Frederick County

As part of a yearlong effort to crack down on sex offenders, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. unveiled a new system yesterday that allows Marylanders to produce maps on the Internet showing where registered offenders live. The system, available at www.socem.info, allows users to type in their addresses and search for any nearby offenders. The system generates a map, which shows the registered addresses of any offenders nearby. "Information is powerful here," Ehrlich said. "Information will protect our kids."

The gas tax increase Gov. Martin O'Malley signed into law Thursday will pay for weekend MARC service between Baltimore and D.C., roads and bridges throughout the state and construction on the Red and Purple lines to begin as soon as 2015. The first phase of the tax increase - 4 cents per gallon - will arrive in July, but officials already decided how to spend an $1.2 billion it will generate over the next six years. The tax is expected to increase at least three more times until July 2016, bringing the total tax increase to as much as 19.5 cents per gallon, according to state estimates released Thursday.  Here is the list of 10 projects officials announced immediately after the gas tax bill was signed:  $100 million to add weekend service to the MARC Penn line beginning this winter, two more round-trips on the Camden line during the week by next spring and new locomotives this summer.

A historic aqueduct in Western Maryland has been restored nearly four decades after two of its three arches collapsed, leaving the now-139-year-old structure in ruins. State and federal lawmakers held a ceremony Saturday near Point of Rocks, about 15 miles southeast of Frederick along the Maryland-Virginia border, to celebrate the reopening of the Catoctin Aqueduct, one of 11 aqueducts along the 184.5 miles of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. "It just couldn't have been a more perfect day," said George E. Lewis Jr., a veterinarian who is president of the Catoctin Aqueduct Restoration Fund Inc., by phone Saturday.

National advocacy groups for people with Down syndrome are seeking an independent investigation into the January death of a Frederick County man after off-duty sheriff's deputies tried to remove him from a movie theater. Robert Ethan Saylor, 25, suffocated on Jan. 12 after three Frederick County sheriff's deputies attempted to remove him from the Theater 9 Westview Cinemas in Frederick. He died later at a local hospital. "We want to just find out more information to see if Ethan's rights as an individual with a disability were violated.

Susan Hurley Harrison, the Ruxton woman whose skeletal remains were found last month in rural Frederick County, died of head injuries, the state medical examiner said yesterday in ruling her death a homicide.But even with the autopsy results, investigators acknowledged that they still do not know where she was killed or what weapon was used."We always felt this was a homicide, and we have operated that way since the beginning," said state police spokesman Michael J. McKelvin. "This is another piece of the puzzle."

James McSherry, an attorney and decorated veteran of World War II, died of congestive heart failure Oct. 13 at his Frederick home. He was 83. A Frederick native, he earned a degree in history from Georgetown University in 1942, then was commissioned in the Navy as an ensign. During World War II he participated in eight amphibious invasions in Europe and the Pacific. He landed in Sicily and later at Saipan, Okinawa and Iwo Jima, under heavy enemy fire. He was awarded the Bronze Star for valor at Iwo Jima.

The Board of Commissioners for Frederick County has it all wrong in its effort to privatize services currently provided by public-sector employees ("Frederick County struggles over privatization proposal," July 16). I have spent many days on Frederick County baseball fields watching my grandchildren play. I am amazed at the condition of all the fields, which are second to none thanks to the hard work of the public- sector employees. Frederick is trying to make ends meet, but the privatization of these services will mean layoffs and consequently less tax revenue.

It seems pretty clear that the thugs in Frederick County want to apprehend illegal immigrants through their children attending Frederick County public schools. It is inescapable that the effects of this will be even more tragic estrangement of immigrant children from their parents. Even assuming the most humane deportation procedures it is clear that the parents of these children will be incarcerated for an extended period. This vigorous local enforcement of federal immigration laws will obviously result in circumspect parents being reluctant to send their children to school (which is already occurring in Alabama)

The Frederick County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday night to adopt an ordinance making English the county's official language, the Frederick News-Post has reported. According to the newspaper, the board voted 4-1 to approve the law, which replaces a previous nonbinding resolution. The measure appears more symbolic than substantive, and does not override federal or state laws requiring the use of other languages in certain circumstances. Nor does it prevent county officials from using other languages in emergencies or to communicate with criminal suspects.

The U.S. Geological Survey Saturday reported an early-morning earthquake of 2.1 magnitude in parts of western Carroll County and eastern Frederick County. The USGS said the epicenter was about three miles from Linganore, in Frederick County, and about 11 miles from Westminster in Carroll. A spokesman at Linganore Winecellars in Mount Airy said the vineyard had no awareness of the quake. According to the Richter scale, a 2.0 magnitude earthquake is large enough to be detected but generally not felt.

