Coalition

A grass-roots idea to bridge the gaps among racially divided neighborhoods has blossomed into an annual block party in West Baltimore that drew hundreds Saturday to a triangular park in Upton. At the fifth annual Boundary Block Party, sponsored by a coalition of five of the city's central-western neighborhoods, children frolicked near a fountain, a wooden platform served as a stage for local musicians and choirs, and dozens of people lined up for free hot dogs and potato salad.

A grass-roots idea to bridge the gaps among racially divided neighborhoods has blossomed into an annual block party in West Baltimore that drew hundreds Saturday to a triangular park in Upton. At the fifth annual Boundary Block Party, sponsored by a coalition of five of the city's central-western neighborhoods, children frolicked near a fountain, a wooden platform served as a stage for local musicians and choirs, and dozens of people lined up for free hot dogs and potato salad.

The Aberdeen Proving Ground Superfund Citizens Coalition is sponsoring a public meeting Thursday to provide an overview of environmental cleanup issues at the county weapons-testing and research installation.The meeting is scheduled from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Joppatowne High School, 555 Joppa Farm Road in Joppa.Representatives of 30 community groups have been invited. Others are welcome.The coalition is a private group seeking to increase public awareness of environmental issues related to the proving ground, which plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up old dump sites.

The opening of Charm City Puppies, a store in Columbia that sells purebred and other boutique puppies, as well as pet accessories, has prompted an online protest by some area residents. The family-owned store, which displays expensive puppies in cribs, has galvanized a local movement against puppy shops. The shops, opponents say, help keep "puppy mills" in business at a time when an overabundance of dogs at shelters is forcing those animals to be euthanized. The owner of the store says the animals he sells have been bred and handled humanely.

WHEN FORMER Anne Arundel County schools Superintendent Carol Parham announced cuts last year in arts programs to make room for more reading classes, a group of Severna Park parents rose up in indignation. The parents did not want to sacrifice the outstanding music and art programs at schools like Severna Park Middle School. To voice such sentiments and to convey those feelings to the school board, they formed the Anne Arundel Coalition for Balanced Excellence in Education. The coalition brought a lawsuit against the county that was heard by the State Board of Education.

And now we add another cornerstone to the fabled vocabulary of college football.In the spirit of "Golden Dome" and "Rose Bowl" and "sugar daddy" and other touchstone phrases of the game, we add a new name to send shivers down your spine: The Bubba Coalition.OK, so it's going to take awhile to get used to the name, especially since I just made it up. But it should catch on. If the coalition doesn't blow up first, that is.Perhaps an explanation is in order. College football looks the same this year, but it's not. There's a new political order.

TOKYO -- Japan's rainbow coalition confronted the threat of a breakup yesterday as leaders of its eight parties failed to agree on policies that a successor to outgoing Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa should follow.Nominally, they promised to choose a new leader from within their ranks and elect him prime minister by the end of this week. But quarrels among themselves belied the credibility of their pledge.Leaders of the Japan Renewal Party and the Buddhist-backed Komei (Clean Government)

COHASSET, Mass. - Debate about American foreign policy has been discreetly muffled since Sept. 11. But the argument between unilateral and multilateral action has reappeared as a subtext of the response to global terrorism. Of course, in the real world, policy is a mix of the two, depending on the circumstances. What is new is the notion of "coalitions" as a flexible version of the old multilateralism. President Bush praised our allies on March 11 as "a mighty coalition of civilized nations."

The vacant lots and dilapidated storefronts along Park Heights Avenue and Reisterstown Road seem to signal a community on the decline.But that is not the whole picture, say a group of area residents who will converge today to plant trees and flowers, and paint murals on the two major thoroughfares running through the heart of several Northwest Baltimore neighborhoods."

MOSCOW -- Russian leader Boris N. Yeltsin said yesterday that Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had accepted in principle his proposal for a coalition government including representatives of the Russian Federation and other republics.But Vitaly Ignatenko, spokesman for Mr. Gorbachev, said the Soviet president had no plans to ask for the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov. Apparently, Mr. Gorbachev foresees a coalition government's taking shape not immediately but in the long run, as part of a reorganization of the Soviet Union under a new treaty to be signed by the republics on a voluntary basis.

