NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare | November 2, 2009
Baltimore County officials hope to piggyback on Montgomery County's existing contract for the lease and installation of speed-monitoring cameras. The County Council is to review the proposal, estimated to cost $179,925 a month, at its session Monday. Montgomery County's contract was awarded through a competitive process to ACS State & Local Solutions Inc., one of four bidders. The Dallas-based company would install the cameras at 15 county school locations, determined by Baltimore County police, and provide citation processing, statistical reporting, site assessments and maintenance.
NEWS
October 22, 2009
Prisoners allege guard turned search into 'strip tease' 2 The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland has asked Anne Arundel County officials to investigate inmates' claims that they are forced to remove clothing one article at a time for body searches that are akin to a "strip tease" at the detention center in Glen Burnie. The ACLU said in a letter to the jail administrator Oct. 13 that inmates allege that a jail guard conducts searches that amount to "unusually invasive and intentionally degrading strip searches."
NEWS
October 21, 2009
16-year-old is sought in robbery at gunpoint Police in Baltimore County are looking for a 16-year-old boy who they say robbed a Halethorpe house at gunpoint last week and has since threatened to kill the home's residents. The teen, identified as Bryan Sheppard, of the 900 block of Seagull Ave. in Brooklyn, is considered to be armed and dangerous, police said. Police said Tuesday that a man forced his way into a house in the 2900 block of Lakebrook Circle in Halethorpe at about 3 p.m. on Oct. 12. He produced a handgun and took property from the people who were there at the time, a police statement said.
NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare | October 20, 2009
While saying he recognized the state's fiscal problems, Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. pushed for several critical highway projects and upgrades to mass transit during a meeting with Maryland transportation officials Monday. Road and highway maintenance "remains essential both to the quality of life in our communities and to helping us to rebound and promote economic growth," Smith said. While making annual visits to each jurisdiction, transportation officials are delivering the same message: Only projects already under construction will be funded, while all others are deferred.
NEWS
By Frederick N. Rasmussen | October 19, 2009
Marie W. Kasckow, a former longtime Baltimore county public school vocal and general music teacher who enjoyed sharing her love of music with her students, died of pancreatic cancer Oct. 8 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 82. Marie Wiedorn, the daughter of a noted landscape architect and a teacher, was born in Cleveland and was raised there and in New Orleans. After graduating from Sophie Wright High School in New Orleans when she was 16, Mrs. Kasckow entered the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester as a viola and piano major, earning her bachelor's degree in 1947.
NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare | October 19, 2009
Maryland Department of Transportation officials are making their annual visit to Towson today to discuss roads projects and their status in the state's six-year capital funding program. Given the economic downturn and the state's fiscal woes, Baltimore County officials have limited their expectations. Like the other jurisdictions across the state, the county has developed a priority roads list, which includes improvements to the Beltway, I-83, and major arteries such as Pulaski Highway and Reisterstown Road, as well as more streetscapes and sidewalks.
NEWS
By Michael Dresser | October 18, 2009
Using a rope harness, Baltimore County fire and rescue crews staged a dramatic and technically difficult extraction of an injured worker from the bottom of a 120-foot coal silo Friday night and sent him on his way to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Lt. Lynn Mullahey said managers at the Constellation Energy plant off Carroll Island Road in eastern Baltimore County called 911 at 6:13 p.m. to report that a contractor had fallen from the top of the silo. Mullahey said an advanced technical rescue team and crews from all over the county responded to the call, dealing with a cold, steady rain.
NEWS
By Rob Kasper | October 18, 2009
At first the connection seems vague between the bustling Saturday morning 32nd Street Farmers Market and an Episcopal church basement filled with energetic preschoolers from around the world. But it is there, one of the social threads that bind communities together. The vendors at the Waverly market pay rent. The market association collects the rent and after paying its bills, gives grants, usually about $500, to nonprofits working in the community. "We usually award $8,000 to $10,000 a year," said Vernon Rey, president of the market.
NEWS
By Paul West | October 18, 2009
WASHINGTON -The enormous federal stimulus program is delivering billions of dollars across Maryland in uneven waves, a Baltimore Sun analysis shows, with some struggling areas faring better than others. Parts of the state have benefited from Washington's desire to spend money quickly, with ready-to-go projects collecting early infusions of money. And Maryland as a whole has come out ahead, thanks in part to long-term investments in science and education that are a major part of the stimulus law. Government officials say recovery aid has been targeted to places with the greatest need, and for the most part that appears to be the case.
NEWS
By Liz F. Kay | October 17, 2009
A woman in her 20s was shot at a northern Baltimore County gas station Friday night, according to Baltimore County police. Officers responded to an Exxon station in the 300 block of Mount Carmel Road in the Hereford area at 8:16 p.m., police said. They found a woman who had been shot in the back. The woman was taken to Sinai Hospital, according to police.