Commander

Col. Edward Rothstein, Fort Meade's new garrison commander, will be the featured speaker at the BWI Business Partnership's January Signature Breakfast, Wed., Jan. 18, at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve, 7795 Arundel Mills Blvd., in Hanover, near Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Advance registration is required by Monday, Jan. 16. Members attend at no charge or $30, depending on membership level. Space permitting, nonmembers may attend for $50. To register, go to http://www.bwipartner.org and click on the event registration button, or call 410-859-1000.

For the first time in nearly seven years, the Orioles had a chance to go six games over .500 on Friday night. Instead, they received a middling performance from their de facto ace while their offense provided less pop than the plate umpire. With right-hander Jake Arrieta struggling with his command from the outset, the Orioles saw their four-game winning streak end in a 5-2 loss to the Oakland Athletics, a nondescript contest that will be best remembered by what happened during the seventh-inning stretch.

%HTMLsymbol; %HTMLspecial; ]> sp.digest13.ART Our Commander wins Maryland Juvenile Horse racing Laurel Park Philip Capuano's Our Commander circled rivals and outfinished Not Abroad to win the Saturday feature at Laurel Park, the...

A Baltimore police major who heads the Northern District station participated in a domestic violence workshop sponsored by the White House this week. Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper joined the lieutenant governor and others, including the mother of Yeardley Love, whose daughter from Cockeysville was killed by her boyfriend at the University of Virginia . The meeting, opened by Vice President Joe Biden, came just before the Senate is to vote on a bill that contains funds for the Violence Against Women act. It would allocate money to local law enforcement agencies to combat domestic violence and to shelters for battered women and rape crisis centers.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III told a group of South Baltimore residents Wednesday night that he considers them "family" and has their best interests at heart as he looks to select a new district commander. Bealefeld spoke to about 50 residents at the Southern District police station, a meeting that came one week after popular commander Scott Bloodsworth opted to retire rather than accept a new assignment overseeing reforms in the department's sex offense unit, which Bealefeld said was in "crisis."

The commander of the Baltimore Police Department's homicide unit will not face criminal charges or be ticketed for abandoning his unmarked cruiser on the side of Interstate 95 after he slid off a rain-slicked road Sunday, according to the Maryland State Police. Maj. Terrence P. McLarney had been suspended after the March 6 incident. A city police spokesman said the commander is now back on partial duty — allowed to run the administrative functions of his 70-detective office, but without his police powers.

Timothy J. Longo Sr. once commanded a single Baltimore police district that was larger, more populated and more dangerous than the entire Virginia city he now serves as police chief. But now, the grandson of an immigrant from Sicily, who spent nearly two decades quickly rising through the turbulent ranks of the city police department before leaving in 2000, is at the center of a crime garnering national attention. Longo has been in front of the cameras in Charlottesville, answering questions about the slaying of a University of Virginia lacrosse player from Cockeysville, a compelling story of broken romance, sports and affluence that has rocked a prestigious university near Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.

Days after the Baltimore Police Department announced that he would oversee reforms in the beleaguered sex offense unit, a popular district commander has opted to retire. Maj. Scott Bloodsworth had been in charge of the Southern District since 2008. His new appointment last week came amid questions about police handling of sex crimes and after city officials vowed to change the way the department investigates them. The new post included the citywide robbery, check and fraud, missing persons and child abuse units.

Major Richard W. Janney Jr., former commander of the Westminster barracks, retired recently after more than 34 years in the Maryland State Police, according to Lt. Greg Shipley, public affairs officer.Major Janney commanded the Westminster barracks from July 1982 until his promotion to captain in 1984. His first assignment at the Westminster barracks was as a corporal in 1969. He joined the state police in July 1959.He had served as commander of the central region of the Field Operations Bureau since 1993.

WASHINGTON -The Obama administration's new emphasis on the war in Afghanistan, including a long-term influx of extra forces, has exposed weaknesses in U.S. military planning and development efforts in that country that top officers are scrambling to address. The U.S. military command structure in Afghanistan was designed for a much smaller force. But with the increase ordered by President Barack Obama, the number of U.S. troops will reach 60,000 by the end of summer and is expected to eventually reach 68,000.

Orioles pitcher Tommy Hunter is undoubtedly well-regarded by the club's organizational brass. Even though he's only 25, he's pitched in big games and played in the postseason while he was with the Rangers. He's a guy who the Orioles would like to be a part of their rotation for years to come. Hunter is not going to overwhelm batters with his stuff. Instead, he relies on his fastball command to work hitters. But over his past two starts, Hunter has struggled. In an eventual 7-5 win at Toronto last week, he allowed four homers, tying a career high.

