That anger — attributed to frustration over the health care reform bill and the stumbling economy — boiled over in dramatic fashion in Massachusetts when Republican Scott Brown upset Democrat Martha Coakley in a special election Jan. 19 to fill the Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy. That result has led to speculation that more Democrats could be headed toward similar upsets in the fall.

Gov. Martin O’Malley, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and all eight of Maryland’s representatives in the House are up for re-election this November. Every incumbent except for one, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Frederick, is a Democrat.

Most of the races look somewhat tame in the early stages of the election cycle, but one is already shaping up to be a sure bet for political drama.

Read the rest of the story in the Baltimore Sun.

The flurry of activity on Pier 11 in Baltimore began Thursday, as the USNS Comfort prepared for its latest mission — to aid in the relief effort following Tuesday’s massive earthquake in Haiti.

The 894-foot-long ship, described as a “floating hospital,” holds a trauma facility equipped to treat up to 1,000 patients at a time. Haitian patients are expected to be transported aboard by helicopter.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

It raises a lot of interesting questions, but the most intriguing aspect of GlobalPost is its paid journalism venture called Passport Custom Research. The Web site markets the service thusly: “a focused, timely, and cost-effective solution to your international business research needs. We deploy our global network of credentialed journalists to find authoritative answers to your urgent questions. The result is greater business certainty, at a speed and cost that beats the competition.”

From NPR:

Perhaps most daringly, GlobalPost charges private clients thousands of dollars to commission specific reports for their own reading. In one instance, the investment analysis firm Riedel Research wanted information on credit card use in China. David Riedel, a GlobalPost reader who is president of the company, said he recently signed up his firm to pay for 10 such reports next year.

That use of journalists’ energy might raise eyebrows among purists. Sennott and Balboni say they have created safeguards to protect the integrity of their reporters and their news outlets. First, they do not tell the reporters the identity of the client. Second, the pieces are intended to report, not advocate. Third, while clients have exclusive rights for several weeks, GlobalPost ultimately retains the right to publish any material it uncovers. And fourth, under the terms of the contract, it can always return the money and publish immediately if the news is hot enough.

Executives say they simply have to find new ways to pay for original reporting by driving up Web traffic and creating new streams of revenue.

“We think that kind of unbiased, fair, balanced, well-researched information has unique value,” says Sennott. “America needs more eyes on the world.”

And Sennott and his colleagues say they very much hope they have hit upon the way to pay for those eyes to stay focused on events in distant lands.

It’ll be interesting to see if this type of thing takes off. Personally, I don’t see anything inherently wrong with journalism commissioned by outside groups, as long as the safeguards described by Sennot are upheld. But it does raise some serious questions.

Does this type of thing fly in the face of  the independence principle or is it possible to do commissioned journalism and still stay true to those core values?

According to a November 18 report by the Maryland Higher Education Commission, total fall enrollment in colleges throughout the state increased by 5.2 percent since 2008. The increase was driven largely by a spike in community college enrollment that made up more than two-thirds of the total growth.

The number of students enrolled at Maryland’s 16 community colleges jumped to 140,031, a 9.3 percent increase from last fall. By contrast, enrollment went up 3 percent at public four-year colleges and universities and 2 percent at private schools.

Community college officials throughout the state say the growth is the result of a combination of different factors, but the economic downturn is the main reason for the dramatic rise.

“The economic recession is causing people from a number of different directions to head for community colleges,” said Dr. Clay Whitlow, the executive director of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges.

Adults who have had their careers disrupted by the downturn are turning to community colleges for certifications and credentials that can help them find employment or change jobs. Many students just out of high school who may have planned on attending a traditional four-year school are opting to save money by spending their first two years at a community college and then transferring elsewhere to earn a bachelor’s degree.

Hope Davis, a spokeswoman for the Community College of Baltimore County, said that while the economy is certainly a big factor, some of her school’s 14.1 percent growth – the highest in the state – is a result of recruitment and marketing efforts that specifically highlight those transfer opportunities. Students are looking at a choice between paying $2,500 for their first two years at a community college and paying $25,000 for the first two years at a four-year college, said Davis.

Dr. Margaret Taibi, the dean of Student Development Services at Prince George’s Community College, says that it’s difficult to tell just how many students are choosing to go to community college because of the poor economy.

“I can’t give you a number on it,” said Taibi. “But I can tell you that it’s more than I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been here for 20 years.”

The recession has brought both feast and famine for community college administrators. Even as demand continues to rise, funds are becoming increasingly scarce.

Funding typically comes from three different sources, according to Whitlow. The state contributes 25 percent, the counties contribute roughly 33 percent, and the rest comes from student tuition and fees. As both state and county budgets become tighter and revenues dry up, community colleges are feeling the pain.

In August, Gov. Martin O’Malley cut approximately $10.5 million in community college funding from the state budget, a 5 percent reduction for fiscal 2010. Because enrollment is so high, many students are finding it difficult to sign up for the classes they want to take because the schools simply don’t have the capacity to keep up with the demand.

The community colleges were spared in the most recent round of state budget cuts announced last week. Whitlow says he hopes it’s a sign that the state government has recognized the impact that community colleges can have on the economy.

“We have to be willing to accept our fair share of the pain,” said Whitlow. “On the other hand, we also have to be supported, because so many students need our help right now. We’re an important part of the solution to getting people back to work.”

]]> http://www.gmoomaw.com/2009/11/13/scenes-from-the-super-bowl-of-freedom/feed/ 0 http://www.gmoomaw.com/2009/11/04/baltimore-crumbling/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://www.gmoomaw.com/2009/11/04/baltimore-crumbling/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:16:40 +0000 Graham Moomaw http://www.gmoomaw.com/?p=115

I took this picture during a trip into the Oliver neighborhood in Baltimore as part of my Urban Affairs Reporting class. There are whole blocks of houses like this, right next door to blocks where people are living. It’s just one part of what we’re exploring in our semester-long project in Baltimore. Watch for more on that soon…

Politico took notice today, in a piece titled “For election insight, Twitter beats cable.”

