(United States Fourth Circuit) - In a construction company's suit against a city for breach of contract, alleging that the city unlawfully assessed liquidated damages against the company for failure to complete a construction project on time, the district court’s dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction is affirmed where plaintiff is not excused from the normal requirement of administrative exhaustion under Maryland law.

Renowned Group Returns As The Headliner For The British Business Association Of Macau Annual Ball, Which Benefits A Local Scholarship Fund

(United States Fourth Circuit) - Affirming the district court's determination that a hospital did not fail to pay funds owed Medicate for the treatment of the plaintiff's mother, despite being a bit late in their payment, meaning that the plaintiff was not entitled to double damages under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act.

UPDATE: Both workshops filled very quickly. I only do these about once a year; apologies for the imbalance. I have set up a system so people who are potentially interested in future small-class lighting workshops can receive advance notice. More info here.

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I'll be teaching two, full-day lighting workshops in the suburban Baltimore/DC area on December 6 and 7.

They are two separate one-day events. These are small-group workshops, with a maximum class size of 12 people each day. These are shooting workshops, and you'll be behind (and/or in front of!) a camera for most of the day.

Assuming you arrive at this class with a basic understanding of f/stops and shutter speeds, you will leave with a strong foundation in the fundamentals of off-camera lighting. You will be comfortable using single and multiple lights both alone and/or balanced with a mix of ambient lighting.

All lighting gear will be provided. We will also provide lunch.

You will need to bring a camera that is adjustable in manual mode and has a hot shoe connection for a flash, a lens that covers normal and/or portrait range, one or two fully charged batteries and an empty storage card. Maybe a notebook and pen if you like.

That's it. Just show up ready to learn and to have fun. Leave the rest to me.


Details

Dates:
December 6 and 7, 2019

Time:
9:30am - 5:30pm

Price:
$259

Location:
Sandy Spring Friends Lyceum
17715 Meeting House Road
Sandy Spring, MD 20860


Note; These are the only small-class lighting workshops I'll be teaching in the US this year. In the past, these have tended to fill very quickly. So if this is something you'd like to do, I'd suggest signing up sooner rather than later.


Sign-Up Links

Friday, December 6 [FRIDAY'S CLASS HAS BEEN FILLED]

Saturday, December 7 [SATURDAY'S CLASS HAS BEEN FILLED]

PHILADELPHIA (April 16, 2020) – In a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Texas-based Raven Power LLC recently paid a $105,000 penalty for allegedly failing to timely report a 2017 release of a hazardous substance from the H.A.

The Fells Point house that played Meg Ryan’s character’s home in 1993's “Sleepless in Seattle" is for sale, with an asking price of $575,000.

The sprawling Baltimore County home once inhabited by Orioles stars Cal Ripken Jr. and Adam Jones is back on the market after less than six months.

Hear about travel to Baltimore, Maryland as the Amateur Traveler  talks to Nancy Parode from about.com. Nancy has lived in the Baltimore area for a total of about 12 years and tells us about her adopted hometown. 

The Round Rock Independent School District in Texas is looking for a digital curriculum and blended learning program. Baltimore is looking for a comprehensive high school literacy program.

The post Austin-Area District Looks for Digital/Blended Learning Program; Baltimore Seeks High School Literacy Program appeared first on Market Brief.

Rudy Gay's Flight 22 Foundation is partnering with ed-tech company EverFi to teach students how to create a successful business.

By Bishop W. Shawn McKnight

The November General Assembly of Bishops in Baltimore was a difficult but perhaps unavoidable experience for us to move forward as a Church. I was very disappointed to learn that the Holy See found it necessary to insist that the USCCB not take action at this time on the proposals presented by our conference leadership. My frustration, shared with many other people, is this: We have known about the scandal of Archbishop McCarrick since the end of June, and our Church must take immediate, decisive and substantive action in light of the deep wound the scandal has caused.

