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As a hardcore baseball guy, I often wonder why people needlessly waste their time on all those other, lesser sports. But I suppose everyone has a right to their insane opinions. In any case, football fans may want to keep an eye on this development: The NFL announced this week that it will be using RFID tracking chips on players during select games in the 2014 season. The high-tech chips — RFID stands for radio-frequency identification — will generate precise positioning data on each player on every play. Football Uniforms Throughout History For the initial rollout, the RFID system will...

James B. Sellinger, a former vice president for IBM’s North American operations, will serve as chancellor of education for the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Department of Catholic Schools and Frank Bramble Sr., a member of the Board of Directors for Bank of America Corp., will serve as chairman of the archdiocesan school board, the archdiocese announced July 28. In the newly created position, Sellinger will promote the enrollment and fiscal health of the archdiocese’s nearly 50 Catholic schools. Bramble previously served as interim president of Calvert Hall College High School in Towson and as chairman of the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Blue...

An aquatics instructor at a summer camp for youngsters at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore has been charged with sexual solicitation of a minor, police said. Charles David Beaver, 58, a former teacher at Westminster High School, was arrested Tuesday at a Baltimore County hotel, police said. Police said the Carroll County man had communicated online with a person he believed was a pimp to arrange a meeting at the hotel with two teenage boys for sex. The supposed pimp was actually a Baltimore County detective. When Beaver showed up at the hotel, he was taken into custody....

Catholic Charities wants to care for about 50 children from Central America at a campus in Baltimore County, seeking a role in the immigration crisis even though the consideration of other sites in Maryland has met with fierce local opposition.The organization plans to apply to federal officials to house the children at St. Vincent's Villa, a residential facility on Dulaney Valley Road, Catholic Charities head William J. McCarthy Jr. confirmed Thursday night.McCarthy said housing the children would amount to his organization doing its job. "Our role and our mission is to meet the needs of these children," he said. "This...

Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden is enthused by the fruit that came from recent discussions between U.S. bishops and Iran’s religious leaders. “When you build a certain sense of trust and respect, then you can move forward and deal with the issues,” he said. The faith leaders announced June 14 that they oppose actions that endanger the life, health, dignity and welfare of others, including the creation of weapons of mass destruction. That declaration was the result of a March dialogue between a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Supreme Council of the Seminary Teachers...

The VA scandal continues to unfold, although primarily through local and regional reporting, demonstrating that the issues of corruption and bureaucratic fraud go beyond just wait lists. Today, Congress will make public the testimony from an Inspector General agent, and it’s not pretty. The IG found that mail and claims were hidden in two separate VA systems, and in Philadelphia the postmarks go back to 2011, and claims were redated to hide their age:

I posted this as a response in another thread, but thought I'd also post it as a vanity, in case someone else might see it and decide to look beyond the reputation of the city to see what it might really have to offer. I've lived in Baltimore almost my whole life. And despite its problems, I love it. Those who don't know it will knock it, but it really is a great place to live, politics notwithstanding. But Cleveland was a complete unknown to me until I forced my daughter to consider attending Case Western Reserve University for nursing...

...On Friday's Laura Ingraham Show, Elaine, a black woman from Baltimore, expressed her outrage that President Barack Obama is putting the interests of illegal immigrant children above those of American citizens. Though the number of illegal immigrant children unlawfully entering the country has spiked since Obama unilaterally enacted his temporary amnesty program in 2012, the White House has said the primary cause of the border crisis is the rampant gang violence in Central America. "I'm living a nightmare. My whole neighborhood is so violent. There's so much crime," she said. "I have gangs everywhere here in Baltimore! I can't let...

An investigation has found that an elementary school principal in Baltimore who suspended a seven-year-old boy for chewing a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun acted properly in her decision. However the boy's family has lawyered up, and are threatening to take the case further. Josh Welch, a second-grader at Park Elementary School, said he was trying to nibble his strawberry breakfast snack into a mountain in March 2013. But when it started to take shape he reportedly told his classmates: 'Look, I made a gun.' Principal Sandra Blondell then removed Josh from school for two days. Andrew...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) A victim of the knockout game decided that he would not let the teenage attackers get away with the violent assault, chased them down, and managed to bring them to justice. In a related report by The Inquisitr, the idea behind the knockout game is that a group or an individual targets the first person they see and attempts to knock the unsuspecting person unconscious with just one punch. Media reports have focused on “black mobs” going after Jews when targeting people. There is also a book that documents the trend toward violence called White Girl Bleed a Lot:...

