http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-columnist-marbella,0,461365.columnist?track=rss en ©2008, baltimoresun.com Fri, 4 Jul 2008 03:20:39 -0400 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.marbella04jul04,0,6695116.column?track=rss T he insurgents met to plot their next move, over lemonade and chocolate chip cookies. The level of their anger was such that even the tiniest revolutionary, a mere child, used the strongest language that her young ears probably had ever heard. Fri, 4 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.marbella01jul01,0,5318854.column?track=rss W hen I joined The Sun 21 years ago, there was still at least one person in the newsroom who had worked here when H.L. Mencken did. He used to use his pencils down to the stub, she told me. Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.marbella27jun27,0,1644255.column?track=rss Y ou know how you get a song stuck in your head? Ever since the fur started flying in the state prosecutor's investigation of Mayor Sheila Dixon, I keep hearing that song from Guys and Dolls , the one sung by a doll who was shocked, just shocked, at what a guy expected in return for his gifts: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.marbella24jun24,0,267993.column?track=rss I live in one of those good neighborhoods, where what obviously was the sound of gunshots - sharp, rapid-fire bursts - woke me around 2:40 Sunday morning, and yet still I thought: firecrackers. Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.marbella20jun20,0,6432970.column?track=rss I 'd like to take the opportunity of all those microphones that have been shoved in my face these past couple of days since my house was raided, and speak directly to you, the citizens of Baltimore. Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-marbella0617,0,3469913.column?track=rss A political candidate I was interviewing last year turned the tables on me and asked me why I got into journalism. I said that from the earliest I could remember, I just liked telling people stuff -- an answer that drew much merriment from the candidate's aide, imagining my 5-year-old self quoting sources in the kitchen on what was for dinner that night. Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.marbella13jun13,0,7219406.column?track=rss T here's a lot of "disappointment," some of it "extreme," in the Baltimore County executive's office this week. County exec Jim Smith has allowed that he's also "confused" and finds the situation "frustrating." Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.marbella10jun10,0,5843144.column?track=rss T hroughout a court proceeding to determine his fate yesterday, Kevin Johns mostly looked bored. He rolled his head around, tipped it back either to nod off or stare at the ceiling, and at least once turned around to check the clock behind him. Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.marbella06jun06,0,5849.column?track=rss M ike Miller was explaining why, after winning re-election to the state Senate in 2006, he decided it would be his last term. The campaign had been particularly bitter and divisive, and he was offended by tactics that included circulating a picture that depicted him as a king. Fri, 6 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.marbella27may27,0,7547090.column?track=rss F or years, they have been the kind of neighbors that shared the same space if not the same world - the renowned Johns Hopkins medical complex and the largely impoverished East Baltimore community surrounding it. Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400