Baltimore Street

Nearly 3,000 miles from the red-bricked neighborhoods on the banks of the Patapsco, a Baltimore native is on a sugary mission to introduce Californians to the joy that is a little cup of flavored ice on a hot summer day. She's a one-woman Baltimore snowball outreach campaign. "I felt that the West Coast was missing out," says Katie Baum, a Maryland transplant in the Bay Area who a few months ago launched Skylite Snowballs, a mobile dispensary where she sells an upscale version of the treats with a free topping of Baltimore nostalgia.

A good deal of blood was spilled on both sides. … It was one battle from the President Street Depo —- to the Camden Street depot — I can say no more. Baltimorean Catherine N. Smith, April 1861 One week after the bloodless bombardment and gentlemanly surrender of Fort Sumter, the butchery that would become the Civil War began in Baltimore. On April 19, 1861, the first 16 of more than 620,000 Americans who would perish in that conflict fell along the city waterfront as a pro-Southern mob clashed with a regiment of Massachusetts volunteers answering Abraham Lincoln's call to defend the nation's capital.

Man up, David Simon. You might be a fearless journalist, trailblazing TV creator and certified genius. But a couple of young hipsters from Seattle have discovered your dark secret. In the special collections department of the University of Washington, Sean Michael Robinson and Joy Delyria have located the obscure British masterpiece that made your name: Horatio Bucklesby Ogden's 1840s serial about mid-19th-century urban life, "The Wire," published in 10 30-page installments over a half-dozen years.

This week, Watchdog brings you updates on some previously unresolved problems. Update: A bench has been replaced at a Randallstown bus stop. Roslyn DeGraffinreid called to thank Watchdog last month because a broken wooden bench in the 9100 block of Liberty Road has been replaced. DeGraffinreid works nearby and waits for the bus at that stop after tiring shifts at a nursing home. "You all called the right people and now it's fixed so we can get to sit down," she said in a message to Watchdog.

The arrest of actress Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, along with more than 60 others, on drug distribution charges Thursday surely came as a disappointment to her many fans in Baltimore and around the country. But it could not have been entirely unexpected. Ms. Pearson, a self-admitted former drug dealer and convicted murderer by the time she was 16, reportedly had been trying to turn her life around after her acting talents were discovered a few years ago by the producers of HBO's "The Wire . " And she is, of course, presumed to be innocent until proved otherwise.

A 49-year-old man was found dead Friday morning of a gunshot wound to the head in the area of Montford and McElderry streets in Southeast Baltimore, a city police spokesman said. The victim was discovered about 6:30 a.m. by a passerby on Montford Street lying near the driver's side of a vehicle. The witness, who was on his way to work, called police, was questioned and dismissed. Police spokesman Agent Donny Moses said the identity of the victim was being withheld pending notification of next of kin. There were no witnesses and no suspects and and police do not know of a motive at this time, he said.

A 20-year-old man was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon in front of a small corner church in West Baltimore, police said. The man, who was identified Thursday at Marcus Brown, was shot multiple times at West Lanvale and North Payson streets, in the Midtown-Edmondson neighborhood, at about 12:45 p.m. He was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center and pronounced dead before 1:30 p.m. At the scene, a bike lay on its side as wind pushed evidence markers...

From this moment on, I apologize to you all in advance if you are stuck driving behind me in the city of Baltimore on weekday mornings. Feel free to lay a long and sonorous honking on me, shout at me from your window as you zip around me, or gesticulate wildly in your rear-view mirror, but I will be driving the posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour on side roads. It's kind of embarrassing, but ever since I began working in downtown Baltimore, I have received weekly photo verifications of my speeding infractions on various city streets, adding an extra $40 per week to my commuting costs.

The Patterson Park Neighborhood Association is protesting a bank's decision to auction off a key commercial building in the East Baltimore community rather than sell it to a group of residents who organized to buy the property. The empty building, at the corner of Baltimore Street and Linwood Avenue, had been a community gathering spot. The Patterson Park Community Development Corp., a nonprofit that reversed the spread of blight in the neighborhood by rehabbing homes, moved its offices there several years ago and rented out the first floor to a restaurant.

Parts of two downtown streets were closed for three hours Friday afternoon after a coolant leak at the University of Maryland Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. A contractor working in the basement broke a valve to a refrigeration system in a tank that holds coolant gas, Sharon Boston said. Because the gas can be an irritant, a Fire Department hazardous-materials team vented the gas outside as a precaution, the spokeswoman said. Lombard Street was closed between Penn and Greene streets, and Greene was closed between Lombard and Baltimore streets to accommodate emergency equipment.