WBAL.com

Five of the jurors who convicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon on a misdemeanor embezzlement charge are being hauled back to court for the hearing on her motion for a new trial.

A spokesman for the Maryland Judiciary, Darrell Pressley, tells The Associated Press that the five jurors who became friends on Facebook during the trial have been asked by Judge Dennis Sweeney to appear at the January 6 hearing.

The defense in court papers filed Tuesday notes that Judge Sweeney sent the jurors a letter dated December 22 instructed them not to discuss the case with anyone, in advance of next week’s hearing.

Those jurors include Elaine Pollack, Juror Number 11, and Shiron Davis, Juror Number 6.

Dixon’s lawyers argue that those jurors disregarded Sweeney’s instructions not to discuss the case outside the courthouse. They also say two of those five jurors lied during jury selection.

University of Baltimore law professor Byron Warnken says the fact that jurors are being asked to attend the hearing means that they’ll be expected to testify. He says it’s very unusual for jurors to be involved in post-trial proceedings.

The full defense motion is below the fold.
(Continue reading…)

We talked last week about the filming of The Social Network this week at JHU.

B reports that star Justin Timberlake will not be featured in the Baltimore filming and also passes on this tip:

The best chance to see action: Monday, when filming will be held during daylight hours at the Wyman Quad, the lower quad. Hopkins has never doubled for Harvard before. On film, that is.The Baltimore Sun reports that “Button” was almost filmed in Baltimore, but we lost out to New Orleans because of Louisiana’s aggressive film-production incentive program.

JHU announcements

The Homewood campus will be a shooting location next week for a forthcoming feature film, “The Social Network.”

The Columbia Pictures release will be shooting two sequences on campus on Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 2 and 3. The crew will also be on campus on Sunday to prepare for the filming and will be striking and leaving campus on Wednesday, Nov. 4.

All shooting will be outdoors, and primarily at night. The shoot has been scheduled to interfere as little as possible with normal activities. Shooting in the area of two residence halls will take place between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., when most students are still awake. Shooting in academic areas — primarily the Keyser and Wyman quadrangles — will take place after 10 p.m., after most evening classes are dismissed.

There will be one scene filmed during daylight hours, on the Wyman Quad (the lower quad) on the afternoon of Monday, Nov. 2.

[...]

“The Social Network” is directed by David Fincher, who was nominated for an Academy Award as best director for his most recent film, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” The scriptwriter is Aaron Sorkin, best known as creator of television’s “The West Wing.”

The film is the story of the founding of Facebook. Much of that story took place at Harvard University; Homewood will be doubling for Harvard in the scenes being shot next week.

The IMDB page for The Social Network says that Jesse Eisenberg is playing Mark Zuckerberg, Justin Timberlake is playing Sean Parker, and Andrew Garfield is playing Eduoardo Saverin. Eamon Brooks is rumored to be playing “Bobby.”

Shoutout to @ryanatmgh and @timwindsor for the JHU link.

WBAL TV

A small Maryland tech company is suing Facebook, alleging that the social networking company infringed on a key patent it holds.

WhoGlue Inc. filed the lawsuit this week in the U.S. District Court for Delaware, where Facebook is incorporated.

The Baltimore company with fewer than five employees makes and sells software to help associations and nonprofits manage memberships via the Internet.

WhoGlue holds a patent for what is described in the filing as a system for “facilitating communications between user members of an online network.” According to the lawsuit, Facebook had “notice and knowledge” of WhoGlue’s patent but continued to infringe on it.

WhoGlue applied for the patent in 2001, three years before Facebook was founded, and received it in 2007.

AA Co release

Anne Arundel County Office of Emergency Management Launches Facebook and Twitter Applications

Glen Burnie, MD (August 6, 2009) – The Anne Arundel County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is pleased to announce the creation of its own Facebook and Twitter pages. These pages were developed in accordance with County Executive John R. Leopold’s commitment to provide consistent and timely information to the citizens of Anne Arundel County, as well as achieve his goal for a more transparent government. Facebook and Twitter, along with the recent acquisition of Dialogics, an emergency notification system, provide OEM with a dynamic array of communication avenues during emergency and non-emergency situations. “We live in an information driven society and these tools allow us to easily communicate important information in a timely manner,” said County Executive John R. Leopold. ” Social networking applications, such as these, are free and connect a broad scope of people with up-to-date information and news. I commend the Office of Emergency Management for its continued efforts to reach out to as many citizens as possible through a variety of communication methods.” Facebook is a user friendly application that allows visitors to easily navigate and view pictures, watch videos, read press releases and public service announcements and network by becoming a fan of Emergency Management. It offers the Office of Emergency Management a unique opportunity to utilize our page as a recruiting tool for volunteers, an education outlet, a medium to unite people with common emergency preparedness interests and to disseminate information to the public in a timely fashion. Twitter is a micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read other users’ updates that are referred to as “tweets”. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 bytes in length. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. In addition to Facebook and Twitter, OEM recently acquired Dialogics, which is a geographically based emergency notification system sometimes referred to as reverse 911. The system can be programmed to call all or specified communities within Anne Arundel County and can be used to convey emergency or general information that affect our communities. Facebook Site Twitter Site