I am not so concerned about the time it is taking to punish the perpetrator. Pope Francis immediately required the Archbishop to resign from the College of Cardinals when Cardinal Dolan announced the New York review board found a credible and substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against him. I’m okay with the fact that further penalties (which could include McCarrick’s return to the lay state) will take more time for a complete canonical process. McCarrick isn’t going anywhere and he is already living a life of imposed prayer and penance.

But much more is needed than simply meting out a just punishment. How could his rise to such an influential position in the Church have happened? I am concerned how the national conference of bishops and the Holy See answer that question. An internal investigation of the McCarrick scandal without the use of competent and qualified lay investigators will hardly be considered transparent and credible. We need and must utilize the best and brightest people to do a top-notch investigation and study of the problem. Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta is the most qualified Catholic clergy to lead such an investigation, but without knowing that his collaborators include competent laity, the public may not perceive his eventual report as independent and complete enough to be believed.

At the time of this writing, there has not been one bishop, archbishop or cardinal in either the Holy See or the United States who has come forward on his own to repent publicly of his sins of omission or commission with regard to Archbishop McCarrick’s series of promotions over decades. Please, be men, not cowards, and come clean on your own! There doesn’t have to be a formal and long, drawn out investigation for a bishop to exercise a little compunction and concern for the well-being of the whole Church. An independent and transparent investigation is all the more necessary when culpable hierarchs exhibit an incapacity to do the right thing on their own.

The laity are the only ones who can keep the hierarchy accountable and get us out of the mess we bishops got ourselves into. My singular focus throughout the Baltimore meeting was to advocate and push for greater public involvement of the laity at all levels of the Church. Why can’t we have well qualified, nationally known and trusted lay experts named to the special task force announced by the president of the USCCB? We are too insular and closed in as a hierarchy, and so are some of our processes at the USCCB. The Second Vatican Council gave us not only the freedom but the obligation to utilize and engage the gifts and talents of the laity in the life and mission of the Church.

Beyond the McCarrick scandal, we have more work cut out for us with regard to putting into place protocols and institutional structures to build credibility in the hierarchy’s handling of sexual abuse cases going forward. History proves that we bishops are not capable of policing ourselves adequately on the issue of clergy sexual abuse. Why not include the laity to assist us with this problem? The document the Missouri Province of Bishops presented to the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People on Oct. 6 was intended to offer a set of principles for the USCCB to consider as it was developing proposals for the full body of bishops, including the involvement of the laity. We Missouri bishops wanted something valuable to come from our November meeting.

And so, I was disappointed that even the mild proposals up for consideration at the Baltimore meeting had to be pulled from a vote. It was a rather harsh reminder to me of what many lay people have been saying throughout our Diocese: We bishops are ineffectual in our attempts to address the problem of abuse of power by the hierarchy. The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People has had a marked impact on lowering the number of incidents of abuse by clergy since 2003. But with the aggravation of the McCarrick scandal, the laity and clergy are now rightfully asking that we get it all out, once and for all, and respond with an urgency that this crisis deserves. We literally have people dying because of the harm caused by predator clergy, and survivors of abuse are further victimized when we fail to take swift action. Seeing certain retired bishops who were notoriously responsible for covering up clergy sexual abuse at this year’s General Assembly in Baltimore as welcome guests was a slap in the face to all who have been wounded by the clergy. This example of episcopal arrogance and clericalism evidences the fact that we still don’t get the problem.

The whole Church is needed to solve our problem which the whole world knows about. What more do we have to hide? If we are going to move forward, we need to have authentic communion and a genuine synodal process. And this requires transparency and better communication between the clergy and the laity, between the USCCB and its own members, and between the USCCB and the Holy See. We need to become the Church Christ founded us to be.

Some of the most poignant comments I heard during the listening sessions in our Diocese were in response to the question asking for people’s dreams for their children and grandchildren. People spoke of a Church where their children and grandchildren would find the love, mercy and hope of Jesus Christ, a community filled by God’s graces and led by holy priests. Despite our current lethargy, I believe we are witnessing the rebirth and renewal of our Church in our day. And I feel very blessed to be part of that renewal with each of you. We are better together.

