Maryland
Andrew C. Ciofalo, founder of Loyola University Maryland journalism program, dies in Russia
Andrew C. Ciofalo, a veteran newspaperman who established the journalism program at Loyola University Maryland and also directed an American study-abroad education company, died March 7 of undetermined causes at Moscow City Hospital No. 67. He was 89.
The former Towson resident had lived in Russia for the last five years with his wife of many years, Dr. Olga Timofeeva, a neuroscientist.
“Professor Ciofalo helped to inspire my passion for journalism. He encouraged me to take on leadership roles in our college newspaper and he taught me the importance of an independent press that holds people and institutions in power to account,” wrote Trif Alatzas, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Baltimore Sun, in an email.
Kevin M. Atticks, Maryland secretary of agriculture, had also been a student of Professor Ciofalo.
“He was a rare combination of practitioner and visionary,” Mr. Atticks wrote in an email. “His friendship, humor and mentorship was omnipresent, and his lifelong commitment to experimental education ran deep.”
Andrew Carmine Ciofalo, son of Andrew C. Ciofalo Sr., a tile mason and artisan, and his wife, Frances, a retail manager, was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and was a graduate of Salesian High School on Staten Island.
Professor Ciafalo earned a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy from Brooklyn College and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
He began his newspaper career in 1955 as an editorial assistant for the New York Daily News, and after graduating from Columbia, was named managing editor of Manhattan East, a New York city weekly community newspaper. He had been a contributor to the old Brooklyn Eagle.
From 1962 to 1969, he had been an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia Journalism; an editorial consultant to Circus Magazine; a senior writer for Custom Book Publishers; a managing editor of Clyde Magazine, a general men’s magazine; and a radio news writer for the old New York Herald Tribune.
Professor Ciafalo was a lecturer in journalism at Brooklyn College from 1962 to 1972 and director of development at the New York Institute of Technology.
From 1970 to 1976, he was director of college relations and development at Bronx Community College. While there, he established a university housing initiative, the University Heights Development Corp., that renovated off-campus dormitories as senior citizen housing.
In 1981, he served as an editor and writer for McGraw Hill, where he wrote a newsletter, “This Month In Telecommunications.”
Professor Ciofalo was hired in 1983 by Loyola where he established what is now its Communication Department.
“Andy Ciofalo was an energetic and innovative member of the Communication Department faculty at Loyola, where he founded the journalism and editing track,” wrote John E. McIntyre, former copy desk chief and assistant managing editor at The Sun, in an email.
“He was intimately involved in the creation of the book editing track and establishment of the student-run publisher Apprentice House Press,” wrote Mr. McIntyre, who was an adjunct professor for more than 20 years at Loyola where he taught editing. “I was invited twice to participate in his summer program in Cagli in Italy’s Marche. Over four weeks undergraduates did interviews, wrote stories, took photographs and created online content. He was a huge encourager of students and faculty.”
Professor Ciofalo had a knack for recruiting students.
“Andy single-handedly altered the trajectory of my life and career,” Mr. Atticks wrote. “Toward the end of my freshman year, I was leaving a music class contemplating a music major when the elevator door opened and there was Andy.
“After a quick two-flight conversation, Andy had convinced me to give journalism and publishing a try. It worked. Now 30 years later, I’m leading the very publishing house Andy envisioned, Apprentice House Press, that would provide book industry experience for our students, and have built a career founded on communication.”
“He leaves a legacy of teaching so many aspiring journalists over the years and I feel fortunate that our paths crossed,” Mr. Alatzas wrote.
In 2002, he founded the Cagli Program in International Reporting, and since 2005, Professor Ciofalo had been president of the Institute for Education in International Media — ieiMedia LLC — which operates the Cagli Program as an independent entity, and includes partnerships with Marquette University, Temple University and Gonzaga University.
The institute also includes experimental projects in Italy, Northern Ireland, China, Spain, Israel and Turkey, in partnership with San Francisco State University, Iowa State University, James Madison University, University of Jamestown, Cal State University Fullerton, Guangxi Normal University and Hebrew University.
After 30 years at Loyola, he retired in 2013, and moved to Venice, Florida.
