City Hall

When it comes to disclosing to residents how their city's money is spent, Baltimore rates a grade of B+, one of the highest grades among 30 cities in a new report released by the Maryland PIRG Foundation. Only three cities received an A: Chicago, New York and San Francisco, with the first two singled out as models for the rest of the nation's cities. The report issued grades based on the ability of city residents to be able to track budgets, contracting grants and requests for quality-of-life services.

A frequent critic of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration was arrested and jailed Wednesday morning when she tried to enter City Hall to attend a public meeting. Officers told the activist, Kim A. Trueheart, 55, of Baltimore, that she had been banned from the building. Trueheart was held at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Facility on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct until Thursday morning, when she was released, the facility confirmed. "I'm home ... Thank you lord!

Activist Kim Trueheart, a vocal critic of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration who was arrested and jailed Wednesday after trying to enter City Hall, said Thursday that she was dismayed that police officers would attempt to keep a citizen from a public building. "I'm upset and disappointed in the police force of Baltimore City," said Trueheart, 55, who was released early Thursday morning. "One of the supervisors said City Hall is a private building and I have trespassed on a private building.

A frequent critic of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration was arrested Wednesday when she tried to enter Baltimore's City Hall. Kim A. Trueheart, 55, of Baltimore, was arrested Wednesday morning as she tried to attend the city's 9 a.m. Board of Estimates meeting. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said he had few details about the arrest, but said Trueheart was being "disorderly. " "City Hall is a public building, but we have an obligation to make sure that citizens that come to conduct business don't pose any type of threat and they're also respectful," Guglielmi said.

Building just about anything in Annapolis, from a garden shed to a slots casino, is a bit easier these days, as applicants can now handle all of the paperwork in a single place - a new, one-stop permit counter at 145 Gorman St. County officials say the facility spares contractors, business people and homeowners the trouble of shuttling from there to City Hall to the fire marshal's office a few miles away, and perhaps back again, to complete project...

Change has swept through the University of Baltimore — and the surrounding neighborhood — over the past decade. Striking new academic buildings, an apartment building and the university's first dormitory have appeared among the brownstones of the Midtown neighborhood. New shops and restaurants brighten once-dingy blocks. Streets that were deserted after dark now buzz with students. "It seems more like a university environment now," said Earl Spain, 59, who completed his bachelor's degree at UB in 2002 and is working on a master's in criminal justice.

Baltimore City Solicitor George Nilson appears to have shot down a proposal to require businesses that receive large city contracts or tax breaks from City Hall to hire local residents for 51 percent of new jobs they create. Last week, Mr. Nilson said the bill could violate a section of the U.S. Constitution barring discrimination against job-seekers based on where they live. But the bill's sponsor, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, insists the measure is needed to address the city's stubbornly high unemployment rate.

Kim Washington, a top aide to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore's chief lobbyist, will leave her post early in the coming General Assembly session, city officials announced Monday. Washington, a friend of Rawlings-Blake's since childhood, will take a post in the city housing department, where she worked previously. Del. Curt Anderson, head of the city's House delegation in Annapolis, said Washington informed him over the weekend that she would be leaving in early February.

We embark on a new year, but will anything change? Scott Calvert 's article about Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake being left off the list of City Hall workers with smartphones is just another example of what this country has become ("Rawlings-Blake left off list of people with City Hall smartphones," Dec. 31). America is supposed to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave. " Instead, it has become the land of the sleaze and the home of the crazed. When has honesty and integrity become the exception rather than the norm?

Eric Evers, a member of the Baltimore Ravens grounds crew, calls it "the dance of the paint guns," and after five playoff appearances in a row, they've got the steps down pat. The crew, headed by Don Follett, spray-painted the team's helmet logo on the grounds of the War Memorial in front of City Hall Tuesday morning - then did it again on the steep and windy side of Federal Hill overlooking the Inner Harbor - to celebrate the team's home playoff...