Baltimore Gas

Christopher Van Hollen Sr., a retired Foreign Service officer and ambassador to Sri Lanka, died of Alzheimer's disease complications Jan. 30 at the Washington Home and Hospice. The former Baltimore resident was 90. Born in Baltimore and raised in Cedarcroft, he was the grandson of George Henry Van Hollen, a seafood packer and owner of the Atlantic Packing Co. The family also developed the Cedarcroft section of North Baltimore and lent its name to Hollen Road. His father, Donald Van Hollen, was a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. employee who later worked at the family's seafood business.

Raymond Griffith Sinclair Jr., a retired Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. executive who was a decorated World War II Marine, died Monday of congestive heart failure at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 92. Born and raised in Collingswood, N.J., Mr. Sinclair was a 1938 graduate of the Pennington School in Pennington, N.J. Mr. Sinclair interrupted his college studies at Washington College to enlist in 1942 in the Marine Corps. After being commissioned a second lieutenant in 1944, he joined the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific.

John R. Cochran Jr., former Washington postmaster and a World War II veteran, died Wednesday of pneumonia at Stonegates Retirement Community in Greenville, Del. He was 87. The son of a dairyman and a teacher, John R. Cochran Jr. was born in Monkton and raised in Taylor, Harford County. After graduating in 1941 from Bel Air High School, he moved to Baltimore and went to work for the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Drafted into the Army Air Forces in 1943, Mr. Cochran served as a radio operator and turret gunner aboard B-24 bombers in Europe as a member of the 376th Bomb Group of the 514th Squadron.

After a day in which they temporarily became waterfront businesses, shops and cafes on North Charles Street began reopening Thursday, when the river created by a massive water main break at 20th Street receded. While several blocks remained closed to vehicular traffic, pedestrians, bicyclists and the occasional skateboarder enjoyed the dry pavement and fewer speeding cars. About 450 moviegoers headed into the Charles Theater for a talk and screening with director Oliver Stone. Restaurants welcomed back the business they lost to Wednesday's gusher from a 60-inch, 90-year-old broken main.

Central Maryland appears to have been spared the worst of Sandy's fury, which was delivered farther up the Atlantic Coast. One man was killed after a tree fell on his home in Pasadena. A second was killed in a head-on collision in Clarksburg that officials said was connected to flooding. No other deaths had been reported in the Greater Baltimore region as of 9:00 a.m., though four people in Howard County were hospitalized following carbon monoxide poisoning related to the use of a gas-powered generator.

Officials for Carroll County Emergency Operations said Thursday they are monitoring the projected path of Hurricane Sandy, and that weather models from the National Weather Service indicate the hurricane will strike land somewhere between New York and Maryland - impacting the area Sunday evening, and perhaps lasting through as Tuesday. Officials said high winds and rain are expected and may cause some flooding and power outages. During the storm, the county will post weather related information on various county websites and social media outlets, and will also communicate with the media.

The National Weather Service has recorded two reports of damage in Harford County from storms that moved through the Baltimore metro area Friday evening. Just after 7 p.m., a 911 caller reported downed trees and powerlines along a 100-foot wide path near Salem Church and Cox roads in Jarrettsville. About the same time, a gazebo was reported damaged near the intersection of Route 23 and Salem Church Road. A tornado has not been confirmed, but the damage is in an area that was under a tornado warning at the time of the reports, said National Weather Service meteorologist Stephen Konarik in Sterling, Va. The weather service will investigate the damage and any photographic evidence to determine whether a tornado occured, he said.

WEATHER: Mostly cloudy , with patchy morning fog and a high near 74. Friday night is expected to be partly cloudy, with a low around 53. TRAFFIC: Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues. TOP NEWS Boy Scout files reveal 90 cases of alleged sexual abuse in Md. : The veil was lifted Thursday on decades of confidential sexual-abuse allegations in the ranks of the Boy Scouts of America with the court-ordered release of more than 1,200 of the organization's "perversion files.

Carol M. Herndon, a longtime volunteer and advocate for the developmentally disabled, died Sept. 8 of complications from cancer at PowerBack Rehabilitation in Lutherville. She was 82. The daughter of a surgeon and a homemaker, Carol Mae Smith was born and raised in Norfolk, Va. She was a 1947 graduate of the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pa., and earned a bachelor's degree in 1951 from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Mass. After spending a year in France on a Fulbright scholarship, Mrs. Herndon studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

I noticed a moving truck outside the old St. Alphonsus parochial school in the west side of downtown Baltimore on Saratoga Street. Someone was moving into an apartment in this Victorian building, once home to a school that made a a valiant attempt to remain open, The school closed a while back, and the building is now a residence. The same day, a little more than a block away, I spotted a banner headed by the numerals "401" and the slogan, "Baltimore's fastest growing neighborhood isn't where you think it is. " The 401 refers to a 2010 census tract defined as Paca Street on the west, Pratt Street on the south, Franklin Street on the north, and President Street and Interstate 83 on the east.