Cookout

Action Worship Center, 9805 Lyon Ave. in North Laurel, invites the community to its annual cookout on Sunday, July 22, immediately following the 9 a.m. worship service. There will be games, moon bounces and plenty of food. For more information, call the church office at 301-498-7501.

When it comes to Erika Brannock, a Cockeysville resident who lost her lower left leg in the Boston Marathon bombing, and Brannock's mother, Carol Downing, the staff at Graul's Market in Hereford consider them part of the family. Brannock, a preschool teacher at Trinity Episcopal Children's Center, in Towson, worked in the store's deli department while she was in college and grad school, and she still keeps in close touch with her former co-workers. "Erika worked here for six and a half years before she became a teacher," said store manager Ken Bullen.

Stephen "J.R." Blackwell Jr. is apparently getting tired of the extra police attention. Blackwell, 25, who police say is a major drug kingpin on the city's east side but who has not been arrested since age 17, was charged with disorderly conduct Monday night in East Baltimore after being approached by police for a field interview. According to court records, Blackwell became "loud and belligerent" and yelled, "[Expletive] you all. I'm going to make it very hard on the police around here."

This week, the chefs leave the comfy confines of their climate controlled Vegas kitchen for a more rustic setting. But first, Curtis introduces the Quickfire by revealing a huge salad bar that the chefs will use to compose a salad. "Here's your salad bar," he says. "It's as big as a whale. And you've got eight minutes to make it set sail. " The chefs dash into the challenge horrified at the short time limit, without getting his musical reference. Der. Eight minutes is indeed a crazy short time, and they are more frenzied than normal.

A former NBA center was charged with two counts of first- and second-degree assault after Anne Arundel County police said he struck a man in the face with a handgun during a weekend cookout. Oliver J. Miller, 41, was arrested Tuesday at his Edgewater home in the 200 block of Braxton Way. Police said he hit a 32-year-old unidentified Arnold man in the head Saturday evening, police said. Miller faces assault, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and related charges. He is 6 feet 9 inches tall, according to NBA.com.

A 20-year-old man is scheduled to be sentenced to prison next month after being convicted last week of killing a man who was attending a cookout two years ago in Northeast Baltimore, according to the city's state's attorney's office. Jordan Jennings was found guilty Friday of first-degree murder and gun charges by a Baltimore Circuit Court jury whose members heard 12 days of testimony. Prosecutors said he robbed two people who had stepped outside the party to use their cellphones on a porch.

A welcome-home barbecue for a Govans serviceman back from Army duty in Saudi Arabia ended with his relatives running from their backyard last night to avoid a shower of glass from windows exploding in their burning house.The three-alarm fire at the Beaumont Street home of Army Spc. James T. Hawkins, 27, started at 7:34 p.m. as about 20 friends and relatives of the Desert Storm veteran were gathered to pick steamed crabs and eat hamburgers."One of my friends walked by and said: 'It's a fire,' " said Bettye Cain Blaize, 39, a guest at the cookout.

Shepherd's Staff, an ecumenical ministry to the needy, invites the community to a cookout today to celebrate the Fourth of July."We are calling this a picnic for people who don't have a back yard of their own," said Kathy Brown, Shepherd's Staff director. "This is not a soup kitchen. It is a cookout."Westminster churches operate soup kitchens every day, but the lunch giveaway is often canceled on holidays. Since 1996, members of Cedarhurst Universal Unitarian Church in Finksburg have offered the barbecue in place of the soup kitchen.

This has been a winter more like a spring and, sometimes more like a summer. Perhaps the February thaw came early and stayed. Or fall never ended or spring is officially eternal. Whatever the cause of February's intemperately temperate temperatures, it furnished the perfect night for a cookout, complete with a moonlit game of horseshoes and marshmallows roasted over a campfire. Edgewater hostess Linda Krone and her husband, Billy, have a good-time reputation sealed long ago, when cookouts meant marinated chicken breasts for the grown-ups and hot dogs for the kids.

Police have charged a 20-year-old man in connection with a fatal shooting that might have ties to Sunday's shooting of 12 people at an East Baltimore cookout, according to law enforcement sources. Brandon K. Brown was arrested Friday and charged in a double shooting July 19 that killed 16-year-old Jerrod Reed, police confirmed. Reed, who had no criminal record, was hit in the head by a bullet while standing on an East Baltimore corner, Kenwood Avenue and Madison Street, a few blocks from where he lived with relatives.

