City/county Digest

$554 million is sought for schools in Howard Co.

Howard County School Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin last night requested a $554 million operating budget for fiscal year 2007, a $50 million increase over the current year.

Cousin, who proposed the plan to the school board, said the additional funds are needed to offset higher energy and employee health insurance costs and to improve teacher pay.

"The plan is based on students," Cousin said.

The proposal would add 130 teaching positions and would include a 3.5 percent increase in teacher salaries. An additional $867,000 would be used to increase the pay of teachers in their first five years with the system.

The proposal also would include $30 million for transportation, an increase of $4 million.

The school system also plans to add full-day kindergarten at 10 elementary schools at a cost of $1.5 million.

John-John Williams IV

Baltimore: Downtown

Fire forces closure of courthouse

A small pile of trash and leaves caught fire in a window well outside the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse on North Calvert Street in downtown Baltimore yesterday morning, closing the busy building for hours and disrupting court proceedings. Chief Kevin Cartwright, a Baltimore Fire Department spokesman, said firefighters responded about 9:20 a.m. and extinguished the fire. Smoke got inside the building, forcing employees and visitors to be evacuated, Cartwright said. No injuries were reported.

Baltimore County: White Marsh

Shot fired during fight at mall

Baltimore County police at the White Marsh Precinct were interviewing three young males last night after a shot was fired during a fight in the crowded food court at White Marsh Mall. No injuries were reported. About 7 p.m., the three, two of them 18 and the other 19, were involved in a fight with four other males in the food court on the upper level of the mall when one of them fired a shot, said Cpl. Michael Hill, a police spokesman. Police stopped a car leaving the mall with the three suspects and recovered a handgun gun thought to have been used in the incident. The four other males fled the mall and were being sought as witnesses.