Entrapment

The federal government, in a reversal of a long-standing position, has determined that escalators pose a special threat to children and is pushing for an overhaul of most of the country's 30,000 escalators.The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission concluded that escalators can be made less hazardous to children with the addition of safety devices that have been on the market but were never before required, according to documents obtained by the Globe."All of this information suggests that regular occurrences of entrapment, particularly of the legs and feet of small children, can be almost completely eliminated by the installation of aftermarket safety devices," the agency wrote in a letter this month to the chairman of the committee that sets the national escalator safety code.

At the end of a day spent bouncing like a pinball around Baltimore's criminal justice system, Jack Rubin, defense attorney, is consoling himself with past victories.There's the 18-year-old Delaware kid who blew his best friend's head off after looting his bank account, confessed to police and got life without parole. On appeal, Mr. Rubin got the confession and the conviction thrown out."This," he says, slapping a pile of briefs from the Delaware murder, "is a great case. This is a beautiful case."

Attorneys General in Maryland and 29 other states have reached a $29 million settlement with Toyota Motor Corp. designed to strengthen protections for consumers impacted by safety defects and prevent miscommunication over faulty equipment. Toyota had failed to warn consumers in a timely manner about known problems with unintended acceleration caused by sticky accelerator pedals and floor mat pedal entrapment, according to a complaint filed Thursday by the Maryland AG's Consumer Protection Division.

The National Institutes of Health is expanding its safe infant sleep outreach campaign to include ways to reduce not only sudden infant death syndrome but all causes of infant death. The “Back to Sleep” campaign was launched in 1994 to encourage parents to put babies to sleep on their back to reduce the risk of SIDS, or unexplained death of an infant under a year old. The campaign has been adopted widely, with Maryland and Baltimore City aggressively educating parents.

Among the 77 calls for medical and fire-rescue service received by the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department during the period Sept. 9-16 were the following: 421 Bloomsbury Avenue, 11:44 a.m. Sept. 12. Crews from the Arbutus volunteer station and Catonsville career station responded to the report of a person with a gunshot wound in a vehicle on the parking lot of Catonsville High School. One seriously injured adult taken to University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Westland Boulevard, 4700 block, 10:06 p.m. Sept.

A Belcamp teenager died early New Year's Day after being injured in a crash on Bush Chapel Road in Aberdeen shortly before New Year's Eve became 2013, the Harford County Sheriff's Office reported. At 11:21 p.m. Dec. 31, Harford County sheriff's deputies responded to the 300 block of Bush Chapel Road in Aberdeen for a report of a motor vehicle collision with entrapment. The sheriff's office investigation revealed that Austin D. Remines, 17, of the 1200 block of Person Place in Belcamp, was driving a 2008 Suzuki Forenza on Bush Chapel Road near the intersection of Mt. Calvary Church Road.

The county Board of Liquor License Commissioners conducted a sting operation March 5, employing an underage state police cadet.Of the 15 local businesses targeted, eight were later found guilty of selling draft beers or six-packs to the cadet.In some cases, the cadet was not asked to show identification. In one instance, he showed his ID, with a profile photo, clearly stating that his 21st birthday had not yet arrived. He was still served beer.The eight establishments received fines ranging from $350 to $750.

The judge in Ruthann Aron's murder-for-hire trial has reversed a decision and will allow the jury to hear at the same time evidence about the alleged crime and whether she was sane.In December, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Paul A. McGuckian granted prosecutors' request for a two-phase trial that would first determine Aron's guilt or innocence on murder-solicitation charges, then, if she was found guilty, determine whether she was responsible for her actions.Aron's lawyers said it would be nearly impossible to defend their client if they had to hold back evidence about her mental condition before her arrest in June.

What happened to sideline Baltimore Orioles first baseman Glenn Davis, and how long will he be out?For the doctor who diagnosed Davis' injury, the first question is much easier to answer than the second.After Davis saw Dr. James N. Campbell, a professor of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Orioles announced that Campbell diagnosed an injury to the spinal accessory nerve in Davis' neck, causing wasting and weakness to a major muscle in his right shoulder.Yesterday, Campbell declined to reveal his findings about Davis, but he did explain this type of injury and how it is fixed.

With everything this film has going for it - humor, intelligence and a splendid ensemble - Richard Linklater's nightmare drug movie, A Scanner Darkly, should be continually compelling. But it loses its fizz after a strong series of pops. Instead of a moviemaking vision, it merely has a look: an unsettling, changeable new form of animated live action. And, instead of a lucid, original take on wigged-out junkies and the government that spies on and manipulates them, it slavishly follows Philip K. Dick's 1977 novel of the same name.