Anne Arundel

Sen. Rand Paul is recruiting plaintiffs - and seeking donations - for a class-action lawsuit against the National Security Agency. “Dear Patriot,” the Kentucky Republican wrote Thursday in an e-mail to supporters. “I'm looking for ten million Americans to stand with me and sue the federal government and TAKE BACK our rights. “Can I count on your help? “Without it, I truly fear where our fragile Republic could be headed …” Paul, who is expected to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, told a Fox News interviewer this week that he would be asking Internet providers and telephone companies to join him in a lawsuit against the electronic eavesdropping agency based at Fort Meade.

Anne Arundel County Police say a pedestrian was hit by a car Friday in an incident they believe might have stemmed from a traffic dispute between occupants of one vehicle and the driver of another. According to police, at about 11:45 p.m., officers responded to westbound Route 100 in Pasadena for a report of a vehicle crash and found a pedestrian had been struck. Police said a preliminary investigation indicates an Acura was heading west on Route 100 and attempted to notify police about a SUV being operated "in a reckless manner," police said.

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet - one-tenth the size of the average new American house - and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap - that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

'Walking into Light' Landscape iPhoneography by Karen Klinedinst is on view through Aug. 2 at the Adkins Arboretum's Visitors Center, 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. A reception will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 22. Hours and information: 410-634-2847, ext. 0; or adkinsarboretum.org . 'Perspectives in Color' An exhibition by Martha Alexander Walker is on view through Sunday, June 23, in the gallery of Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church, 611 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd.

The University of Maryland Medical Center will send layoff notices to employees at the end of the month as it looks to cut costs in the wake of federal budget cuts and what it and other state hospitals have called inadequate rate increases. Jeffrey Rivest, president and CEO of the Baltimore hospital, sent an email to managers Tuesday that said individual letters regarding layoffs would be given out June 25, 26 and 27. The number of people who will lose their jobs still is being finalized, said spokeswoman Mary Lynn Carver said.

Gambling started Wednesday afternoon at the Rocky Gap Casino Resort right after the state approved the opening of its fourth casino, one that Western Maryland leaders hope will lure not only gamblers but also their families to a region eager for more tourist dollars. "It's open and jamming," said Scott Just, the general manager of the resort near Cumberland. "There's a couple hundred people in there. They were pressing up against the ropes. " The $35 million casino, located in what was the lakeside golf resort's conference center, will be open around the clock.

Annapolis is getting a special present to celebrate its 300th birthday: a peek at its beginnings.Traces of a cellar and blacksmith's forge, unearthed last week by archaeologists in the Anne Arundel County Courthouse parking lot, mark the earliest signs ever found of the tiny hamlet that became Maryland's state capital."

Maryland State Police say an officer with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office in New Jersey has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of a Lansdowne man after an alleged road rage incident Saturday night in Anne Arundel County. Police say Joseph Walker, 40, of East Ampton, N.J. is being held at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center on a $1 million bond after the shooting, which took place along Interstate 97. Shortly after 8:30 p.m., troopers were called for the report of a shooting along the shoulder of the ramp from northbound Route 3 to I-97.

Murder suspect Terrence Tolbert has been charged with dealing crack cocaine from the Annapolis street on which he lived while he was released during a pretrial appeal by prosecutors in the murder case. Tolbert, 21, was seen by police and videotaped selling crack cocaine Jan. 15, according to allegations in the charging documents. Police did not seek an arrest warrant until Feb. 18, a day after Tolbert was jailed on an unrelated drug charge, because his bond had been revoked in that case.

The location was changed for a Wednesday evening candlelight vigil for Joseph Dale Harvey Jr., who police say was fatally shot in a road-rage dispute. The 8 p.m. vigil site has been moved to an area off I-97 and Veterans Highway, on the loop to Morris Tongue Road. Harvey's friends agreed to relocate it at the suggestion of Maryland State Police. The original site was where Harvey was found shot Saturday, where Route 3 merges with Interstate 97. Police charged Joseph Lamont Walker, a New Jersey law enforcement officer, with second-degree murder in Harvey's death.

