Jhu

About 15 protesters were asked to leave a speech by Karl Rove at Johns Hopkins University after staging "organized disruption," a university official said. Some protesters were forcibly removed from the auditorium, said spokeswoman Tracey A. Reeves. The protesters were not believed to be Hopkins students, she said. They were affiliated with the Baltimore offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Shortly after 10 p.m. the group, which goes by the name Occupy Baltimore, shared via Twitter a six-minute YouTube video of the incident.

John Alexander Wagner was sentenced Friday to life in prison plus 20 years for the 2010 robbery and stabbing death of Stephen Pitcairn, a Johns Hopkins researcher whose murder led to a cry for change in Baltimore. "I am going to show you the same mercy that you showed Mr. Pitcairn," Baltimore Circuit Judge Charles J. Peters said, ignoring a defense request for leniency based on Wagner's troubled upbringing, and sentencing the 38-year-old to maximum, consecutive terms for felony murder and conspiring to rob with a deadly weapon.

Nicole McAllister can't keep the tears from rolling down her cheeks. This shy, industrious woman sits next to her daughter at the Johns Hopkins Club, where Nicole McAllister has worked as a waitress for 17 years. And her boss, general manager Cem Baraz, has come to praise her on this special occasion. "Nicole is one of those folks you feel good about," he begins. "She brings such a work ethic, and it has been part of our joy to see her daughter come around. " The tears come faster now. McAllister's daughter, Kearra Carter, is dabbing her eyes as well.

Baltimore prosecutors have cut a deal with a woman charged in the stabbing death of a Johns Hopkins researcher, agreeing to drop murder charges in exchange for testimony against her lover in a case that became a rallying point during last year's heated state's attorney's race. Lavelva Merritt, 23, pleaded guilty to robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery, saying that her co-defendant stabbed Stephen Pitcairn last summer and that she punched the victim as he fell to the ground, stealing his cellphone while he lay there.

By now the injured red-tailed hawk should have returned to the skies over the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus — an airborne testament to good fortune and the determined care of an area wildlife center. But there has been a setback for the popular hawk, which smashed into a window at the Milton S. Eisenhower Library five months ago. "It has a soft-tissue injury, and it hasn't healed yet," said Kathy Woods, who has been tending to the bird at her Phoenix Wildlife Center in a wooded area of Baltimore County.

The Johns Hopkins University has the No. 1 nursing school in the country according to rankings of graduate programs released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report. Multiple programs at Hopkins, the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore — the state's leading centers for graduate education — finished in the top 25 in the magazine's rankings. The ratings for medical, law and other graduate schools incorporate test scores, undergraduate grades, acceptance rates and peer assessments.

A nine-block stretch of Charles Street near the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus will undergo a $28 million makeover — including new sidewalks, curbs, streetlights and trees—under a deal approved by the city's spending board Wednesday. Plans for the renovation of the street, which have been in the works for at least seven years, are expected to be completed early next year, transportation department spokeswoman Adrienne Barnes said. Construction is expected to begin next summer.

The Baltimore couple accused of killing cancer researcher Stephen Pitcairn this summer as he walked home from a city train station is scheduled for trial on murder, assault and robbery charges early next year. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Timothy J. Doory set a trial date of Jan. 26, 2011, for Lavelva Merritt, 24, and John Alexander Wagner, 37. Charging documents claim the pair stabbed Pitcairn, who worked at Johns Hopkins University, and robbed him of his wallet and iPhone on July 25, then left him for dead on the sidewalk in the 2600 block of St. Paul St. A neighbor heard Pitcairn's cries and held the young man as he died, just days before his 24 t h birthday.

The Johns Hopkins School of Education Neuro-Education Initiative will host its second annual summit and roundtable discussion on the practical applications of brain research on Wednesday at the American Visionary Art Museum. This year's topic, "Attention and Engagement in Learning," will explore current research on attention and student engagement. For more information or to register, go to http://www.education.jhu.edu/nei. liz.bowie@baltsun.com

Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels will return to work full-time next week after two months of recuperation from surgery to remove a tumor from his abdomen. It was not malignant and Daniels, 50, did not have to undergo follow-up therapy after his October surgery. A seven-hour surgery to remove part of Daniels' pancreas, called a Whipple procedure, was deemed a success at the time, and his recovery took about as long as expected. Daniels, who became the university's 14th president in March, worked part-time in December.