Baltimore City was awarded $7.1 million in grants Thursday aimed at improving public safety.

The grants come days after the fatal stabbing last weekend of 23-year-old Johns Hopkins researcher Stephen Pitcairn that has shaken the city’s Charles Village neighborhood.

Baltimore Ravens rookie defensive tackle Terrence Cody, a Riverdale High graduate, passed his conditioning test a day after failing it and was participating in drills Wednesday morning, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Cody missed the first day of drills at Ravens training camp Tuesday after failing a conditioning test and being placed on the team’s physically-unable-to-perform list.

Baltimore Ravens rookie Sergio Kindle has a fractured skull after falling down stairs and will miss training camp, the team’s coach said.

Kindle, the Ravens’ first pick in the 2010 draft, suffered the injury when he fell down steps while visiting friends in Austin, Texas last week. He remained in an Austin hospital.

Baltimore is in the top third of 100 metro areas for exports, but its recent export growth has been below average, according to Brookings Institution.

The liberal think tank’s report published Monday said Baltimore produced $8.95 billion billion in exports in 2008, ranking No. 31 in the nation. Average wages in the largest export industry, chemicals, were $70,965, $4,500 above the national average. In terms of jobs, 74,032 jobs support Baltimore’s export industry, ranking 30th.

Baltimore’s mayor and police chief say the city will hire 450 new officers by the end of next year.

The recruitment drive announced Thursday is aimed at eliminating a shortage of officers just as the department is making headway on reducing crime.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said earlier this month that an unexpected number of officers quit or retired in June, leaving his department of over 3,000 officers short by about 100.

Baltimore officials are reviewing their contract with D.C. rapper Wale after he used profanity and racial slurs during a performance at a free, city-sponsored arts festival, WBAL.com reports.

Wale was the headliner Sunday on the main stage at Artscape. More >

An unexpected exodus of Baltimore police officers in the days and weeks before cuts to their pension benefits took effect has left the department short-staffed at a critical juncture in its efforts to reduce crime.

Officers have complained for months that the patrol division is not fully staffed, a contention that department commanders had called untrue. But for the first time, the city’s police commissioner is now warning that “staffing is a huge problem” and that shortages could risk breaking momentum in curtailing homicides, shootings and other crime.

A shot from Shaun Pejic deflected off Andrew Marshall and into the net midway through the second half, and Crystal Palace Baltimore picked up a 2-1 road win Sunday afternoon over the Montreal Impact in front of an announced sellout crowd of 13,034 at Saputo Stadium. The Impact took the lead when Leonardo Di Lorenzo blasted home a shot past goalkeeper Evan Bush just three minutes into the contest. In the final minute of the first half, Gary Brooks tied the score with a strike from 25 yards out. With the victory, Cystal Palace Baltimore is now just one point out of the eighth and final playoff spot in USSF Division 2.

Okay, Washington felt it too, probably more than Baltimore. It was the biggest earthquake in the history of recorded Baltimore/Washington earthquakes, meaning since the 1970s or something, and magnitude 3.6. Southern California doesn’t even roll over in bed for a magnitude 3.6. It woke me up at 5:04 a.m., the room was vibrating, a rumble moved through and on out, and by 5:05 I was asleep again. Of no concern, right? The east coast doesn’t get earthquakes, right?

Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic is gearing up for the launch of its new website focused on Baltimore sports and capturing more of the local market share.

The regional sports network will roll out CSNBaltimore.com July 20 — just before the start of Baltimore Ravens’ training camp — and has tapped former Baltimore Sun sports columnist John Eisenberg as the website’s lead writer.