 

 

Bishop McKnight's column was first published at Making Connections, his column on the website of the Diocese of Jefferson City.

Agency: DOT Closing Date: 5/12/2020

LITTLE BALTIMORE ROAD DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS

A current Baltimore City Police Department officer and two retired officers were charged in a six-count federal indictment unsealed today with civil rights and obstruction of justice violations stemming from an April 2004 incident during which officers allegedly assaulted a handcuffed and shackled juvenile with a baton and pool stick.

The Department filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Baltimore alleging that the city of Baltimore’s zoning code discriminates against individuals with disabilities by requiring substance abuse treatment facilities to go through a burdensome “conditional ordinance” zoning process in order to locate in any zone.

Two Baltimore businessmen were indicted today for conspiring to rig bids at tax lien auctions in Maryland for more than five years. The one-count felony indictment filed today in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore alleges that Harvey M. Nusbaum and his business partner, Jack W. Stollof, participated in a conspiracy to rig bids in tax lien auctions conducted by the city of Baltimore and various counties in the state of Maryland beginning in or around the Spring of 2002 and continuing until at least Aug. 9, 2007.

The Department announced a settlement agreement to make Donna’s, a café and restaurant located in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore accessible to people with disabilities.

A federal jury yesterday convicted a Baltimore Police Department (BPD) officer, Gregory Mussmacher, on civil rights and obstruction charges related to his physical abuse in 2004 of a then-17-year-old arrestee whom Mussmacher assaulted with a baton while the teen was handcuffed, shackled and temporarily blinded by pepper-spray.

Gregory Mussmacher was convicted by a jury in May 2010 for physically abusing a juvenile in his custody and for obstructing justice to cover up what he had done.

The Justice Department today announced it has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against Baltimore County, Md.

"The country we have inherited has been defined by the hard work and tremendous courage of those who, throughout our history, have chosen not just to devote themselves to studying the law, but also to advancing the cause of justice," said Attorney General Holder.

"Let’s work to prevent fraud, but let’s not erect new, unnecessary requirements that have a discriminatory impact. Let’s have a debate on the merits without trying to make it harder for our perceived opponents to vote," said Assistant Attorney General Perez.

The Justice Department today announced that it has reached an agreement with the city of Baltimore, Maryland, to end hiring practices that discriminate against people with disabilities. The agreement, filed as a consent decree along with a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, resolves allegations by the department that the city engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Title I of the ADA prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals on the basis of disability in various aspects of employment, including hiring

In July of 2007, the East Coast was slammed by a record-setting heat wave. From New York City to Washington, DC, temperatures averaged above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, causing more than 40 deaths.

Baltimore residents, get ready to get in on the smart grid party. Baltimore Gas & Electric has just announced that it has filed paper with the Maryland Public Service

Wikipedia carries a definition of Arabbers which includes this:An arabber (or a-rab) is a

By now you've probably heard that adopting a vegetarian diet, or at least cutting way down on you meat consumption, is a great way to reduce your ecological footprint and get some great health benefits at the same time. Now

Researchers found that a 10 percent increase in trees roughly matched a 12 percent decrease in crime in Baltimore.

These lovingly photographed, colourful rowhouses are what's left after all the neigbouring ones have been demolished.

This celebration of buses makes a BUS stop a special place to meet.

The recent riots in Baltimore following the death of Freddy Gray bring a tragic focus, once again, on inequality. Maryland’s largest city, Baltimore is a perfect laboratory to study it, thanks in part to the superb comparative statistics the city keeps. OECD Insights Blog.

David Cheal tells the story of Randy Newman’s ‘Baltimore’, through covers by Nina Simone, The Tamlins and Billy Mackenzie. Credits: CTI, Warner Bros., EMI  

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Boardman, Anthony E., author

The NFL schedule just dropped which means we're one step closer to football. Here's what we know about the Ravens upcoming season.

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A poem by Don McKay from the Library's Poetry 180 Project.

Rotch Library - HT243.U62 M377 2019