Front Porch

POLICE* Woodbine: An unlocked 12-speed Huffy mountain bike worth $150 was stolen from a front porch in the 600 block of Old Washington Road between 10 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m. yesterday.

POLICE LOG* Chesterfield: A wicker chair and table were stolen from the front porch of a house in the 7800 block of Centergate Court between 10:30 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday.* Greenhaven: Burglars broke into a home in the 2200 block of 229th St. Friday night. Police couldn't say what was taken.

POLICEWestminster: A resident of South Center Street reported to city police someone stole a lawn mower from the front porch of his house Monday. He estimated the value at $350.FIRE* Reese: Reese engines responded to a brush fire on Old Westminster Pike at 9:26 p.m. Thursday. Units were out for 10 minutes.

City police are searching for the occupants of a burgundy van with temporary tags who witnesses say took a man from his front porch Wednesday night. A witness told police that the man was sitting on his front porch in the 2300 block of Lauretta Ave. when the van pulled up and several people with guns forced the man from his porch into the van, said Agent Donny Moses, Police Department spokesman. Moses said homicide is investigating, which is standard procedure in an abduction investigation.

Cal Ripken's new field for kids is awesome, and it is made even better by the fact that while those kids are playing, the residents of Stadium Place, the affordable retirement community which now encircles the infield, and many of whose residents watched games at Memorial Stadium, will be able to enjoy watching children play from their front porch. Now that's a win/win! Jane Page

I got an e-mail from a couple who are looking to purchase a 100-year-old home in Roland Park. They are concerned about a "pronounced" drop of 3 to 6 inches over 10 feet in the floor of the second-floor master bedroom. They wrote that the drop began where the room extends from the main body of the house over a porch. They said the porch underneath and the ceiling appeared to have no drop. There was also a drop (in a perpendicular direction) in the hallway on the first floor. They were told that "old homes settle" but have never seen a home in this price range with drops like this.

Baltimore County Police are searching for several suspects in connection with a shooting in Reisterstown yesterday afternoon that sent a man to Maryland Shock Trauma Center. The incident occurred at 3:53 p.m. on the front porch of a home located in the first block of Brookshire Drive, police said. The man, who police said is in his 20s, was shot at least two times in the shoulder. His condition is unknown. "It wasn't random," said Baltimore County Police Cpl. Patrick Wilhelm, who added that he did not know a motive for the shooting.

Police have arrested and charged a 22-year-old neighbor in the fatal stabbing of Emma Coxson, 91, who was found slain in her Northwest Baltimore apartment last week.Rhonda Renee Hall, who lived upstairs from Mrs. Coxson, was interviewed by Baltimore police Saturday and arrested that night. City police spokeswoman Sabrina Tapp-Harper said yesterday that Ms. Hall is charged with first-degree murder, robbery and a separate deadly weapon charge. She was being held last night without bail.The women lived just one floor from each other in a small Northwest Baltimore apartment house, but their lives were worlds apart.

In Baltimore City Two sentenced in death of man who was beaten and shot A Cherry Hill man was sentenced yesterday to two consecutive life terms in prison plus 20 years for beating a man to death in an East Baltimore rowhouse, then shooting him and setting the house on fire. Gamell Jenkins, 25, of the 600 block of Cherry Crest Road was convicted by a Baltimore jury in June of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Howard Hepburn, 25. Also yesterday, Aaron Bell, 20, of South Durham Street was sentenced to 40 years for his role in Hepburn's murder.

Rawlings-Blake calls for openness by police City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake is asking the Baltimore Police Department to post more crime information online, as other major police departments do. She also wants the department to consider a policy used in Chicago of posting the final reviews of police-involved shootings online. "This could be a good balance between protecting officers and bringing transparency to the public," Rawlings-Blake said. The City Council president has been critical of a new Police Department policy of withholding the names of officers who shoot civilians, saying that it was developed without appropriate input from the community.