Driveway

They don't make many power couples like this: He's a self-proclaimed whistle blower, the focus of international headlines and Obama administration ire. She describes herself as a "world-traveling, pole-dancing super hero. " Edward Snowden and Lindsay Mills lived in a modest blue clapboard house with white trim here in a Honolulu suburb until about six weeks ago. Their former neighbors described them as quiet and private. On Sunday, Snowden announced that he was responsible for leaking secrets about America's telephone and Internet surveillance pograms to the media, reviving a global debate about Big Brother-style government surveillance of private citizens.

The following is compiled from local police reports. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. If you have any information about these crimes, call the Wilkens Police Station at 410-887-0872. Hilltop Road, 600 block, Feb. 15, between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Television stolen from residence. Window in front door removed to gain access. Bloomsbury Avenue, unit block, Feb. 13, 3 p.m. Cooler and eight beers stolen.

The water that runs off streets, parking lots and other hard surfaces when it rains is a major contributor to water pollution. There's not much doubt about that. Just take a look at the floating debris in the Inner Harbor after a thunderstorm. Now imagine the road salt, chemicals, pet droppings and other pollutants contained in runoff that can't be observed so easily. Butchers Hill resident Maxine Taylor no doubt thought that she was striking a blow on behalf of the Chesapeake Bay when she chose to create a driveway of wood chips instead of concrete or asphalt in order to slow down the flow of runoff into local streams.

Over the past few weeks, the dinner conversation sometimes got a little overheated at Jack and Will D'Angelo's Reisterstown home. With Jack playing for Calvert Hall's football team and younger brother Will playing for Loyola's, there wasn't much to agree upon when talk turned to the Turkey Bowl coming up at M&T Bank Stadium on Thursday morning. For the 93rd time, Calvert Hall and Loyola will meet on Thanksgiving Day, but this will be the first time that Jack, a senior starting lineman, and Will, a sophomore reserve receiver, square off. Athletes since they were little, both brothers have strong competitive streaks and, of course, that comes out in everything from pick-up basketball games in the driveway to video games in the basement to conversations about the Turkey Bowl at the dinner table.

Maxine Taylor thought she was being "green" by using wood chips instead of asphalt for a driveway on her woodsy front yard in Butchers Hill. The chips happen to let rainfall soak through into the ground, stopping a little of the storm-water pollution that's plaguing Baltimore's harbor. But instead of winning praise from a City Hall officially committed to a "cleaner, greener Baltimore," Taylor was cited for violating the city's building and zoning codes with her woody driveway. When she appealed the citation, she said, an administrative law judge informed her the only way she could keep vehicles on her property would be on asphalt or concrete.

The following is compiled from local police reports. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. If you have any information about these crimes, call the Wilkens Police Station at 410-887-0872. Hilltop Road, 600 block, Feb. 15, between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Television stolen from residence. Window in front door removed to gain access. Bloomsbury Avenue, unit block, Feb. 13, 3 p.m. Cooler and eight beers stolen.

Unfortunately, Tim Wheeler's front-page story, "'Greener' city bars woodchip driveway" (Jan. 18) has had the unintended consequence of creating a storm of misinformation around this issue. While wood chips are a "permeable surface" that allows water to drain into the soil rather than going straight into the storm drain system untreated, they do have their problems. From a sustainability perspective, driveways are designed to ultimately drain into our stream system, and you want to avoid putting additional organic material (such as wood chips)

Ernest Kelly has a warning for fellow homeowners: Be wary of door-to-door solicitors offering to pave driveways. Kelly, 80, an Allegany County resident, said he was swindled out of more than $7,000 from unlicensed contractors who pressured him to pay for shoddy and incomplete work. He said the contractor followed him to his credit union to collect a check. "There was nothing I could do then. I thought I had to pay," Kelly said. "I should have called the law right there. " State officials are investigating an uptick in complaints by Maryland homeowners victimized by similar scams this year.

A man stabbed his wife and himself while the woman's 13-year-old son sat nearby in a parked vehicle, Maryland State Police said in a statement Friday evening. Douglas Harvey, 50, died from self-inflicted stab wounds, police said. His wife, Lisa Harvey, 45, is in critical condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Lisa, who had stopped living with Douglas about a month ago, arrived with her son to collect some belongings from the single-family home in the 1700 block of Strand Ave. in Westminster, police said.

I appreciate all the thoughtful dialogue on my dilemma ("'Greener' city bars wood chip driveway," Jan. 19). If nothing else, it made me realize that I am not alone in my frustration with city officials and their narrowly focused decision making. After 13 years in Baltimore, this citation is just an example of the numerous obstacles I have faced in trying to create a suitable space with enough interior and exterior room to inspire my art. Perhaps I was a bit naïve about city codes and politics, but I had no idea that I would be spending so much of my precious free time fighting city hall.

