Condemned

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

Dr. Syed Wasimul Haque, the president of the United Maryland Muslim Council, condemned the "cowardly terrorist act" at the Boston Marathon Monday that has killed three and wounded more than 100. "Our prayers go out for the fallen victims and to the city of Boston," Haque, a Frederick physician, said in a statement. He and others in Maryland's Muslim community have condemned past acts of violence and terror against the United States. "The Muslims have always stood shoulder to shoulder during perilous times that our nation has faced and will do so in the future as well against all terrorist attacks," Haque said.

In a catastrophically messy action-movie mash-up, The Dirty Dozen meets Survivor and The Most Dangerous Game in The Condemned. This World Wrestling Entertainment production starring "Stone Cold" Steve Austin marks the first time this year I walked into an advance screening of an elaborate American action film and wasn't wanded for cell phones or recording devices. Maybe that's because 90 percent of the action scenes look, sound and move as if they were shot, mixed and edited on a BlackBerry.

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.

One year ago, Annapolis housing inspectors ran out of patience with the owners of the Bay Ridge Gardens apartments. After repeated warnings, they condemned the 196-unit complex March 19, 1993.Today, Bay Ridge has new owners and is undergoing a yearlong, $12 million renovation.Apartments are being gutted, and heat and electric systems updated. Foundations are being laid for a new community center and a laundry.But even more important, say the new owners and residents, is that a new community is being born.

BAGHDAD -- U.S. officials yesterday sidestepped the demand of Iraq's prime minister for the immediate handover for execution of three former officials from Saddam Hussein's regime. The U.S. military issued a written statement reaffirming the position of the military and U.S. Embassy that the three condemned men would remain in U.S. custody until the Iraqi government has sorted out disputed procedures for death sentences handed down by Iraq's high tribunal for war crimes. The three men received death sentences in June for their roles in Hussein's internal campaigns during the 1980s that killed up to 180,000 Kurds.

In the drug-troubled East Baltimore neighborhood locals call "Zombieland," residents trudge by 2417 E. Biddle St., a condemned rowhouse with a Formstone facade, assuming the boarded-up building is the least of their worries.On weekdays, scores of grade-school children pass the building on their way to and from Dr. Rayner Browne Elementary School around the corner. They sometimes play in the dirt and rubble surrounding it. On Sundays, about 100 worshipers skirt the property on their way to service across the street at Bibleway Missionary Baptist Church.

Fourteen people were forced to move yesterday when city housing officials condemned an apartment building shortly after a car ran into a rear wall of the structure.Police said the 1994 Cadillac was traveling in reverse on Riggs Avenue just before noon when it backed into the wall of the three-story rowhouse in the 1000 block of N. Stricker St. One unidentified occupant of the building was injured and taken to Bon Secours Hospital, authorities said.Despite the crash, many occupants of the building's four apartments remained inside until ordered out by housing officials.

WASHINGTON -- Speaking in unusually forceful terms, President Clinton condemned the Oklahoma City bombing as "an attack on the United States" and vowed that punishment would be "swift and certain and severe."Mr. Clinton repeatedly cautioned Americans yesterday against jumping to conclusions about who was responsible. Addressing fears by Arab-Americans of a backlash against their community, he said authorities still do not know who was behind the attack and warned the public not to "stereotype anyone."

Even in his own heyday, the late 19th century, when his paintings won highest prizes at international expositions and earned him a knighthood from Queen Victoria, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema was by no means universally admired.His scenes of everyday life in ancient Rome, furnished with archaeologically correct details and filled with people based on healthy English models, found eager British and American buyers, including William Walters in Baltimore. But Whistler, always ready with the killer quip, dismissed the work as "Five-o'clock-tea antiquity," and Sargent went if possible even further: "It is clever . . . but of course it's not art in any sense whatever."

The Harford County Council moved back into its former home on Bond Street in Bel Air Thursday. "The Harford County Council will be returning to 212 S. Bond St., also known as the 'Black Box,' on Jan. 17, two years after being forced to leave due to structural damage," according to a council media release. "The building has since been repaired. This move comes as a welcome change for both the Council and its constituents, as the temporary office at 18 Office St. lacked accessibility to the public and proximity to other County government offices.