Note: This blog post should have made it clear that Hite has been named interim chief until a final selection is made. Rick Hite spent more than three decades in the Baltimore Police Department, and many years as the voice of an association of black officers. Now, he has his own department to run, named chief of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department . He takes over after a scandal -- the former chief resigned on Tuesday after a blood sample taken from a suspended cop was mishandled . While in Baltimore, Hite was an outspoken advocate not only of his colleagues but of the city's youth.

The union that represents high-ranking police officers in Anne Arundel County has dropped the name of the force's second-in-command from a radio ad that criticizes the county's executive and chief of police. The International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which represents Anne Arundel's police lieutenants and sergeants, originally planned to run an ad that promoted Deputy Police Chief Lt. Col. Emerson C. Davis as having taken a "brave stand" by testifying in front of the County Council about alleged improprieties by his superiors.

John Lloyd Bergbower, a Johns Hopkins Medicine security vice president who as a city police commander battled drug buyers in Southwest Baltimore, suffered a fall at his North Baltimore home Sunday and died later that day at Sinai Hospital. He was 60. "He didn't need to run into a burning building or take on an armed gunman to know that John Bergbower was a courageous man," said Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who served under him in the Southwestern District nearly 15 years ago. "He was a very smart, capable person with an air of confidence about him that made an impression on a young sergeant like myself.

A 27-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department who retired in 2001 and went on to work in corporate security at the Johns Hopkins medical institutions died Sunday after falling in his home on Sunday. Hopkins announced the death of John L. Bergbower, 60. He had been vice president of security for the medical institution. He joined Hopkins in 2003 after working for the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Bergbower joined the city police in 1974 as an Eastern District patrolman, putting his first assignment near where he would later end his career at Hopkins.

This time last year, there were more questions than answers about Orioles shortstopJ.J. Hardy. Personally, the newcomer fit in well: Unassuming, friendly, movie-star good-looking and the unrivaled and unbeaten king of the clubhouse ping pong table. But professionally, who was he? What had the Orioles received from the Minnesota Twins in December 2010 when they acquired Hardy and his nearly $6 million contract for two minor league pitchers (Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobson)? Was Hardy the shortstop with the explosive bat and rocket arm that impressed early on in Milwaukee, a guy who had the potential to be - gasp - included in the same sentence with Hall of Famer Robin Yount among Brewers fans?

Washington. -- On the same day that American dead were being counted in Mogadishu and a battered American captive was displayed on Somali television, the United States voted in the U.N. Security Council to deploy a ''peacekeeping'' force to Rwanda, a small, underdeveloped, landlocked country in the heart of Africa.Their task: to oversee a cease-fire in a country where war is endemic, to establish demilitarized zones, ensure compliance with the cease-fire, ''contribute to the security of the city of Kigali . . . '' etc. etc. etc. This authorizing resolution for a Rwanda force of 2,500 to 4,000 troops meets virtually none of the conditions laid down in President Clinton's speech before the U.N. General Assembly September 27. Its purpose and its cost are unclear (and probably unattainable)

The Baltimore Police Department formalized a key command appointments yesterday, a week after Mayor Sheila Dixon named Frederick H. Bealefeld III the city's new commissioner. Anthony E. Barksdale, the acting deputy commissioner of operations, will be placed permanently in that position. Deborah A. Owens, the acting deputy commissioner of the department's administrative bureau, was also placed in her position permanently. "When he was asked to take over as acting commissioner, [Bealefeld]

On a warm, breezy afternoon, as East Baltimoreans mourn the shooting death of the "little flower" of Darley Park, police Maj. Melvin T. Russell is right where he wants to be — smack in the middle of a crowd of children, teachers, parents and neighbors. It could be a scene fraught with tension. An officer under Russell's command has been suspended and is the subject of an intense police investigation, amid allegations that the rifle used to kill 13-year-old Monae Turnage was found in the officer's car. But Russell focuses on the vigil — he picks up a child and jokes with the mother, spreads handshakes and hugs.

Maj. Gen. James A. Adkins, the commander of the Maryland National Guard, visited with Maj. Robert J. Marchanti II last fall as he drilled at an Army base in Virginia. "He was so proud of his soldiers and what they had accomplished," Adkins said Thursday at a Fallen Warrior Memorial Service for the slain guardsman. "When we were out on the rifle range, I watched him work the firing line much like a coach would work the sideline at a football game. "For some of us, we have to work hard at leadership.