Leak

Maryland's top court agreed Wednesday to hear appeals of two multimillion verdicts affecting hundreds of Jacksonville-area residents who sued ExxonMobil Corp. over 2006 underground gasoline leak. The Court of Appeals is expected to hear arguments in October in the two cases. Last year, a Baltimore County jury returned a $1.5 billion verdict against the oil giant. ExxonMobil appealed, and attorneys for residents asked the top court to bypass the intermediate appeals court. In March, in the second case, the state's second-highest court rejected much of a $147 million verdict, and both ExxonMobil and the residents appealed.

Record-high water temperatures and a March sewage leak are contributing to a large algae bloom in the Baltimore harbor, bringing what is known as a "mahogany tide" of reddish-brown algae to the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River. The bloom is somewhat earlier and more severe than usual, scientists say, despite the fact that a developing drought has limited runoff pollution from feeding algae growth. Water testing conducted by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources shows skyrocketing levels of chlorophyll, the molecule plants use to turn sunlight into energy, and plummeting levels of oxygen in waters near Brooklyn and Cherry Hill.

Franklin D. Rooseveltreceived 85 percent to 90 percent of the Jewish vote in 1932, 1936, and 1940. How was it, then, that in the run-up to the 1944 election, FDR's top Jewish supporters were worried that he might lose a significant portion of the Jewish vote? President Barack Obama's election strategists might want to examine this historical episode - especially in light of stinging comments made this month about the president's Israel policy by the editor of the largest American Jewish weekly newspaper.

From The Aegis of Thursday, April 26, 1962: A disturbingly large leak of propane gas had Bel Air on edge 50 years ago this week. The news staff quoted a firefighter in the county seat saying: "Half the town was sitting on a bomb, but nobody lit the fuse!" A tank truck parked at Dallam Place was undergoing a repair to a faulty gasket when a leak was sprung and about 100 gallons of liquefied gas was sprayed into the air. Fire and ambulance crews responded to the scene, houses were evacuated and the area was secured for about three hours to allow the gas to dissipate.

For nearly 30 years, local, state and federal authorities have wrestled with what to do about an old dump in North Point that's been leaking toxic waste into nearby wetlands and Back River. On Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency declared the Sauer Dump a Superfund site, making it a priority for a federally supervised cleanup. When it will finally get cleaned up, though, remains an open question. An EPA spokesman said more investigation is needed and couldn't say when work might begin to deal with the contaminants lurking in the soil and sediments.

Crews from the Baltimore City Fire Department and the Maryland Department of the Environment worked most of Wednesday morning responding to a 2,000-gallon fuel spill from a train in South Baltimore. Fire officials said the train's fuel tank ruptured about 9:30 a.m. on the tracks along Fort Armistead Road. The spill is confined to the track area and no injuries have occurred, though it has disrupted rail traffic in the area. Officials have yet to determine what caused the rupture.

Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, the former intelligence analyst accused in the largest leak of classified material in U.S. history, was formally charged Thursday with aiding the enemy and violating the Espionage Act. Manning, who is accused of giving hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, declined to enter a plea during the arraignment at Fort Meade. He also deferred a decision on whether he wants his case to be decided by a single military judge, a panel of officers, or a panel of officers and enlisted soldiers.

The driver of a tractor-trailer that crashed on southbound Interstate 95 Wednesday evening has been charged with driving while impaired by alcohol, police said. Glenn Grise, 46, of West Orange, N.J., crashed a semitrailer around 8:15 p.m. on an overpass above Interstate 895, turning the truck over in the left lane of I-95, just north of the Harbor Tunnel, according to Sgt. Kirk Perez, a spokesman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. Grise's truck was registered to the New Jersey-based G. Grise Trucking company, Perez said.

Hot water began leaking from a pipe on the fifth floor of Mercy Medical Center in downtown Baltimore Saturday afternoon, causing a very brief evacuation of some medical staff, but had no effect on patients, according to officials. The Baltimore Fire Department received a call for a "pipe burst" on the fifth floor of the Mary Catherine Bunting Center in the 300 block of St. Paul Street about 2:30 p.m. Staff were evacuated for about 15 minutes while fire officials worked to shut off the water valve.

Private First Class Bradley E. Manning, the former intelligence analyst awaiting a court-martial on charges of aiding the enemy and violating the Espionage Act, will return to Fort Meade this month for his arraignment, the Army said Thursday. Manning, who is accused of giving hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, appeared at the Army base in Maryland in December for a preliminary hearing. The arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 23. The decision on when and where his court-martial will be held is up to a military judge, who will be appointed by the Army Trial Judiciary.