FEATURES
By Orla Swift and Orla Swift,NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE | January 29, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. - James Earl Jones' commanding bass is so recognizable, even a hermit could place it immediately. It's Mufasa, the papa lion in Disney's hit The Lion King, it's Darth Vader in Star Wars. It has an air of compassion, of wisdom and omnipotence. And yet this Hollywood star spent the better part of his childhood with his mouth closed, plagued by a severe stutter. "It was so bad that I didn't speak at all," Jones, 74, told 200 students at a literacy celebration this week in Durham.
NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare, The Baltimore Sun | April 17, 2010
The way South Baltimore businessman Jules Edward "Sonny" Morstein Jr., sees it, he owes something to the community in which his family has prospered. "This city has given me a good life," said Morstein, 65. "How can I not give back?" Nearly 25 years ago, several business owners along South Baltimore's Light Street asked one of their own to help renew their shopping district. Morstein, who runs the city's oldest family-owned jewelry store, stepped into the role of president of the Federal Hill Business Association.
NEWS
By Laurie Willis and Laurie Willis,SUN STAFF | May 27, 2001
Baltimore Reads Executive Director Marlene C. McLaurin took over last month as head of the area's premier literacy organization. McLaurin, 56, most recently was senior executive vice president of United Way of Central Maryland and interim chief operating officer of the Baltimore Urban League. A former second-grade teacher, she earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education from Hampton University in Virginia and her master's degree in early childhood education from Southern Connecticut State College.
NEWS
By Constance Sommer and Constance Sommer,Seattle Post-Intelligencer | March 28, 1999
You wouldn't be reading this story right now if Mark McGwire weren't practically addicted to Starbucks coffee.The guy's been drinking it for 10 years. The home-run world record holder even convinced his team, the St. Louis Cardinals, to serve the coffee in the clubhouse, allowing him to down it in the dugout all season long.McGwire's spokesman can't explain exactly what the attraction is here. But it's the reason why this baseball season, every time McGwire hits a home run, Seattle-based Starbucks will donate $5,000 to a literacy organization in the city where the home run is hit.Last year, McGwire homered 70 times, setting a major league record.
NEWS
By Mike Bowler and Mike Bowler,SUN STAFF | September 2, 2001
CHILDREN'S BOOKS line the North Avenue office of Tom Bowmann, and they're not there for decoration. "I try to read one every day," says Baltimore's first director of reading. "It's amazing how reading a child's book with adult eyes puts a different light on things. It's very helpful in my new job." Bowmann, 50, will need all the help he can get. All he has to do, as prescribed by a school system "Reading by 9" task force in a report issued in May, is get a handle on the city's many reading programs, evaluate them, eliminate the ineffective ones and beef up those that work.
NEWS
By Mike Bowler and Mike Bowler,SUN STAFF | September 19, 1999
READING AROUND the world is a feminist and civil rights issue. Here's why:Of the estimated 125 million children not attending primary school in developing countries, two-thirds are girls.Of the world's nearly 1 billion illiterate adults, two-thirds are women.Enormous gaps exist between the educational attainment of the rich and of the poor within countries. In many, the majority of children from the poorest households get no schooling at all.These startling figures are from a report of the World Bank, which is spending some $14 billion to help educate poor people in 87 countries.