Two weeks ago we celebrated a minor victory in Baltimore City’s population battle when government number crunchers informed us that from July 2011 to July 2012 Baltimore turned around over six decades of population decline and experienced 0.2 percent growth. An article in the Baltimore Sun explains why we partly have the recession to thank for that. Read More →

Repair of water main break at I-83 will take a few days – Baltimore Sun
Del. Hattie Harrison fondly remembered at funeral service – Baltimore Sun
Families share grief — but differ on the death penalty – Baltimore Sun
Howard business leader briefs the White House - Baltimore Sun
Same-Sex Married Couples Find Tax Time Daunting - New York Times

Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant

Here’s how the Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant works: raw sewage flows uphill into the plant by way of an electrical pump. Here’s how the Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant fails: a certain superstorm with a gender-neutral name knocks out power to the plant and raw sewage flows into the Little Patuxent River by way of gravity — at the rate of 2 million gallons per hour (some of that is rain water). Read More →

Baltimore City Council holds hearing on BGE response to derecho storm – Baltimore Sun
Baltimore police officer Daniel Redd sentenced for drug dealing - Baltimore Sun
Howard Co. race to welcome Lance Armstrong - Baltimore Sun
Woman who had liposuction in Baltimore County dies from infection - Washington Post
47 Percent or Bust! - Slate

Back in 1847, a Maryland man was injured falling through “an opening by a cellar window.” He sued for damages. The defendant argued that the plaintiff, in his carelessness, had contributed in some way to his own accident. The argument succeeded, the plaintiff was awarded no money, and Maryland courts have been operating under the doctrine of contributory negligence ever since. Read More →

Dr. Peter Beilenson — the high-profile Howard County health officer — prefers to keep his personal life out of the press. When he announced publicly his Parkinson’s diagnosis last month, he did it for one reason: to support Obamacare. Diagnosed five years ago, Beilenson, 52, made public his health status the same day the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the central provisions of Obama’s federal health care overhaul.

“I disclosed it because I was so disgusted by the right wing’s constant vilification of the uninsured as ‘getting the poor health they deserve,’ and wanted to make the point that I have Parkinson’s but am fine — because I have insurance,” Beilenson says. Read More →

I really didn’t think that Wegmans would be denied their liquor store. The audacity displayed by the grocery giant — building the inhouse liquor store before being granted a license, putting the “separate business” in the name of Christopher O’Donnell, husband of Wegmans President Colleen Wegman — led me to believe it was a done deal. But the Howard County Alcohol Beverage Hearing Board voted unanimously on Monday to deny the license. Read More →

An artist’s rendering of the future Whole Foods.

Downtown Columbia is going to host a new 45,000-square-foot Whole Foods sometime in 2014. The grocery store will occupy the former Rouse Co. headquarters in a Frank Gehry-designed building (one of the acclaimed architect’s tamer efforts). Read More →

We know Columbians are excited — even fanatical — about their new Wegmans. But is that irrational popularity enough to bend state law, zoning rules, and the Howard County General Plan to allow the grocery behemoth to sell booze?

Wegmans certainly seems confident that they’ll get a pass from the Alcohol Beverage Hearing Board — confident enough to have already built the second floor liquor store with “shelving in place and separate loading docks.”

So why should they expect to have their license request granted? Well, you see, it’s not that Wegmans wants to sell liquor themselves. No, no, of course not. They just want to rent out space on the second floor to an independently operating store, 90 percent of which happens to be owned by Christopher O’Donnell, husband of Wegmans’ President Colleen Wegman. And even he is really just “a venture capitalist.” Yeah, that’s the ticket. The real man in charge is the 10 percent owner, Ellicott City lawyer Michael Smith. He’s the one who applied for the liquor license. Everything’s totally above board per state law. Read More →

If I lived in Columbia I’d consider evacuating until the Wegmans frenzy blows over. The family-owned grocery chain that inspires cult-like devotion among its customers is opening a new location in Columbia, Maryland on Sunday.

According to a story in The Sun, Wegmans is expecting “a crowd of thousands” to be standing around the store “several hours” before it opens at 7 a.m. Management has even met with Howard County police to plan for traffic. (You should be proud of me for making it through those sentences without any exclamation points.)

Expected among the THOUSANDS in attendance, are the Women of Wegmans, six superfans who “attend every Wegmans grand opening in every state.” I wish I was kidding about that, but I’m not.

Yes, I know — they’ve got a great organic selection. Yes, it’s so clean in there. Oh, and the prepared foods! Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Don’t worry, citizens of Columbia, Cynthia Glover, who’s been working on Wegmans’s marketing of the new location predicts that the frenzy will die down “in a month.”