Feud

A federal grand jury has indicted 26-year-old Steven Blackwell — long suspected by Baltimore police of being a major drug kingpin on the city's east side — on a charge of running a heroin ring that stretched from New York to the Dominican Republic. Blackwell, a resident of Elkton, was indicted with Tahirah Carter, 34, of Cockeysville and Joy Edison, 24, of Elkton. All three face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the drug conspiracy, which prosecutors allege began in late 2003.

A 28-year-old man who police say was feuding with neighbors in North Baltimore fired several shots at them and a police officer early Saturday. A Northern District officer returned fire, striking the man in the hand and ending the brief shootout. Detective Donny Moses, a Baltimore police spokesman, said the shooting occurred shortly after 3 a.m. when the officer, driving his patrol car in the 2000 block of Girard Ave. in Woodberry, came upon a man firing at neighbors with a .25-caliber pistol.

To hear Angela Germanos tell it, the rivalry between Anne Arundel County's Severna Park and Broadneck high schools can go from friendly to fierce to furious in no time flat. Earlier this year, the Severna Park drama director came up with an idea to bring to a simmer some of the recurring enmity: a joint production of the Shakespeare play "Romeo and Juliet," in which each school's drama department would assume the role of one of the play's feuding families, the Capulets and the Montagues.

Two more people were killed in the city Tuesday, continuing one of the deadliest stretches in the city in recent years with 10 slain since early Saturday. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said most of the crimes appeared to be linked to "minor, petty disputes that got out of control" and said other crimes – such as burglaries, robberies and aggravated assaults – were down "markedly" over the holiday weekend despite the bloodshed. "We have to have the ability to get together, to enjoy ourselves over the holiday without it turning into ... arguments that turn into shootings," said Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake.

Smart move? Nothing Tania Ganguli Orlando Sentinel The difference between Rick Hendrick and other owners is Hendrick understands how to manage his people to get the best work out of them. Recall the famous milk-and-cookies meeting that turned Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus from bickering colleagues to a pair of four-time defending champion racers who love each other like brothers. Johnson and Jeff Gordon have played nicely together until now, but Gordon's frustration is apparent.

Christine Dolde wanted to testify against the young man who put a knife to her throat as she walked up the front steps to her Guilford home in the middle of the afternoon. The 43-year-old said she would have easily and unequivocally identified the man who attacked her, the man who took her purse containing the nearly $300 she was planning to take on a trip to celebrate her grandmother's 90th birthday. But Baltimore prosecutors told her not to bother, that her testimony and picking the suspect from a police mug shot she was shown were not enough by themselves to ensure a conviction.

As part of a continuing feud with a felon-turned-fraud-buster, Medifast Inc. reiterated Tuesday that a committee of its independent board members concluded that allegations of fraud at a subsidiary were unfounded. The Fraud Discovery Institute, co-founded by Barry Minkow, who once served time in prison for stock fraud, has accused a Medifast subsidiary, Take Shape for Life Inc., of a pyramid scheme. Medifast CEO Michael S. McDevitt said the Owings Mills company has filed several complaints against FDI with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Maryland regulators.

A Baltimore man, who authorities believe was part of a drug organization whose feuding with rivals might have led to several killings and the shooting of 12 people at a cookout this summer, was sentenced to four years in federal prison Wednesday for being a felon in possession of ammunition. Terrell Allen, 36, pleaded guilty in September, two months after agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives executed a search warrant on his Essex home on Punjab Drive and found 21 rounds of ammunition in a table next to his bed. The search warrant was connected to a series of incidents more than a year earlier.

Authorities say Terrell Allen was a Baltimore drug kingpin who kidnapped the teenage brothers of an alleged rival in 2008 and returned them for a half-million-dollar ransom, launching a string of retaliatory shootings that has continued right up until this summer. But his attorney denies the allegations, and Allen has never been formally charged with any of them. Instead, he was convicted Tuesday on the easiest thing to prove: possession of ammunition, a federal offense for a felon like Allen, who has prior convictions for manslaughter and drugs and has beaten dozens of other charges, including murder.

Recognizing Baltimore's feuding gangs should be easy: Red for Bloods. Blue for Crips. But it's no longer as simple as looking for different-colored bandannas hanging from the back pockets of jeans. Gang identifiers, in addition to traditional signs and tattoos, can be almost anything, manifested in wardrobes of significant variety. A blue belt. Red rosary beads. Pockets turned inside out. The 'C' in a Colorado Rockies baseball cap. The red in a Cincinnati Reds hat. There's no set uniform, according to a law enforcement expert, but there are recognized symbols that gang members incorporate into their everyday attire.