Issue 8: Too Rich

In this week’s cover story, Van Smith brings you the exciting, and sort of scary, tale of Richie Rich, the alleged mastermind of a Baltimore cocaine ring brought down by warrantless GPS tracking of cars and phones.

In Mobtown Beat, Edward Ericson Jr fact-checks Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s State of the City address and Van Smith continues to look into allegations of systemic prisoner abuse by CO’s in a Hagerstown prison.

In City Folk, Rafael Alvarez reports on Bill White, who found himself in prison after a lifetime of drug use, and finally got clean so that he can now work on the other side of the law as a court liaison helping judges determine what might be the best course of treatment for addicts.

In the arts, Bret McCabe marvels at Jeffrey Kent’s incendiary new show Preach!, Michael Farley compares artist Hasan Elahi’s use of surveillance video with the digital documenting we all do and ends up envious of the artist’s jet-setting lifestyle instead of sympathetic about the civil liberties abuses he faced, and Baynard Woods watches as Yellow Sign Theatre bring uncanny elements out of dystopian sci-fi and rom-coms by combining the two. In film, Beautiful Creatures succumbs to the cliches of Twilight, and, according to Joe McLeod, Bruce Willis has not said his final “Yippee-Kay-Yay.”

Al Shipley profiles Feat of the Epiphany in music, while Michael Gonzalez reviews Bilal’s latest, and Bret McCabe tells us what’s up with the avant garde.

In Eats and Drinks, Michelle Geinow eats squirrel,  Brokeass Gourmet is more genteel, if not gentile, teaching us how to make Challah, and Elizabeth Laseter finds Cheap Eats at Busia.

The Baltimore City Power Rankings find the Governor on top as he pushes through his progressive agenda while Ben Carson’s conservative cred also grows after his prayer breakfast pillaging of the president.

Don’t forget to plan Your Week using our calendar and the rest of the Baltimore Weekly, and see our readers respond to Larnell Custis Butler’s savaging of the Ravens on the mail page.