Locks

When a woman refused to pay the automatic 17% gratuity at a Houston seafood restaurant named La Fisherman, she says the restaurant locked her and her party inside the restaurant and threatened to call the police. The story, which was reported by KRPC , the NBC-affiliate in Houston and began spreading on Wednesday to other websites like the Huffington Post, goes like this: The customer, Jasmine Marks, decided that the automatic gratuity the restaurant applies to checks for  parties of five or more, and which is clearly stated on the menu, was null and void in her case.

An Aberdeen EMS crew locked itself in its ambulance Tuesday night when it arrived at a call in Perryman and encountered a large fight. The ambulance was responding for a call of a sick woman in the 400 block of Daugherty Lane around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to Richard Gardiner of the Harford County Volunteer Fire & EMS Association and Edward Hopkins, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office. When they arrived, the EMS crew reported people were fighting in the road and they "locked themselves in the unit for their own safety," Gardiner said.

On May 10, 2003, MAE C. LOCKS, beloved mother of Jeanne Locks Robinson and Barbara Locks McCoy; one daughter-in-law Cleo Locks; devoted grandmother to five grandchildren, Dr. Patricia L. Schmoke, Deborah L. Palmer, Joseph G. Locks IV, John G. Locks and Benjamin H. McCoy Jr.; seven great grandchildren; niece, nephew and other relatives and friends. Wake Friday 10:30 A.M. at St. Francis Xavier Church, Caroline and Oliver St. Mass at 11 A.M. Interment Arbutus Cemetery. Friends may call at the Joseph G. Locks Jr. Funeral Home, 1302 N. Central Avenue, on Thursday from 1 to 8 P.M.

An article in the April 12, 1913, edition of The Argus reported on the surprising culprit after a church's interior was found damaged. What was at first supposed to be the work of vandals, bent on spite-work, at the Catonsville Presbyterian Church last week, when some of the carpet was ripped up and torn, the wires of a stereopticon machine cut and the doors badly mutilated, proved to be the work of a stray dog which was imprisoned in...

On April 21, 2003; JOSEPH G. LOCKS, JR., beloved husband of Mae C.; devoted father of Jeanne Robinson and Barbara McCoy; five grandchildren Patricia Schmoke, Joseph Locks, IV, John Locks, Deborah Palmer and Benjamin McCoy, seven great-grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends. Friends may call at the Joseph G. Locks Funeral Home, 1304 N. Central Avenue, Friday from 1 to 8 PM. Christian Wake Saturday from 11 to 12 in Waters AME Church, 417 Aisquith Street. Funeral Service will begin at 12 Noon.

Joseph Garland Locks III, an East Baltimore funeral director for 37 years, died of cancer Sunday at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He was 59.A Mass of Christian burial for Mr. Locks, father-in-law of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church at Caroline and Oliver streets.The Baltimore native spent his entire career with the Locks Funeral Home in the 1300 block of N. Central Ave., which his grandfather began. It is among the city's oldest black-owned businesses.

On January 24, GEORGEANNA EDEMY LOCKS, survived by sons, Rodney W., Vernon J., Melvin R. Locks and Ray W. House; daughters Ethel V. Locks-Bynum and Patricia J. and Deborah J. House; 7 grandchildren, 5 great-grandchildren and a host of other family and friends. Friends may call the WYLIE FUNERAL HOME P.A. of BALTIMORE COUNTY 9200 Liberty Road on Friday from 6-8PM. Services will be held Saturday at Gospel Tabernacle Baptist Church 3100 Walbrook Avenue 9:30 am Wake 10:30 Funeral. Interment Following.

ELDERSBURG -- In college, Kevin P. Clancy majored in zoology, hoping to become a herpetologist, studying amphibians and reptiles.L What he spends his time doing today doesn't even come close.On most days, he can be found at the end of his backyard forge, bent over glowing coals and hammering pieces of steel into shape.Or, he might be inside his workshop putting those pieces of metal together to make a new lock for somebody's door.His name also is in the August issue of American Early Life magazine, listed with 199 others considered to be the top in traditional American crafts.

Almost two months after an 8-year-old Annapolis boy suffered severe burns from crawling inside an electrical transformer, the city's housing authority is putting tamper-resistant locks on all public housingdevelopment transformers.Workers from Baltimore Gas and ElectricCo. will install the locks within the next six weeks, under a plan unanimously approved last night by the Annapolis Housing Authority's board of commissioners.The locks -- half-inch-thick bolts with a hexagonal nut that willrequire a special tool to open -- will be placed on all 42 electrical transformers in the city's 10 public housing projects.

