ENTERTAINMENT
By Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun | February 17, 2014
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will be announcing its 2014-2015 season in a few weeks. As is the case every year, I am hoping for a whole bunch of surprises, a filling in of long-standing gaps in the BSO's repertoire. And, naturally, I am especially hoping to hear more of my favorite stuff (it's all about me, as you know). In the same way the BSO and its audiences should be getting a wider sampling of guest conductors (off hand, I can think of Osmo Vanska, Jaap van Zweden, Manfred Honeck, Benjamin Zander and the apparently indefatigable Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos)
NEWS
By Ragina Cooper-Averella | January 30, 2014
Legislative reforms are desperately needed to address issues with Maryland's speed camera programs in school zones, particularly in Baltimore City, where the problems have been so pervasive and so well-documented that the system has been suspended since April. We know that speed camera citations have been issued to deceased motorists and "signed" and authorized by a deceased police officer. Motorists have been cited for speeding in school zones when they were not moving at all - including a AAA Mid-Atlantic roadside assistance truck, which was cited for going 57 miles per hour in a school zone, despite being stopped at a red light.
NEWS
By Paul T. Graziano | November 11, 2013
In East Baltimore, the 1200 block of North Broadway was once almost entirely vacant. Now a woman who moved to the city from Parkville has made it her family's home. There were once 25 vacants on this block; only six remain, all of which are under construction. Farther south, a man whose home has been in his family for three generations has seen a transformation on the 200 block of North Madeira Street. Eleven long-vacant properties have been sold or auctioned to developers, the street and sidewalks have been repaved, and a stream of new neighbors is moving in. Around the corner, a longtime resident began renovating homes on Mullikin Street, building on the momentum of Madeira Street's revitalization.
NEWS
By George W. Nellies | November 4, 2013
The latest plane being rolled out of the hangar at Dallas Dance Airlines (also known as the Baltimore County Public School headquarters) should be grounded before it has a chance to take off. The recently announced plan to move to an eight-class semester from seven ("8 classes a semester for Balto. County high schools," Oct. 30) - is yet another far-reaching initiative coming at a time when teachers are still trying to cope with a new curriculum and a new teacher evaluation system.
NEWS
By Alison Knezevich and Michael Dresser, The Baltimore Sun | November 2, 2013
The transformation of a vacant, 12-story eyesore into a gleaming office building has brought workers, shoppers and diners to the northern edge of downtown Towson - thanks in part to a public financing package that waived repayment of millions of dollars in loans to a developer. The county makes so-called conditional loans that do not require repayment if certain conditions, such as job creation, are met. The $3.5 million in conditional loans to Caves Valley Partners for the Towson project would rank as the largest ever forgiven; others have provided $300,000 to demolish vacant Pikesville buildings and $40,000 to renovate a bank branch in Randallstown.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun | October 25, 2013
The latest program from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is as safe as it comes - an old-fashioned mix of 19th-century fare. But with one of the BSO's regular guests, German-born conductor Jun Markl, back on the podium, you can count on considerable energy and sensitivity to give the familiar fare a good jolt. Those qualities are also much in evidence from the other guest for this program, German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser, in his BSO debut. On Thursday night at the Music Center at Strathmore, Markl got things started with a genial account of Dvorak's lovely Serenade for Strings.