Bloggers

As details surrounding the murder conspiracy of prominent Howard County blogger Dennis Lane came to light Friday, some members of the robust and wide-reaching local blogosphere Lane helped cultivate took to their keyboards to honor their forefather; who wrote under the ephitet "Wordbones. " Lane, 58, was found stabbed to death inside his Ellicott City home early Friday morning. Charged in connection with the crime are Lane's 14-year-old daugher Morgan Lane Arnold and her boyfriend Jason Anthony Bulmer, 19, who Howard County Police said plotted for two months to commit the gruesome murder.

The 19-year-old man charged with fatally stabbing Dennis Lane allegedly told investigators that his girlfriend had instructed him to kill her father and his fiancee, specifying the number of times each was to be stabbed in the throat - 10 for him and 15 for her. Jason Anthony Bulmer charging documents In a conversation at school hours before the Ellicott City blogger and businessman was killed, Jason Anthony Bulmer said, 14-year-old Morgan...

There is peace on Lake Kittamaqundi. The teenage brothers who write the entertaining 2 Dudes Who Love Food blog posted all the way back in early February about their visit to Rudy's Mediterranean Grill & Diner. The newish big-menu serves breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week but things really get interesting after 4 p.m., when Rudy's rolls out its Turkish menu. The 2 Dudes had traveled to Turkey last year, and they were pretty pleased with what they found at Rudy's.

As details surrounding the murder conspiracy of prominent Howard County blogger Dennis Lane came to light Friday, some members of the robust and wide-reaching local blogosphere Lane helped cultivate took to their keyboards to honor their forefather; who wrote under the ephitet "Wordbones. " Lane, 58, was found stabbed to death inside his Ellicott City home early Friday morning. Charged in connection with the crime are Lane's 14-year-old daugher Morgan Lane Arnold and her boyfriend Jason Anthony Bulmer, 19, who Howard County Police said plotted for two months to commit the gruesome murder.

In the aftermath of Tuesday's fatal train derailment, Howard County bloggers have begun an impromptu campaign in support of Ellicott City restaurants and other Main Street businesses. "Old Ellicott City has had a tough year," Tom Coale wrote Wednesday morning on his HoCo Rising blog. "Less than 12 months ago, we saw antique chairs floating down the street and cars crushed under a less-than-retaining wall. In July, the power went out for almost all of Fourth of July weekend, forcing downtown restaurants to throw away thousands of dollars of food.

The Ed Reed v. Troy Polamalu debate has been a heated one in Baltimore, Pittsburgh and all points between since Polamalu came into the league in 2003. Both safeties are game-changing talents, perennial Pro Bowl players and the envy of the 30 NFL teams who don’t have a rooting interest in this debate. But in the eyes of ESPN’s blogger panel, which has been releasing weekly positional power rankings, it isn’t much of a debate. In this week’s safety rankings , ESPN’s seven division bloggers -- they are probably taking applications for the NFC East beat if you're interested -- and senior football writer John Clayton unanimously selected one of those safeties as the league’s best.

Bloggers, by and large, are hands-off people. Some of the strongest voices against government interference in the lives of private citizens come from the blogosphere, so it should be no surprise that many bloggers were outraged by the reports about the National Security Agency's collection of millions of Americans' phone records. This is just the type of government meddling that sets off the online laissez-faire types. (Though many so-called conservative bloggers were quick to write off criticism of the NSA's secret efforts as liberal fear-mongering.

ESPN continued its series of NFL positional power rankings today with its list of the league's top quarterbacks, and Ravens QB Joe Flacco finished tied for 10th with Cowboys QB Tony Romo. The rankings were compiled by ESPN's seven divisional bloggers plus senior writer and noted Flacco backer John Clayton. Flacco, who completed 62.6 of his passes in 2010 for 3,622 yards and 25 touchdowns, was ranked as high as ninth on the list of one blogger (Bill Williamson) and was 10th on three other lists.

Philip Franchina has been watched more than 11 million times on YouTube, but even he was surprised when someone recognized him and offered him a free Frappuccino the other day. "It's really awkward," said the 21-year-old online comedian who goes by the online "stage name" Philip DeFranco or sXePhil. "I'm a ridiculously shy person. It's really been a transformation, Now when I think about a minimum of 30,000 people judging you ... it's kind of messed up." A year ago, he was a college biology student in North Carolina who decided to respond to a video someone had posted on YouTube about their family.

Count bloggers among those who are having trouble coming to terms with President Bush as the reader in chief. The White House's release of Bush's summer reading selections - including Camus' existentialist novel The Stranger and weighty biographies like Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power - as well as claims that the president has already devoured 60 books this year left the online chattering class buzzing. "Anybody buying this?" asked Cynical-C (cynical-c.com). The answer appeared to depend largely on political leanings.

