Landover

Health care services company McKesson Corp. warned state regulators Monday that it would close its Landover facility this spring and lay off 106 employees. The state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said the San Francisco-based company, which specializes in areas such as pharmaceuticals distribution and health care IT, expected the closure to happen April 20. The pharmaceuticals division, which delivers medicine to retailers, pharmacies and hospitals, provided the warning notice.

A 28-year-old Landover man who was struck in the head with a beer bottle before hitting his head on the ground during a fight in the city's Curtis Bay neighborhood early Tuesday has died from his injuries, Baltimore Police said Wednesday. Cyrill Montel Holland, of the 7500 block of Greenleaf Road, was allegedly involved in a fight with several other men in the 1600 block of Cypress Street about 1:48 p.m. when he was assaulted, police said. As police approached the scene, an "unidentified female" warned the men in the fight that the police were approaching and two men "picked [Holland]

Big news out of Landover, a suburb of Washington D.C., this morning: 2tor Inc. raised $26 million in a fourth major round of investment, and plans to use the money to expand its reach into the higher-education online degree market. The Landover-based company has about 270 employees, and company officials said that they could hire as many as 100 new employees in coming years. 2tor partners with universities to build full-scale web experiences interwoven with an online education program that grants a serious degree to students.

He was a gritty 6-foot-3 guard from the Bronx with boundless energy and a long, sweet jumper that seemed to kiss the Civic Center's ceiling before finding its mark. "Bullseye!" Baltimore Bullets broadcaster Jim Karvellas would exclaim as Kevin Loughery scored again. For eight years, Loughery starred for the Bullets, averaging 16.6 points and helping the club to five playoff appearances and the NBA finals in 1971. Only forward Gus Johnson (nine years) spent more time here before the Bullets, after a decade, moved to Landover in 1973 and eventually become the Washington Wizards.

The Smithfield Packing Co. told Maryland regulators Thursday that it will lay off 76 workers at the company's Landover facility next week. The company gave April 6 as the layoff date, according to the state of Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Smithfield produces pork, bacon, ham and other meats under brands such as Smithfield, Esskay and Cumberland Gap, according to its website. Smithfield spokesman Jeff Gough said the layoffs were prompted by changing customer demands.

Lucent Technologies Inc. said yesterday that it has completed its $1 billion acquisition of Yurie Systems Inc., a Landover-based telecommunications equipment firm.The cash purchase, announced April 27, means the disappearance of the Yurie name. The company's operations are staying in Landover.The absorption of Yurie is not expected to cause job losses. Of the company's 240 employees, 212 are in Maryland.tTC Yurie's chairman and chief executive officer, Jeong Kim, is president of carrier networks within Lucent's data networking systems group.

LANDOVER - A 20-year-old Landover man was shot and critically wounded yesterday by Prince George's County police after he allegedly opened fire on two officers. Police say the officers responded to a call of a man with a gun in the 3400 block of Dodge Park Road around 6:35 p.m. A man standing in a parking lot there fired, police said, and the officers returned fire, hitting the suspect in the head and abdomen. The suspect, identified by police as James Anthony Williams, was taken to Prince George's Hospital Center, where he was in critical condition last night.

County police arrested a Landover man and a Jessup woman on drug charges Monday after an officer found two marijuana cigarettes in the car they occupied, police said.Stephen Elliott, 37, of the 6700 block of West Forest Road in Landover and Sheena Compher, 31, of the 2000 block of Citrus Ave. in Jessup were charged with possession of marijuana. Mr. Elliott also was charged with theft and driving an unregistered vehicle.Police said the tags on the white Pontiac Grand Prix that Mr. Elliott was driving had been reported stolen in Prince George's County.

C-Mart, the local bargain basement for designer goods, is expanding outside the Baltimore market for the first time since it went into business in the '70s. The Harford County retailer plans to open a store Feb. 17 in Landover in Prince George's County. The 120,000-square-foot store near FedEx Field will be housed in an old Sam's Club building at the Landover Crossing shopping center. The retailer known for its no-frills, messy stores has developed a large and loyal clientele over the years.

RALJON -- This hamlet of 81,000 part-time inhabitants will disappear next week, peeled from local history like an old decal from a car window.The neighbors say good riddance.Daniel Snyder, new owner of the Washington Redskins football team, is restoring Raljon to Landover.Born in the spring of 1996 on 200 acres of Prince George's County farmland next to the Capital Beltway, Raljon was the football kingdom of Jack Kent Cooke, the mercurial and powerful owner of the Redskins. He stitched together the names of sons Ralph and John in naming the turf beneath his stadium and the vast expanses of blacktop surrounding it.The U.S. Postal Service even bestowed its blessing -- not only accepting the name Raljon, but granting Cooke's request for an exclusive four-digit extension to the Landover ZIP code.

