Baltimore Sun

An exhibit at the Johns Hopkins Evergreen House that was thrown into doubt this week is back on, but without two artworks at the crux of a dispute between the artist and the curator. The two large pieces in question — one depicting a cross, the other a mosaic of the word "Jew" — were offered as part of an outdoor exhibit by Fells Point artist Loring Cornish called "In Each Other's Shoes," to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington.

Israel and Syria continue to fight, Robert Downey Jr. continues to  pretend to fight, and in sunny, pastoral northern Pennsylvania, a former judge is still getting international attention a week after his sentencing over what amounts to a human-trafficking scheme. Welcome to your daily trends report for Monday, May 6, 2013. Mark Ciavarella, a former common pleas judge in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., was sentenced early last week for his role as a cog in the prison-industrial complex. Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, received kickback money from private jail operators to fill their beds with children as young as 10 without due process, often on first-time offenses.

Isn't focusing on foreign students entering the U.S. a form of discrimination ("America is exceptional, and that includes the way we treat immigrants," April 29)? After all, we don't enforce our immigration laws, which has resulted in America being flooded with 11 million to 12 million immigrants who are here illegally. Who is to say how many of those have terrorist inclinations are not just students? We should either enforce all immigration laws or not enforce any, keeping in mind as President Ronald Reagan said: "A nation that cannot control its borders can't control its destiny.

Thanks to Alison Prost for her recent commentary ("Beyond 'rain tax' rhetoric," May 1) explaining the health and economic issues that will be addressed with a stormwater fee and debunking the misrepresentation of the fee. The fee is not about rain. It takes aim at the pollution, trash and debris that are washing into our local rivers, the Baltimore Harbor and Chesapeake Bay. The polluted runoff makes these waterways unfit for use and the fish in them unsafe to eat. Many Baltimore organizations - private, public, community and nonprofit - are working hard to make our waterways fishable and swimmable.

Months after trading veteran wide receiver Anquan Boldin to the San Francisco 49ers following a contract dispute, the Ravens waited until the seventh round to draft a wide receiver. Ravens assistant general manager Eric DeCosta attributed that to how their draft board stacked up with only a few elite receiver prospects like former Dunbar star Tavon Austin, but didn't rule out the possibility of acquiring an established receiver prior to the regular season. "I think the hunt goes on," DeCosta said Monday night during The Baltimore Sun Sports Forum.

It is premature to attribute gains in kindergarten readiness to basing pre-K on the common core curriculum introduced two years ago ("City's revamped pre-K showing promise," April 27). Contrary to The Sun's report, the rise in readiness scores was not "unprecedented. " Examination of the data available from a recent Baltimore City Public Schools press release shows that the 4 percent gain seen from 2011 to 2012 is part of a general trend of increased readiness in test scores since 2007 for all children entering kindergarten in Baltimore, whether enrolled in common core aligned pre-K or not. In fact, most of the gains in non-common-core-aligned pre-K programs were larger than those seen in common-core pre-K programs.

The Sun recently reported that a third top City Hall employee had contracted the highly contagious "improper homestead tax credit on non-owner occupied homes" disease ("Mayoral aid got tax break for rental property," May 1). Khalil Zaied, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's recently appointed deputy chief of operations, found out in January that he had contracted the disease after receiving improper homestead tax credits for a rental property he owned for several years. Mr. Zaied explained that he remembered reading about this mysterious disease in 2011 but had been so busy with his duties on behalf of the citizens of Baltimore at the time that he didn't realize he had contracted the illness himself.

A 100-foot tugboat sank off Pier 3 in Locust Point on Saturday night. The tugboat Kaleen McAllister sank before 10 p.m., Mike Reagoso, the vice president of Mid-Atlantic operations for McAllister Towing, said Sunday. No one was injured in the incident, Reagoso said. Everyone had left the boat by the time it sank, said Petty Officer David Marin, a Coast Guard spokesman operating out of Baltimore's Curtis Bay yards. "It is too early to determine what the extent of the damage may be, but the submersion of the tug is not expected to interfere with any harbor operations or any port operations," Reagoso said in a statement.

A federal judge has ordered a West Pratt Street clinic and its former chief executive to repay more than 60 current and former employees nearly $50,000 that the private company never deposited into their retirement accounts as required. U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. also awarded $27,800 in attorneys' fees to lawyer Richard Neuworth and colleagues who represented the plaintiffs. The March 22 order marked the latest chapter in the troubled recent history of Baltimore Behavioral Health Inc., once a successful mental health clinic that ranked among the city's largest providers of drug treatment services.

If Towson University is so strapped for funds that President Maravene Loeschke needs to disband her baseball and soccer programs, how can she afford to spend so much on the deluge of TV advertisements that are on the air daily? No other college in the University System of Maryland does this. The Towson enrollment is growing considerably. Why these expenditures at this time? Wally Knapp, Ellicott City Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts