Interstate 95

The figures in the old black-and-white photograph are a little out of focus, but Pam Hess can still easily identify the person standing near the swimming pool. "That's my sister in her bathing suit, standing there by the pool," Hess said, gesturing to the photo. "She'd kill me if she knew I was pointing her out like this." The photo was taken at Best Western Invitation Inn in Edgewood, where Hess has worked for 28 years. She started out working summers while attending college. Her aunt and uncle, Jim and Barbara Stipe, managed the hotel when it opened and recruited her to work the front desk and fill in with housekeeping, greeting guests and making beds.

A hazardous mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow fell across the Baltimore region yesterday and into this morning, threatening to create dangerously icy roadways for the early commute. Two inches of snow and about a half-inch of ice were expected to accumulate, with temperatures plummeting into the teens and wind gusts topping 40 mph by the storm's end this evening, according to forecasts. Most public school systems around the region dismissed children hours early yesterday in anticipation of the storm, and Carroll County simply closed schools for the day - with the status of school openings across much of the state uncertain today.

Baltimore, Washington and Maryland's northern counties fell into the "sweet spot" of yesterday's Alberta clipper snowstorm, which surprised commuters with an unexpected traffic nightmare and delighted school kids with the season's first all-day snow and early dismissals. There was little accumulation on major highways, but the morning commute wheezed to a crawl anyway as motorists slipped on melting snow and icy overpasses. Weather-related collisions jammed corridor after corridor, as half-hour commutes became two-hour ordeals.

LAUREL -- When supporters of the Intercounty Connector dream of the future, they see Philadelphia.West of that city is a 21-mile highway that neighborhoods, woods and archaeological sites could not stop. Interstate 476 -- also known as the Blue Route -- weathered 30 years of federal review and legal challenges before making the jump from concept to concrete.In Maryland, the ICC remains in political limbo.Gov. Parris N. Glendening withdrew his support and declared it dead, but has been blocked from selling land in the road corridor by pro-ICC officials.

A Maryland State Police trooper found more than 13 pounds of crack cocaine in a car on Interstate 95 yesterday, authorities said.Trooper Raymon D. Bond said he stopped a 1991 silver Lincoln Town Car traveling south on Interstate 95 about 11 a.m. yesterday in Harford County because the driver was not wearing a seat belt.Bond said the driver gave him a fictitious license and could not tell him whose name was on the car's registration. The trooper asked to search the car and the driver agreed, state police said.

A Highlandtown man was struck and killed by a car about 3: 30 a.m. yesterday as he ran across southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Harford County.Brian K. Steele, 36, of the 1000 block of S. Potomac St., was struck near the Fallston-Joppa exit by a 1990 Acura driven by Brian Jones, 29, of Abingdon.Steele was pronounced dead at the scene. The accident remains under investigation, state police Sgt. Denard D. Allen said.Pub Date: 7/25/99

MILE MARKER No. 76 is indistinguishable from all the other mile markers on the John J. Kennedy Highway, a small white sign with red numerals off Interstate 95.There are other signs with greater significance in Harford County: the historical marker that points travelers to Tudor Hall, for example, the ancestral home of presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth, or the highway signs of more recent vintage advertising the Ripken baseball museum and duck decoy...

Drivers, start your engines.Today's opening of a five-mile section of Route 100 between Interstate 95 and U.S. 29 completes a long-awaited highway link in Baltimore's fast-growing suburbs -- in effect, an outer beltway providing a quick route between northeastern Howard County and Anne Arundel's Pasadena peninsula.Thousands of commuters will be able to avoid congestion on the Beltway and smaller county roads, saving as much as 20 minutes on an east-west trip. And Route 100 should play a significant role in stimulating commercial development, encouraging use of other modes of transportation, including rail, and finishing a network of highways between Baltimore and Washington.

STUART, Fla. -- About the same time a woman dangled and dropped her toddler out the window of a speeding car on Interstate 95, the boy's father says he was on the phone to authorities trying to find a way to protect the child.Kris Ann Haddad, arraigned yesterday, visited the boy's father at his home Wednesday night despite the fact she had taken out a restraining order against him.The father, Peter Foley, had been growing concerned in recent weeks by what he considered Haddad's increasingly erratic behavior.

A teen-ager injured Sunday in a crash on Interstate 95 near Columbia died yesterday at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.Jason Michael Davis, 15, of Philadelphia, who suffered severe head injuries, died about 6: 30 p.m., said Joann Rodgers, the spokeswoman.Another teen-ager, Joy Nichole Stith, 15, also of Philadelphia, died at the scene of the crash.According to state police at the Waterloo Barracks, a Mercury Villager minivan with eight occupants and driven by Jason's father, Michael Davis, 44, of Philadelphia, was southbound on I-95 about 8: 10 a.m. Sunday and was nearing the Route 175 exit ramp when the vehicle left the roadway and overturned against a guardrail.

