As someone who marches with these Hyatt employees and the many labor and social groups that support them I thank these workers for saying ‘enough is enough’. . . We thank the National Labor Board for selecting this case to pursue as their budget has been slashed to make it difficult for them to do oversight. None of this would be happening if Baltimore wasn’t #1 in the entire country for allowing businesses to get away with impoverishing its working class. These labor organizations like Unite Here 7/ Workers United/ and SEIU are doing a good job making labor’s voices heard.  We want more to come!!”
– cwals99

“Didn’t the concierge-bellman also receive tips? Citing the base wage without this fact is a bit misleading as it should have doubled or tripled his pay, at either post. Guests stiff the maids, but not the bellman. Not that it is relevent to whether or not he was treated fairly, but I’m guessing anyone who refuses to help a guest is not really Hyatt material.”
– MC 2012

MC 2012, you really are 2012 or you are from management. Look, it is not management’s concern if the guy is earning tips. Just because he can earn tips and generous tips at that does not mean they can stiff him. The problem was that they exploited him as a bellman, paying him less and stretching him thin. Then they expected him to play the role of a  concierge on the salary of a bellman. . .”
– ushanellore

“Thank you Brew for this. I know many don’t think it’s newsworthy anymore that companies view workers as disposable, but some of us do. I hope people make it to the end of the piece, to this on-the-mark statement from Pollard: “It gets me how these politicians, it’s always ‘We want to bring in people with money.’ It’s never ‘We want to help the people who have always been here.’”
– Claudia Balog, via Facebook
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Juvenile jail scrapped, but state still plans $70M for facilities

“It is fascinating that with all of the talk about youth violence, I rarely hear about child abuse. There is nearly a 1 to 1 correlation for children who were severely as children and adult violence. Yet it is never talked about. We live in country that treats it children terribly and often use them for selfish gains. Every day in this country 5 children die directly from abuse, untold more are hurt and scared forever.”
– Christian Dunn, via Facebook
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State Center opponents score a major victory

“This is probably for the best. The project was always a boondoggle. A better idea would be for the state to invest its time and resources in restoring and rejuvenating some of the historic commercial structures in the downtown core. . . There are plenty of underutilized or empty historic buildings downtown that could be renovated for far less than what the State Center redevelopment would cost taxpayers”
– richard chambers

“This is the second major victory in the last couple of months in favor of the party that challenged the State for failing to follow the procurement procedures. The other matter is at the Maryland State Board of Contract Appeals and involves the inmate pharmacy contract, which was discussed at the last Board of Public Works meeting.”
– MarylandEsquire
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Activist Kim Trueheart arrested at City Hall

“They hate when she goes to the meetings because she is usually the only person who tries to keep them in check. She is one of few that will call them out for spending exorbitant amounts of money in a matter of minutes. . . She is non-violent, magnificently smart and informed, and she knows her rights. Not to mention her main concern is how the children of the city are being treated and educated. I do not believe for a second that Kim has done anything outside of her rights.”
– Abigail Fanara

“The authorities will say, ‘She makes it impossible for us to do our jobs. She is a career activist! We have things to do. We can’t be answering all her questions. We have places to go and decisions to make. She stymies the process. She doesn’t understand the issues. She doesn’t see the difficulties of the decision makers. She is looking for attention! She is a public nuisance.’ I say to the authorities. Go join Bashar Assad. He needs you in his cabinet.

The ones that need meds and rehab are the politicos and the police of Baltimore. SRB is running an autocracy and is using her police and the opaque BDC to intimidate her vocal opponents. She wants a smooth sail for her lopsided budget decisions and her brutal cost saving measures that usually inflict pain on the poor, the elderly and essential services even as she cozies up to her developer friends and her campaign contributors.”
– ushanellore

“While her enthusiasm is admirable and her cause just you simply can’t continually get up in peoples faces and not expect a reaction. Long term problem is that now you are labeled a trouble maker and your credibility is diminished.”
– discer

“So after you have been nice, polite, ask the right questions, get no answers and are being abused, then what? Nice does not always do it. That is Kim’s whole point. We need to know what is happening and stop staying in the middle.”
– lutherh

“As for discer saying Kim’s credibility is diminished – yes, indeed that’s what the authorities want. In the good old USSR they sent activists to mental institutions and to jail to decrease their credibility.”
– ushanellore

“A month-long ban from your right to be at city hall is a major thing. If it’s happening simply because someone is raising inconvenient points, then that is a major assault on our liberties.”
– Paul Harrell

“Could be this was an abuse of power to silence a dissenting voice. Could be this was an appropriate reaction to repeated disruptive behavior. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle – an overreaction to someone deliberately pushing the envelope of acceptable behavior. How much of an overreaction and how much pushing is probably unknowable, in any objective, epistemological sense.”
– Barnadine_the_Pirate

“Ooooh, Bernardine is invoking the ‘he-pissed’em-off-logical’ argument which has been used many times in the history of Baltimore politics. BOLO-gate is only the latest.”
– Gerald Neily

“Those who are informed troublemakers are often surprisingly successful. The authorities hated the Baltimore Algebra Project who kept on protesting the Youth Jail, but look what happened. When Martin Luther King was in a Birmingham jail, local pastors wrote to him advising him to moderate his tactics. You should read his eloquent reply: ‘Letter From a Birmingham Jail’. Often people with power will only respond to people who confront and expose them.”
– Nick Sheridan

“To: Discer: ~ Your blurred vision provides an interesting perspective on my advocacy which you know nothing about, but I do thank you for recognizing that I am right!!! For the record I am NOT too aggressive, militaristic or combative. Working within the system is one way to effect change, however it is NOT the only way and for you or anyone else to discount the impact of nonconforming individual advocacy is naive and disrespectful to our forefathers. . . “
– trueheart4life

“Kim, glad you’re out. Thank you so much for your courage and your dedication. Your courage is admirable.”
– krisnorthrup
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Trueheart released in the wee hours

“This story gets more appalling by the second. BOLO: ‘Be on the lookout’ for anyone who regularly attends public hearings and has the fortitude to inform and educate herself on issues concerning the process and budget appropriations that impact the children and families in her community.”
– claudelaw

“What is going on in Baltimore? Is @MayorSRB trying to silence her most vocal critics.”
– SheWhoMustBeObeyed, via Twitter
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ACLU: City Hall bans “improper” and not constitutional

“Thank you for this article. I appreciate your evenhanded reporting and am thankful to the ACLU for stating why I felt dismay at the concept of someone being ‘banned’ for being confrontational with government officials but in a non-violent way that didn’t interrupt anything but political showboating.”
– bmorepanic

“I have seen where [she] can be confrontational and abusive at times. This is unfortunate as it clouds what are legitimate concerns.”
– discer

“Ms.Trueheart has never been abusive on this site. . . She is not a cuddly kitten. She is a tigress and she roars but that’s what makes [her] interesting, illuminating and fun. Let her roar.”
– ushanellore

“I wouldn’t know what’s going on in City Hall if it wasn’t for Kim Trueheart!”
– Kurt Tesnau, via Facebook

“The First Amendment is sacred. Our country has been built upon it.”
– Gerald Neily