Battery

Richard Morgan tried and failed to trade his 2000 Toyota in the federal government's "cash for clunkers" program, but on Saturday he got a deal from the state of Maryland that was almost as good. He dumped his gas-hog Honda power mower and replaced it with a brand-new, deeply discounted, battery-powered rig. "Mowing your lawn is like driving from here to Pittsburgh," said the 51-year-old Columbia resident, citing a comparison that underscores the environmental damage caused by small gasoline engines.

Vorbeck Materials, a Jessup firm, won a national competition by the Department of Energy that highlighted startup companies willing to launch new products from technology developed within the country's national laboratories. Vorbeck specializes in developing products with graphene, a variation of the graphite that's used in pencils and one of the strongest and most conductive materials available. Vorbeck was one of three firms across the country who won the "America's Next Top Energy Innovator Challenge" by the DOE. The company is using a method developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries, which are used in laptops, mobile devices and electric vehicles.

A Westminster man charged with raping a female companion in October was found guilty of battery in Carroll County Circuit Court and given a suspended sentence yesterday. Judge Francis M. Arnold sentenced Gary Lee Grimes, 48, of the first block of Pennsylvania Ave. to three years in state prison, then suspended all but 182 days, the amount of time the defendant has spent in the Carroll County Detention Center since his arrest. He had been held on $100,000 bail. The judge also placed Mr. Grimes on five years of unsupervised probation and ordered him to have no contact with the victim, who is not being identified by The Sun to protect her privacy.

North Calvert Street 2800 block, between 4 p.m. Sept. 20 and 5 p.m. Sept. 21. Schwinn 10-speed M20 mountain bike stolen from porch by cutting off lock. 3000 block, between 9 p.m. Sept. 21 and 4 a.m. Sept. 23. Car battery stolen. 3000 block, between 9 p.m. Sept. 21 and 6:20 a.m. Sept. 22. Silver Toshiba laptop and case stolen from residence. Entry gained by climbing though open window above kitchen door. Charlcote Road 4200 block, between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Sept.

Annapolis police arrested a 22-year-old Annapolis woman yesterday and charged her with battery and possession of drugs.Deshera L. Franklin of the first block of Heritage Court was being held in the county jail on $10,000 bond.Police said they saw the alleged battery victim, 31-year-old Joy James of the first block of Pleasant St., running down Clay Street with scissors in her hand, chasing another woman.Police said that when they stopped her she was bleeding under her eye and told them she had been hit by a bottle.

Harford County Councilman Mark S. Decker was convicted of battery yesterday -- but acquitted of a sex charge -- in a case stemming from physical contact with a female custodian in a courthouse hallway last year.Judge John Grason Turnbull II, who heard the case that was moved to Baltimore County Circuit Court, cited conflicting testimony in finding Mr. Decker, 35, not guilty of a fourth-degree sex offense. The custodian alleged that he had touched her breast."I'm not Solomon, I can't look into a crystal ball," Judge Turnbull said of the differing accounts.

My clock is not working right. I've had my PC for seven months, and the time in the lower right corner of the desktop has been perfect, even telling me it switched to daylight-saving time. Then this week, it started running slowly, losing over 30 minutes in a day. Any suggestions (other than resetting the clock every time I boot up)?The symptoms you describe fit a failure of the CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) battery that your computer uses to keep track of time when you turn the power off. Unless you know your way around the inside of your computer, I would recommend taking it to a shop for battery replacement.

A man who authorities said pushed and kicked two county officers who were trying to search him was arrested on battery and drug charges Tuesday night.Officers Roger Crawford and Stefanie Samler went to a bar in the 700 block of Hammonds Ferry Road about 9 p.m. to investigate a report of a wanted man. Officer Crawford tried to search the man, who pulled a replica of a handgun from his pocket, police said.The man tried to push the officer away and kicked Officer Samler after he was arrested and handcuffed, police said.

A Bowie man pleaded guilty in Howard Circuit Court yesterday to one count of battery in the Jan. 14 attack of a friend in a North Laurel apartment.Frederick M. Bell, 40, entered his plea before Judge Diane O. Leasure in the attack on Clifton Powell, 34, of Laurel. He received a suspended two-year sentence and two years of probation and was ordered to undergo counseling for alcoholism.A statement of facts read in court yesterday said the two men and other friends were drinking together in an apartment in the 9100 block of Moonshine Hollow early Jan. 14 when an argument started.

