City And Baltimore

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore County North Point Precinct Theft: A .25-caliber handgun, camcorder, 35 mm camera and cash were stolen Sunday from a house in the 500 block of 48th St. The loss in money and goods was put at $2,400.

Lois Roena Pyle, a retired secretary for Baltimore City's social services office who later worked for Baltimore County, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease Oct. 3 at the Ware Presbyterian Village in Oxford, Pa. The former Rodgers Forge resident was 90. Born Lois Roena Anderson in Havre, Mont., she was the daughter of a dry-goods merchant, and a homemaker. She attended the University of Montana and graduated from the Kinman Business College in Spokane, Wash. As a young woman, she took flying lessons.

Of course we spy on China. What are friends for? There are five Division I college basketball teams in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. The University of Maryland, College Park is not one. The only way for Serbia to get into the club of Europe is to ship Milosevic there first. The president's denial of global warming heats things up. It's time to learn to spell Hentgen.

The embarrassing and unfortunate financial failure of the Baltimore Grand Prix was caused by a pervasive culture of secrecy and privilege within City Hall and at Baltimore Racing Development. Had more facts been available to the press and the public, it would have been abundantly clear that the race was in jeopardy even in its earliest planning phases. The failure to secure a lead sponsor was, in retrospect, a body-blow that should have led to the race's cancellation or postponement.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore County Parkville Precinct Robbery: A man who implied he was armed with a handgun jumped over the counter at the 7-Eleven store in the 8000 block of Belair Road about 8 p.m. Monday, struck a female clerk in the face and took $30 from a cash register. Robbery try: After a man placed a soft drink on the counter at the Royal Farm store in the 8200 block of Belair Road about 8:15 p.m. Monday and then ordered a female clerk to give him money from the cash register.

Children's readiness for kindergarten has improved across Maryland, particularly in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, according to a new state report. Each fall, the state tests incoming kindergartners' social and academic skills and judges whether they are "fully ready" to learn. In Baltimore, 65 percent of children tested met that standard, up from 57 percent at the start of last school year. In the county, 80 percent were judged ready, up from 73 percent the previous year. Statewide, 73 percent of children met the standard, compared with 68 percent a year prior.

During the Howard Street Tunnel fire, firefighters from the city and Baltimore County had to exchange radios to talk to one another as they battled the underground inferno. After a tanker truck flipped off an Interstate 95 overpass last year and exploded, some emergency officials used cell phones to get instructions. And during the 92-vehicle pileup in October on Interstate 95, some emergency workers relied on 911 dispatchers to communicate with others on the scene because there was no regional emergency communications network, authorities said.

A bank robbery suspect who was shot at by a Baltimore County police officer was taken into custody yesterday after a three-hour standoff at a Northeast Baltimore apartment complex. The incident began about 11 a.m. yesterday when a man entered the Bank of America branch in the 6700 block of York Road in Rodgers Forge and demanded money from a teller, said Cpl. Vickie Warehime, a county police spokeswoman. Warehime said the man fled with an undisclosed amount of money and apparently got into a waiting blue van that was being driven by another man. About three minutes later, Baltimore County police Officer Gary Lippa saw a van driving erratically near the bank and followed it to Loch Raven Boulevard and Northern Parkway.

Marie C. Henderson, who played key campaign roles for two Baltimore mayors and for many years held jobs in city and Baltimore County government, died of breast cancer Sunday at Mercy Medical Center. The Randallstown resident was 62. A political consultant, fund-raiser and event planner, she was well known in city and county circles for the past three decades. Born Marie Catherine Wilson in Baltimore and raised on Calhoun Street, she was a 1959 graduate of Douglass High School and attended Howard University in Washington.

A Seventh-day Adventist congregation in Baltimore County has made a major commitment to evangelization, scheduling a 23-night "fall crusade" that begins Saturday evening in the McKeldin Center ballroom on the campus of Morgan State University.Carmen L. Moore, speaking for the 161-member Towson Seventh-day Adventist Church at 2123 W. Joppa Road, said all of the other evening programs in the series planned at Morgan will be in the Murphy Auditorium. They will combine preaching by Elder G. Earl Knight with entertainment by a variety of musicians.

