When it comes to “fatbergs” — large globs made from wet wipes, cooking oil, and other stuff we flush — clogging the sewers, sometimes extreme measures are necessary. To wit: In an effort to finally dislodge a fatberg that caused a sewer overflow in Baltimore recently, city officials are now resorting to more aggressive approach. [More]
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Food Trucks Win First Legal Battle Over Rule To Keep Them Away From Restaurants
By 9.29.16
A restaurant might already have enough competition from other eateries next door, across the street, or even in the same building, so they probably don’t want yet a competing restaurant on wheels parking on their block. But when restaurants and food trucks share a similar menu, can a city require that they not share the same general space? [More]
Do Food Trucks Have A Right To Compete With Nearby Restaurants?
By 5.11.16
Cities can tell you where you can and can’t park, and they can decide which areas of town are zoned for which types of commercial uses, but can a city determine where a food truck can park based solely on the type of food it makes? [More]
Company Faces $718K Fine For Blocking WiFi Hotspots At Baltimore Convention Center
By 11.2.15
Another company is learning about the fine points of Section 333 of the Communications Act, which prohibits willful interference with any licensed or authorized radio communications. This time, it’s the folks who provided the Baltimore Convention Center’s in-house WiFi service who were caught by the FCC trying to block individual WiFi hotspot users from going online. Meanwhile, Hilton is also being slapped with a proposed fine for its failure to comply with an investigation into its alleged hotspot blocking. [More]
10 Things We Learned About The Structured Settlement Purchase Industry
By 8.28.15
Report after report finds that payday lenders, auto title loan firms and pension advance operations unfairly target vulnerable consumers with high fees and questionable terms, but a new investigative piece from The Washington Post shows that are some lesser-known, but very lucrative players offering quick cash to vulnerable consumers: structured settlement purchasing companies. [More]
Checkers Is Really Sorry About That Video Of Burger Bun Wiped On Kitchen Floor
By 8.6.15
After the Internet went nuts over a YouTube video showing a Checkers employee deliberately dropping a bun to the kitchen floor, then rubbing it around for a second before continuing to make a sandwich, the fast food chain has finally issued a statement, claiming the bun was never served and the employees involved are no longer working there. [More]
Delaware Becomes The Only State Without Commercial Air Travel After Frontier Airlines Flies Away
By 6.30.15
While flying is often the easiest and quickest way for travelers to get from one place to another, the nearly one million residents in Delaware will have to find a different mode of transportation in their home state — unless they want to fly privately. That’s because the state’s lone commercial airline servicer quietly exited the market last week. [More]
Southwest Airlines Surprises Bride-To-Be With Airport Wedding Shower
By 4.2.15
Last November, Southwest Airlines played host to a wedding on a flight from Nashville to Dallas. The company continued its foray into all things matrimonial this week when it surprised one passenger with a wedding shower. [More]
Starbucks Testing Two New Seasonal Coffee-Flavored Sugar Bombs
By 11.14.13
Not satisfied with the current assortment of holiday beverages at your local Starbucks? You’re in luck, maybe. The chain is testing two new flavors of their traditional seasonal sugar bombs in different markets. [More]
Legislator: Traffic Camera Manufacturers Should Be Fined For Each Error
By 12.11.12
As we’ve seen in previous stories, cameras intended to catch speeders and red-light violators are not perfect, and now a state lawmaker in Maryland believes that the makers of these devices need to be held financially accountable for each instance in which a driver is incorrectly ticketed. [More]
Faking Seizures For Free Food Doesn't Just Make You An Ass, It Will Land You In Jail
By 8.11.10
There are those who believe we’re all growing more jaded and less willing to help our fellow man. That’s not hard to believe when you read about a jackass like the Baltimore man who repeatedly faked seizures in order to get out of paying his restaurant bills. [More]
Recession Cannot Stop The $13 Cup Of Fancy Coffee
By 4.13.10
The Baltimore Sun is reporting that a local coffee shop called Spro is offering a $13 cup of coffee. And yes, it’s just a cup of coffee. [More]
Orioles Park Serves Up Sad Hot Dog, Ignores Pleas For Help
By 9.21.09
A couple years ago, we wrote about the excellent customer service the Washington Nationals provided to a fan who was unable to get a hot dog. We’re sad to say that such responsiveness and concern do not extend north to Baltimore’s Camden Yards, where we suffered our own tale of hot dog woe this past weekend.
Walmart Enlists Help Of Local Police Officer To Force You To Show Receipt
By 7.20.09
One would think that Walmart would have had enough of the drama that results from receipt checking — but according to reader Eric, that’s just not the case. He says he politely declined to show his receipt to the Walmart employee who asked to see it because, unlike with Sam’s Club, he had not signed an agreement obligating him to show it. Walmart didn’t see it that way.
Grocery Store Just Can't Stop Selling Expired Yogurt
By 6.17.09
Esther doesn’t want much. She just wants to buy some yogurt that hasn’t expired. It seems that’s too much to ask of her local Safeway near Baltimore.
Affidavits On How Wells Fargo Gave "Ghetto Loans" To "Mud People"
By 6.8.09
Here’s the official court filing (PDF) so you can get the full details on how Wells Fargo pushed or even fraudulently placed black borrowers into sub-prime loans, even when those borrowers could afford prime loans, along with an office environment where employees threw around racist slurs, calling black borrowers “mud people” and their mortgages “ghetto loans.” The official statements referenced in the NYT article are in this document in full. The affidavits begin on page 48. Two screenshots inside…
Loan Officers Detail Wells Fargo's Blatantly Racist Subprime Loans
By 6.7.09
UPDATE: Read the affidavits here.
Castle Toyota Rescinds Scholarships After Students Decide To Mourn Their Dead Teacher Instead Of Staging A Commercial
By 6.8.08
Poor Howard Castleman. All he wanted was a little PR for his car dealership. Castleman planned to give four scholarships to students at Patterson High School in Baltimore, but instead of honoring Castleman’s charity by inviting the media and displaying his dealership’s banner at the senior’s farewell ceremony, the school instead decided to honor a long-time teacher who recently died of a heart attack…