I normally agree with op-ed contributor Tom Schaller's views, but his recent column on Susan Rice and the Benghazi affair was an exception ("GOP right to seek answers on Benghazi," Nov. 28). My concern is with the inadequate security afforded to the slain U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, not with any statement made by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice after the event. Ms. Rice had no involvement with security arrangements, which were clearly the responsibility of the military and the intelligence community as well as the State Department.

Falita Liles marked Thanksgiving eve by inviting some of her best friends to what could be grimly described as a condemnation party. The Upper Fells Point resident hauled possessions out of her tiny historic rowhouse Wednesday, after a city inspector ordered it vacated because an unexplained water flow had undermined the foundation. "You can see I'm not real thrilled right now," she said. Liles' home was one of two condemned in the 200 block of South Madeira St., an alley street of roughly century-old homes near Patterson Park.

Thomas F. Schaller's commentary ("Older, wealthier get plenty of 'free stuff,'" Nov. 14) is typical of the far-left position that everything an American citizen owns belongs to the federal government. He talks of "benefits" that the government bestows upon us peasants as magnanimous grants from on high which we may use to sustain ourselves. In my opinion, this is not the case. We citizens toil in our everyday life to earn a living. Taxes of any sort are an imposition by the government to maintain itself in order to serve its citizens.

In response to the letter "Theology deflects from facts in debate over gay marriage" (Oct. 18): Be careful how we define theology. In the writer's letter, the impression is given that the theological argument against gay marriage is obscure and contestable. That may be so if the theology we follow is one developed by humans or self. However, nothing could be farther from the truth when our theology is based on the Biblical view as presented by the God of the Scriptures. It is neither obscure nor contestable but extremely clear.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and other supporters of the law to allow same-sex marriage in Maryland called Thursday for the reinstatement of a university administrator who was placed on leave for signing a petition aimed at overturning the measure. "Everyone has a right to their opinion, and everyone has a right to participate in the political process," O'Malley said. The legislation, he said, "is about treating everyone fairly and equally under the law. " Opponents of same-sex marriage, meanwhile, described the decision by Gallaudet University to suspend chief diversity officer Angela McCaskill as part of a larger climate of "intimidation" against those who argue for keeping marriage between a man and a woman.

When the rowhouse at 2417 E. Biddle St. came tumbling down recently, a congregation praised God, a grandmother breathed a little easier, and a neighborhood felt things were just a bit safer.The decrepit Formstone building in the heart of a blighted East Baltimore neighborhood known as "Zombieland" has been razed, and city workers are clearing the rubble from the lot where it once stood."We're all elated here now," said Donna Money, president of the Lakewood Chase Community Association and a member of the Bibleway Missionary Baptist Church.

Hollywood has done what the biggest and baddest professional wrestlers never could. It got a hold on "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and wouldn't let go until he gave in. The former World Wrestling Entertainment competitor, who said in a 2003 interview that if a good acting role "got dumped in my lap, I'm cool with that, but it's not something I care to pursue," now hopes to pin down a career as an action star. Austin, who was at the forefront of the wrestling boom in the late 1990s before neck injuries forced him out of the ring four years ago, makes his debut as a lead actor in the action thriller The Condemned, which opens today.

As Americans are being lulled into believing our wars are winding down, I was appalled to read Robert Koehler's recent commentary about U.S. power in the world ("Can an empire show compassion?" Aug. 5). Do I want to live in a hyper-militarized American empire? Absolutely not. There is nothing in our Constitution to mandate we dominate the planet, and if history is any guide, such a philosophical change spells disaster. It's despicable that we have more than 1,000 military bases worldwide and simultaneously have created a form of armed intervention based on presidential whim.

Baltimore mega-church pastor Jamal Bryant had fashion on his mind Monday, first condemning "Slave Adidas" and then saying sunglasses have no place in church. Bryant, pastor of Empowerment Temple and also an increasing player on the national scene, often at the side of Trayvon Martin's parents, is an avid Tweeter with a following of nearly 100,000 people. He had nothing good to say about the controversial shoes known as "slave Adidas," suede athletic shoes with plastic shackles that clamp onto the shin like an accessory.