Political junkie Mike Murphy couldn’t get his fix while flipping through the cable networks Tuesday night.

“With a few exceptions,” Murphy told POLITICO, “like [James] Carville on CNN or [Karl] Rove on Fox, I didn’t see people who know anything about elections.”

But the Republican political consultant found another outlet to scratch the itch: Twitter. The social networking platform, Murphy said, “was a better place to watch the election.” And after a while, he decided to participate with non-stop Tweets of his own.

For hardcore lovers of politics, Twitter served up the real-time nuts and bolts of campaigns racing to the finish line. Top political reporters like NBC’s Chuck Todd tapped away for hours as results came in. Meanwhile, the Washington Independent’s Dave Weigel provided constant, on-the-ground dispatches from New York’s 23rd congressional district, with Twitpics inside Conservative Doug Hoffman headquarters as the tide changed toward the Democrats. With each precinct reporting, journalists and junkies offered quick takes, both amusing and analytical.

The cable networks broadcast the news, and had reporters like CNN’s John King, who went deep on each race on CNN’s Magic Wall. But they also featured a motley assortment of analysts and partisan guests who sometimes seemed to have little familiarity with the races in play and might have turned off anyone hungry for more sophisticated insight.

While the pundits on TV were droning about this and that, Weigel was tweeting pithy insight about the returns from specific districts that beat anything that could be found on cable.

In one of my journalism classes today, we had a discussion about Twitter and the ethical questions it raises. Do you tweet people’s offhand remarks? Should unflattering details observed by a reporter be tweeted or should they be kept secret?

I say tweet first, ask questions later.

I found this ivy on the side of an embassy building in Dupont over the weekend. I’m not sure why the colors are changing at different speeds, but it makes for a stunning effect.

“We are losing our children.”

That was the grim assessment made by Elsworth Johnson-Bey, the founder of a group called the Fraternal Order of X-Offenders that is dedicated to preventing juvenile crime in Baltimore.

Baltimore’s crime problem has trickled down to affect its youngest and most vulnerable inhabitants. According to a report released in August by the Baltimore City Health Department, the juvenile homicide rate in Baltimore from 2002 to 2006 was approximately five times higher than the Maryland rate and eight times higher than the national rate.

The report also found that a vast majority of the victims and perpetrators of juvenile violence had been in contact with the Department of Social Services and that nearly half of those encounters involved allegations of abuse or neglect.

Bey summarized the problem at a panel discussion titled “Saving our Children: A Look at the Juvenile Justice System” that was hosted by the Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Tuesday night at Union Baptist Church. The panel brought together community leaders, law enforcement officers, and government officials to discuss the issue of youth crime and what can be done to combat it.

“Kids in the child welfare system are generally viewed…as victims,” said Donald W. Devore, Maryland’s Secretary of Juvenile Services, who also served on the panel. “But when they come over to the juvenile justice system, they’re viewed as perpetrators, criminals, and they’re villainized in many ways.”

A complex problem like youth crime involves many different stakeholders and approaches, and the solutions proposed at the NAACP discussion were a reflection of that variety.

Secretary Devore praised rehabilitative models that don’t require juvenile incarceration, saying that the state Department of Juvenile Services has been successful using “intensive, in-home, family therapy-based models.” He also stressed the importance of opening up avenues of communication between government agencies that provide child services, saying that they need to work together in order to create a comprehensive approach to understanding each child’s situation and needs.

State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy said she’s not interested in throwing kids in jail, but the current juvenile justice system is ill-prepared to spot children who might fall into a pattern of criminal behavior.

“We need some kind of violence prevention indicator, so when certain things happen in a child’s life, we take action and we do certain things,” said Jessamy.

Many attendees said that while they respect the work being done by officials within the system, they’re tired of endless discussion and talk that doesn’t seem to yield results.

Kimberly Armstrong, an advocate who lost her son to youth violence, said that the changes have to come from the bottom up, not the top down.

“I’m sick of people discussing,” said Armstrong. “The challenge is to the people in the audience. Do something.”

Sgt. Louis Hopson Sr., a 30-year veteran of the Baltimore City Police Department who has worked in the juvenile booking center, put the blame squarely on parents, especially fathers, for failing to be involved and lacking the will to discipline their kids.

“This conversation has nothing to do with white people or anybody else,” said Hopson. “It has to do with black men, because the majority of kids who come in there are young black men, and they need a man in their life to walk them through manhood.”

Greland Lowery, an ex-gang member who now devotes himself to preventing youth violence, stood up and delivered an impassioned plea for funding support. He said his status as an ex-offender makes him uniquely qualified to deal with the problem, and that people like him shouldn’t be ostracized from the cause. He compared the members of the panel to American soldiers in Iraq who didn’t understand the intricacies of warfare in an urban environment.

“I’m that urban warfare guy,” said Lowery. “Don’t push me to the side because you’re not gonna’ survive in this war.”

It’s clear that juvenile crime is a problem in Baltimore. But with a government that’s becoming increasingly strapped for cash, the fix remains elusive.

For the activists who attended the NAACP meeting on Tuesday night, their mission continues, unchanged. They will go on working to prevent more of Baltimore’s children from disappearing into the criminal justice system or an early grave.

“We cannot put the onus on government,” said Bey. “The power begins with us.”

And he got a rock star’s welcome.

He didn’t have much new to say. Here’s a blog post I got out of it for The Washington Independent, where I’m interning.

Here’s the coolest part: