Weather-Related Schedule Changes, Principal Demotions, Leopold's Trial, and The Soon-To-Open Casino In Western Maryland

Many schools in the WYPR listening are opening late -- or not at all -- because of the overnight snowfall. You can find our current list here.

In the four years since Dr. Andrés Alonso became CEO of Baltimore city schools, nearly 90 percent of the district’s principals have been fired or reassigned. Leaders of the union that represents city principals say the principals lost their jobs because of low test scores on state exams. They and some principals charge that the firings and demotions have left principals working under intense pressure. WYPR Education Reporter Gwendolyn Glenn has the story.

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge has ruled that Maryland officials violated competitive bidding rules in a 1.5-billion-dollar project that included replacement of a aging state office building. WYPR’s Senior News Analyst Fraser Smith comments in his weekly essay.

In other news this morning: Hundreds of people were at the shuttered Sparrows Point steel mill yesterday as the equipment liquidation program got underway. By the time the auction wraps up today, plant owner Hilco Trading expects to have sold around 16-hundred lots of equipment. The plant was once Maryland's largest employer, but was sold to liquidators for 72-million-dollars last year, which was a tenth of the price RG Steel had purchased it just four years earlier (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).

Officials at the National Aquarium are saying they've seen the first attendance increase since the recession. The Aquarium reportedly drew one-point-55-million people last year, its first increase since 2006 (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).

The soon-to-open casino at Rocky Gap in Western Maryland is looking for new employees. The facility held a job fair in Cumberland yesterday evening, attracting hundreds of applicants. The casino is expected to open in June (via our wire service and the Baltimore Business Journal).

The misconduct trial of Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold continues in Annapolis (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun). 

The state of Maryland has eliminated the use of paper checks in providing parents with child support payments. The Child Support Enforcement Administration says the money will now either be direct deposited into the accounts of recipients, or they will receive a debit Visa card (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).

In sports: The NFL has fined New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady 10-thousand-dollars for his slide in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday. The Ravens went on to win the game and will now face the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 47 on February 3rd (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is rooting for the 49ers, even though she was born in Baltimore. The daughter of former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. currently represents a district in San Francisco -- but has a street named after her in Charm City. When asked yesterday whether she supports the Ravens, she said, quote, "I'm a Baltimore sports fan as my second team" (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).