Eighteen Baltimore County schools, nine Baltimore City schools and seven Anne Arundel County schools will remain closed Thursday because they do not have power. All schools in Harford, Howard and Carroll counties will be open. Anne Arundel closures: Arlington Echo Crofton Woods Elementary Glen Burnie Park Elementary Marley Glen Special School Maryland City Elementary Overlook Elementary Solley Elementary Baltimore City closures: Dickey Hill Elementary/Middle George Washington Elementary Guilford Elementary/Middle Lakeland Elementary/Middle Mary E. Rodman Elementary North Bend Elementary/Middle Rognel Heights Elementary Waverly Elementary/Middle Windsor Hills Elementary/Middle Baltimore County early dismissal: Due to a power failure Fifth District will be closing at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Some students got off the buses, their eyes filled with apprehension, and were guided into the soaring atrium of West Towson Elementary, a school so new it doesn't have a single scuffed floor. Others ran confidently along, calling out the name of their teacher and the location of their classroom. The long-awaited first day of school arrived Monday as some students started the year in new state-of-the-art buildings like West Towson in Baltimore County. The city opened its first new school building since 1998, Violetville Elementary in Southwest Baltimore.

Children's readiness for kindergarten has improved across Maryland, particularly in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, according to a new state report. Each fall, the state tests incoming kindergartners' social and academic skills and judges whether they are "fully ready" to learn. In Baltimore, 65 percent of children tested met that standard, up from 57 percent at the start of last school year. In the county, 80 percent were judged ready, up from 73 percent the previous year. Statewide, 73 percent of children met the standard, compared with 68 percent a year prior.

Student, 22, indicted in 2002 killing A 22-year-old college student who was arrested at his school in New York last month in the fatal shooting of a Woodlawn teenager nearly six years ago has been indicted. Nicholas Dudley Pinderhughes Weaver of Baltimore was charged Monday by a Baltimore County grand jury with first-degree murder in the death of David L. Baskin Jr. An aspiring rap musician, Baskin was shot in July 2002 near his Woodlawn home, a day after his 18th birthday. The 12-count indictment also charges Weaver with first-degree assault, illegal use of a handgun, burglary and being an accessory to the killing after the fact.

Kenneth Grainger Edmunds, a retired high school math teacher and owner of an Ocean City rental business, died of heart disease Thursday at his home in the Murray Hill section of Baltimore County. He was 82. Born in Trenton, N.J., and raised in St. Michael's, he earned a degree at the University of Maryland, College Park after serving in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II. He taught science and mathematics in the Anne Arundel, Baltimore City and Baltimore County school systems, and retired from Pikesville High School in 1981.

Pushed by rising prices for gasoline, insurance and repairs, taxicab fares will go up Friday in Baltimore City and Baltimore County for the first time in seven years, and Howard County isn't far behind. A five-mile ride will cost $10.15 in the city and Baltimore County, up about 20 percent from current rates of $8.50 in the city and $8.60 in the county, under a decision by the Maryland Public Service Commission. When city and county cab drivers got their last fare increase, in 1998, unleaded regular gas averaged $1.06 a gallon, according to government statistics.

During the Howard Street Tunnel fire, firefighters from the city and Baltimore County had to exchange radios to talk to one another as they battled the underground inferno. After a tanker truck flipped off an Interstate 95 overpass last year and exploded, some emergency officials used cell phones to get instructions. And during the 92-vehicle pileup in October on Interstate 95, some emergency workers relied on 911 dispatchers to communicate with others on the scene because there was no regional emergency communications network, authorities said.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore County Wilkens Precinct Carjacking attempts/arrest: A man was arrested about 2 p.m. Tuesday and charged with attempting to carjack six vehicles at Dolfield and Deer Park roads moments earlier. Charged was Christian Magliarella, 29, of the 600 block of St. George's Station Road in Reisterstown.