For reasons best known to The Sun, its coverage of the sparsely attended pep rally for State Center neglected to include any meaningful comment from the project's primary public opponents, the Coalition to Save Downtown Baltimore. That's unfortunate, because the local politics of the moment will be fleeting. What matters in the long run will be the adverse total effect of adding over 1 million square feet of unnecessary and highly taxpayer-subsidized office space in midtown when there is already 2 million square feet of vacant space in the downtown business district.

After nearly five years of litigation, a coalition representing Maryland's historically black public colleges and universities has agreed to discuss a settlement with the state, which it accused in a 2006 lawsuit of discriminatory practices and multiple civil rights violations. A private hearing between the two sides will be held Monday in Baltimore's U.S. District Court, less than a month before the case is scheduled for trial. Among the issues likely to be discussed are whether competing programs at "traditionally white" schools should be dismantled and whether black schools are underfunded because of a racist funding formula.

Members of a statewide coalition formed after the death of a 12-year-old boy from Prince George's County from an untreated tooth infection unveiled a plan Tuesday to improve access to dental care. The plan from the Maryland Dental Action Coalition builds on one formed in 2007 after the death of Deamonte Driver, which addressed the immediate shortage of oral care professionals who would treat low-income children by increasing the Medicaid reimbursement, streamlining the system and expanding safety net programs.

Now what? After attacking Libya "on the fly," as Defense Secretary Robert Gates put it, what's next in this latest chapter of Operation Enduring Blunder? (I like that moniker better than the meaningless "Odyssey Dawn. ") There is more than a little of the surreal in this latest bombardment of an Islamic nation, yet we know it's all too real, and we suspect that our president's claim that we'll be out of there in "days rather than weeks" is more likely to turn into years rather than weeks.

Baltimore education advocates are mobilizing residents to rally in Annapolis this month against a $15 million cut in state aid to city schools under Gov. Martin O'Malley's recently proposed budget. Representatives from about 25 education stakeholders in the city — known as the Baltimore Education Coalition — met Monday to plan for the Education Funding Rally on Feb. 28. The group expects to draw more than double the 600 participants who showed up for last year's rally in the state capital.

Saying that Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold wants to punish them for not endorsing his re-election by moving to restrict a key contract negotiation provision, a coalition of public safety unions plans to marshal its members to fight an administration proposal to curb binding arbitration. Leopold maintains that binding arbitration is tantamount to giving an outsider control over the county budget — down to the need to raise taxes — and that the proposed change is needed to give elected officials control over budget decisions.

More than 30 black leaders in Howard County have formed an independent coalition to endorse political candidates who support black interests, and to use their influence against elected officials who do not.The African American Coalition For Howard County hopes to affect the outcome of many local and statewide races in Tuesday's primary election and to become a permanent, unifying fixture, organizers said."

About 50 Carroll County schoolchildren gathered yesterday at the Westminster library branch to learn about a range of programs designed to provide them with assets - including empowerment, positive values and a commitment to learning - that will help them make sound decisions. Members of a newly formed coalition, ACTIVE Alliance for a Healthier Community, sponsored the event, calling for new programs - from faith-based marriage counseling to greater availability of long-term care for substance users - to combat juvenile violence and drug use. The proposals drafted by the ACTIVE (Adults and Children Together Improving Values and Ethics)

Nine months after Iraqis went to the polls in national parliamentary elections last spring, the country's squabbling political factions finally reached a deal this week to allow a new government to take office. That's good news for Iraqis who had begun to question the ability of their leaders to bring stability to the country and avert a return to the bloody sectarian violence of four years ago. But now the pressure is on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to show that his new Shiite-dominated ruling coalition is up to the challenge of dealing with the country's problems in a way that is acceptable to all Iraq's major political and sectarian groups.

Throughout its history, the National Mall in Washington has been the site of protests and rallies by Americans seeking redress of grievances, yet few have been so consequential as the 1963 March on Washington that provided the occasion for the Rev. Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" speech. In that memorable oration, King summed up African-Americans' struggle for civil rights by calling on the nation to live up to its historic promise of equal justice and opportunity for all. Today, a coalition of progressive activists will gather on the Mall to reaffirm King's expansive vision of social justice, though in a very different context than the one that framed the 1963 march.