Faith

Dr. Ben Carson says he didn't anticipate the reaction to what he considered his common-sense remarks as keynote speaker this month at the National Prayer Breakfast. But after video went viral of the trailblazing black neurosurgeon taking jabs at Barack Obama's health care overhaul a few feet from the president himself, some want the famed doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to parlay the attention into a new career: politics. "Here you have this guy who has been a celebrity minority for 30 years coming out and making the conservative case better than a lot of conservatives can," said Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large for National Review Online.

When the going got tough - and things got pretty dicey in December - the Ravens didn't wilt. They didn't even wonder if a season that once seemed to have such promise was coming unraveled at just the wrong time. Or so they say. The three-game losing streak that ramped up the suspense after the Ravens seemed to be cruising into the playoffs was troubling enough to prompt a risky, late-season change in offensive coordinator, but it still wasn't enough to make John Harbaugh, Ozzie Newsome or owner Steve Bisciotti entertain a molecule of doubt that the ultimate goal was still attainable.

At first glance, a grass-roots farmers' market in the covered parking lot of a suburban mall seems a bit incongruous. But that's the charm, and convenience, of the Westfield Annapolis Winter Farmers' Market, held every other Sunday at Westfield Annapolis Mall from January into April. Patrons can park their car, pop into Macy's to buy a Gucci handbag or designer sweater, then walk across the lot and stock up on potatoes, turnips, cabbage, eggs and chicken, or enjoy a bowl of homemade Italian chicken and vegetable soup.

In the aftermath of the Ravens stunning divisional round victory over the Broncos, Baltimore restaurants took to social media to congratulate the team, the city and themselves. In Federal Hill, so many fans poured out the streets after Saturday's game-winning field goal that a section of South Charles Street had to be shut down. The police helicopter, Foxtrot, was eventually dispatched to disperse the crowd. Here's Steve Kilar's report on the, incident , which appears to have been merely a revolting display of group self-entitlement and a shameful waste of city resources but fortunately not violent.

In the aftermath of the Newtown massacre, people continue to ask the useless question, "Why?" We search for the shooter's "motive," as if we could discover a satisfactory explanation for why a depressed young man would decide to execute his mother, 20 first-graders and six of their teachers. Why did this latest alienated loner in our pantheon of mass murderers grab the stockpile of weapons his suburban mother had accumulated? How could people not have known? Was this a "failure of the mental health system?"

Several religious leaders joined Baltimore's mayor and state lawmakers Wednesday in urging new state gun control laws, calling for a wide-ranging package of bills designed to prevent tragedies like the shooting in Connecticut. "The violence is simply too much, the grief is simply too profound," said Rabbi Ron Shulman of Chizuk Amuno Congregation, president of the Baltimore Jewish Council. State Sen. Brian Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the Judicial Proceedings Committee, said that in the coming General Assembly session, he will push for a ban on assault weapons like the Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle used in last week's massacre.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake became Mayor Speed Camera last week in the eyes of the nation. Too bad for her. She had almost achieved national sanctification as Mayor Race Car and Mayor Crime Prevention until revelations from Baltimore Sun reporter Scott Calvert that a city speed camera ticketed a stopped car made a top billing on the Drudge Report and went viral on the web. About 14 million people each month visit Drudge, known for its provocative...

The empty lot in West Baltimore is usually a desolate spot, the sort of place people visit to leave an old mattress in the bushes or sneak a drink at night. But this week, chain saws buzzed, trucks rumbled and residents shoveled compost at North Fulton and Lorman streets in Sandtown-Winchester as workers set up a 3,300-square-foot organic greenhouse, breaking ground on one of the city's biggest entries in the fast-growing national movement known as urban farming. The farm, now called Strength to Love Farms, will eventually be able to grow more than 150,000 pounds of fresh produce a year, all to be sold and distributed locally, according to Alex Persful, president and chief horticulturist of the urban agriculture firm Big City Farms.

The Catholic hierarchy is, sad to say, shamefully deficient in the theology of their own church. During the recent election campaign, some bishops embarrassed themselves by their loathsome meddling in partisan politics. They presented their opinions as the "teaching of the church," in opposition to both a growing consensus among theologians and the developing belief of the faithful. Unremembered, apparently, are the failures of their predecessors who spoke out against the women's suffrage amendment using the same fantastic arguments of danger to children's welfare and peril to family structure and harmony.

It is disheartening to read letters from readers who call themselves Catholics but have no concept of true Catholic Social Teaching. Sadly, some Catholics are poorly informed about the basic tenets of our faith. To set the record straight: Catholic social teaching is all about caring for the well being of all people, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged among us. This time-honored and apostolic teaching is in accord with the U.S. Constitution, which also seeks to entitle everyone to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.