Reflecting on his tenure in a Sun op-ed piece in 2023, Professor Ciofalo wrote:
“Would I do anything different today? Of course I would. I would work with students to engage intellectually with the issues facing journalism now. Never has the threat been so terminal,” he wrote.
“But also there never have been more platforms to which we must adapt without losing the meaning of journalism for our society. We are living in a selfie world where ego supersedes the truth of objectivity. Even more challenging, a mind-altered society cannot distinguish between the real world and fantasy. If there is an audience out there, we have to find it — and nurture it.”
When he wasn’t writing, teaching or lecturing, Professor Ciofalo enjoyed traveling. He was also a frequent contributor to The Sun and other newspapers.
“He loved Italy and cooking and eating, and was also a great cook himself,” said his daughter, Terri Ciofalo, of Champaign, Illinois. “He was also a baritone tenor and enjoyed singing.”
Last month, in a blog post, Professor Ciofalo contemplated the lede, or opening paragraph, of his obituary, and had written several suggested entries.
His headline was “Old and Productive — Gone today,” and he had written:
“Prof. Emeritus Andrew Ciofalo, who actively ran his American study-abroad education company well into his 90’s, died today at age 98 while living obscurely on financial fumes in Moscow, Russia.”
Under a second headline, “He Coulda Been Somebody,” he had written: “The prideful young man who was once called ‘the best writer’ in his Columbia graduate journalism class by the revered Prof. Larry Pinkham, died today at age 98 in Moscow, Russia — never having lived up to those expectations. But Prof. Andrew Ciofalo did pivot into an innovative career in journalism education where he helped others fulfill his faded dream.”
Plans for services to be held in the chapel on the Loyola campus are incomplete.
In addition to his wife, Dr. Timofeeva, and daughter, he is survived by a son, David Andrew Ciofalo of Roland Park; a stepdaughter, Jennifer Lynn Tosh of Roland Park; a brother, Thomas Ciofalo of Ramsey, New Jersey; and four grandchildren. Earlier marriages to Linda Stivak and Judith Dobler, ended in divorce.
It was a cloudy and overcast Memorial Day Weekend, not ideal for the beach and picnics, but a great one for fishing. Anglers across Maryland enjoyed a variety of different fishing adventures. Starting Monday June 1, fishing for striped bass will get a lot easier to understand when all waters of Maryland’s portion of the Read the Rest…
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WASHINGTON COUNTY, Md. (7News) — Traffic was snarled Wednesday morning along Interstate 70 in Washington County after a charter bus caught fire, the Maryland State Police (MSP) said.
Troopers responded to westbound I-70 at I-81 around 6:36 a.m. for the fire. MSP said the charter bus was traveling when a tire blew out.
SEE ALSO | 2-year-old dies days after Fairfax County crash that killed 2 adults
The driver pulled over, but then the bus started to catch fire. The driver and students were evacuated off safely, and no one was injured.
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The fire has since been put out. All westbound lanes remained closed at this time.
Maryland
Maryland stops juveniles from automatic adult charges for many gun, assault crimes despite prosecutors’ warning
Maryland will no longer automatically charge some juveniles as adults for several serious crimes.
Governor Wes Moore signed the Youth Charging Reform Act into law on Tuesday morning.
Supporters praised it as giving young offenders a second chance, but opponents—including many prosecutors—said it gives young offenders a free pass.
The impact of reform
Juvenile crime has alarmed many across Maryland. Video WJZ Investigates obtained earlier this month shows a convenience store robbery in Baltimore, with suspects as young as 14.
But advocates for charging reform said the state treats young offenders too harshly and locks many of them up without judicial discretion.
They have been fighting for more than a decade to stop automatic adult charges for certain crimes—including for many handgun offenses and serious assaults.
They finally won a victory with the governor signing the Youth Charging Reform Act.
“Maryland was automatically charging kids as young as 14 as adults for cases that almost always—almost always in the super majority of cases—ended back into the juvenile court anyway but only months after being locked up in jail and many times in solitary confinement,” said Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore City Democrat. “Nearly a semester of high school is gone. For you and I, that might not seem like a long time, but for 14-year-old or a 15-year-old, that is a lifetime.”