Counselors and psychologists will be on hand at Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City on Monday as students return for the first school day since two classmates were charged with killing well-known Howard County blogger Dennis Lane. The county school system will provide the support for students and staff who may be upset over the slaying Friday and the first-degree murder and conspiracy charges against Jason Anthony Bulmer, 19, and Morgan Lane Arnold, Lane's 14-year-old daughter.

A prominent Ellicott City blogger and businessman was stabbed to death by his daughter's 19-year-old boyfriend, who plotted with the 14-year-old girl to kill him so the two could run away together, Howard County police said Friday. Dennis Lane, 58, was found before dawn in his Winding Ross Way home. Police charged Jason Anthony Bulmer and Morgan Lane Arnold, both students at Mount Hebron High School, as adults in his killing; they both face conspiracy and murder counts. Both were held without bail, according to online court records.

Frank James MacArthur, the blogger known as the Baltimore Spectator, could go on trial in May after pleading not guilty Monday to gun and resisting-arrest charges that have kept him in jail for months. MacArthur is accused in connection with a December standoff as Baltimore police tried to arrest him on a probation violation charge. During the standoff, MacArthur protested his arrest on an online radio station and live-streamed his telephone discussions with a police negotiator over the Internet.

The Baltimore sports scene is blessed with a bunch of talented bloggers who bring their unique perspective to the conversation. Each week, I hope to chat with one of them in a regular feature called Blogger on Blogger. This week, I exchanged emails with Dan Ciarrocchi, a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association who writes about fantasy football for Pro Football Focus and the Redskins for Hogs Haven, an SB Nation website. MV: Which rookie backs will have the most fantasy impact in 2013?

A source in Maryland Republican Party circles provided the Maryland Politics blog with the following memo being distributed by party leaders. It seems curious that an organization that struggles to get media attention in a Democratic-dominated state would try to limit coverage in any way, but, hey, those bloggers are in some cases renegade Republicans who have the temerity to think the party could be run a bit better. Anyway, here's the memo. We'll leave it to readers to specualte on the psychology behind the all-caps in each reference to the MARYLAND REPUBLICAN PARTY.

For some people, baking is an enjoyable pastime that often ends in a delicious dessert. But for Ellicott City resident Jackie Gonzalez-Feezer, baking is much more than that. Gonzalez-Feezer is a food blogger, whose website, La Casa de Sweets ( lacasadesweets.com ), is an entree to recipes, vibrant pictures of her creations and a place to connect and raise money for charity. “The whole point of the site is to join together baking and blogging for a cause,” she says. Her site is part gourmet delight, part meeting place for fellow baking enthusiasts.

This could be the year we finally quit talking about blogs. Amid the continued popularity of the phenomenon, there are mounting signs that blogging is fast reaching its saturation point. Blog watcher Technorati was tracking 57 million blogs at the end of October, adding about 100,000 new blogs to its list each day. No one expects that pace to hold, and technology analyst Gartner Inc. believes that this will be the year that blogging peaks. In a report released a few weeks ago, the firm predicted that blogging will level off in the first half of 2007 at about 100 million bloggers.

The mainstream electronic media, still bruised from making bad calls in the 2000 election, ceded the dirty work to the new kid yesterday, allowing Internet news sites and Web logs to rule political reporting for much of the day - for better or worse. By early afternoon, online bloggers had started listing early, and sometimes questionable, exit poll information that showed Kerry leading Bush in the three key swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. And by early evening, before most polls closed and the networks resumed reporting, a few blogs and news Web sites were calling the race for Kerry.

The Baltimore sports scene is blessed with a bunch of talented bloggers who bring their unique perspective to the conversation. Each week, I hope to chat with one of them in a regular feature called Blogger on Blogger. This week, I exchanged emails with Joe Polek, who blogs about the Orioles for Eutaw Street Report . MV: How important do you think it is that the Orioles get off to a good start like they did a year ago? JP: It's Opening Day and the Orioles need a big win. They have won their last two Opening Days, 10 of their last 12 and overall are 64-42 when Opening Day is in April.

Each Wednesday, blogger Matt Vensel will highlight five statistics that really mean something for the Orioles. 3.94 -- Kevin Gausman's ERA this spring. Gausman had an underwhelming performance in his final spring start with the big league club, allowing three earned runs in 3 2/3 innings Tuesday. But other than that, it was mostly an impressive spring for the 2012 first-round draft pick. The 22-year-old righty held opposing hitters to a .239 batting average before Tuesday's start.