Afternoon

Sleet fell in the Baltimore metropolitan area yesterday, arriving in the afternoon on blasts of cold air pouring into the Chesapeake region from the north and northwest. The precipitation was expected to end this afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.Jim Wiesmueller, a weather service forecaster in Sterling, Va., said moisture from the southwestern part of the country mixed with the cold air to create "ice pellets," or sleet.Temperatures were just below 40 degrees at rush hour last night, Wiesmueller said.

A person was fatally shot Thursday afternoon in a Glen Burnie home, police said. Around 3 p.m., Anne Arundel County police were called to a residence in the 1500 block of Furnace Ave., a police spokesman said. Homicide detectives were questioning another person who was in the home when detectives arrived, according to police. No other information, including the sex of the deceased, was made available by 6:45 p.m. steve.kilar@baltsun.com twitter.com/stevekilar

The Annapolis District Court building closed at noon Thursday due to a lack of heat, and the building is expected to reopen Friday morning. Officials said the courthouse, on Rowe Boulevard at Taylor Avenue, was having mechanical problems. Repairs were expected to be completed Thursday, said judiciary spokeswoman Angelita Plemmer. The problem affected only the District Court building in Annapolis. The other District Court in Anne Arundel County, located in Glen Burnie, remained open, officials said.

Traffic delays and lane closures are expected on U.S. 1 in Howard County from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon, according to Howard County Police. Officers will be directing traffic along the route of the Law Enforcement Memorial Run, according to a police announcement. Runners, including police officers and supporters, will be traveling south on Route 1 from the Baltimore County line to the Prince George's County line. Pedestrians have the right of way, police say.

Harford County police have identified a 16-year-old boy who drowned Saturday afternoon in a Havre de Grace park. Michael Jerome Sawyer, of the 300 block of Seattle Slew Place in Havre de Grace, was apparently swimming with friends at Jean S. Roberts Memorial Park Saturday afternoon, near the 600 block of Water Street, in an area where the water runs about nine feet deep. After swimming out about 20 yards, the friends attempted to return to shore, but Sawyer struggled to return to the shore line for unknown reasons, said Jeff Gilpin, a spokesman for the Havre de Grace Police Department.

I had a nice afternoon with Ron and June Smith and some of their friends and family members at the Smith family home in Shrewsbury Tuesday. No tape recorders today, but I wanted to share these pictures taken by June of Ron showing me the game ball Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh gave Smith Sunday night after the Cleveland game. I know, the second picture looks like I am trying to take the ball away from Smith. What can I say? My thanks to the Smiths for inviting me into their home again.

A Glen Burnie couple was robbed at gunpoint Tuesday afternoon as they walked toward their apartment on Americana Circle, county police said.Two men approached a 24-year-old woman and her 19-year-old boyfriend at 5 p.m. One of the men pulled a handgun and said to the pair, "You know what time it is?" police said.The second man searched both victims for their wallets and took an undisclosed amount of money from them. The bandits ran off toward Ritchie Highway, police said.

Scattered showers are possible in the Baltimore region on Thursday as temperatures reach the upper 40s under cloudy skies, according to the National Weather Service. There is a 30 percent chance of rain during the day, with a slight chance of showers in the evening as well, when temperatures will likely drop to the low 30s, the weather service said. It will be cloudy overnight and then partly sunny Friday morning, followed by more cloud cover and a chance of flurries Friday afternoon, the service said.

Much-needed rainfall saturated Maryland today, but periods of heavy downpours could produce flooding in some parts of the state, forecasters said. The National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., issued a flood watch today that will be in effect through Saturday afternoon for most of the state west of the Chesapeake Bay. The rain is expected to taper off to light showers by Saturday evening. Totals of three to six inches are expected by late Saturday afternoon, according to the weather service.

Newsboys once handed you three separate afternoon newspapers for a buffalo nickel.The 1920s were the glory years of the five-o'clock paper.The Evening Sun, the Baltimore News and the Baltimore Post each possessed a voice, a persoonality and a constituency. From 1872 until today, the daily afternoon newspaper had an unbroken life in Baltimore.It flourished at the hour of the day when the clock's hands said it was time to go home. It functioned within a downtown crowded '' with workers who gushed homeward out of offices, plants and department stores.