesterday, depending on your ability to stomach grandstanding, blame-casting, and general politicking. While Senate D’s tried to pass a proposal giving lawmakers more say in picking the state elections chief–in the aftermath of Gov. Ehrlich’s failed attempts to...
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