A Brooklyn Park man was arrested Wednesday afternoon for allegedly trying to run down a county police officer with his truck, officials said yesterday.Northern District Officer Samuel Sweet was patrolling with a radar gun for speeding motorists at 10th Avenue and Harbor Valley Drive about 4:30 p.m. when he clocked two vehicles at 37 mph in a 25 mph zone. He motioned for both vehicles to pull over.The first vehicle stopped, but the driver of the second, a 1989 Ford truck, slowed almost to a stop, then accelerated.

First, an earthquake rattled Carol Boehlein in her Southeast Baltimore rowhouse. Now Hurricane Irene is threatening to blow her windows in. That's why Boehlein and her husband, Bernard, were at a Home Depot in Southeast Baltimore on Friday afternoon with their handyman, buying plywood. They planned to nail the boards to the windows of the house they've lived in for 40 years. "After what happened with the earthquake," Boehlein said, "I don't take nothing for granted. " Across the Baltimore region, people were preparing for the hurricane, the brunt of which is expected to lash Maryland Saturday night and Sunday morning.

John Minutella rushed through the doors of Ace Hardware in Waverly on Friday evening, his shirt dampened with sweat and face flushed red. "Please tell me you have batteries and flashlights," he pleaded to anyone who would listen. "Please tell me yes. " The response: blank stares. Then a salesman, Anthony Williams, spoke up, looking toward an empty shelf. "I can tell you where they used to be. " As people crowded stores across the Baltimore region looking for storm necessities in preparation for Hurricane Irene, the demand for batteries reached a fever pitch and seemed to outpace the clamoring for bread and bottled water.

Miltec UV International in Stevensville is a getting a $4.5 million federal grant to develop technology designed to reduce the cost of making lithium ion battery electrodes. The company is one of 40 across the country that is sharing $175 million in grants awarded by the U.S. Energy Department to make vehicle components that will help automakers attain recently announced fuel-efficiency standards. President Barack Obama last month announced fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks that will bring fuel efficiency to 54.5 miles per gallon by model year 2025.

Nobody gets a shiny new bike for Christmas anymore. They get a video game version of the Tour de France. Nobody gets a sweater or a shirt or a tie these days. They get an iPhone, an iPad, a Kindle or Xbox Kinect. And stockings are stuffed with controllers, headsets and AA batteries instead of candy. It was a high-tech holiday this year, and the grown-ups in my family were scrambling to keep up with the kids. We were faking that look of composure, the one we save for the self-checkout lines at Home Depot.

America's newest "green" cars made a stop Monday at the Johns Hopkins University, where students used to being examined turned the tables, crowding around to see, sit in and drive a Chevrolet Volt. The students also peppered the carmakers' engineers with questions about how the cars work — and how much they cost. General Motors brought a few of its sleek, quiet Volts — a cross between an electric car and a hybrid — to Hopkins' Homewood campus so the private university's students could check them out. The event was part of a national tour to generate buzz for the rollout of the first vehicles for sale to the public.

Richard Morgan tried and failed to trade his 2000 Toyota in the federal government's "cash for clunkers" program, but on Saturday he got a deal from the state of Maryland that was almost as good. He dumped his gas-hog Honda power mower and replaced it with a brand-new, deeply discounted, battery-powered rig. "Mowing your lawn is like driving from here to Pittsburgh," said the 51-year-old Columbia resident, citing a comparison that underscores the environmental damage caused by small gasoline engines.

A former instructor at Emerge Inc., a vocational-technical school in Woodlawn serving the developmentally disabled, has been convicted of battering a 35-year-old developmentally disabled man, the state attorney general's office said.Sigmond Earl Davis, 22, of the 3200 block of Howard Park Ave. in Northwest Baltimore's Forest Park was found guilty of battery Wednesday by Judge Richard Motsay of the Baltimore County District Court.Prosecutors said Davis hit the victim with a 10-inch wooden stick.

In almost every IBM-compatible computer, there's a ticking time bomb that can turn an expensive machine into an expensive paperweight.It struck my friend Sid last week."

Camera case is picture-perfect Name: Golla Digi Bag What it is: A polyester carrying bag for compact digital cameras. I tried the Field model in dark gray with white flowers. It's not so feminine that a guy would feel uncomfortable hooking the carabiner clip to his belt loop. How it works: Not a lot to explain. You slide your compact digital camera into the padded pouch, tuck an extra battery and another memory stick into the interior pocket and zip it up. The good: Choosing a case for our Sony Cyber-shot became an unusually difficult process for my wife and me. We would search through an entire selection at a department store, and the ones she picked looked too bulky to me, though they had plenty of storage for an extra battery and memory stick or sticks, and the ones I picked bothered her aesthetically.