Hitch

ISSUE: The driver of a Lincoln Navigator whose trailer came loose on the Bay Bridge in May was "solely at fault" for the deadly multivehicle crash that resulted, according to a police investigation, but prosecutors have decided that they have no grounds for charging him with any traffic offenses. Three Eastern Shore men died in the seven-vehicle collision May 10, which closed the westbound span of the bridge well into the night and backed up traffic for miles. A report released last week by the Maryland Transportation Authority Police concluded that there was no evidence that the driver of the Navigator, Stephen A. Burt of Rockville, had used a safety hitch pin to secure the single-axle trailer to his vehicle.

PoliceWestminster: A resident of Jolene Lane told police April 17 that a boat and trailer hitch were stolen from the Wal-Mart parking lot. The loss was estimated at $9,000.

In a filing to federal regulators yesterday, Lockheed Martin Corp. revealed a potential hitch in its plan to acquire Bethesda neighbor Comsat Corp.The trouble centers on Lockheed Martin's relationship with Loral Space & Communications Ltd., in which it holds a 14 percent stake.To allay antitrust concerns about its ownership of shares of two satellite communications companies, Lockheed was willing to enter a consent order on the terms of its sale of its Loral shares.However, Lockheed said its entry into such a consent order was contingent on getting assurances from Loral on the conditions of the divestiture.

Eastern Shore farmers would like to donate thousands of bales of hay to feed starving livestock in the drought-ridden Florida Panhandle, but there's a legal hitch.The Maryland hayfields are registered in a federal conservation reserve program that pays farmers to take land out of production. They are required to plant a cover crop such as clover and grass that makes great hay, but they can't harvest the fields.Daniel Shortall, a vice president of the Maryland Farm Bureau, said the hay-lift initiative began Friday when his Centreville neighbor, Charles Jackson, "came to me and said, 'We have got to do something.

Eastern Shore farmers would like to donate thousands of bales of hay to feed starving livestock in the drought-ridden Florida Panhandle, but there's a legal hitch.The Maryland hayfields are registered in a federal conservation reserve program that pays farmers to take land out of production. They are required to plant a cover crop such as clover and grass that makes great hay, but they can't harvest the fields.Daniel Shortall, a vice president of the Maryland Farm Bureau, said the hay-lift initiative began Friday when his Centreville neighbor, Charles Jackson, "came to me and said, 'We have got to do something.

Charles Johnston Hitch, 85, who as president of the University of California guided the UC system through the threat of 1960s budget cuts and the student protests during the Vietnam War, died Monday of pneumonia in San Leandro, Calif. The Boonville, Mo., native, who attended the University of Arizona, Harvard University and Oxford University, was a world-renowned economist and was assistant secretary of defense and comptroller of the Pentagon in the Kennedy administration. He was UC president from 1968 to 1975, taking over at the height of the student protest movement.

COLUMBUS, Ga. -- Sid Fernandez's first stop on the road to Baltimore when without a hitch -- and without a hit.Fernandez, pitching for the Single-A Albany Polecats, held Columbus hitless over three innings. He allowed only two walks, and 28 of his 46 pitches were strikes.The left-hander, recovering from bursitis in his pitching shoulder, struck out four, including the side in the third inning. Fernandez, who was clocked between 83-88 mph through the first two innings, was superb in the first and third innings as he retired the side both times.

A 71-year-old man was killed yesterday afternoon when a trailer hitch crashed through the windshield of his car on Interstate 95 in Howard County, causing him to veer into the opposite lane and collide head-on with another car, state police said.Police were asking for help from motorists who may have seen the accident at 3:30 p.m. in Savage, since it is unclear whether the trailer hitch was purposely thrown at the car or fell off a moving vehicle on the Vollmerhausen Road overpass.Richard Arthur Bauer, 71, of the 9500 block of Potomac Drive in Fort Washington, Prince George's County was pronounced dead arrival at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, police said.

A state medical examiner's autopsy report yesterday confirmed that a 71-year-old Fort Washington man who was killed in an accident on I-95 in Savage Friday afternoon suffered a heart attack when a trailer hitch crashed through his windshield.Meanwhile, state police investigators reviewing the death of Richard Arthur Bauer, of the 9500 block of Potomac Drive, say that the 10-pound chunk of metal debris smashed through the victim's windshield after being struck by another vehicle.Mr. Bauer died when his southbound vehicle careened off the roadway, crossed the median and struck a vehicle in the northbound lane, said Mike McKelvin, a state police spokesman.

"I keep drifting back into pioneer days, where everyone knows who they are -- survivors. That's it. There's no other choice. Live or die. Life was so much easier then."-- from "Hitch Up the Mules"T.P. Mulrooney is a survivor. In the competitive field of stand-up comedy, this clean-cut comic with ink black hair has been laying them in the aisles for 14 years.And, like the American forebears he salutes in his one-man show, "Hitch Up the Mules," at Slapstix Comedy Club, Mulrooney is a pioneer -- a lone comedian in the wilderness, trying to bridge the frontier separating stand-up comedy from theater.

The tang of good old-fashioned Westerns only improves with time. Appaloosa, a story of two lawmen who clean up the title town at some personal cost, goes down like a single-malt aged for 25 years - since that last defiantly traditional big-screen Western, Fred Schepisi's Barbarosa (1982). This one has the sweeping backdrop of New Mexico and the snap of a trampoline. Ed Harris, who directed and co-wrote it with Robert Knott from Robert B. Parker's novel, also stars as a lawman named Virgil Cole.

