7 Eleven

Anne Arundel County Department of Health inspectors reviewed 89 food-service establishments from March 16 to 31. Eleven had critical safety violations that were corrected. There were no emergency closings.Southwest Concession Co., on Fairview Avenue in Linthicum, was cited for using food that was adulterated or spoiled and for workers' failing to wash their hands.Cited for not keeping food at proper temperatures were Dash In on Southern Boulevard in Lothian; Sue's Sub Shop on Annapolis Road in Odenton; Pizza Hut on Route 3 in Gambrills; Royal Farms stores on Londontown Road in Edgewater and on Oak Manor Drive in Glen Burnie; Wendy's on Russett Green East in Laurel; and Pizza Boli's on Ritchie Highway in Arnold.

A Frederick man who forced a female clerk at a New Windsor convenience store to undress and remain on a freezer floor during a robbery in July 1997 was convicted yesterday in Carroll Circuit Court.By making an Alford plea, Joseph T. Savage Jr., 40, a former Westminster resident, did not admit guilt but agreed that the state had sufficient evidence to convict him of the robbery.In a statement of the facts, prosecutor Theresa M. Adams said Savage made off with about $20 from the 7-Eleven in the 2800 block of New Windsor Road on July 17, 1997, and also took about $20 from the victim's pockets.

County police arrested two men from Odenton and a Glen Burnie teen-ager early Friday in connection with the armed robbery of a 7-Eleven store in the 500 block of Donaldson Ave. in Severn.Three men, two of them waving what appeared to be handguns, walked into the store at 4 a.m. and told the cashier they would shoot her if she did not quickly turn over all the cash, police said.The clerk complied, police said, and the bandits, wearing handkerchiefs over their faces and gloves, placed the money in a plastic bag and left the store.

The Maryland Food Bank this week will begin using a new refrigerated food truck, its second, to provide 100,000 more meals a month to 30 soup kitchens and other emergency food sites in the Baltimore area.The truck almost triples the amount of perishable food the bank collects from caterers, restaurants and stores and distributes in its Second Helping program.The $73,000 truck was bought after a fund-raising campaign by the food bank, 7-Eleven's 150 area stores and Radio One. The truck also will transport unsold sandwiches that 7-Eleven will give every day to the food bank.

It was not a bright idea, police said. The same robber, stealing twice from the same Northeast Baltimore convenience store, on the very same day.But police have charged David Bright, 28, of no known address with robbing the 7-Eleven at 2910 Harford Road twice Tuesday. And officers say his arrest and booking yesterday may be the least of his pains."I've seen them come back to do the same crime, but never on the same day," said Sgt. Frank Wagner of the Northeastern District. "Nobody ever said he was brilliant."

Hang out with Debbie Nigro for two morning hours at her 7-Eleven book signing and this is what you -- and anyone else within earshot -- learn:Her tan comes from a bottle.She weighed 212 before giving birth to her daughter.She crams more words into a minute than Webster does in a quartet of dictionary pages.She has a gift for making everyday life funny.People open up to her.Like the woman named Lenice, who confesses, "There's laundry lying on my bed where I fell asleep last night.""That's OK," Ms. Nigro counters.

There are plenty of jokes about police officers spending so much time at stores having doughnuts and coffee that they might as well set up shop.Today, the Baltimore County police will do just that.The county's first police community network center will open at a 7-Eleven store in the 4300 block of Annapolis Road in Baltimore Highlands. The store donated space and provided a desk and telephone for officers to write reports and make calls.Mark T. Nevins, 7-Eleven loss-prevention manager for the Northeast states, said the company's cooperative program with law enforcement agencies is designed to keep patrol officers from having to leave the area when they need to do desk work.

An unarmed man robbed a Brooklyn Park 7-Eleven store Wednesday night and fled with an undisclosed amount of money, county police said.The man entered the store in the 4000 block of Ritchie Highway shortly before 11 p.m., walked over to the clerk behind the counter and ordered the clerk to open the register, police said.After the clerk opened the register, the man reached over the counter, grabbed the drawer and put it on the counter. He took some cash and ran out of the store toward Hanover Street, police said.

Yeah, you're a big-time author now, got a collection of columns ("Last Call at the 7-Eleven," $19.95, available in fine book stores, etc.) which you've been flacking with all the subtlety of a $10 hooker.A partial chronicle of events:Thursday, Nov. 30 -- The book arrives in stores. That afternoon you get your first call from an adoring fan.Guy says he can't wait to buy your new book. Heard it's great, certain best-seller, etc.Your chest swells and you think: I'm gonna try walking on water.

Two $300 money orders were stolen from a 7-Eleven in the 3400 block of Old Annapolis Road in Laurel Saturday, county police said.A man walked into the store shortly after 10:30 a.m. Saturday and asked for the money orders, police said. He gave the clerk $600, then, as the clerk processed the money orders, reached over the counter and snatched the money orders and his $600, police said.