Ferguson stressed a statistic long cited by advocates for youth charging reform.
“Here in Maryland, we charge more children as adults than in every other state other than Alabama,” Ferguson said. “This bill will change that. It keeps cases in the right court from the start, which actually and by the data makes us safer and is better for those young people.”
House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk, a Democrat representing Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties, echoed Ferguson’s comments at the signing ceremony.
Peña-Melnyk said it shows lawmakers’ “commitment to giving people a better life” and noted her own experiences as a prosecutor and a public defender.
“You need to give people an opportunity,” Peña-Melnyk said. “You need to give them second chances.”
Certain severe crimes including rape and murder still mandate adult charges.
The new law also keeps juveniles out of adult prisons, away from the “sight and sound” of adult offenders, with rare exceptions.
What the numbers show
State data revealed in 2025 that 303 Maryland youth were charged as adults for gun crimes. More than 200 were charged as adults with first-degree assault.
Only 58 of those weapons charges stayed in adult court, along with only 38 of the first-degree assault charges.
The fiscal impact report on the bill also showed a drastic change for state’s attorneys’ offices across Maryland.
Baltimore City will have to hire as many as 16 new employees, including 11 assistant state’s attorneys, to review the cases involving juveniles.
You can read the fiscal impact report here.
The law is also expected to address racial disparities, with a state analysis showing 77% of youth charged as adults in Maryland in 2025 are Black.
What prosecutors are saying
Many top prosecutors, including Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, believe the charging reform is misguided.
Bates, in his role as head of the state’s attorney’s association, told WJZ, “…The General Assembly chooses to ignore the data once again and pass legislation that will allow youth with guns who commit robberies and violent assaults to be given a free pass time after time when they are caught illegally carrying or using a firearm.”
Bates said prosecutors wanted the General Assembly to delay implementation of the reforms by three years to allow the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services to develop new programming to assist young offenders.
“Instead, our request was ignored, and the members of the General Assembly vilified us for it,” Baltimore City’s top prosecutor wrote.
Howard County State’s Attorney Rich Gibson cited the case of 19-year-old Emmetson Zeah who killed a 15- and a 16-year-old outside the Mall In Columbia
Gibson said Zeah was given multiple second chances before being sentenced to life without parole last week.
“Our broader system failed him long before we arrived at this moment,” Gibson said. In the span of two years, this defendant had six separate contacts with the justice system. The majority occurred within the juvenile justice system, and yet none of those interventions altered the trajectory that he was on—nor did they accurately recognize the escalating warning signs that ultimately led us to where we are today.”
Gibson also told reporters, “Let me be clear, prosecutors across the state have never opposed appropriate juvenile diversion or rehabilitative efforts. We support keeping more youthful offenders in the juvenile system, but only once that system is equipped with the resources, the staffing, the accountability measures, and the evidence-based programming necessary to address specific factors that drive that juvenile behavior.”
Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger denounced the reform law last week at a debate hosted by WJZ and The Banner.
“I believe we should leave the laws the way they are in Maryland. Juveniles who commit violent crimes can be held accountable as adults,” Shellenberger said. “…We need to put more money into the juvenile justice system so that when they commit their first breaking-and-entering at the age of 14 or 15, we can get them the kind of help they and their family need, so that I don’t have to put them in jail for life when they’ve killed somebody at the age of 17.”
Public defender says reform “overdue”
“For more than a decade, Maryland has automatically routed children into adult criminal court based solely on the charge filed at arrest, without considering the child’s history, circumstances, or capacity for growth,” said Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue. “Maryland does this for 33 separate offenses, which is more than any state in the country except Alabama. Yet 85 percent of those cases are ultimately dismissed or sent back to juvenile court anyway, often only after the children spend months in adult facilities without school, services, or meaningful family contact.”
While she praised the signing of the reform legislation, Dartigue noted there are still 26 offenses where juveniles are automatically charged as adults and called for further reforms.
“The evidence is clear: automatic adult prosecution does not make communities safer,” Dartigue said. “It makes children more likely to reoffend, families less stable, and communities fractured at public expense. Every one of those 26 pathways is a choice Maryland is making with full knowledge of what that choice costs. It is a system we must change.”
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