Checks and imbalances

Clouds start to clear out later today, with highs in the mid 70s. Tomorrow should be sunny, with highs near 80.

cityhall

At last night’s City Council meeting, council president Jack Young introduced a city charter amendment that would require to commit an extra 3% (currently around $31 million) of the city’s budget to youth programs.Every member of the council showed support for the measure, which would require a ballot vote during next year’s elections. A spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake warned that an initiative with mandated spending could make budgeting in future years trickier and less responsive.

The council also showed strong support for a measure calling for the city to place 911 services back under control of the Baltimore Police. Council members Nick Mosby and Mary Pat Clarke argued that the service has become unreliable since moving under the Mayor’s Office of Information Technology a few years ago.

Clarke: “That’s why I’m so charged up about this issue. We’re just hearing one story after another from our constituents — nightmare stories — about trying to get through.”

infrastructure

Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s team announced its intent to charge BGE more for access to the city’s conduit system. Right now, BGE pays less than a dollar-per-foot annually for access (about $12 million, total). The proposal would raise that to $3.33/foot ($41 million, total). bringing Baltimore’s conduit fees in line with other cities. BGE threatens that if the rate hike is approved, they’ll pass the cost on to customers with an $8 monthly fee. Earlier this year, BGE offered to buy the entire conduit system for $100 million (or about the amount the city would recover from BGE in just 3 years of raised rates.

crabs

A new federally-funded study finds that seawalls and rocks used to protect Chesapeake Bay shoreline against erosion could be making it harder for crabs and fish to find food and shelter.

murder

A 29-year-old man was shot to death yesterday afternoon in the Lucille Park neighborhood of northwest Baltimore.

About an hour later, a 13-year-old boy was shot in the hand near Mount St. Joseph High School in southwest Baltimore.

Also yesterday, a man and woman were found dead in an Otterbein apartment – investigators are calling the deaths suspicious.

driving

Need to drive to DC during the Pope’s visit the next few days? Give up now. MTA will be running additional MARC trains this week. If you need to take on the road blockades and out-of-towners, WBAL has you covered.