Mobtown Beat - Baltimore City Paper

News and Features

Issue 21: Charm Offensive

news: In this week's cover story, Violet LeVoit writes about the Baltimore Charm of the Legends (formerly Lingerie) Football League, which opens its season this weekend in Jacksonville. 5/22/2013

Charm Offensive

Feature: Meet the unpaid, underappreciated, and underprotected stars of underwear football By Violet Levoit 5/22/2013

City Treasure

City Folk: Charlie Riemer kept City Hall running, finishes his own race By Rafael Alvarez 5/22/2013

Big Changes Ahead for Liquor Board

Mobtown Beat: Sam Daniels’ retirement may be just the start By Edward Ericson Jr. 5/22/2013

Sweet Air Solution

Mobtown Beat: Domino Sugar’s air-pollution settlement with the EPA gets adjusted By Van Smith 5/22/2013

Murder Ink

Murder Ink: Murders this Week: 2; Murders this Year: 79 By Edward Ericson Jr. 5/22/2013

For the Love of Raf

The Mail: Rafael Alvarez knows how much the city has changed—and sadly, how much it stays the same. 5/22/2013

Sizzlin’ Summer: Summer in Baltimore is a sensory explosion, from the scent of Old Bay-smothered steamed crabs and the taste of marshmallow-topped chocolate snoballs to the smell of Ocean City salt water mixed with sunscreen and the vision of fireflies. 5/15/2013

Poseidon’s Metro Desk

Sizzlin’ Summer: Reflections on covering Ocean City, 30 years later By Rafael Alvarez 5/15/2013

Latest news blogs

Outlaws Motorcycle Club meth probe nabs two more men
When news broke in February that two Maryland men, including the president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club (OMC), had been indicted in a methamphetamine conspiracy after the FBI had infiltrated the club, one knowledgeable observer, who writes a blog called “Aging Rebel,” predicted there may be other shoes yet to drop. Yesterday, they did, when an April 17 Pennsylvania indictment of Robert Mansfield, a Marylander, and another man named Joseph “Timber” Malcolm, was unsealed. The two are charged in federal court with participating in a conspiracy to distribute meth and “collect an extension of credit by extortionate means.” Mansfield appeared in U.S. District Court in Baltimore yesterday and was ordered detained and transferred to Philadelphia to answer to the indictment. It is not clear whether or not Malcolm is currently in custody. The indictment describes the same series of events that resulted in the earlier one, which charged two Maryland men – Ronald L. “Bugs” Sells of Churchville, Md., near Belair in Harford County, and Michael James “Maniac” Privett of Baltimore – with the same crimes. Sells and Privett entered guilty pleas on May 2, according to court records, and both are scheduled to be sentenced [...]
City Paper a Finalist for three AAN Awards
City Paper is among the finalists for three Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) awards, in writing, design, and photography categories, AAN announced today. In the “LONG-FORM NEWS STORY circulation 50,000 and over” category, staff writer Edward Ericson Jr. was nominated for “Minding Her Own Business” (Sept. 11, 2012), about the efforts of a disabled woman, Deborah Quasney, to regain control of her finances. In the “EDITORIAL LAYOUT circulation 50,000 and over” category, contributing photographers Ryan “Rarah” Stevenson and Frank Klein, illustrator Alex Fine, and art director Joe MacLeod were nominated for “Never Mind the Crab Cakes, Here’s the Cheese Fish” (March 7, 2012). You can also read the story, in it’s non-finalist format here. And in the “PHOTOGRAPHY circulation 50,000 and over” category, Rarah was nominated again for his year of work. Winners will be announced at the AAN convention in July. Congratulations to the all the finalists!
Fake Seal seeks to raise “billion a year” for vets
A reporter typically gets a half dozen charity solicitations each day in the email, and most go to the trash. This one a couple weeks back caught my eye because of one phrase: “WWII Navy Seal.” Hi Edward, Earl Littman, fmr Navy Seal (Team 1 !) has a new mission. He has a plan to raise 1 billion every year. This is just kicking off. As everyone knows, Navy Seals are the toughest of the tough, heroes who rescue the heroes who get in trouble, the guys who killed Osama Bin Laden. Seals are mythical supermen with superpowers. As many people don’t know: they started Sealing in 1962 – about 17 years after the end of WWII. Before the Seals there were the frogmen, the underwater demolition teams, which did indeed begin training circa 1942. The frogmen are the fathers of the Seals. They are not Seals, but some confusion is inevitable, and a WWII UDTR team member could be forgiven if, for the sake of simplicity in modern times, he called himself a “WWII Seal.” He could, that is, if there was a record of him completing UDTR training during World War II. Turns out that record is easy to [...]
Alleged BGF leader Tavon White wins transfer out of Maryland prison
After complaining in court about the conditions of his confinement in Maryland’s prison system, Tavon White, the lead defendant in the high-profile racketeering case against alleged members of the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang, today was granted his request to be transferred to federal custody by U.S. District judge Ellen Hollander. The reasons cited by the judge were the lack of opposition from prosecutors in White’s pending state and federal cases and “the allegations of corruption among the Division of Correction’s staff in at least one of its correctional institutions,” according to court documents.
Feds sue to keep $61,000 in cash seized from home of former deputy mayor and state delegate Salima Siler Marriott
Just before Christmas 2007, Baltimore deputy mayor for community and economic development Salima Siler Marriott (D), a former long-time state delegate, had to deal with the news that her son, Patrice Marriott, then 40 years old, had been indicted in federal court for being a felon in possession of a firearm. It was no doubt embarrassing, but it wasn’t the first time – as the charge indicated. Her son had a long record of felony drug arrests, including in other states, and while many of the charges had been dropped over the years, sometimes they stuck. Now Salima Marriott is out of public office, but her son is still causing her problems – including a police raid last November on her Park Heights house on Homer Ave., where Patrice Marriott also lived. Weeks earlier, according to court records, Patrice Marriott had been stopped by police while driving a car in the 2200 block of North Eutaw St., and the cops had found him in possession of about 160 grams of cocaine and nearly $1,800 in cash. He was arrested, but the investigation continued – including the execution of a search warrant on the Marriott home on Nov. 21. The raid [...]
Misfortune mounts on ill-fated “party” ride
Not like it really needs saying, but: Don’t take pills and drive, especially if you’re traveling with heroin and lots of cash and don’t have a job. To drive the point home, consider the case of 49-year-old Sandra Diane Rust and 50-year-old Samuel Cornelius Rust, III, a married couple from Pennsylvania. They were driving a 2006 Chevrolet Aveo on the Baltimore Beltway’s outer loop last Nov. 2, when Sandra crashed it into an empty SUV parked on the shoulder near the exit for Route 40. When Maryland State Police responded and noted that Sandra’s “speech was slow and slurred and she had bloodshot and glassy eyes,” according to court records, she denied she’d been drinking – though she admitted “that she took her prescribed Oxycodone, but could not remember how many she took or how long ago before the collision she took them.” The couple was taken to University of Maryland Shock Trauma for treatment, where Samuel died from his injuries. Matters turned even worse for Sandra after the Maryland State Police arrived at Shock Trauma to Mirandize her on suspicion of driving under the influence, court records say. A trooper asked Sandra for her drivers license, and she said [...]