Baltimore

The Laurel Leader won six awards, including a first-place award for photography, in the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association's 2012 editorial contest. The awards were for newspapers in Division D, non-dailies with a circulation more than 20,000, and were announced at the annual MDDC luncheon Friday, May 17. The newspaper's 2012 awards include: • First place Feature Photo for Phil Grout's cover photo "Flip Dip," of Laurel Municipal Pool lifeguard Bubba Mullins and his dog, Rusty, playing at Doggy Dip Day at the pool.

NAME, PREP SCHOOL AND/OR HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE Jamel Artis , Notre Dame Prep (Mass.), PITTSBURGH Chase Cormier , Fishburne Military / Milford Mill, GRAMBLING STATE Will Darley , Fishburne Military / Dulaney, UMBC Rodney Elliott , John Carroll, UMBC Ben Grace , Gilman, UMBC Rodney Hawkins , Mt. Zion Prep / Lake Clifton, SAINT PETER'S Lavon Long , Oakland...

A single-vehicle crash in Baltimore County on the outer loop of Interstate 695 past the Interstate 70 exit has closed the right traffic lane and the right traffic shoulder at 8:53 a.m., on Monday, according to the state Department of Transportation. Three outer loop traffic lanes and the left outer loop shoulder are moving unimpeded adjacent to the incident, DOT said. The Maryland Transit Administration has reported minor delays on the MARC train at 9 a.m.

Mary B. Filler, a former dance instructor and preschool teacher, died May 13 from bladder cancer at Harmony Hall, a Columbia retirement community. She was 99. The daughter of the owner of a Baltimore feed and seed store and a homemaker, the former Mary Bolgiano was born in Baltimore and raised in Roland Park. After graduating in 1933 from Friends School, she joined the Estelle Dennis Dance Theater in Baltimore, and also studied at the American Ballet School in New York. For many years, Mrs. Filler was the owner and instructor at the Bolgiano School of Dancing in Baltimore.

Get ready to roll. Baltimore and Washington's fleets of food trucks are squaring off again. Some 40 trucks, 20 from each city, are expected to attend the second Taste of Two Cities event on June 1, which is relocating from Westport Waterfront to Rash Field. Food trucks from Baltimore and Washington will compete in several categories. An overall winner will be presented the Mayor's Cup Trophy by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who performed the same honors at the event's premier edition, when Baltimore's Gypsy Queen was selected the best by a panel of judges.

Here's what the new Baltimore Style magazine looks like. "It's got a new logo, a fresh design - and Katie O'Malley on the cover," editor-in-chief Joe Sugarman said in an email to The Sun. "Our fashion editor, Suzin Boddiford, somehow convinced the first lady to model the latest spring fashions in a 10-page fashion shoot. We've got an interview with her in there, too. I have to say, she looks like a real model. People will be stunned. " #sigshell { float: left; width: 320px; height: 52px; margin: 20px 0px; display: block; }

Traditionally, the bride's parents are the hosts of the ceremony. They send out the invitations, pay for the reception and coordinate a long day of celebration. The groom's family takes care of the bride's ring, the marriage license and their honeymoon.  That sounds all fine, well, and good. But, neither Enrique's nor my parents work, and we've yet to find that elusive bride. Planning duties fall on us and we have to do everything within our already busy schedule.  Enrique works in northern Virginia and has weekend duties at a gym. I work in Baltimore and attend classes four nights a week.

More people live in poverty in Baltimore's suburbs than in the city itself, part of a nationwide shift that is challenging the largely urban assistance network built up over decades. Suburban poverty in the Baltimore area grew 58 percent between 2000 and 2011, compared with 4 percent in the city, according to research released Monday by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. Such lopsided growth in the last decade is the reason the suburban poor now outnumber the urban poor — an eye-opening change for a region long used to thinking of suburban residents as the haves and Baltimoreans as the have-nots.

M&T Bank Corp. executive Atwood "Woody" Collins III has succeeded Edwin F. Hale Sr. as chair of the Baltimore Convention and Tourism Board, city officials said Monday. The appointment of Collins, an executive vice president of M&T, became effective Friday, Visit Baltimore announced. Collins has served on the convention and tourism board since 2008 as treasurer and head of the finance committee, advising on budget management and fiscal matters for both Visit Baltimore, the city's tourism and convention bureau, and the Baltimore Convention Center.

It's very tempting to address each point of The Sun's editorial that suggests Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake reject the local hiring bill ("Noble but flawed idea," May 15). But to do so would miss the larger and more important point that lies at the root of the bill's purpose. Baltimore's unemployment rate is about 10 percent. This is about two times higher than it was just five years ago. The unemployment rate for African-Americans is 20 percent. This is unacceptable, and our leaders have an obligation to find a solution.