NEWS
By Carrie Wells, The Baltimore Sun | August 3, 2014
George W. Collins, a pioneering Baltimore journalist who chronicled the civil rights movement and other significant events in Maryland history, died last week at age 88. Collins began his career as a reporter and then editor-in-chief for Baltimore's Afro-American in the 1950s, and joined the staff of WMAR-TV in 1968, later becoming an anchor and an associate editor. He also hosted a biweekly public-affairs show Thursday evenings on WEAA-FM, Morgan State University's public radio station.
NEWS
By Gregory Rodriguez | June 9, 2014
Newspapers are in trouble. Not just because of the Internet and advertising and subscriptions. But because, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll, only 28 percent of Americans think that journalists contribute a lot to society's well being. That's pretty bad considering that journalists like to think of themselves as guardians of democracy. In other business enterprises, such public disdain would be a cause for alarm. But newspapers are different. Criticize journalistic professionalism, and you're likely to hear a thing or two about the importance of the First Amendment, or my favorite catch-all self-justification: If people are unhappy with us, "we must be doing something right!"
NEWS
By Meredith Cohn, The Baltimore Sun | May 10, 2014
Maryland Health Secretary Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein can add another educational accomplishment to his resume - a certificate of completion from the University of Maryland and the state attorney general's office for an online course on Maryland's Open Meetings Act. Sharfstein, a pediatrician who has a degree from Harvard Medical School, among others, volunteered for the extra schooling after the state's health exchange lawyers said someone on each...
NEWS
By Chris Kaltenbach, The Baltimore Sun | April 13, 2014
Ralph Dawson Matthews Jr., a former managing editor of the Baltimore Afro-American who worked closely with Malcolm X in the early 1960s and once shared a house with a young Miles Davis, died April 3 at the Adelphi House assisted living facility in Adelphi, Prince George's County. Mr. Dawson died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, or COPD. He was 86. "Ralph was always very inquisitive," remembered Harry Peaker, a retired mathematician who grew up with Mr. Matthews in Northwest Baltimore.
NEWS
By Jonah Goldberg | March 28, 2014
Leland Yee, a Democratic state senator and candidate for secretary of state in California, has been a longtime champion of gun control. This week he was arrested on numerous charges, including conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and conspiracy to illegally transport firearms. Mr. Yee, a prominent foe of assault weapons, allegedly took bribes to set up a meeting between an undercover agent and an international arms dealer to broker the sale of automatic weapons and shoulder-fired missiles.
NEWS
By Jules Witcover | March 14, 2014
In the history of presidential campaign books, Theodore H. White's "The Making of the President" series in the 1960s set the standard for campaign books to follow. He combined unique access and a sweeping view of the process to help voters judge the candidates and understand the quadrennial exercise as well. Teddy White was a pleasant and avuncular figure who gained that access through a combination of fairness and sympathetic schmoozing. It was once said, disparagingly, that Mr. White was the kind of reporter who could always go back to his sources, meaning he never gave offense to them in what he wrote.