It was 2:30 a.m., and the college students across the street were still blasting their music. My partner Gina reminded me it was my turn to tell them to knock it off. I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and […]
The Semi-Free State
It was Oct. 28—adoption day—and Courtroom 2 of the Baltimore City Circuit Court was packed. Well-dressed parents and children squeezed into the hard wooden benches like churchgoers on Christmas Eve. Babies cried and young children squirmed on their parents’ laps. Adolescents […]
Lifeline: Chase Brexton Celebrates 30 Years
It was a warm Friday evening in 1978. Scott MacLeod and about a half-dozen other young gay men whom he didn’t know sat in a cramped basement room. “We all looked at each other and said, `Who wants to go […]
HIV Positive: A Q&A with Dr. Robert Gallo
Photographs of microscopic organisms line the walls of the Institute of Human Virology entryway. Resembling modern abstract paintings, these framed images of colorful cells are at the root of the deadliest pandemic of our time–HIV. For the layperson, these beautiful photos […]
In Between Days: Baltimore’s Transgender Population
The sign on the bathroom door read ABSOLUTELY NO MEN IN THE WOMEN’S RESTROOM. Cydné Kimbrough couldn’t believe her eyes. Wanting to believe the best, she carefully peeled away the Scotch tape from the corners and brought the sign to the […]
Speed Bump: Maryland Doesn’t Have a Meth Problem—Yet
If you’ve read a national newspaper or news magazine lately, you know the story. Methamphetamine use is moving east from the West Coast, where it’s had a stranglehold on states such as Oregon since the ’90s. Backwoods meth labs pose dangerous […]
Raising a Glass: Leon’s Turns 50
It’s a typical Monday night at Leon’s. The two front doors are propped open—usual for a spring evening—but the fading sunlight does nothing to illuminate the tiny corner bar at Park Avenue and Tyson Street. At just before 8, happy […]
Rational Decisions
Courtroom 5 at the John R. Hargrove Sr. District Courthouse in Brooklyn is as nondescript as a courtroom can get. Front and center is the judge’s bench, a mammoth desk of dark wood shined to a high luster. A pile of […]
Operation Recovery
When tragedy hits, the Army Corps of Engineers has boots on the ground. Kevin Wagner lost everything. Once the levees overflowed during Hurricane Katrina, water poured into his Chalmette home in lower Saint Bernard Parish, eventually climbing two to four […]
Backlog Blues
Thousands wait while VA streamlines its claims process The lesion on the left side of Sara Poquette’s brain is no bigger than a lima bean. But its symptoms – severe headaches and memory loss – are not insignificant. Today, Poquette […]