Immigrant advocates released video footage yesterday that they say shows federal agents unfairly targeted Latinos in January 2007 outside a 7-Eleven in Southeast Baltimore. The video, taken from store cameras, captured U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rounding up 24 men suspected of being illegal immigrants. Most have since been deported or left the country voluntarily. In the video, agents can be seen ignoring black store patrons while focusing on Latino men. Advocates say a white man who had hired three Latinos for day labor was allowed to drive his pickup truck away from the 7-Eleven, while the three workers were taken into custody.

A woman appealed to a Baltimore police sergeant for help early yesterday with a written note in a 7-Eleven, which led to a confrontation in which the officer shot her male companion outside the store, authorities said. The incident is the first police-involved shooting this year in Baltimore and the first under the department's new policy of withholding the names of officers who use deadly force in the line of duty. Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman, declined to release the sergeant's name, noting the new policy, which police say helps ensure officer safety.

Passing the torch of hosting the feast Rafael Alvarez touches on an often unacknowledged but deeply powerful rite of passage in "Keeping the feast" (Dec. 24). It is a moment so ignored that it does not even have a name. But it is moment that all of us know and most of us will experience: the passing of the holiday meal from one home to another. Some families rotate the honor, or burden, of hosting the clan's ceremonial meals, be they for Thanksgiving, Christmas or Passover. But more often that honor is bestowed on one select home, one matriarch or patriarch, and no one dare seek to wrest it away until its keepers are ready to lay the burden down.

As much as some people in Mount Vernon would like to have a 7-Eleven store around the corner, I truly feel that the proposed new store would be a huge mistake ("Bid to block 7-Eleven in Mount Vernon falls short," Nov. 25). If you have ever driven the 1000 block of Calvert St., I'm sure you know that it's often necessary to be in the left-hand lane a block before you get to the 7-Eleven because it's a given that someone will be double-parked there, blocking the right-hand lane while grabbing whatever it is he or she needs in the 7-Eleven on that block.

Seeking to prevent a 24-hour 7-Eleven store from opening near the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon, Baltimore City Councilman William H. Cole IV introduced a bill yesterday that would restrict the operating hours of any convenience store in the historic district. "A 24-hour location in that area is not going to help the community at all," he said. "Everything to me says this is not going to be a good fit." He said he's troubled by the late-night crowds drawn to a 7-Eleven in Federal Hill and would rather see the Mount Vernon building remain vacant than allow the store.

In tough times, arts need support The arts community and the audiences we serve are grateful to The Baltimore Sun for Tim Smith's thoughtful analysis of the financial challenges we face ("Hard times for the arts," Nov. 23) and for the subsequent editorial "A gift of art" (Nov. 26), which noted, "In tough times, music, theater, dance and the visual arts offer a boost - and their patrons and supporters can come from all walks of life." Truer words were never spoken. Last year, 14 million people attended arts events in Maryland, many of them in Baltimore, the art epicenter of the state.

New convenience store could add to crime I am appalled that 7-Eleven might successfully lease a property for a new 24-hour convenience store at a corner adjacent to Mount Vernon Square ("Bid to block 7-Eleven in Mount Vernon falls short," Nov. 25). As it is, the neighborhood often serves as a crossroads for the homeless and - much worse - for muggers, petty thieves, drug dealers, prostitutes and recently even a serial rapist. The fact that administrators of the Peabody Conservatory apparently view this development with indifference is especially outrageous, since their own students are frequently mugged and sometimes raped in the area.

A Mount Vernon group says it has failed to prevent a 7-Eleven from opening in a former restaurant overlooking the Washington Monument. City agencies, cultural groups and neighbors pledged $297,000 toward an effort to buy the building and stop the convenience store, but R. Paul Warren, who organized the effort, said his group stopped making offers when the price reached $450,000. "We reached our limit," Warren said. "We raised $300,000 in three weeks. That's not bad." Gregory N. Friedman, a real estate investor-broker, bought the former Buttery restaurant on the ground floor of a 19th-century building at Charles and Centre streets this year for $310,000.

2 Westport teens charged with first-degree murder Two 18-year-old Westport men have been charged with first-degree murder in a killing that took place near their homes in July. Tyrone Fields Jr. and Jawaun Harris, who both live on Sidney Avenue, were identified by witnesses as the men who chased down and shot Bernard Solomon, 23, on July 29, according to charging documents. Solomon was standing in the 2200 block of Sidney Ave. when two men approached and began to shoot at him. He ran down Sidney Avenue to elude his attackers but was struck numerous times by gunfire.

I begged to be part of it. I was answering the phone as Apu months before the promotion started." - FRENKO RAHANA, explaining his enthusiasm for a promotion for the new Simpsons movie in which his 7-Eleven franchise store on the south side of Chicago has been converted into a "Kwik-E-Mart"