Florist? Check. Photographer? Check. Police traffic coordinator? Double check. Several Towson-area brides-to-be will share their big day Saturday with Michael Phelps, star of a parade that will shut down the town's main thoroughfare for hours. To something borrowed, something blue, add something stuck in traffic: an entire wedding party. Enough to morph the sweetest vision in white into Bridezilla. "We freaked out a little bit at first," said Elizabeth Rowley, who is to be married at St. Pius X Church, situated on the parade route formerly known as York Road.

ISSUE: The driver of a Lincoln Navigator whose trailer came loose on the Bay Bridge in May was "solely at fault" for the deadly multivehicle crash that resulted, according to a police investigation, but prosecutors have decided that they have no grounds for charging him with any traffic offenses. Three Eastern Shore men died in the seven-vehicle collision May 10, which closed the westbound span of the bridge well into the night and backed up traffic for miles. A report released last week by the Maryland Transportation Authority Police concluded that there was no evidence that the driver of the Navigator, Stephen A. Burt of Rockville, had used a safety hitch pin to secure the single-axle trailer to his vehicle.

ISSUE: The driver of a Lincoln Navigator whose trailer came loose on the Bay Bridge in May was "solely at fault" for the deadly multivehicle crash that resulted, according to a police investigation, but prosecutors have decided that they have no grounds for charging him with any traffic offenses. Three Eastern Shore men died in the seven-vehicle collision May 10, which closed the westbound span of the bridge well into the night and backed up traffic for miles. A report released last week by the Maryland Transportation Authority Police concluded that there was no evidence that the driver of the Navigator, Stephen A. Burt of Rockville, had used a safety hitch pin to secure the single-axle trailer to his vehicle.

On June 19, 2007, GENEVA W. HITCH. On Monday friends may call on at the Vaughn C. Greene Funeral Services, 5151 Balto Nat'l Pike, from 3:00 - 8:00 p.m. On Tuesday, Mrs. Hitch will lie in-state at Barea Temple Seventh Day Adventist Church, 1901 Madison Avenue for a wake from 7-9 p.m. On Wednesday, Mrs. Hitch will lie in-state at Emmanuel Seventh Day Adventist Church, 18800 New Hampshire Avenue, where the family will receive friends from 11-11:30 a.m. with...

Where: Preston Gardens on St. Paul Place When: 7:30 p.m. today and Sept. 29 Why: Watch a romantic comedy and help rejuvenate the park near Mercy Hospital and the Standard Oil apartment building. Tonight's film is Hitch (Will Smith, Kevin James and Eva Mendes), and Sept. 29 it's Finding Neverland. Information: 410-244-1030, www.godown townbaltimore.com. Admission: Free. Food and drink will be sold.

On Friday, August 26, 2005, DORIS A. HITCH (90), of Catonsville, MD at her residence in Grasonville. Beloved mother of D. Audrey Hiebler (Andrew) of Catonsville, MD; grandmother of two, Tracey Lynn Dearborn (Jeffrey) of Severna Park, MD and Thomas Andrew Hiebler (Joanna) of Marriottsville, MD; great-grandmother of four, Taylor Victoria and Trevor Jeffrey Dearborn, Benjamin Thomas and Ryan Hiebler. She was predeceased by her husband Grover Hitch in 1984, and her brother Gerald C. Dean. Family and friends may visit from 5 to 8 P.M. on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 and 10 to 11 A.M. Wednesday, August 31, 2005 at Fellows, Helfenbein and Newnam Funeral Home, P.A., Chester, MD where services will be held at 11 A.M. on Wednesday.

Will Smith finally got a chance to strut his romantic-comedy stuff this year in Hitch (Sony, $29). Smith plays a New York date doctor who guarantees men they can win the girl of their dreams in just three dates. More than holding his own opposite Smith is stand-up comic Kevin James (The King of Queens), who plays a shy accountant madly in love with a society heiress (Amber Valletta). Eva Mendes plays a tabloid columnist who ends up falling for Hitch. Conspicuously absent is audio commentary from director Andy Tennant, Smith and James -- it would have greatly improved the digital edition.

Jamie Foxx has talked about his fear of getting "the fame face" - a complacent look that sometimes comes with show-biz success. Will Smith hasn't gotten there yet, but he should be wary of making more choices like Hitch. Smith deserves a smidgen of respect for what he does with this picture. He's agreeably smooth. His very presence puts velveteen on the rickety works of this slaphappy, sap-heavy farce and allows it to run pleasantly for about an hour. Yet he can't keep the movie from stopping cold with another hour left to go. Hitch will be a sizable hit. Audiences ache for romantic comedies at this time of year, and Hitch is as soft as a Valentine pillow embroidered with nostrums and surrounded by sugar and spice and everything nice.

He's fought off aliens, drug lords, the CIA and -- ay! -- robots. Heck, he even brought George Foreman to his knees. Now, in Hitch, his first romantic comedy since he burst onto the small screen as the Fresh Prince, Will Smith finds himself in the battle of the sexes. Smith, the quintessential ladies' man -- who's resplendent with his actress wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, on the cover of this month's Essence -- plays "date doctor" Alex Hitchens, creating situations to help ordinary guys snag the girls of their dreams.