Maryland's football team is hitting the road again - this time to Frederick County - for a spring practice Saturday that is open to the public and is designed to deepen the program's roots in the state. The Terps will practice at Middletown High beginning at noon. There is no admission charge. Maryland practiced at Dunbar on March 30. Saturday's practice will come six days before the team's annual Red-White spring game at Byrd Stadium. This year's game is being played on a Friday night instead of the customary Saturday afternoon.

Robert Ethan Saylor didn't like to be touched, and suddenly an off-duty deputy had his hands on him. Within moments, two more deputies would grab him, the four men would fall in a heap on the floor, and Saylor, who had been shouting and resisting their attempts to restrain him, would grow quiet and still. More than two months after a man with Down syndrome died at the hands of three off-duty Frederick County sheriff's deputies, these details about his death emerged in an autopsy report released this week.

Three Frederick County sheriff's deputies will not be held criminally responsible in the death of a developmentally disabled man at a movie theater in January, prosecutors said Friday. A grand jury declined to indict the three deputies, who were attempting to remove 25-year-old Robert Ethan Saylor from the Theater 9 Westview Cinemas in Frederick when he suffocated Jan. 12, the Frederick County state's attorney's office said. Saylor, who had Down syndrome, died later at a local hospital.

The Senate approved Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed expansion of early voting Monday night, sending the legislation to the House of Delegates. Senators voted 35-12, with most Republicans opposed, to increase the number of days and hours that early voting centers will remain open. The bill would increase the number of early voting days from six to eight starting in 2014. The hours of voting would be longer in presidential election years. O'Malley's proposal follows a presidential election that saw voters waiting in line for hours at the limited number of early voting sites in each county.

Maryland football will begin spring workouts on March 2 and hold practices at Baltimore's Dunbar High School on March 30 and Middletown High School in Frederick County on April 6. Holding practices on the road represents a new wrinkle for the program, which is eager to reach out to its fan base. Both practices begin at noon and are open to the public. Another new wrinkle: Instead of holding the red-white spring game on a Saturday afternoon, the game will be under the lights on Friday night, April 12 beginning at 7;00 p.m. Maryland was 4-8 last season.

The movie was over, but Robert Ethan Saylor refused to leave the theater. Soon after the developmentally disabled Frederick man was handcuffed by three off-duty sheriff's deputies, he was dead. The unexplained death last month of Saylor, 26, who had Down syndrome, has thrust the Frederick County sheriff's office into the national spotlight, opening a debate over police treatment of people with mental disabilities. "With proper training, these officers would have realized there was a better way to work with Robert," said Kate Fialkowski, executive director of the Arc of Maryland, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The movie was over, but Robert Ethan Saylor refused to leave the theater. Soon after the developmentally disabled Frederick man was handcuffed by three off-duty sheriff's deputies, he was dead. The unexplained death last month of Saylor, 26, who had Down syndrome, has thrust the Frederick County sheriff's office into the national spotlight, opening a debate over police treatment of people with mental disabilities. "With proper training, these officers would have realized there was a better way to work with Robert," said Kate Fialkowski, executive director of the Arc of Maryland, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

If Frederick increasingly is known for its trendy restaurants and shops, its historical roots remain a part of its fabric, from a City Hall built on the site of an early protest against British rule to a mall and minor league baseball team named after hometown hero Francis Scott Key. Now, another revolution could be fomenting as Frederick County considers a radical change to the way it does government business: It is debating whether to outsource many...

An elderly man in Frederick County died of hypothermia recently, the first cold weather-related death of the winter season, state health officials said Thursday. The man was aged 65 or older. Maryland medical examiners confirmed hypothermia as his cause of death some time between Dec. 18 and Dec. 24. The state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene did not release additional details on the death, citing privacy concerns. State residents – the elderly, children, and anyone who remains outside for prolonged periods in particular – are encouraged to prepare for the cold.

100 Years Ago Watches and Watchter From the Laurel social column: "Mrs. Mayor George W. Waters, Jr. visited relatives in Baltimore during the past week. "Dr. Millard M. Wachter of Long Island, Kansas, a brother of Mr. J. W. Wachter , manager of the Laurel Furniture Company, died in Baltimore on last Thursday. Dr. Wachter was born in Frederick county in 1853 and spent his boyhood days in Frederick, where his parents moved while he was yet quite young. On obtaining his majority he went to Baltimore and obtained employment with the firm of E.L. Parker and Company.