By Amy Mulvihill John F. Kennedy once said, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” I don’t think anyone would argue with the logic of this. Who wants to be perched on a roof during a driving rainstorm, furiously trying to minimize damage that could have been wholly prevented had we acted with a little more foresight and initiative? I think about this quote a lot whenever I hear U.S. environment policy being debated. To belabor the metaphor, it seems to me that for far too long, with regards to our environmental practices and policies, we have been that house with the gaping hole in the roof and ignored the storm clouds looming on our horizon. And then, lately, it’s started to rain. With literally millions of gallons of oil currently sloshing around in the Gulf of Mexico, not to mention the much-discussed geopolitical ramifications of a fossil fuel driven economy, it seems like now is a perfect time to embrace cleaner, greener energy alternatives. An opportunity to do just that can be found this weekend at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium where the 2010 Solar and Wind Expo opened today. The expo, which is co-sponsored by, among others, the U.S. Department of Energy and Baltimore magazine, aims to “make green a reality by matching home and business owners with producers, financiers, and top experts in the field of green technologies.” According to event organizers now is an optimal time to make the switch to green living for numerous reasons: “Both state and federal governments are providing unprecedented incentives to encourage home and business owners to utilize green technologies,” the events website thesolarandwindexpo.com says. Plus, as the—believe it or not—wealthiest state in the union and one of the top ten greenest states, Maryland “has both the desire to eliminate its carbon foot print and the financial means to do so.” The expo runs through Sunday and features numerous speakers, including a keynote address tomorrow at noon by Bob Dixon, the Mayor of Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was completely leveled by a tornado in 2007 and has rebuilt itself using green building practices. All lectures and seminars are free with admission, which is free for children under 12 and $12 for adults. There are discounts available, however, for purchasing tickets online (no paper), arriving by Light Rail (less gas consumption), and bringing any article or ad referencing the expo (um, not sure how this is green, but, hey, it’s still a discount!). And anyway, what’s $12 when you think about what’s at stake?

Governor Martin O'Malley launched his re-election campaign just before noon today at the Bond Street Wharf. Before the event began, I ran into City Councilman Bill Henry—always up for a chat—who joked that he was looking up at the Wharf building's windows for one or two lanterns, to see if the Governor would be arriving by land or by sea. After introductions by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Senator Barbara Mikulski, and Lt. Governor Anthony Brown, O'Malley arrived by land (above, left) with his wife and kids, and offered a stump speech citing his administration's achievements on education, crime, and the economy, all-too-frequently punctuated with his new campaign slogan, "Moving Maryland Forward." The slogan is an inherent jibe at his returning Republican challenger Bob Ehrlich, as O'Malley made clear when he said, "Some run for public office to take Maryland back, I run for office to move Maryland forward." There were a few protestors at the event. Three held up signs urging the Governor to save Maryland's film industry (above, right). "When Governor O'Malley came into office, Maryland offered $6 million dollars [a year] in tax incentive [for the film industry]. We were sorta holding our own," says Michael Davis, a set-builder based in Highlandtown. "Now, it's down to $1 million." As a result, he says, filmmakers that once flocked to Maryland are going elsewhere. Davis worked four days in Maryland in all of 2009 (on David Fincher's Social Network, about the founder of Facebook, which briefly filmed on Johns Hopkins' campus). "If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have had a day of work in Maryland for the first time since 1986," he says. See our story on the state of the Maryland film industry, "Flicked Off," in the current May issue of Baltimore. And on the next dock, there was a lone protestor referring to the Governor as "Owe Malley," lampooning him for "the largest tax increase in history." I could be wrong, but I would bet that O'Malley is likely to see more of this kind of protestor on the campaign trail than film industry advocates.

The Baltimore Sun has announced that top editor Monty Cook will resign from his position to accept a job at the University of North Carolina, his alma mater. 

Cook will step down in April after a stormy 15-month tenure during which he oversaw 61 layoffs at the paper, as reported in our September, 2009 cover story. 

[photo courtesy of the Baltimore Sun]

The Cardinal Gibbons School—one of Baltimore's oldest and most storied Catholic high schools—announced about an hour ago via its Facebook page that it will close its doors at the end of the current academic year. The move comes as the Archdiocese of Baltimore rolls out its plan to consolidate the city's Catholic schools progams, which has suffered in recent years from dwindling enrollment and contributions.

The school, opened in 1962, occupies the same space as St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, which dated back to 1886 and counted George Herman "Babe" Ruth among its alumni. The field where Ruth played high school baseball is used by Cardinal Gibbons athletes today. The school counts several other prominent players among its alumni, including 1970s NFL star Jean Fugett and NBA players  Quintin Dalley and Norman Black.

Perhaps you saw The Baltimore Sun this morning, with its lead story, "Ethics changes outlined for city." Sun editors are probably hoping you stopped there, lest you read the sub-headline: "Rawlings-Blake says her bill will seek to heighte public trus'." Now, I'm all for heighte-ing public trus', I just wonder when the city with lengthe the schoo' dayz?

All kidding aside, this is truly pathetic. The typos littering Sun stories in recent months have been one thing, but egregious mistakes such as these simply cannot be made on front-page headlines if a newspaper expects to be taken seriously. As a subscriber and diehard Sun booster—with many friends who work for the paper—it's painful to point out errors like this, along with the general decline in the quality of our city's newspaper of record.

But the pain is muted by anger: The Sun and its owners at The Tribune Company are largely to blame for the paper's sorry state. Yes, the newspaper industry is suffering nationally, but the decision by management at The Sun and Tribune Company to respond by decimating the paper's staff—including the virtual elimination of the copy editing department last April—are the direct cause of humiliating errors such as this one.