Anne Arundel County's director of public works is retiring after three decades in county government. Ron Bowen is retiring at the end of the month, County Executive Laura Neuman said on Friday. Bowen initially announced his retirement in March shortly after Neuman was appointed county executive. She replaced John R. Leopold, who resigned following his conviction of misconduct in office. Neuman convinced Bowen to change his mind. "I asked him to stay during the immediate transition," Neuman said.

Whether they're warning constituents of impending storms or posting pictures of their kids eating ice cream, social media is a growing part of the political world, four politicians said Thursday night. "Politics is being turned on its head," said Dan Bongino, a former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate who is now a "semi-official" candidate for Congress. Bongino - a heavy user of Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Vine and other social media - told a small "Tweetmasters" gathering in Annapolis that social media is a crucial way for politicians to make their voices heard to voters and constituents.

The location was changed for a Wednesday evening candlelight vigil for Joseph Dale Harvey Jr., who police say was fatally shot in a road-rage dispute. The 8 p.m. vigil site has been moved to an area off I-97 and Veterans Highway, on the loop to Morris Tongue Road. Harvey's friends agreed to relocate it at the suggestion of Maryland State Police. The original site was where Harvey was found shot Saturday, where Route 3 merges with Interstate 97. Police charged Joseph Lamont Walker, a New Jersey law enforcement officer, with second-degree murder in Harvey's death.

The New Jersey law enforcement officer charged with killing a Lansdowne man in a road-rage incident in Anne Arundel County was released from jail Wednesday after a $1 million bond was posted. Joseph Lamont Walker, a detective in the Hudson County, N.J., prosecutor's office, is facing a second-degree murder charge in the fatal shooting Saturday evening of Joseph Dale Harvey Jr., a truck driver who friends said recently bought a home in Lansdowne. Police said Wednesday that Walker's agency-issued gun was used and that an autopsy showed that Harvey suffered three gunshot wounds.

An appeals court has chosen January to hear the challenge by former Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold to his convictions for criminal misconduct in office. The 70-year-old Pasadena Republican was found guilty in January of having public employees do his political and personal tasks, including draining a urinary catheter bag he used after back surgery in 2010, and he resigned from office. His sentence included a month in jail, a month of home detention and 400 hours of community service.

He's come out on top in six contested elections as a Democrat in an increasingly conservative county, and has withstood criticism that he's both too soft and too tough, appeased minorities and disappointed minorities, said too little and said too much. He's been on the job a quarter-century, long enough to get his typewriter replaced by a computer with a flat-screen monitor, see defendants' locations pinpointed by cellphone towers and have DNA emerge as a key tool in criminal cases.

THERE IS little excuse when a convicted felon is set free because prosecutors make foolish and avoidable mistakes. Within the past three years, the Anne Arundel County state's attorney's office has had two convictions reversed because prosecutors did not try the cases in a timely fashion.In the most recent incident, Ronald Johnson, who had been found guilty by a jury of breaking into the Maxway discount store in Brooklyn Park, was freed because of a prosecutor's inattention to the state's "Hicks Rule."

Tammy Brown never took her eyes off the rim as she methodically dribbled a basketball between her legs. She stood about 12 feet from the object of her attention, expressionless in creating an almost hypnotic motion.She allowed the ball to take one looping bounce in front of her body, just far enough to entice her opponent to lunge for it. At the blink of an eye, the ball was drawn back to her side, and Brown sped past her stationary defender for an easy layup.The victim of this picturesque move, a muscular custodian from Baltimore named Reggie Brooks, smiled and winked at a visitor to Anne Arundel Community College's gymnasium.

Maryland State Police say an officer with the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office in New Jersey has been charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in connection with the shooting death of a Lansdowne man after an alleged road rage incident Saturday night in Anne Arundel County. Police say Joseph Walker, 40, of East Ampton, N.J. is being held at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center on a $1 million bond after the shooting, which took place along Interstate 97. Shortly after 8:30 p.m., troopers were called for the report of a shooting along the shoulder of the ramp from northbound Route 3 to I-97.