"Celebrate Pride Month with the St. Ignatius Community!" "As members of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, we are called to celebrate and share the gifts of diversity of sexuality in our church today. Our organization, Embracing God's Gifts, has been formed as an instrument for recognizing these gifts and incorporating their goodness and use into the life of our parish."

The Obama administration plans to move as many as 1,000 unaccompanied minor migrants from Border Patrol facilities in Texas to facilities in Baltimore, Md., and Richmond, Va., in an effort to ease overcrowding and address the growing humanitarian crisis along the border. SNIP According to a “transportation flow chart” obtained by BuzzFeed, the administration will now begin resettling the children to an Office of Refugee Resettlement facility in Baltimore and to St. Paul’s College in Richmond. Both facilities can accommodate up to 500 beds, according to the document. According to the chart, DHS buses and planes, as well as commercial...

BALTIMORE (WJZ)—West Baltimore looked a little like the Wild Wild West on Friday morning. A steer running through the streets of Baltimore catches the attention of drivers and police. This after it escaped from a city slaughterhouse.

The Southern Baptists are electing a new president to succeed the Rev. Fred Luter Jr., who became the denomination’s first African-American president in 2012. Contenders include the Rev. Dennis Kim, pastor of a Korean church in Silver Springs, Maryland, and the Rev. Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church, with several locations in northwest Arkansas. Members meeting in Baltimore will vote for the new president Tuesday. …

I have to apologize to the readers of American Thinker. Last week, I wrote about more than a dozen episodes of black mob violence around the country over the Memorial Day weekend. Turns out I was wrong: I missed at least three examples of large-scale racial violence. Or 300 depending on how you count. So let’s see if we can make up for these grievous errors of omission, starting in Chicago. Shortly after Memorial Day, cops and other readers of the Second City Cop blog in Chicago started reporting large groups of black people rampaging through the upscale Gold Coast...

Baltimore police plan to deploy officers around city schools until the school year ends to ensure student safety amid recent racial tensions, while school officials joined civil rights leaders to urge students of different races to peacefully resolve differences. The actions followed recent threats and violent attacks on Latino students as well as the Memorial Day robbery and murder of a 15-year-old Mexican student who had dropped out of high school to help his family. ...assaults on two Hispanic high school students last week heightened fears that Latino youths were being targeted. They said only seven out of more than...

A Catonsville letter carrier who worked for the postal service for more than two decades stole more than 20,000 pieces of mail, according to federal authorities. Jeffrey L. Shipley is accused of pilfering checks and money orders. He is accused of filching passports and prescription medication. He is accused of pilfering credit cards and Mother's Day cards. He is even accused of stealing furniture from the United States Postal Service. Shipley was charged in federal court last week with one count each of mail theft and delaying the mail. Neither Shipley nor his attorney could immediately be reached for comment...

A memorial of candles, daisies and a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe clustered around a black-and-white photo of 16-year-old Oscar Torres, who was shot and killed on the spot May 26. Days later, his blood still stained the ground. The memorial was steps away from Viva House, a Catholic Worker House and soup kitchen. Its founders, Brendan Walsh and Willa Bickham, didn’t know Torres or his family, but have reached out to his parents and brother who live nearby. Viva House also made a donation to his parents to help them transport his body to his native Mexico, where...

More than 40 bicycles belonging to Baltimore's Recreation and Parks department for a bike-share program were stolen this week, and the activity has been suspended indefinitely, city officials said. The bikes, which included children's bikes and adult-size blue beach cruisers, were stolen on Monday during the city's Ride Around the Reservoir program in Druid Hill Park. Recreation and Parks spokeswoman Gwendolyn Chambers said staff had set up the bikes to lend out when a large group of youths began stealing them. One staffer was kicked by a youth, though the injury was not serious, Chambers said. "We don't want our...

His voice cracking with emotion, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice acknowledged Friday that he “failed miserably” and apologized for the actions that led to his arrest on assault charges. Rice was arrested following a Feb. 15 altercation in Atlantic City, in which he allegedly struck fiancee Janay Palmer. The couple married in late February, and both went to the stage at the team training complex for their first public comment since the arrest. “I failed miserably, but I wouldn’t call myself a failure because I’m working my way back up,” Rice said. Rice was accepted Tues­day into a diversion...