Management seems to have mistakenly calculated that it can keep the paper afloat by continually cutting back on writers and editors—the lifeblood of a newspaper—so long as it continues to crank out a product every day. If they continue to manage based on the that premise, the end is certainly nea

Click here to see our September cover story in The Sun's sad descent.

According to sources at the courthouse, Mayor Sheila Dixon has agreed to resign from office.

Details have not been confirmed. This morning, the judge in the case had scheduled a hearing to consider a motion by Dixon's lawyers to throw our her conviction based on juror misconduct and confusing instructions to the jury. But the hearing never happened, as Dixon’s lawyers, state prosecutors, and, at times, Dixon herself, huddled at the courthouse all morning and into the afternoon, reportedly discussing a plea agreement in which Dixon would plead guilty to perjury charges, resign from office and, potentially, save her $80,000 a year pension from the city.

City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is in line to succeed Dixon upon her resignation. How the transfer of power will affect the city, the region, and attitudes toward Dixon and Rawlings-Blake remains to be seen.

Leave your thoughts and stay tuned...

In July, when I went to M&T Bank Stadium to watch European soccer titans Chelsea and AC Milan play an exhibition game (left), I was blown away.

I knew Baltimore a passionate base of soccer enthusiasts, built around local haunts like Slainte, but nothing prepared me for the pandumonium on display. For one thing, all 70,000 tickets, ranging from $35 to $175, were sold out. But more shocking was the enthusiasm of the attendees. More than half were wearing either blue Chelsea jerseys or the black and red gear of AC Milan and hundreds had their bodies and/or faces painted in their team colors. The cheering was intense and sustained throughout the match

I spoke to a few of the attendees and they seemed evenly split between Baltimore-born folks who either play or played soccer or otherwise developed a passion for it over the years, and immigrants or children of immigrants from all over the world, who now lived in Baltimore or D.C., and were jazzed at the rare opportunity to see a world-class match.

Since the event, universally judged to be a massive financial and promotional success, local leaders have stepped up efforts to create a permanent soccer presence in Baltimore. In October,  Mayor Sheila Dixon sent a letter to the Maryland Stadium Authority, asking the body to study the possibility of building a new soccer stadium downtown to lure Major Soccer League franchise D.C. United—which has been unsatisfied with current negotiationms for a new home close to D.C.—to Charm City.

In addition, Baltimore is one of five U.S. cities in the running to host the 2018/2022 World Cup. You can sign the petition to bring the Cup to Baltimore here. The petition page includes some interesting facts about the history of soccer in Baltimore, including the following:

The city of Baltimore has long loved the game of soccer.

It was home to NPSL charter team Baltimore Bays.  In 1973, a then-record crowd of 24,680 watched as the Bays were defeated 6-4 by the Brazilian National Team lead by a thirty-three year old named Edison Arantes do Nascimento, Pele.

According to a report in the Baltimore Evening Sun, "Pele was mobbed by fans at the end of the game and escaped to the locker room attired only in a pair of black bikini briefs."

Currently, Baltimore is home to the Baltimore Blast of the NISL, Maryland Tigers of the PASL, Charm City FC of the NPSL and Crystal Palace Baltimore & Real Maryland Monarchs of the second division USL.

Our city's embrace of soccer is not entirely surprise. Within driving distance of Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York, Baltimore is an ideal regional location to draw fans of the international sport from each of those urban hubs. And, it goes without saying, Baltimore is a great sports town. If we can endure another 100-loss season for the Orioles, we can certainly endure our share of scoreless 90-minute soccer matches.

(photo courtesy udothedishes.com) 

By Evan Serpick, from Courthouse East

As the twelve jurors filed into the courtroom to deliver their verdict just after noon today, they seemed shell shocked, uncomfortable smiles on many of their faces. Then they delivered the news the city has been waiting for:

Mayor Sheila Dixon was convicted of embezzlement for using about $530 in Best Buy and Target gift cards, bought by developer Patrick Turner and intended for "the children of Baltimore." She was acquited of three other charges, including felony theft, the most serious charge,. The jury could not come to a verdict on another charge, that she embezzled gift cards intended for the city's Holly Trolley tour.

As a result of the conviction, the mayor will presumably have to step down, and City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will be sworn in as acting mayor. If Dixon appeals the conviction and is successful, her office will be restored. The sentence on the conviction will likely be a suspended sentence and restitution of funds.

Dixon displayed little emotion to the packed courthouse as the decision was read. While the heads of some of lawyers drooped at the conviction on count 4, the mayor's head remained high.

Our reporter Doug Donovan is sending updates from the coutroom throughout the corruption trial of Mayor Sheila Dixon.

Still no verdict, but legal wrangling broke the monotony of a fifth day of jury deliberations. Dixon's defense asked for a mistrial, arguing that the jury is clearly confused. The judge denied the motion. Now jurors want to review video playback of some testimony, which will take place in closed court this afternoon.

The media remains transfixed on the trial, whose jury deliberations are lasting nearly as long as the trial itself. TV reporters have set up practical news bureaus on the curb outside of the Calvert Street courthouse. Print reporters are phoning and texting updates to their newsrooms. For a sampling:

The Sun provides the most comprehensive coverage with easy links to stories dating back to 2006, when the Maryland State Prosecutor's investigation began.

WBAL is providing minute-by-minute tweets on the action (or inaction), plus links to longer takes from Jayne Miller and Dave Collins.

Other news websites offering comprehensive updates include: mddailyrecord.com, baltimorebrew.com, wjz.com, and foxbaltimore.com.