Action Worship Center, 9805 Lyon Ave. in North Laurel, invites the community to its annual cookout on Sunday, July 22, immediately following the 9 a.m. worship service. There will be games, moon bounces and plenty of food. For more information, call the church office at 301-498-7501.

A former professional basketball player pleaded guilty Tuesday in the pistol whipping of his girlfriend's brother after a dispute at a cookout in Arnold. Oliver J. Miller, 41, a former NBA player, pleaded guilty in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court to first-degree assault and carrying a handgun, allegations that stemmed from a family argument at a cookout in April. Deputy State's Attorney Thomas J. Fleckenstein said that Miller followed Jason Worley from the cookout, and was seen whacking Worley in the head and face with a handgun outside Worley's home before driving away.

Like many of us, President Barack Obama had a cookout over the Fourth of July weekend. But, unfortunately, his didn't go so well.  Every time he tried to do something, one of his guests had something nasty to say.  He had to show his long-form receipt for his BBQ supplies. He got called out on his inconsistent steak-cooking style and his refusal to remove the brats from the flames. His guests even criticized the way he borrowed the entire amount he was alloted of the neighbor's sauce.  Luckily, College Humor was there to catch the whole thing on video.  Rough cookout for the prez.   

A 20-year-old man is scheduled to be sentenced to prison next month after being convicted last week of killing a man who was attending a cookout two years ago in Northeast Baltimore, according to the city's state's attorney's office. Jordan Jennings was found guilty Friday of first-degree murder and gun charges by a Baltimore Circuit Court jury whose members heard 12 days of testimony. Prosecutors said he robbed two people who had stepped outside the party to use their cellphones on a porch.

Full of vim, vigor and perhaps a beverage or two, you roll out the barbecue grill for a Memorial Day cookout, but then something unfortunate occurs and you suddenly have unexpected visitors at your home: members of the local fire department. The scenario happens more frequently that we care to admit. One national study pegged the average number of fires involving grills, hibachis and barbecues that summoned firefighters at 7,700 a year. These fires caused an estimated $70 million in property damage.

A former NBA center was charged with two counts of first- and second-degree assault after Anne Arundel County police said he struck a man in the face with a handgun during a weekend cookout. Oliver J. Miller, 41, was arrested Tuesday at his Edgewater home in the 200 block of Braxton Way. Police said he hit a 32-year-old unidentified Arnold man in the head Saturday evening, police said. Miller faces assault, reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and related charges. He is 6 feet 9 inches tall, according to NBA.com.

A pregnant woman and 2-year-old girl were among at least 12 people wounded Sunday night when one or more gunmen opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon at a backyard cookout in East Baltimore, said a city police spokesman. Police said they didn't know of a motive in the shootings, and no arrests were made immediately. Police spokesman Agent Donny Moses said there were no life-threatening injuries in the shootings, which occurred shortly before 9 p.m. in the 2600 block of Ashland Ave. in the Madison-East End community.

An outreach worker for the Safe Streets program was among 12 people wounded at an East Baltimore cookout Sunday, a development that could cast unwanted attention on a well-regarded group known for mediating conflict out of view of law enforcement. Steven Bountress, director of operations for the Living Classrooms Foundation, which administers the Safe Streets program, said the unidentified worker suffered multiple gunshot wounds and remained in the hospital Tuesday with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

News item: A judge on Thursday denied bail to suspected Russian spies Richard and Cindy Murphy, whose arrests shocked neighbors in suburban Montclair, N.J. Cindy Murphy, who commuted to her financial job in New York, was admired for her gardening and baking, while her husband was a stay-at-home dad known for making his two daughters' lunches and walking them to the school bus. They are two of the 10 alleged spies arrested this week who...

Stephen "J.R." Blackwell Jr. is apparently getting tired of the extra police attention. Blackwell, 25, who police say is a major drug kingpin on the city's east side but who has not been arrested since age 17, was charged with disorderly conduct Monday night in East Baltimore after being approached by police for a field interview. According to court records, Blackwell became "loud and belligerent" and yelled, "[Expletive] you all. I'm going to make it very hard on the police around here."