Big news out of Landover, a suburb of Washington D.C., this morning: 2tor Inc. raised $26 million in a fourth major round of investment, and plans to use the money to expand its reach into the higher-education online degree market. The Landover-based company has about 270 employees, and company officials said that they could hire as many as 100 new employees in coming years. 2tor partners with universities to build full-scale web experiences interwoven with an online education program that grants a serious degree to students.

The Smithfield Packing Co. told Maryland regulators Thursday that it will lay off 76 workers at the company's Landover facility next week. The company gave April 6 as the layoff date, according to the state of Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Smithfield produces pork, bacon, ham and other meats under brands such as Smithfield, Esskay and Cumberland Gap, according to its website. Smithfield spokesman Jeff Gough said the layoffs were prompted by changing customer demands.

Health care services company McKesson Corp. warned state regulators Monday that it would close its Landover facility this spring and lay off 106 employees. The state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said the San Francisco-based company, which specializes in areas such as pharmaceuticals distribution and health care IT, expected the closure to happen April 20. The pharmaceuticals division, which delivers medicine to retailers, pharmacies and hospitals, provided the warning notice.

A federal judge sentenced twin brothers to more than eight years in federal prison Monday for robbing $90,000 from a Landover Wachovia bank with help from a corrupt employee and others, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Darnell and Ronnell Davis, 26, of Severn and Washington, D.C., respectively, were also ordered to pay $118,000 in restitution and to forfeit a Dodge Challenger and Cadillac Escalade, each model year 2007. According to court records, the brothers and another man drove to the Wachovia on the 7700 block of Landover Road on Jan. 11. Two of the men entered the bank wearing masks and carrying guns and took a bag of cash from a bank employee, who was in on the job and heading to an ATM with the money.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Hello, everybody. Thank you so much. Everybody, please have a seat. I am thrilled to be here, proud to be joined here today by two of our outstanding Cabinet Secretaries, Steven Chu and Ray LaHood. Where are Steven Chu and Ray? There they are over there. We're here today for a simple reason: Ray wasn't home when they tried to deliver a package yesterday — (laughter) — so we thought we'd just grab it and be on our way. (Laughter.) I've been working them too hard.

Flanked by a half-dozen electric-powered trucks owned by companies with some of the largest vehicle fleets on the road, President Barack Obama urged businesses Friday to help the nation reduce its reliance on fossil fuels by replacing gas-guzzling vehicles with more fuel-efficient models. Obama's appearance at a UPS distribution facility in Landover was part of a broader effort by the White House in recent days to refocus attention on the nation's energy challenges as turmoil in the Middle East sends gasoline prices skyward.

LANDOVER -- Next season, Michael Jordan may feel more at home when he takes to the air for a dunk against the Washington Bullets in Landover.That's because the Bullets' home will have a new name come July 1: USAir Arena.Abe Pollin, owner of the Bullets and the NHL's Washington Capitals, announced the name change at a news conference yesterday.Neither Pollin nor Seth Schofield, chairman of the board for USAir, would reveal the financial terms, but published reports have listed Pollin and his Centre Group's intake at $1 million a year over the 10-year deal.

LANDOVER -- The final NBA game to be played at the US Airways Arena was shaping up to be a night of celebration. The Washington Wizards built a 17-point, first-half lead, and the defending NBA champion Chicago Bulls looked exactly like the struggling team that they've become.But by the time the multicolored balloons and confetti were released from the rafters at game's end, there was little to celebrate. In fact, to hear players talk after the Wizards' 88-83 loss, a real celebration would have taken place had the organization imploded the structure after the team dropped to 0-5 at the arena for the season.

A Northern Virginia baking company is moving its operations to Prince George's County, where it will employ 60 people, with plans to nearly double its workforce in the next three to five years. Gold Crust Baking Co. of Alexandria, a 10-year-old company, produces more than 20 million pounds of dough annually for hotels, restaurants and caterers in the Mid-Atlantic region. The company tapped financing support from Maryland Economic Development Corp., a quasi-state agency that pursues job creation projects, to borrow money at a lower interest rate.

NFL preseason: Patriots@Redskins 8 p.m. [chs. 13, 9] Washington's preseason hasn't exactly been an offensive tour de force, to put it diplomatically. Maybe the Redskins can learn something from Tom Brady (left), Randy Moss and New England when the teams meet in Landover.