NEW USE FOR SUPERMAX – In a ghastly event, even for the 1980s, Schaefer-era big-wigs held a black tie champagne-fueled gala years ago inside “Supermax,” the just-built state prison in Baltimore designed harshly on purpose to warehouse “the worst of the worst.’” Soon after, prison officials themselves declared the bare-bones layout unworkable. There were calls for MCAC (its formal acronym) to be razed. Now? They’re floating a plan to house Maryland’s soaring federal pre-trial detainee population at Supermax ,  according to the Baltimore Sun. They’re mostly gang members and drug dealers currently spread out in prisons across the region. The whole thing hangs on $20 million federal funds.

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UP IN SMOKE – A Baltimore City Council committee begins work Tuesday (7/28) drawing up boundaries for non-smoking sections outside city hospitals that are concerned about the impact of second-hand smoke on employees, patients and visitors.

About eight hospitals are supporting the proposed law sponsored by Councilman Robert W. Curran. The council’s Public Safety and Health Committee will meet at 11 a.m. in City Hall on Bill 08-0231. The panel will identify non-smoking areas on city right of ways that are adjacent to hospitals that want to implement an outdoor ban. The idea for a no-smoking area outside hospitals was first proposed to the councilman by Gregory F. Schaffer, president of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

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DDA WAIT LIST – Many Marylanders with developmental disabilities on the ever-growing list to get needed services have been waiting for more than a decade. Advocates have been unable to get money from the governor or the legislature. Now, according to the Sun, the state is now culling names off the list (which stands at about 19,000) the low-cost way – by trying to find applicants who have moved or don’t need services.

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COUNCILMAN ARRESTED FOR DUI – Baltimore County Councilman Stephen G. Samuel Moxley was arrested for driving under the influence after an accident Friday morning in which one person was injured. This was the Catonsville Democrat’s second DUI arrest. He was involved in a 2005 incident for which he received probation before judgement, a year of supervised probation, had to pay court costs and participate in a drunken-driving monitoring program. The Catonsville Times broke the story on Friday and the Sun had a short crime brief on it today.

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NO BOOM AT THE INN – Not only does Baltimore’s $305 million taxpayer-funded Hilton block the view of the Bromo Seltzer Tower from the baseball stadium – it won’t, as promised, turn a profit in 2009, the Baltimore Business Journal reports today.