Cumberland

CUMBERLAND -- John A. Miller IV, described by prosecutors as a "highly motivated predator" who lured a Carroll County girl to her death, was convicted yesterday of murder and sexual assault, setting the stage for a death penalty hearing next week. Miller, 27, was found guilty of first-degree murder, a first-degree sexual offense, robbery and false imprisonment in the strangling of 17-year-old Shen D. Poehlman in Reisterstown in July 1998. The defense had conceded that Miller killed the girl but had fought the sexual-assault and robbery allegations, knowing that prosecutors needed those convictions to pursue the death penalty.

CSX Corp. said Thursday that it would hire more than 140 employees in Maryland this year. The new employees, who will be based primarily in Baltimore and Cumberland, will operate trains and maintain tracks, locomotives and rail cars. The company maintains nearly 1,400 miles of track in Maryland and operates facilities in Baltimore, Cumberland, Hagerstown and Jessup. Applications are available on the company's website. CSX said it recruited military veterans, with nearly one in five of its employees having served in the armed forces.

Cumberland--We've done this before. But the scenic train excursion from Cumberland to Frostburg offers such spectacular fall foliage (not to mention occasional breath- taking mountain vistas) that we decided we just had to do it again.Riding the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad has become an autumn ritual with my family -- just like picking up homemade apple cider and pumpkins at roadside stands, visiting small-town fall festivals and hiking in the Western Maryland woods.Come to think of it, this three-hour excursion through the Allegheny Mountains is kind of like taking a hike -- only a 1916 Baldwin steam engine known as Mountain Thunder does all the work.

A Cumberland man was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release for his part in running a child pornography website, prosecutors said. George Sell, 70, pleaded guilty in November to conspiring to transport child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland said in a statement Wednesday. From December 2006 through August 2008, Sell was the administrator of a website called the "Country Lounge" that was dedicated to trading child pornography images, the government said.

Three people died early Sunday in a house fire in Cumberland, according to the state fire marshal's office. A passerby spotted fire in a two-story, single-family dwelling at around 3 a.m. and called 911, officials said. Officials said that about 20 firefighters from Cumberland and Ridgely, W.Va., extinguished the one-alarm blaze within 20 minutes. The names of the victims were not released. Officials said the cause of the fire was under investigation. Tim.wheeler@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

On May 10, 2006, DORIS E. (nee Heiger) of Baltimore. Beloved wife of the late John G. Cumberland. Devoted mother of Joan A. Baran and John G. Cumberland, Jr. Loving grandmother of Dana Helmbright, Amy Moore, Eric and Andrea Cumberland. Dear great-grandmother of Tiffany, Beth, Katelynn, Lauren, Noel and Emily. Dear great-great grandmother of Caitlin. Family and friends may call at THE JOHNSON FUNERAL HOME P.A., 8521 Loch Raven Blvd. (beltway exit 29B) on Friday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. All are invited to attend Graveside Services on Saturday at 10 A.M. in Lakeview Cemetery.

Cumberland. -- The first train from Baltimore arrived in Cumberland 150 years ago this week and the residents are celebrating the event with entertainment, speeches, and excursions, much as they did originally.While the railroad's influence has grown full and waned in the intervening years, producing vast changes at either end of the line and throughout the territory in between, it is still a powerful presence in western Maryland. Fifty trains a day, on an average, pass through Cumberland.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening may think he has quelled the rush to legalize casino gambling in Maryland, but he'd just be fooling himself.Since the governor's announcement last week that he would veto any gambling legislation that reaches his desk this year, high-priced influence-peddlers in Annapolis haven't lowered their profiles or halted their efforts to romance the General Assembly into approving casinos. On top of that, a Virginia developer says he will be submitting to the governor within a month plans for a giant Indian-run casino that would employ 2,000 workers on Will's Mountain near Cumberland.

Teddy Ryan spent his first week as Cumberland's city administrator impressing the locals with his sure grasp of municipal matters, his eagerness to tackle the town's toughest problems and his courtly Southern manner.He spent his second week in the Allegany County jail, charged in a Florida warrant with kidnapping, armed robbery and aggravated assault.Needless to say, Teddy Ryan's introduction to Cumberland was a far cry from the crowning triumph city fathers were anticipating at the end of their six-month, nationwide search for new leadership for their battered little city.

