End of Amazon Smile program leaves some Baltimore groups frowning
Amazon Smile, the charitable platform that paid out a half-of-one-percent donation on top of shoppers’ Amazon purchases to the charity of their choice, will be ceasing operation on Feb. 20, and some Baltimore beneficiaries are not happy. Amazon said in a press release that, with now over one million charities listed on its recipient list, the corporation’s ability to have an impact was “being spread too thin.” In the almost 10 years since its start in 2013, Amazon Smile states it has raised $400 million for U.S. charities. That makes the average benefit to each local charity just $400 over the entirety of over nine years of donating.
Alanah Davis: In this new year, an allowance of curiosity, grace, and not knowing
I was still at an age where a Scholastic book fair on a day when golden-brown leaves might rustle underfoot in The Bronx or when a ham and cheese Lunchable were enough of a rare treat to excite me when I learned about fake drawer fronts. I’ll explain later. My mother, aged at what I assumed to be as young as the women on Living Single but definitely not as old as the ladies on Golden Girls, lived in a high-rise building owned by the New York City Housing Authority, known to most as the projects. The projects are known for their pungent hallway smells, metal doors, and stairs which were always of good use when the elevators were frequently broken — especially on days when you and your mom might have grocery shopped for oxtails, goldfish snacks, cabbage, and other goods at C-Town, a chain of supermarkets in the northeast.
What’s the rush? Baltimore’s mayor needs to put the brakes on conduit deal with BGE and allow for public input
“Transparency, accountability and integrity” — those are the three traits Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott promised from his administration in an op-ed published in The Sun a few months after he took office in December 2020. “These ingredients are essential for building trust,” he wrote, “especially given the public skepticism toward City Hall.” We would remind him of those words as he pushes forward a privately negotiated deal between the city and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. to control the city’s underground conduit system. Few details had been publicly revealed about the plan until Wednesday afternoon, when the mayor’s office released the proposed contract, nearly two weeks after the Baltimore Brew first broke the story about the effort.
Baltimore City Councilmembers call for pay raises for sanitation workers
Two Baltimore City Councilmembers are calling for pay increases for the city’s sanitation workers in hopes of restoring weekly recycling pickup for residents, which has been suspended for more than two years since the outbreak of the pandemic. With the pandemic eased, the city now says the staffing shortages amid a competitive labor market have prevented restoring weekly recycling pickup. Jason Mitchell, the outgoing director for the city’s Department of Public Works, has told the council in the past that starting salaries for sanitation workers have hindered his ability to attract new workers.
How violent neighborhoods threaten otherwise safe Baltimore schools
Nadia Brooks has just a four-block walk to school but a critical choice of paths: dart across four lanes of traffic without a crosswalk or walk past the Edmondson Village Shopping Center where five students were recently shot, one fatally. “I don’t think that either way is safe,” the 18-year-old said. In her risk analysis, gunfire is more dangerous and unpredictable. So, she runs across Edmondson Avenue. Her friend Zion Mack, 17, takes two MTA buses and a train, standing on street corners where men sometimes leer at her. She texts her parents as she gets to each stop to tell them where she is on her 45-minute journey or calls and talks to Brooks. Once at the front door of Edmondson-Westside High School in West Baltimore, they go through a metal detector and backpack search, a measure that some students feel is invasive and demeaning, before a blue paper band is slipped over their wrists to show they are weapon free.
Maryland’s public health chief prepares to tackle health disparities
Laura Herrera Scott, Gov. Wes Moore’s newly appointed acting secretary of health, inherits an agency grappling with the effects of some of the biggest challenges facing the state, including a new phase of the coronavirus pandemic, health disparities and access to behavioral-health treatment. Those who know her say Herrera Scott, who was a major in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army Reserve and was deployed to Iraq, has a long history of marrying clinical and policy knowledge to build consensus and lead. She has been the chief medical officer of the Baltimore City Health Department, Maryland’s deputy secretary of health in Martin O’Malley’s gubernatorial administration from 2011 to 2015 and has a master’s degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Brown seeks to preserve massive set of sexual assault evidence in Baltimore County
Two years ago, ProPublica showcased the remarkable tale of a doctor who saved physical evidence from more than 2,000 rape exams starting in the 1970s, years before police began to preserve forensic DNA. Baltimore County police tested just a tiny portion of the samples decades later and solved more than 80 cold cases; they made dozens of arrests and exposed serial rapists, including a man who assaulted at least 25 women and murdered one. The evidence also exonerated an innocent man and gave survivors life-changing closure. Baltimore County law enforcement could have prioritized testing such a fruitful trove. Instead, it falls through loopholes in laws meant to preserve rape kit evidence and expedite testing.
Take the plunge: Gov. Moore joins thousands of supporters at annual Polar Bear Plunge
On one of the coldest days of the year so far, thousands of people traveled to Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis to sprint into the frigid water for the annual Polar Bear Plunge. The event, sponsored by Maryland State Police, raises millions of dollars each year to support Special Olympics Maryland. Now in its 27th year, the event continues to grow. As of Saturday afternoon, more than $3.4 million dollars had been raised already for the 2023 Plunge Fest. Fundraising continues until March 4, said Kira Northrop, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications for Special Olympics Maryland. The group’s goal is to hit $3.5 million by that deadline.
SBA is revamping its disaster recovery office. Here’s what businesses need to know.
Parties drop lawsuits in Angelos v. Angelos case over Orioles’ owner’s fortune
The dueling lawsuits over control of the Orioles and other assets of longtime team owner Peter Angelos are being dropped by the parties, according to a court document. It says the suits, pitting members of one of Baltimore’s most famous families against one another, are withdrawn and cannot be refiled. It also means the end of a bitter, public feud between Angelos’ sons— one of them aligned with their mother— over a fortune estimated to be worth more than a billion dollars. The document says John and Louis Angelos and their mother, Georgia, agree “the actions in these consolidated proceedings … and all claims, including all counterclaims and defenses, asserted therein be dismissed with prejudice.”
