Bill Toohey

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke today ordered the Benton Municipal Building at 417 E. Fayette St. closed at noon because of "unpleasant" odors that affected the lower floors of the 14-story city office building.Bill Toohey, spokesman for the city Department of Housing and Community Development, said the odor appeared to be related to nearby subway construction. Hundreds of workers were sent home. Mr. Toohey said the vapors, which smell like cleaning fluid, did not appear to be toxic.

More than a half million dollars has been committed to law enforcement agencies across the state to improve school bus safety, the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention announced Monday. Though the commitment comes months after a one-day study the State Department of Education discovered more than 7,000 violations by drivers regarding school bus safety, the two are not related, a state spokesman said. "There's no direct cause and effect," said Bill Toohey, a spokesman for the Office of Crime Control and Prevention.

Bill Toohey, the spokesman for the Baltimore Department of Housing and Community Development and the city housing authority, has resigned to become press secretary for Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski.The 47-year-old Mr. Toohey has been the spokesman for the department and the authority -- city and federal housing agencies that are intertwined by federal funds -- since April 1988.Mr. Toohey left his position briefly in October 1990 to become press secretary for Howard County Executive Elizabeth Bobo but returned in December 1990 after Ms. Bobo was unexpectedly defeated by Charles I. Ecker.

After almost 14 years as the voice of the Baltimore County police, Bill Toohey will leave the department on Friday, take a week off, and start a new job on Feb. 1. Toohey, a former radio reporter and spokesman for two U.S. senators, is to be the communications director for the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention, which coordinates programs, grants and research for public safety and corrections agencies. "It's a great expansion of my professional world and I'm really looking forward to that," said Toohey, 64, who was informed in November that he was being let go from the police department to make way for a uniformed officer.

The two people killed in an accident Sunday night near Sparrows Point Country Club in southeastern Baltimore County were identified yesterday by police as Brandon Scott Fenstermacher, 22, and Jason Thomas Short, 28. Fenstermacher, of the 1600 block of Pumphrey Street in Southeast Baltimore, was driving a 1986 Corvette southeasterly on Wise Avenue about 10 p.m. at high speed, police said. Short, of the 100 block of Bladen Road in Essex, was a passenger, police said. Fenstermacher lost control of the car near Burnham Road and hit a utility pole and fence at the country club.

Baltimore County police released the name yesterday of the woman who was killed by a train Sunday night in Rosedale, but they said they were still trying to confirm the identity of the man who died with her. Yvonne Lou O'Neil, 44, of the 800 block of Creek Road in Essex and the man were killed by the southbound, 135-car CSX train about 10 p.m. Sunday while lying between the rails near the Schaeffer Lane crossing, said Bill Toohey, a police spokesman....

U.S. officials join bomb investigation The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has joined the investigation into pipe bombs that were found Sunday in woods near White Marsh, county police said yesterday. A 27-year-old man from Port Deposit and a 30-year-old man from Joppatown were using a metal detector Sunday afternoon in a swampy area near the Bird River when they came upon a partially submerged military ammunition box containing several pipe bombs, black powder and detonating cord, police said.

FREDERICK -- Yesterday, city police, responding to a "theft in progress" call in the 700 block of Monarch Ridge Drive in the Monarch Ridge community, arrested four teenage boys in the process of stealing global positioning systems, radios, cell phones and iPods from motor vehicles, said a police spokesman. Bill Douwes, the spokesman, said theft of devices such as a GPS have become an organized regional criminal undertaking, adding the youths arrested were from Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

A 46-year-old man who was being sought in the shooting of his girlfriend Tuesday in Parkville surrendered later to authorities in Prince George's County. Jeffrey Alan Mewbourn was wanted in the attempted murder of the 44-year-old woman with whom he lived in the 1000 block of Halstead Road. The shooting occurred about 1 p.m. during what police called a domestic dispute at the apartment they shared. About three hours later, Mewbourn called police from Beltsville and said that he had shot his girlfriend in Baltimore County and that he wished to surrender, according to Cpl. Mike Rodriguez, a spokesman for Prince George's County police.

A landlord suspected of shooting a former tenant in a reported dispute over money apparently committed suicide yesterday after barricading himself in his house, a spokesman for Baltimore County police said.Robert Finn, 36, entered Mortgage Credit Reports Inc. in the 1400 block of Joh Ave. in Violetville about 4: 45 p.m. said Bill Toohey, the spokesman. He shot Robert Francis Schmidt Jr., 30, a company employee, in both legs with an assault rifle and threatened two other employees, Toohey said.

After almost 14 years as the voice of the Baltimore County police, Bill Toohey will leave the department on Friday, take a week off and start a new job on Feb. 1. Toohey, a former radio reporter and spokesman for two U.S. senators, is to be the communications director for the Governor's Office of Crime Control and Prevention, which coordinates programs, grants and research for public safety and corrections agencies. "It's a great expansion of my professional world and I'm really looking forward to that," said Toohey, 64, who was informed in November that he was being let go from the Police Department to make way for a uniformed officer.

A 46-year-old man who was being sought in the shooting of his girlfriend Tuesday in Parkville surrendered later to authorities in Prince George's County. Jeffrey Alan Mewbourn was wanted in the attempted murder of the 44-year-old woman with whom he lived in the 1000 block of Halstead Road. The shooting occurred about 1 p.m. during what police called a domestic dispute at the apartment they shared. About three hours later, Mewbourn called police from Beltsville and said that he had shot his girlfriend in Baltimore County and that he wished to surrender, according to Cpl. Mike Rodriguez, a spokesman for Prince George's County police.

Lt. Robert McCullough, a 43-year-old community-outreach team commander who has been with the Baltimore County police force since he joined as a cadet at age 18, is to be the department's new chief spokesman. McCullough, currently assigned to the Randallstown substation, will move soon to the department's headquarters in Towson to replace Bill Toohey, a civilian who has held the job of spokesman since 1996. Toohey was told earlier this week that he was being dismissed to make way for a uniformed officer.

Bill Toohey, the public face of the Baltimore County Police Department since 1996, has been dismissed and will be replaced by a uniformed officer. The 64-year-old chief departmental spokesman and former radio reporter was informed of the decision Tuesday by Police Chief James W. Johnson, who expressed a preference for the department's front man to be a sworn member of the force instead of a civilian. Toohey was philosophical when reached Wednesday afternoon: "There comes a time for people to move on and new people to move in. That is what is happening here.

Bill Toohey, the public face of the Baltimore County Police Department since 1996, has been dismissed and will be replaced by a uniformed officer. Toohey, a 64-year-old civilian and former radio reporter, was informed of the decision Tuesday by Police Chief James W. Johnson, who expressed a preference for the department's front man to be a sworn member of the force. Toohey's successor will be Lt. Robert McCullough, a 43-year-old community-outreach team commander who has been with the Baltimore County police force since he joined as a cadet when he was 18. Employees of the county government who declined to be named said the decision to let Toohey go took him by surprise.

An argument between two men Thursday night in Pikesville ended with one man fatally shooting the other, Baltimore County police said. Police arrested Keevin Raymond Butler, 26, and charged him yesterday with first-degree murder in the death of Jesse James Winchester, 21, at Winchester's residence in the first block of Applegate Court. Butler, of the 8100 block of Streamwood Drive in Pikesville, had gotten a ride to Winchester's home from a pizza delivery man with whom he was acquainted, police said.