Delay

After a seven-year delay, Randallstown residents cheered Monday over an announcement that a Walmart will open on Liberty Road next year. Officials and residents have long hoped that the store — a planned $9 million, 160,000-square-foot supercenter with groceries and a pharmacy — would revitalize the aging commercial corridor, encouraging other national retailers and restaurants to set up shop in the affluent, largely black community....

As of 8:30 a.m. Thursday, traffic was slow on U.S. 50 westbound at the Capital Beltway, due to an accident involving six vehicles. According to the Maryland Transit Administration, light rail service is suspended between the Timonium and Hunt Valley stations due to construction work. A shuttle bus service is available instead. There are no other major delays reported on Baltimore area transit systems.

In the case of the Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama was caught between two groups of his most powerful supporters ("Obama delays decision on Keystone oil pipeline," Nov. 11). By allowing the State Department to put off the decision, he avoids being blamed by either group for the time being. He can now walk into a roomful of union supporters, give them a wink, and leave them with the hope that after the election is over, when he no longer needs the environmentalists' donations to get re-elected, he will betray them and allow the pipeline to be built.

Today is a big day for Baltimore (and East Coast) geekdom. It's Geeks on a Train : a rolling tweetup that started in Washington DC this morning, with a denizen of DC techies and entrepreneurs boarding an Amtrak train. The itinerary: stop at Baltimore and other major stops along the East Coast Amtrak corridor and connect with geeks and techies in other cities, all the way up to Boston. But there was an early snafu. The #GeekTrain broke down somewhere around Odenton, Md.  "Train now stuck and without power," tweeted @BenSlavin from the train.  In Baltimore, this city's geek contingent waited at Penn Station -- maybe it should be called Geeks in a Station and not Geeks on a Train, tweeted Scott Paley . Baltimore entrepreneur Greg Cangialosi tweeted a picture of the board at Penn Station, with the Northeast Regional #172, from Washington to Boston, saying "DELAYED" . But alas, Amtrak sent a diesel engine to replace the electric one, some tweeters said.

Race organizer and promoter Jay Davidson said there were two reasons for the delay to the start of Friday's activities for the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix -- last week's weather, and giving Baltimore residents as much access to the roads as possible for as long as possible. "The timing could have been better," Davidson said by phone. "But we had a lot of intersections with main traveling arteries open that have to be closed and last week a lot of the fencing had to come down because of the wind warnings [associated with Hurricane Irene]

County committee's vote hands Reaching Hearts another delay The Prince George's County Council dealt another setback last week to a Seventh-day Adventist congregation that has been trying to build a church in West Laurel for nearly a decade. On June 23, the council's Committee on Transportation, Housing and Environment voted 4-0 against changing a water permit category, a change that would have lifted restrictions on the development of a 17-acre parcel by allowing the church to connect to the county's sewer and water lines.

The federal government's delay to grant benefits to the children of a Baltimore fire cadet who died in a training exercise is a "social injustice," Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski wrote in a bluntly worded letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday. Two school-age children of Racheal Wilson, who died in a February 2007 live burn exercise, were denied federal benefits. The family filed an appeal, which was heard in January, but has not heard further information, Mikulski wrote in ther letter.

All of us mourn the senseless killing of Maryland corrections officer David McGuinn, who was murdered at the Maryland House of Correction in 2006. ("New death penalty law, appeals delay trials in killing of correctional officer," July 25.) The article highlights the five-year delay in bringing a prosecution in Mr. McGuinn's murder. Some of that delay was the unintended result of passage in 2009 of important new evidentiary requirements in Maryland's death penalty statute. This case highlights the challenges that prosecutors face in mounting a capital case.