Mae Carol Locks, a retired funeral director, died of a heart attack Saturday at Good Samaritan Hospital. The East Baltimore resident was 91. For nearly 40 years, she and her husband, Joseph G. Locks Jr., operated a funeral home at Central Avenue and Preston Street. They had been married for nearly 74 years when her husband died April 21. Born Mae Carol Henson in Macon, Ga., she grew up on Druid Hill Avenue in Baltimore's Sugar Hill neighborhood. She attended Frederick Douglass High School.

The resume of the Maryland women's basketball team during 11 seasons under coach Brenda Frese includes one national championship, four appearances in the NCAA tournament's regional finals and five trips to the Sweet 16, including this weekend in the home state of its next opponent. Yet the fourth-seeded Terrapins (26-7) arrived here as a prohibitive underdog, attempting to advance to another regional final with a win in Saturday afternoon's game at Webster Bank Arena against No. 1 seed Connecticut (31-4)

As a black man, I was appalled by the thinly veiled racism in former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s commentary about African-American attitudes toward President Obama ("From pride to disillusionment: a black leader sours on Obama," March 17). All black people are not of one mind, nor are Hispanics, Asians or whites. Mr. Ehrlich's proposition that a black man who once supported the president no longer supports him as strongly today is worthy of comment make sense only if the author believed that we all march to the president's drum, no matter what he says.

Cash on the center console. GPS devices on the windshield. Laptops. Smart phones. iPads, iPods. Digital cameras. XBox 360 headphones. Bose iPhone speaker docks. Credit cards, lose change. Wallets, purses. And a spare car key. These are the kinds of things people leave in their cars in my town of Annapolis. Their unlocked cars. Since the first of the year, pricey items have been stolen from 56 unlocked cars - 27 in the last 30 days and up from 40 during the same period last year.

Pat and Henry Bradley say their landlord decided to suddenly kick them out of his waterfront Dundalk house, changing the locks while they were still frantically trying to remove their belongings. The couple, who didn't have a lease, are to testify about their experience in Annapolis this week when House and Senate members convene hearings to decide whether to stop landlords and property owners from locking out residents without court orders and sheriff's deputies on standby to evict them.

The actor known as John Locke on ABC's "Lost" has a taste for bagels. Terry O'Quinn stopped in at Towson Hot Bagels for a carb fix several times this week -- including today -- taking the time to pose with staff and fans as he waited for his food. On one visit, he agreed to a photo with the Towson University women's lacrosse team. "He waited for his bagel and a bunch of people took a picture with him. It was cool," said owner/manager Ciro Scotto. O'Quinn lived in Reisterstown for years and has apparently moved back to the area.

A prominent Idaho businessman has lost his job after allegedly slapping a toddler on a plane when the child wouldn't stop crying. While many parents and fliers can agree that "Toddlers on a Plane" would be a terrifying premise for a film, most of us can figure out that hitting a stranger's child is not OK. But what steps can parents take to lessen their children's impact on other passengers? Some people swear by slipping kids a little Benadryl , but I've never gone this route.

No. 3 Poly takes pride in its defense. Friday night it won the Engineers a championship. Host Poly used a mixture of defenses and a bucketful of toughness to win its 23rd consecutive game, defeating Springbrook, 31-23, in the Class 4A North region final. The Engineers will play the winner of Saturday's Gaithersburg-Northwest game in the Class 4A state semifinals Thursday at 5 p.m. at UMBC. To say that Poly's offense was having an off night would be kind. The Engineers (23-0)

Recounting the recent chase and arrest of two men suspected of mail theft, a U.S. postal inspector recommended that people take security matters into their own hands -- by putting locks on their rural roadside mailboxes.Inspector Larry Fryer said mail left in a roadside receptacle is vulnerable, and thefts are more prevalent than people think.The object often has been credit cards. Northern Baltimore County has been one of the hardest-hit areas. The latest arrests occurred there Thursday, in Glenarm, where officers had been on a stakeout for more than a week.

Since the beginning of the republic, there has been a dynamic tension between constantly expanding diversity driven by immigration and the relentless homogenizing force of common American culture. And there's nothing like a long drive on an interstate highway to remind a person of that reality. Last week, I traveled 600 miles on I-5 cutting through the center of California, from Redding to Los Angeles. The force of homogenization was apparent at every major exit and interchange. I was hungry, but I was hoping to find something beyond McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Wendy's, Arby's or Taco Bell.

Perception and reality often don't match, especially when it comes to crime. It's been the case for many years, but Capt. Keith Warner of the Harford County Sheriff's Office reiterated it last week when he addressed a crowd gathered for the regular meeting of the Jarrettsville/Norrisville Community Council: living in a rural area doesn't mean living away from crime. Sure, people talk about the good old days when no one had to lock doors on houses or cars. Maybe things were better in that regard back during some historic golden age known as the Good Old Days.