NEWS
By Scott Calvert | January 30, 2009
Immigrant advocates released video footage yesterday that they say shows federal agents unfairly targeted Latinos in January 2007 outside a 7-Eleven in Southeast Baltimore. The video, taken from store cameras, captured U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rounding up 24 men suspected of being illegal immigrants. Most have since been deported or left the country voluntarily. In the video, agents can be seen ignoring black store patrons while focusing on Latino men. Advocates say a white man who had hired three Latinos for day labor was allowed to drive his pickup truck away from the 7-Eleven, while the three workers were taken into custody.
NEWS
By Gus G. Sentementes | January 14, 2009
A woman appealed to a Baltimore police sergeant for help early yesterday with a written note in a 7-Eleven, which led to a confrontation in which the officer shot her male companion outside the store, authorities said. The incident is the first police-involved shooting this year in Baltimore and the first under the department's new policy of withholding the names of officers who use deadly force in the line of duty. Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman, declined to release the sergeant's name, noting the new policy, which police say helps ensure officer safety.
NEWS
December 30, 2008
Passing the torch of hosting the feast Rafael Alvarez touches on an often unacknowledged but deeply powerful rite of passage in "Keeping the feast" (Dec. 24). It is a moment so ignored that it does not even have a name. But it is moment that all of us know and most of us will experience: the passing of the holiday meal from one home to another. Some families rotate the honor, or burden, of hosting the clan's ceremonial meals, be they for Thanksgiving, Christmas or Passover. But more often that honor is bestowed on one select home, one matriarch or patriarch, and no one dare seek to wrest it away until its keepers are ready to lay the burden down.
NEWS
December 6, 2008
As much as some people in Mount Vernon would like to have a 7-Eleven store around the corner, I truly feel that the proposed new store would be a huge mistake ("Bid to block 7-Eleven in Mount Vernon falls short," Nov. 25). If you have ever driven the 1000 block of Calvert St., I'm sure you know that it's often necessary to be in the left-hand lane a block before you get to the 7-Eleven because it's a given that someone will be double-parked there, blocking the right-hand lane while grabbing whatever it is he or she needs in the 7-Eleven on that block.
NEWS
By Annie Linskey | December 5, 2008
Seeking to prevent a 24-hour 7-Eleven store from opening near the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon, Baltimore City Councilman William H. Cole IV introduced a bill yesterday that would restrict the operating hours of any convenience store in the historic district. "A 24-hour location in that area is not going to help the community at all," he said. "Everything to me says this is not going to be a good fit." He said he's troubled by the late-night crowds drawn to a 7-Eleven in Federal Hill and would rather see the Mount Vernon building remain vacant than allow the store.
NEWS
December 3, 2008
In tough times, arts need support The arts community and the audiences we serve are grateful to The Baltimore Sun for Tim Smith's thoughtful analysis of the financial challenges we face ("Hard times for the arts," Nov. 23) and for the subsequent editorial "A gift of art" (Nov. 26), which noted, "In tough times, music, theater, dance and the visual arts offer a boost - and their patrons and supporters can come from all walks of life." Truer words were never spoken. Last year, 14 million people attended arts events in Maryland, many of them in Baltimore, the art epicenter of the state.
NEWS
December 1, 2008
New convenience store could add to crime I am appalled that 7-Eleven might successfully lease a property for a new 24-hour convenience store at a corner adjacent to Mount Vernon Square ("Bid to block 7-Eleven in Mount Vernon falls short," Nov. 25). As it is, the neighborhood often serves as a crossroads for the homeless and - much worse - for muggers, petty thieves, drug dealers, prostitutes and recently even a serial rapist. The fact that administrators of the Peabody Conservatory apparently view this development with indifference is especially outrageous, since their own students are frequently mugged and sometimes raped in the area.
NEWS
By Jacques Kelly | November 25, 2008
A Mount Vernon group says it has failed to prevent a 7-Eleven from opening in a former restaurant overlooking the Washington Monument. City agencies, cultural groups and neighbors pledged $297,000 toward an effort to buy the building and stop the convenience store, but R. Paul Warren, who organized the effort, said his group stopped making offers when the price reached $450,000. "We reached our limit," Warren said. "We raised $300,000 in three weeks. That's not bad." Gregory N. Friedman, a real estate investor-broker, bought the former Buttery restaurant on the ground floor of a 19th-century building at Charles and Centre streets this year for $310,000.
NEWS
October 17, 2008
2 Westport teens charged with first-degree murder Two 18-year-old Westport men have been charged with first-degree murder in a killing that took place near their homes in July. Tyrone Fields Jr. and Jawaun Harris, who both live on Sidney Avenue, were identified by witnesses as the men who chased down and shot Bernard Solomon, 23, on July 29, according to charging documents. Solomon was standing in the 2200 block of Sidney Ave. when two men approached and began to shoot at him. He ran down Sidney Avenue to elude his attackers but was struck numerous times by gunfire.
NEWS
By CHICAGO TRIBUNE | July 17, 2007
I begged to be part of it. I was answering the phone as Apu months before the promotion started." - FRENKO RAHANA, explaining his enthusiasm for a promotion for the new Simpsons movie in which his 7-Eleven franchise store on the south side of Chicago has been converted into a "Kwik-E-Mart"