Baltimore

If you like history, you may be feeling tugged in two directions these days: events marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War began last year and as they roll on they’re competing with observations of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. Significant battles in both conflicts were fought in Maryland.

On this holiday, we take a moment to remember some great American writers.  H. L. Mencken was “the sage of Baltimore” and while there’s much of his written word to exult in, recordings of his actual voice are much harder to find.  One that exists is the interview journalist Donald Kirkley recorded an interview with him at the Library of Congress on June 30, 1948.

Baltimore is organized with what’s called a "strong-mayor" form of government, in which the powers of the mayor far outweigh the powers of the City Council.  Sheilah talks about this form of government and how it compares to other systems with Eric Zeemering, Assitant Professour of Public Policy at UMBC. She also talks with Julie Scharper, who reports on City Hall for the Baltimore Sun, about the current power tussle that's taking place.

Preventing the spread of AIDS and helping those who are HIV-positive to manage the disease seems like a job for doctors and nurses. The University of Maryland thinks differently.

There's more to Baltimore beer than Boh.

Web extra: Rob Kasper on new brewing law.

A new public middle school on the West Side of Baltimore, the Green Street Academy, is teaching city students about conservation and sustainability as it prepares them for green jobs of the future. The 275 students, led by Principal Ed Cozzolino (above), learn about growing and marketing organic food by running a fish farm, chicken coop, and greenhouse.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake unveiled her Vacants to Value initiative in November 2010. The mayor’s goal is to rehabilitate more than 1,000 vacant buildings in targeted neighborhoods with program. Now, 18 months later after its launch, she joins us to talk about how far the program has come towards its goal.

It’s time for our annual rundown of the Maryland Film Festival

How do you best grow Baltimore? That was the question posed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake yesterday in her State of the City speech. We talk about what was in the speech–and what wasn’t–with Mark Reutter of the Baltimore Brew and Adam Bednar of North Baltimore Patch.