Baltimore City

The federal racketeering and drug charges unveiled this week against 25 inmates and guards at the Baltimore City Detention Center raise serious questions about the state's management of the facility. Investigators detailed a pattern of corruption and criminal behavior that was so widespread that for much of the last few years, the inmates were literally running the asylum. It will take drastic action to root out the crooked corrections officers and incompetent higher-ups responsible for this debacle, but that's only a start.

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

All lanes are closed on MD 177 in both directions in Anne Arundel County at 9:11 a.m. on Tuesday due to what the state Department of Transportation said is police activity. No additional information was given. In Baltimore City, a two-vehicle collision on Interstate 95 North past the US 1 Caton Avenue exit has closed one of four northbound traffic lanes and one of two northbound traffic shoulders at 9:06 a.m., DOT said. The Maryland Transit Administration is reporting minor delays on the Metro subway and MARC train at 9:20 a.m. Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Following a two-month impasse, the Baltimore City school board voted Tuesday to extend a one-year contract to the operators of Baltimore Talent Development High School. The school board voted unanimously, with one recusal, to allow the Center for Social Organization of Schools at the Johns Hopkins University to operate the school for one more year, during which the district will monitor its progress. In January, after a months-long review of more than two dozen schools with external operators, city schools CEO Andres Alonso recommended severing ties with the school's operator at the end of the school year and slating the school for closure in 2014.

Last year Baltimore City paid vendors more than $800 million, much of it for construction projects, gas and electricity, trash and recycling services, transportation and the like, according to monthly figures posted on a city website. But some purchases look odder than others, at least at first blush: Frozen mice. A mink coat. Paintball. About $27,000 worth of food from S'ghetti Eddie's for the Fire Department. Those spending details and many others emerged during a Baltimore Sun review of the city's 2012 figures.

Betty Jane Bivins Chase, a retired Baltimore public schools personnel worker, died of respiratory failure April 16 at the Levindale Geriatric Rehabilitation Center. The Randallstown resident was 75. Born Betty Jane Bivins in Baltimore, she was the daughter of James and Margaret Thomas Bivins. Raised in Lothian in Anne Arundel County, she was a 1956 graduate of Wiley H. Bates High School in Annapolis. She was a member of the Starlighters Drama Club and the Future Teachers of America.

It has been nearly three years since my predecessor, Cardinal Edwin O'Brien, and the Blue Ribbon Committee on Catholic Schools released the Strategic Plan for Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Since that time, enrollment declines have been stemmed in many schools; innovative new programs such as our dual language and Montessori initiatives have kept our schools competitive; and systemic changes to the governance of our schools, renewed focus on school leadership - training of principals and development of local school boards, as well as system-wide accreditation - are ensuring Catholic schools remain an excellent value (average annual K-8 cost is approximately $5,000)

A group representing Baltimore-area food trucks have signed a letter of support for the Food Truck Association of Metropolitan Washington, which is fighting a set of new regulations it fears will hamper and even cripple its business. Addressed to the Council of the District of Columbia, the letter was signed by eight regional food truck associations, including the Maryland Mobile Food Truck Association, whose members operate in the Baltimore area.  The letter says proposed regulations from Mayor Vincent C. Gray "represent some of the worst food truck laws in the country.

Baltimore City police say they are investigating a shooting late Saturday in the Dudley Avenue area. Police said that at 10:47 p.m., they responded to the 3300 block of Dudley Ave. for a report of a shooting and found an adult male, shot in the back and lower body. He was transported to an area hospital. Police did not identify the man, and there was no immediate information on his condition. Police said detectives are investigating. Staff Reports

On any given day, you might find 27-year-old Teddy Krolik in the neighborhood of Reservoir Hill operating a Bobcat tractor in a rubble-strewn vacant lot, dropping by the home of an elderly woman to see if she needs a ride to a community meeting later that day, or checking out the progress of a recently installed urban farm. Krolik's job as environmental and sanitation program director of Baltimore's Reservoir Hill Improvement Council (RHIC) Inc., created to assist Reservoir Hill residents in finding solutions to their community's social and environmental issues, didn't come with a precise list of job responsibilities.