Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: Investigative Voice Top Stories

Friday, July 23, 2010

Investigative Voice Top Stories

NEWS FLASH — Liquor Board shutters Brooklyn’s Ravens House bar

Thursday, 22 July 2010 23:49

City Liquor Board Chairman Stephan Fogleman, shown outside Club Uzo on Belair Road, announces closing tomorrow of Ravens House, another troublsome bar, in Brooklyn. (I.V. Photo/Stephen Janis)

WAS SCENE OF BRUTAL BEATING DEATH
OF BAR PATRON TWO MONTHS AGO

By Stephen Janis

The Baltimore City Liquor Board suspended the license of a troubled Brooklyn bar today, urging the current owners to sell the license quickly and find new owners.

Ravens House bar on the 3700 block of South Hanover Street will turn in its liquor license tomorrow, said Liquor Board Chairman Stephan Fogleman.

The bar was the site of the brutal beating death of a patron two months ago, in May, who was hit in the head with a pool stick, then dragged outside and beaten to death by several other patrons, one of whom was the boyfriend of a Ravens House bartender.

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NATIONAL REPORT — Human smuggling seizures drop, prior to start date of Arizona immigration law

Thursday, 22 July 2010 16:14

FEDS UNDER STRAIN FROM RESPONDING
TO LOCAL DEPORTATION REFERRALS

By Stephen Janis

The dollar value of the illegal alien smuggling operations thwarted by the federal government has dropped along the country’s Southwest Arizona border since 2005, an investigation by the Government Accountability Office found.

But the reason for the drop does not bode well for the newly enacted law in Arizona which requires local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws.

That's because investigators found that Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) resources were strained by handling local law enforcement requests to process illegal immigrants for deportation, a strain that ICE investigators said was thwarting their efforts to combat dangerous human smuggling operations.

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NEWS FLASH — Two early morning homicides

Thursday, 22 July 2010 11:03

Separate early morning shootings led to two homicides in Baltimore Thursday.

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WALE’S FOLLÉ — Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts considers legal action against popular hip-hop rapper for profane performance

Thursday, 22 July 2010 03:31

Hip-hop singer/rapper Wale, shown here performing in Atlanta, used foul language in his act at Artscape last Sunday in Baltimore, including the f-word and n-word.

CITY AGENCY MAKES CLEAR WHEN BOOKING ACTS THAT ARTSCAPE IS A 'FAMILY-ORIENTED' EVENT

Foul language “inappropriate,” spokesperson says

WE ONLY F**K WITH REAL NI**AS!
Much-repeated chorus at Artscape
by rapper/hip-hop performer Wale

By Alan Z. Forman

In the wake of a profane performance by popular rapper/hip-hop artist Wale Sunday night on the main stage at Artscape — first brought to public attention by Investigative Voice Editor-in-Chief Regina Holmes’ “Reggie’s Rant” column published in this space Monday — the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts (BOPA) is looking into possible legal action against the Washington, D.C.-based performer.

In a radio interview with WBAL Wednesday, BOPA’s Director of Communications Tracy Baskerville told the station’s Anne Kramer that while the agency works with a booking agent, “We’re going back through our contracts to make sure there was no miscommunication about what was going on.”

Baskerville said performers “are told right off the bat that [Artscape] is a family-oriented show and that it is open to the public in a public space,” adding that “we spoke with the band as a reminder before they went on stage, that they knew this, so we did know that that took place.”