Buzz

Hope is in the air as spring training gets underway in Sarasota for the Orioles. They've got a new manager, a crop of new players, and a new sense of possibility.

"The Orioles went through three managers last season, starting with Dave Trembley and ending with Showalter, who joined the club on Aug. 3. The Orioles lost 96 games, but they finished 34-23 under Showalter, raising expectations among players and fans for a franchise in search of its first winning record since 1997.

Pitchers and catchers took their physicals in the morning and headed outdoors around noon. Showalter wore a black windbreaker and carried a fungo bat during the entire three-hour workout, moving from field to field and barking out instructions.

He also paused to shake hands with second baseman Brian Roberts, an early arrival in camp."

More here.

An exhibition of contemporary photography called "Seeing Now: Photography Since 1960" has opened at the BMA. Bmore was there for the opening party on Saturday and we can tell you: it's incredible. You don't want to miss this one.

Here's some more info on the exhibit from the Washington Post.

Should police officers be allowed to wear beards? The courts say yes, but that doesn't mean the issue is settled.

"It has been nearly 20 years since a Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled that the University of Maryland at Baltimore Police Force's beard-ban discriminated against blacks.

Still, no-beard policies persist across the nation, cops continue to clash with their agencies in increasingly expensive legal battles and Maryland is the latest to have a new case on the table."

Read the full story here.

NewsTrust Baltimore, the "local news experiment to find and share good journalism about Baltimore," got a healthy nod from Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab.

"NewsTrust sees its mission as helping readers find "good journalism" by giving people the tools to separate good from bad. But when it comes to journalism, good and bad aren't exactly universal truths anymore. Is a story good if it adheres to facts but lacks strong writing? Is a story bad if it's on a blog, regardless of how it's reported? And what if its told through an ideological or political lens different from your own?

While NewsTrust has previously employed its tools for vetting journalism on a national level, their newest test, NewsTrust Baltimore, takes things to a smaller scale � namely one where readers' connection to news is based on geography (will a new school be built? is the police department cutting staff? did the legislature cut taxes?) and necessity.

That familiarity, with both the news and outlets reporting it, could make for a better experiment in media criticism as well as media literacy. Who better to judge the Baltimore Sun or WYPR than the people who live in the area?"

Read the full writeup here.

The Frederick Keys, single-A minor league affiliate of the Orioles, are engaged in a stadium lease dispute that threatens their future in the city they've called home since 1990.

"Last month, the City of Frederick announced that it had agreed to lease Harry Grove Stadium to the Keys through the upcoming season at a cost of $30,000.

However, the city has been trying to raise the rent for use of the stadium.

Last September, Peter Kirk, chairman of Opening Day Partners which owns three teams in the independent Atlantic League, said they have spoken with city officials about signing a lease for an Atlantic League team to use the field. Independent teams are not affiliated with a major league teams.

If that happens, the Keys would not be able to hold their games at Harry Grove Stadium. The team has been playing there since 1990, the year the stadium opened. The stadium was built for the Keys."

More on the story from the Frederick News-Post.

The article is short, but pithy: business for Carnival Cruise Line is doing quite well at the Port of Baltimore.

"James White, executive director of the Maryland Ports Administration, told lawmakers Friday that the city's cruise business is "booming" and that Carnival has said the most money it reaps aboard ships are on those departing from Baltimore."

More from msnbc.

Gus Sentementes of the Baltimore Sun's BaltTech blog gave some coverage to this past Saturday's Civic Hack Day.

"More than 30 people have showed up at the Emerging Technology Center on Saturday to work on various projects. Web geeks, including programmers and designers, and even journalists like yours truly, are trying to wrap their arms around the data, understand and analyze it, and see if there are any useful tools that can be built for the community."

More at BaltTech.

Voice of America checks in with an interesting report on the Baltimore Police Department's efforts to foster a good relationship with the city's Muslim community. From the story:

"African Americans first introduced Islam to the east coast city of Baltimore 65 years ago. Today, more than 60 percent of the city's 630,000 residents are black. About 5000 of them are African-American Muslims. Some African Americans in Baltimore, including Muslims, distrust the police. To foster good relations, the department has an Islamic liaison.

Police officer Robert Horne is Baltimore's Islamic liaison. On this day, he is visiting a predominately African-American Islamic school to help the children better understand what police do."

More at Voice of America.

Baltimore's Edgar Allan Poe House faces a funding crisis that could shut it down.

"The long-time curator of Baltimore's Edgar Allan Poe House says the museum could be forced to close if city officials stick to their insistence that it be well on the road to self-sufficiency by July of next year.

Baltimore officials � who last summer cut the Poe House's funding � have ordered the city's Committee for Historic & Architectural Preservation (CHAP) to settle on a plan to operate the museum without using public funds. The plan must be in place by July 2012."

Get the full story at the Sun.

The online media landscape just got a whole lot more interesting with news that the Huffington Post is set to merge with AOL.

Here's the announcement from HuffPo.

Iconic Baltimore beer brand Natty Boh returned to area taps last week. The Midnight Sun blog checked in with a report from Nacho Mama's, which tapped one of the first kegs.

"On Thursday afternoon the cramped Canton bar Nacho Mama's was jammed.

Inside the bar, which is decorated like a shrine to National Bohemian, there were more people than Mr. Boh logos on the walls. The waitresses had a hard time delivering their regular orders.

It wasn't a flash-mob. The crowd, evenly split between young and rickety old-timers, was there to toast the tapping of one the first keg of Natty Boh in 15 years."

More here.

Rupert Cornwell of UK newspaper The Independent checks in with a Brit's view of Baltimore.

"One way of describing Baltimore among the great cities of the north-eastern US seaboard is by making clear what the place isn't. It has none of New York's size and cultural flash. It doesn't have Boston's conceits, or Philadelphia's chip on the shoulder. It is mercifully free of the self-importance of Washington DC, 40 miles and half a universe away to the southwest. On the other hand, it has everything � including its own resident muse.

In a way, Anne Tyler is an unlikely candidate for that role. Baltimore may be one of the tourist treasures of America. But although most of her 18 novels are set in the city, few of its most obvious attractions feature in their pages."

Read the whole story.

An estimated 10,500 fans took in Orioles FanFest this past Saturday at the Baltimore Convention Center, and optimism was high for the upcoming season.

More from the Baltimore Sun.

Did you know that the puppeteer behind Elmo is a Baltimore native? His name is Kevin Clash, and he's the subject of a documentary called "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey" which recently played at Sundance.

Learn more at the New York Post.

Talk show host and Maryland native Montel Williams appeared in Annapolis last week to advocate for legalized medical marijuana. The appearance made national news, including a writeup in the Wall Street Journal.