Channel 13 has decided not to pre-empt the first half-hour of the U.S.-Romania World Cup telecast tomorrow, WJZ programming director Michael Easterling said yesterday.Originally, Channel 13 was going to show a 30-minute infomercial at 4 p.m., when ABC's coverage of the 4:05 game begins. Now, WJZ will pick up the telecast at 4.Easterling said the switch was in response to calls to the station about the delay, reported yesterday in The Sun, and to the strong ratings performance for the American team's opener last Saturday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has called on federal energy officials to delay a decision on the proposed liquefied natural gas terminal at Sparrows Point until questions about endangered and threatened species can be answered. The service, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior, has found that the project would be located in an environmentally sensitive area and could affect several species with habitats in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Those include the bald eagle, peregrine falcon and Delmarva fox squirrel.

As of 9 a.m., traffic was slow on Route 295 southbound at Route 195 in Anne Arundel County, due to an accident involving three vehicles. Debris in the road was slowing traffic on Falls Road near Shawan Road in Baltimore County. The Maryland Transit Administration is warning passengers to expect delays on the light rail line from Cromwell to Hunt Valley. The 9:28 a.m. trip from Cromwell has been canceled. Light rail service is suspended between the Timonium and Hunt Valley stations due to construction work.

As of 9 a.m. Thursday, traffic was slow on the inner loop of I-695 near Reisterstown Road, due to an accident. Accidents were slowing traffic on I-695 at the Curtis Creek Drawbridge in Baltimore County, Oliver Street and Milton Avenue in Baltimore City, and Darien Drive and Parkland Place in Glen Burnie. A disabled vehicle was blocking traffic on U.S. 50 westbound at the Bay Bridge. Debris in the road was blocking traffic on I-95 northbound at Route 100 in Howard County.

As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, traffic was slow on Route 543 at Prospect Mill Road in Harford County, due to an accident. Light rail service is suspended between the Timonium and Hunt Valley stations due to construction work. A shuttle bus service is available instead. There are no other delays reported on Baltimore area transit systems.

A few quick thoughts from Pimlico on the Tuesday before Preakness ... Graham Motion had hoped to ship his Preakness entrant, Went the Day Well, to Pimlico Tuesday morning. The torrents of rain falling across Maryland convinced him otherwise. The Fair Hill-based trainer will instead bring the Kentucky Derby's fourth-place finisher to Baltimore on Wednesday morning. D. Wayne Lukas, who is tied with Bob Baffert and T.J. Healey for the second-most Preakness wins with five, is expected to roll into town at about 3 p.m. today.

As of 9 a.m. Monday, traffic was slow on I-95 southbound near White Marsh Boulevard, due to an accident involving two vehicles. Accidents were slowing traffic Reisterstown Road and Garrison Boulevard in Baltimore County, Dorsey Road and Aviation Boulevard in Anne Arundel County, Route 22 at Tudor Lane in Harford County, Wise Avenue at Lynch Road in Dundalk, and Washington Boulevard at Freestate Drive in Elkridge. Debris in the road was blocking traffic on Route 2 northbound near Dover Road in Anne Arundel County.

News Roundup •••• "Tomb Raider," a reboot of the classic series, has been delayed until Q1 of 2013. Darrell Gallagher, head of Crystal Dynamics (who is developing the game), announced the news via a post on the Eidos forums. [ Gamespot ] •••• Investors are trying to recoup their losses on a failed "Stargate" MMORPG that was due to launch in 2010. Things have gone to court, with the game's developer alleged to have mislead investors to the tune of $50 million.

In a protest that would significantly delay a long-anticipated trial, federal prosecutors in Baltimore are appealing a judge's order this week that restricted how much information a jury can hear about the checkered past of Nancy J. Siegel, a Maryland woman accused of killing her paramour more than a decade ago and dumping his body in rural Virginia. At issue is the length and scope of the criminal indictment lodged against Siegel in U.S. District Court in Maryland, a document originally filed almost four years ago. She is charged with witness tampering, fraud and theft.

When the full tale is finally told of Tom DeLay's political rise and fall, both will be attributed to a ruthless style that so poisoned the atmosphere even he couldn't survive it. The 11-term Texas Republican and former House majority leader abruptly pulled the plug on his re-election campaign and announced plans to resign after concluding that his scandal-tarred reputation made such a rich target for opponents it threatened not only his re-election but...