The state's highest court has upheld the murder and related convictions of a Dundalk man who police said was involved in a 2009 drug deal gone awry and fatally shot a bystander as she was speaking with relatives who had returned from church. In a decision issued Tuesday, a unanimous Court of Appeals rejected all of Warren Jerome Yates' claims, including that Baltimore County prosecutors lacked evidence to prove he committed a second-degree felony murder. Yates was convicted in 2009 of that, along with weapons, drug and assault charges, and sentenced to a total of 75 years in prison.

The story behind the two bocce courts on Vince DePalmer's Manchester property is a slight variation on the familiar "Field of Dreams" theme. It's not so much a matter of, "build it and they will come," but rather "build it and maybe somebody will show up and teach us how to play. " "The main reason I did it was to learn how to play bocce myself, and try to teach others how. " said DePalmer, 77, a lifelong Manchester resident. That philosophy has paid off - DePalmer has hosted benefit bocce tournaments on his private court for the past three years that have raised thousands of dollars for the nearby Charlotte's Quest Nature Center.

An unlicensed driveway paver working in the Annapolis area was ordered to pay nearly $500,000 in fines and restitution after the Maryland Attorney General's office found that he "preyed" on customers, charging them far more than he said he would. The attorney general's office said Friday that it has ordered Tommy Edward Clack, who also goes by Tommy Clark and Ed Clack, to repay at least $204,000 to customers. The office's consumer protection division also levied $284,000 in fines and ordered him to pay $5,000 in agency expenses.

It's hard to see how a land deal before the Harford County Council that would allow the county to swap 11 acres of public territory for about one acre of private land is a good one. The county is looking to clear up a dispute with the owner of a property adjacent to the 465-Swan Harbor Farm, the waterfront park on the Susquehanna Flats in Oakington between Havre de Grace and Aberdeen. At issue is a key piece of land through which the county park's driveway runs. The county has a survey that says the driveway is on county land; the owner of a neighboring farm, Griffith Davis, disputes the county's survey, and claims he has a more accurate one showing he owns the key access parcel.

A 36-year-old man died at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center after being shot early Friday morning in his driveway in Laurel, Anne Arundel County police said. Officers from the county's Western District responded to the 8000 block of Ians Alley shortly before 2:30 a.m. Friday for the report of a shooting, police said. The victim, Gregory Robert Sears, told them he was shot after being approached by two men in his driveway, according to police. Officers searched the area for the men, but they were unable to locate them, police said.

I had a nice afternoon with Ron and June Smith and some of their friends and family members at the Smith family home in Shrewsbury Tuesday. No tape recorders today, but I wanted to share these pictures taken by June of Ron showing me the game ball Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh gave Smith Sunday night after the Cleveland game. I know, the second picture looks like I am trying to take the ball away from Smith. What can I say? My thanks to the Smiths for inviting me into their home again.

Q. I share a driveway, which is not working out very well. I would like to divide the drive by [installing parking-space barriers] ... on my side. ... Do I have to inform anyone first, and is it legal? A. Your rights may depend on whether the driveway-sharing arrangement is formalized by a written easement or maintenance agreement. Often, the owners of properties that share a common driveway record an agreement in the land records. The agreement spells out the right of each property to use the driveway and may require the owners to share the cost of repairs and snow removal.

Someone riding in a passing car fired at a Pasadena man but missed him as he stood in his driveway Thursday morning, county police said.The 35-year-old man told police a dirty, black Datsun 240 with damage near the driver's door drove by his house around 3:30 a.m., made a U-turn and returned. When the car reached his driveway, someone fired several shots from the passenger side, police said.No damage was done to the house or the surrounding area, police said. Officers found several 9 mm shell casings at the scene.

On a country lane in Howard County, the letterbox for Cathy and Steve Klein sits directly at the driveway's edge for easy mail delivery right off the carrier's truck. Its position is similar to others along the way, but the difference is that the Kleins' driveway is nine-tenths of a mile long, ambling past a deserted antebellum stone house and a barn, flanked by corn fields and fallow fields. By the time a visitor begins to wonder how a snow blower makes it up the narrow incline in winter, two chunky stone posts topped with concrete urns full of flowers herald the approach to the Klein home.

The following is compiled from police reports from the Cockeysville Precinct. Our policy is to include descriptions only when there is enough information to make identification possible. Parkton Masemore Road , 17200 block, between 10:30 p.m. Oct. 13 and 5 a.m. Oct. 14. Cell phone, Leatherman tool, gift cards and money stolen from three unlocked vehicles in driveway. Masemore Road , 17300 block, between 12:01 a.m. and 6:15 a.m. Oct. 14. Minivan stolen from Baltimore City driven to house, where contents of vehicle were dumped out. Then dirt bike and four-wheeler stolen from unlocked garage and loaded into minivan before fleeing.