Pillar Hotels & Resorts warned state regulators Tuesday that it would lay off more than 150 employees in Frederick and Cumberland as it ends a management contract with Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express locations. The workers could be hired by the Texas company's successor, however. Pillar told the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation that it expected the new managers would ask employees to apply to stay on. Neither Pillar nor Holiday Inn's parent, InterContinental Hotels Group, returned calls seeking comment.

A four-alarm house fire early Friday in Cumberland has claimed the lives of two young sisters, according to an afternoon statement from the Maryland State Fire Marshal. Paige M. Ford, 7, was rescued through a window on the second story of the row house. She was suffering cardiac arrest, received CPR at the scene and was taken to Western Maryland Regional Medical, where she was pronounced dead. Her 4-year-old sister, Jymera D. Ford, was missing for several hours. Firefighters located her body in a second-floor bedroom.

Three people died early Sunday in a house fire in Cumberland, according to the state fire marshal's office. A passerby spotted fire in a two-story, single-family dwelling at around 3 a.m. and called 911, officials said. Officials said that about 20 firefighters from Cumberland and Ridgely, W.Va., extinguished the one-alarm blaze within 20 minutes. The names of the victims were not released. Officials said the cause of the fire was under investigation. Tim.wheeler@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Pillar Hotels & Resorts warned state regulators Tuesday that it would lay off more than 150 employees in Frederick and Cumberland as it ends a management contract with Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express locations. The workers could be hired by the Texas company's successor, however. Pillar told the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation that it expected the new managers would ask employees to apply to stay on. Neither Pillar nor Holiday Inn's parent, InterContinental Hotels Group, returned calls seeking comment.

Todd and Denise Warehime Grim, of Westminster, formerly of Forest Hill, have announce the birth of their first son, Nicklas Scott Grim. Born August, 18, at 6:10 p.m., he weighed 8 pounds, 15.4 ounces and measured 21.5-inches. Grandparents are Donald and Anna Warehime, of Forest Hill, Marie Grim, of Cumberland, and Craig and Cecelia Grim, of Keyser, W.Va. and great grandmother is Maxine Martin, of Cumberland.

Marylanders on average have to pay more for houses than the typical homebuyer across the country, according to a new survey by Coldwell Banker Real Estate. Coldwell Banker reports the national average price of a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom house is $293,251. In Maryland, that house would go for $381,314. Coldwell Banker allows you to comparison shop markets on its site. There you can find that a 250,000 house in Baltimore would cost you $652,778 in Annapolis -- ouch. But that house would only cost you $152,778 in Cumberland.

The five men on Maryland's death row were quietly moved this week from the hulking Baltimore prison once known as Supermax to a Western Maryland facility hailed recently as one of the most technologically advanced maximum-security prisons in the United States. The transfer to the North Branch Correctional Institution near Cumberland was carried out amid such secrecy that even now state prison officials won't give any details — not even which day the condemned men were moved.

On Wednesday, April 14, 2004, CUMBERLAND ST. JUDE DUGAN, JR., 65 of Baltimore. He was the loving father of Katherine Elizabeth Morrill, Cumberland J. B. Dugan, Thomas George R. T. Dugan and Sarah Lee Dugan; loving grandfather of Riley Quinn Dugan, Connor Andrew Cumberland Dugan, Harrison Morrill and Benjamin Morrill. Also survived by a host of family and friends. A Memorial Mass will be held at the Cathedral of Mary of Our Queen, 5200 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21210. Time to be announced.

CSX Corp. says it is investigating whether any of its trains hit a 12-year-old Cumberland boy who was seriously hurt while allegedly cutting across the company's property. The boy was being treated Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital for injuries he suffered Monday night. His name and condition haven't been released. CSX spokesman Gary Sease says the Jacksonville, Fla.-based company is getting a full accounting of all the trains that moved through the area. Cumberland police say the boy was hit by a train about 8:30 p.m. His friends told police he had sneaked through a hole in a fence and tried to beat a train across one of multiple sets of tracks.