Hair Salon

A small fire on the first floor of a Johns Hopkins University dormitory in North Baltimore filled the six-story building with smoke and forced the evacuation of students, office workers and shoppers at several street-level stores.No injuries were reported.Inspector Michael Maybin, a Fire Department spokesman, said sprinklers extinguished the fire, which began about 2 p.m. in an electrical panel in the Homewood Apartments in the 3000 block of N. Charles St. Officials said the panel was being repaired by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. workers.

Edna Kenny, 89, owned Reisterstown hair salonEdna Kenny, who ran a hair salon in Reisterstown that was a Main Street gathering place for decades, died Wednesday at Northwest Hospital Center of pulmonary problems after being hospitalized for several weeks. She was 89.The former Edna Marquess, three times married and long divorced, opened Edna Kenny's Hair Salon at 226 Main St. in 1952 and lived at that address until moving recently to her daughter's home in Owings Mills."She was still doing hair into her 80s," said her youngest granddaughter, Marsha Derrickson of Baltimore.

For the second time in a year, vandals destroyed lights and a sign of a home-based hair salon in West Friendship, costing the owners an estimated $1,000 each time.The shop, Revelations in Hair Design on Pfefferkorn Road, has drawn sharp criticism since it opened in 1995 from neighbors who say the business ruins the rural character of the area.Owners Robin and Patrice Davidson said it appeared that someone used a sledgehammer to smash two 60-watt lights and a 2-foot-by-3-foot sign with a picture of their house and name on it."

WASHINGTON -- Republicans are shearing one of the long-standing perks in the House: taxpayer-subsidized beauty and barber shops.The House's chief administrator was told yesterday to shut down the two enterprises and bring in private contractors to do the job."We want to make sure that the beauty and barber shops stop losing taxpayers' money," said Rep. Bill Thomas, a California Republican who is chairman of the House Oversight Committee.For decades, House members and staff -- and even a few news reporters -- have availed themselves of the haircutting and styling services that are heavily subsidized by taxpayers.

County police, alerted by a silent alarm, met a burglar just before 4 a.m. yesterday as he was walking out of the Kent Island Crab Co. in the 2900 block of Mountain Road with a load of frozen seafood.The man dropped 10 boxes of shrimp and ran back inside when he saw Officer Andrew A. Klausing, police said. An accomplice ** ran out of the front door and into nearby woods, but was caught by Officers Michael A. Krok and Mark W. Robey, police said. Officer Klausing caught the other man when he tried to escape through a side door.

The owners of a Columbia hair salon filed a $5.5 million lawsuit against a former employee, contending that they were defamed by her allegations that they fired her because she had an abortion.Robin George Davidson and his wife, Patrice Davidson, filed the countersuit in Howard Circuit Court earlier this month in response to the woman's lawsuit in which she is seeking nearly $4 million in damages from them.The Davidsons say the case has unfairly put them and their private beliefs into the public eye. They said the lawsuit has "mischaracterized" them and falsely affiliated them with the anti-abortion movement.

A 22-year-old Hanover man told Annapolis police Sunday that he was struck in the leg by an object outside a city fast-food restaurant last week.Lizerra Melon Wideman of the first block of Briars Knoll Way said he was walking out of the McDonald's at 1941 West St. about 8 p.m. Aug. 3 when he heard a popping sound and felt a stinging sensation in his leg. He pulled up his pants and saw blood.Mr. Wideman didn't report the incident until Sunday, when the wound became infected, police said. He was treated at North Arundel Hospital and released.

A hair salon on Ritchie Highway was robbed of $195 in cash and checks Monday morning after someone smashed the store's front window, police said.At 5:18 a.m., an officer noticed that the front window of A New You hair salon, 7400 Ritchie Highway, had been smashed. No evidence indicated how the window was broken, police said.The burglar took money from a cash register and rifled through some desk drawers, police said. Nothing else in the store was disturbed.

Calabria Hair Salon picks new managerDora Osterfeld has been chosen salon manager for the Calabria Hair Salon in Annapolis.Previously with Ludwigs Hair Salon in Annapolis, Ms. Osterfeld has more than 14 years of experience in hair design.The salon also recently welcomed two other new employees, Nancy Hall and Jackie Newcastle.Ms. Hall, previously with Nails of Excellence in Annapolis, has joined the Calabria Hair Salon in Annapolis as a qualified nail technician.With 11 years of experience, Ms. Hall specializes in sculpture nails, manicure and pedicure.

The gunman who fatally shot Angelo Garrison Sr. and his 3-year-old son was lying in wait for Mr. Garrison and may have intentionally killed the boy, police investigators said.While investigators said they haven't ruled out that the boy, Angelo Garrison Jr., may have been shot accidentally, some witnesses told police the gunman took aim at the boy and shot him as he sat in the back seat of the family car. The boy was eating an ice cream cone at the time.Police said the motive is unknown and there are still many unanswered questions about the ambush attack outside Mr. Garrison's downtown Baltimore bail bond business.