Avoiding the purgatory that is Interstate 95 on a holiday weekend is not all that difficult if you're heading from Baltimore to the Northeast. Pennsylvania offers a wide choice of routes to scoot to the west of Philadelphia and invade New Jersey. Going south is more difficult. There aren't that many great options when you're heading to Richmond or beyond at peak travel times. The obvious route is to take the Capital Beltway to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and follow I-95 south. But I-95 in Northern Virginia frequently makes the New Jersey Turnpike look like a quiet country road.

Two dead, one injured in five-vehicle accident The Baltimore-Washington Parkway was snarled yesterday by a major early-morning accident in which two motorists died. All lanes of the parkway in the area of the Powder Mill Road exit in Prince George's County were blocked until about 10:30 a.m, according to authorities. The accident happened shortly after 5 a.m. and involved five vehicles, including one motorcycle, according to Maj. Erroll George, spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department.

The Orioles might well move up Interstate 95 from Fort Lauderdale to Vero Beach to take over the Dodgertown facility, which might have hosted its final Dodgers exhibition game yesterday. It's certainly not on the edge of civilization, but you can get there from here. One of the signs along the highway out of town reads "Yeehaw Junction ... 33 mi." I'm pretty sure you can fall off the earth somewhere around there.

LOEWEN'S WILD RIDE In his first game action since undergoing elbow surgery in June, Orioles starter Adam Loewen couldn't find home plate and left in the second inning after 39 pitches. He walked the bases loaded with no outs in the second and was replaced by Craig Anderson, who promptly allowed a two-run single to Brett Carroll that gave Florida a 3-1 lead. Loewen didn't surrender a hit, but he walked four and struck out two. Ten of his last 11 pitches were balls. NO RELIEF Loewen wasn't the only Orioles pitcher who took a beating.

Spring training is just kicking into gear, but baseball is not the only game in South Florida this time of year. In Palm Beach Gardens, less than an hour up Interstate 95 from the Orioles' training facility, is PGA National Resort and Spa, which will host the Honda Classic this coming week. In case you were wondering, Tiger Woods will not be there. He never plays the Honda - perhaps because he drives a Buick - but that just means one of your other favorite golfers will have a chance to win. My money's on defending U.S. Open champion Angel Cabrera.

Md. couple are convicted in immigration fraud case A Maryland couple originally from Afghanistan were convicted of immigration fraud yesterday by a federal jury in Baltimore. Nadia Naeem, 29, and Mohammad Amin Doudzai, 45, both of Brandywine, were found guilty of conspiring to obstruct proceedings before a United States agency, committing immigration fraud and providing false statements. According to trial testimony, Nadia Naeem was admitted into the United States as a refugee July 26, 2000.

Baltimore, Washington and Maryland's northern counties fell into the "sweet spot" of yesterday's Alberta clipper snowstorm, which surprised commuters with an unexpected traffic nightmare and delighted school kids with the season's first all-day snow and early dismissals. There was little accumulation on major highways, but the morning commute wheezed to a crawl anyway as motorists slipped on melting snow and icy overpasses. Weather-related collisions jammed corridor after corridor, as half-hour commutes became two-hour ordeals.

A Baltimore County police lieutenant enacted a short-lived policy requiring officers under his supervision to write an average of at least three traffic tickets each day they worked on patrol. Under the order, patrol officers' ability to get time off was linked to the number of tickets they wrote. Officers who did not meet the "expectation" and averaged fewer than one citation per day would be last to choose their days off, regardless of their shift seniority, according to the order. Lt. Dean E. Brubaker informed his officers of the requirement in March and documented it in a written order in May. County police spokesman Bill Toohey said the initiative was ended as soon as supervisors learned of it. "It was one lieutenant on one shift in one precinct three months ago," Toohey said yesterday.

More than 20,000 motorists cross these "structurally deficient" bridges in the Baltimore area each day. Some are under construction or are being replaced, indicated by an asterisk. A sufficiency rating of 50 or less indicates a bridge that might need to be replaced. 1. Route 43 eastbound over Interstate 95 in Baltimore County. Sufficiency rating, 17.3. Date built, 1962.* 2. Interstate 95 southbound ramp over Interstate 95 northbound ramp just north of Kenwood Avenue in Baltimore County.

A tractor-trailer overturned on Interstate 95 in Southeast Baltimore about 3:30 p.m. yesterday, shutting down several southbound lanes for more than four hours and backing up rush-hour traffic for more than two miles, officials said. The accident occurred in the left lane, just south of the Eastern Avenue overpass, according to Cpl. Jonathan Green of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. Emergency crews had to cut into the overturned cab of the tractor to free the driver, who was taken to nearby Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center for treatment of injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening, Green said.