WBAL.com

Frederick County Commissioner Lennie Thompson has proposed that next year’s county school system funding be based on a good-faith effort by the school board to count the number of students with questionable immigration status.

He says the count would not identify a student by name.

Thompson says the idea is to gather information to determine how many students whose legal status in the country isn’t reasonably documented.

School board president Daryl Boffman is opposed to the idea.

He says withholding funds for the schools based on the count would punish every student, not just those in the U.S. illegally.

Boffman also worries the head count could cause illegal immigrants to remove their children from school.

I have to wonder if the RSS feeds of local blogs (including this one) on Bthesite.com is how Lori Barrett found out about the story of UMBC Rock for Life suing the school? Otherwise, the story ran a week ago in The Retriever while I was on vacation, but after B started publishing. I’m wondering if the new bloggers at B have learned about giving credit to bloggers where you find stories yet or not.

Related:
WMAR lifts story idea from InsideCharmCity.com without giving credit

WBAL.com

The attorneys for two of the Baltimore teenagers implicated in the December beating of a passenger aboard a transit bus say they intend to sue the Maryland Transit Administration, the bus driver and the city school system.

The attorneys claim the students were suspended from school and were denied their bus privileges without a hearing or due process.

The teenagers are among four students from Robert Poole Middle School determined by a judge to be involved – the juvenile equivalent of guilty – in the assault on Sarah Kreager. A fifth was ruled involved in reckless conduct that led to serious injury to the woman.

The five were to be sentenced Wednesday morning, but the proceeding was postponed until the afternoon because of a scheduling conflict.

Rick Maese

They met a couple of hours before the first pitch. They tried on their beards, downed some Natty Bohs and warmed up with a few Wild Bill chants. David Clapp placed the odds at 10-1 that one of them might dance atop the dugout later, and Barker Harrison showed up with a cooler and announced that the night wouldn’t be complete until someone chucked it from the upper deck.

[...]

With two outs in the third inning, an usher made his way down to Row MM. “You guys can’t stand up,” he said. “You’re standing up too much.”

Yep, the magic is surely dead, I thought.

But that’s precisely when it happened. The sparkle had arrived. I’m not sure whether it was magic dust glistening under the stadium lights or the droplets of beer hanging in Wild Bill’s fake beard.

First, Relish won the scoreboard hot dog race. Then Kevin Millar homered. Then Ramon Hernandez doubled to score Luke Scott and Aubrey Huff. And a ballpark of Yankees fans had been conquered by a dozen Wild Bills.

[...]

Once an inning or so, a Wild Bill would leave his seat, scamper down the steps and turn to the crowd, contorting his body into the alphabet. “O-R-I-O-L-E-S!” he’d scream. It was Wild Bill’s signature, the beer in his belly, the ink in his pen.

The Wild Bills got a wave started that circled the entire park. They appeared on the video scoreboard. They received hugs from girls and high-fives from guys. Other fans visited the section and snapped photos with their cell phones. One fan even handed over his ticket stub and a pen.

By the time Amber Theoharis, the in-game reporter for Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, showed up in the middle of the sixth inning for a live interview, the Orioles were leading 4-0 and the spirit of Wild Bill was plenty alive at Camden Yards.

[...]

Images of the original Wild Bill flashed on the scoreboard, and a Memorial Stadium vendor turned Aspen innkeeper turned Wild Bill impersonator appeared atop the dugout. Case had a pillow stuffed beneath his shirt and wore cut-off denim shorts. A fake beard covered his face and another hung out the back of his straw hat. He waved his hat and led yet another O-R-I-O-L-E-S cheer.

So do you believe?

A cold drink and old memories don’t erase a decade of futility. But history matters. The spirit of Wild Bill matters.

It’s still out there, swilling cheap beer, waving a hat and refusing to be pushed around by tourists in Yankees caps.

Every now and then, you can still catch a glimpse of the magic. It reminds you of better times and makes you yearn for the day when the magic is not quite so rare.

WBAL.com

State Police say a tow truck owner-operator was burned by two men who flagged his vehicle down on the Baltimore Beltway and set him afire.

Troopers say the unidentified driver was traveling northbound on 695′ s Outer Loop near Pulaski Highway/Route 40 about 11 p.m. Monday, when two black men in a red Ford Escort on the shoulder waved to him to stop.

After discussing the cost of towing the men’s car with the tow driver, one man threw a flammable substance on the driver and the other man used a lighted cigarette to ignite it.

The tow truck driver’s shirt flamed, burning him on his arms, hands and face, troopers say. The two attackers fled.