As detectives continue to search for burglars who vandalized a Brooklyn Park hair salon with racist messages and symbols, the shop's owner said she expects not to reopen for two months. Investigators from the Anne Arundel County Fire Department were there Monday, asked by county police to identify what may be gasoline or other flammable liquid used to soak the Heavenly Hands Unisex Salon over the weekend. "Everything is so saturated. The chairs are saturated with the gasoline," owner Sharanda Brown said Monday, noting it would take at least a week to begin figuring out what in the salon is too soaked or fume-laden to be salvaged.

There were twice as many stylists working as on a usual Sunday and every seat was taken, with pre-teens getting their curly locks blown straight and toddlers getting their hair trimmed, too distracted to cry as they watched Elmo DVDs. The phone had been ringing nonstop, not including the half-dozen messages waiting when she arrived. It was barely 11 a.m. yesterday, about the time Marci Messick opens her children's hair salon in Pikesville on a typical Sunday. But this was no typical Sunday.

It's Saturday morning in any neighborhood hair salon. Dryers are whirring, curling irons steaming. Amid the machinery, women are gathered - talking, laughing, gossiping, and at times maybe even crying. There are rollers and bobby pins, yes, but more importantly, there's intimacy here. And comfort. The neighborhood beauty shop is a place where stories are told - which is what makes it a perfect setting for a movie. Over the years, many filmmakers have picked up on this notion and set their movies in or around the goings-on in beauty salons.

Teenager is charged as adult with murder A 15-year-old boy has been arrested and charged as an adult with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a man during a robbery nearly two months ago at a Walbrook hair salon, Baltimore police said. Kemoni Sterrett of the 3400 block of Bateman Ave. in Windsor Hills was arrested late Wednesday by members of the Regional Warrant Apprehension Task Force as he was walking about two blocks from his home. Sterrett also was charged with armed robbery, theft and using a handgun in the commission of a felony.

Just weeks after Baltimore's historic preservation board approved a list of Mount Vernon properties deserving of protection, a developer is asking for approval to demolish four of them, small carriage houses that date to 1895. Though Mayor Martin O'Malley, City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. and Baltimore's planning director support the demolition and the construction of condominiums, preservationists are poised for a fight as the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation considers the plan Nov. 8. "To me," says former Baltimore Heritage President John Maclay, "it doesn't send a good message about the city's interest in historic preservation."

Uprising reveals Iraq occupation is doomed to fail As Iraq degenerates into a general uprising against American occupation, it is time to ask at what point the United States realizes its policy is doomed to failure ("U.S. forces battle for Fallujah," April 8). Last week, The Sun suggested that the occupation of Iraq may come to resemble Israel's occupation of the West Bank ("A lynching," editorial April 2). Is this what Americans want? The Israelis have pursued their failed occupation policies for 37 years, with no end in sight.

James Earl Winkler, a barber for more than 40 years and co-owner of W&W Hair Salon and Barber Shop in Woodlawn, died of lung cancer Sunday at University of Maryland Medical Center. He was 53. Affectionately known as "Mr. Wink," he worked in the shop alongside his wife and co-owner, Wanda, until he became ill about 18 months ago. It was his lifelong dream to own his own barbershop, which he filled with laughter and a family atmosphere, patrons and co-workers said. "If you ever came to the shop, you'd see it was an extension of him, personality-wise," said Robert L. Bostic, whom Mr. Winkler hired as manager more than a decade ago. "He enjoyed the lives that he touched and the people that he met. He enjoyed giving them service."

A small fire on the first floor of a Johns Hopkins University dormitory in North Baltimore filled the six-story building with smoke and forced the evacuation of students, office workers and shoppers at several street-level stores.No injuries were reported.Inspector Michael Maybin, a Fire Department spokesman, said sprinklers extinguished the fire, which began about 2 p.m. in an electrical panel in the Homewood Apartments in the 3000 block of N. Charles St. Officials said the panel was being repaired by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. workers.

Edna Kenny, 89, owned Reisterstown hair salonEdna Kenny, who ran a hair salon in Reisterstown that was a Main Street gathering place for decades, died Wednesday at Northwest Hospital Center of pulmonary problems after being hospitalized for several weeks. She was 89.The former Edna Marquess, three times married and long divorced, opened Edna Kenny's Hair Salon at 226 Main St. in 1952 and lived at that address until moving recently to her daughter's home in Owings Mills."She was still doing hair into her 80s," said her youngest granddaughter, Marsha Derrickson of Baltimore.

For the second time in a year, vandals destroyed lights and a sign of a home-based hair salon in West Friendship, costing the owners an estimated $1,000 each time.The shop, Revelations in Hair Design on Pfefferkorn Road, has drawn sharp criticism since it opened in 1995 from neighbors who say the business ruins the rural character of the area.Owners Robin and Patrice Davidson said it appeared that someone used a sledgehammer to smash two 60-watt lights and a 2-foot-by-3-foot sign with a picture of their house and name on it."