Parking Lot

Hundreds of people lined up on sun-drenched asphalt Saturday to see if they could get regular payouts, in the form of paychecks, from the new Maryland Live! Casino, a slots casino scheduled to open at Arundel Mills mall in about three months. "I hope I get lucky enough to get a position," said Mark Ellison, who's from West Baltimore. "They want people who are willing to go the extra mile so customers come in and enjoy spending their money. " The operators of what will be the state's largest casino hosted a job fair Saturday with the Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corp.

On a sunny spring afternoon, children continue a tradition in the downtown playground next to Annapolis Elementary School: shooting hoops, kicking a ball around, riding the swings. Adults, meanwhile, pursue another generations-old practice: arguing the future of the little park, long considered the keystone to waterfront revitalization. "This is as big for Annapolis as Harborplace was for Baltimore," said Alderman Ross H. Arnett III, who days ago joined a 6-3 majority voting to let the city pursue plans to wipe most parking spaces off City Dock and move them to the playground site, enabling the city to make better use of what some say is the most valuable piece of real estate in town, if not in Maryland.

Albert Lord doesn't like to wait - not in business or on the golf course. The colorful chairman of student loan behemoth Sallie Mae, who's embroiled in a nasty fight over the failed sale of the company, has spent 40 years in the accounting and banking industries. He said that experience should have instilled in him a measure of patience, but it hasn't. Whether in traffic, at the office or on the links, Lord said, he just doesn't like to wait. He can't do much about the first two, but he's got a sure-fire solution for the last one: He's building his own, an 18-hole golf course on land he's acquired amid shuttered tobacco farms and grazing horses in southern Anne Arundel County.

Wedding Day: June 24, 2012 Her story: Sarah Friedman, 31, grew up in Baltimore. Her father, Lou Friedman, heads up Lou Friedman & Co., an Owings Mills accounting and financial services firm. Her mother, Paula Friedman, is a cardiac nurse at Sinai Hospital. Sarah went to college at the University of Pittsburgh, where - in her junior year - she had to watch the Super Bowl alone in her dorm room, because all her friends were Steelers fans. Friedman returned to Baltimore, where she is now a pediatric nurse at Sinai Hospital.

HAGERSTOWN — Fire officials say one of two soda-bottle bombs placed in a hotel parking lot exploded, but did not cause any injuries or damage. It happened about 1:45 a.m. Monday at Spring Hill Suites hotel on Valley Mall Road near Hagerstown. The State Fire Marshal's Office says two devices were placed in the parking lot, but only one exploded. Officials tell The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown that bottles contained a volatile mixture of tin foil and toilet-bowl cleaner and were extremely dangerous.

A motorcyclist died when he struck the back of a pickup truck after losing control of the bike in a Jessup parking lot Tuesday, Howard County police said. Police said a mechanical malfunction possibly caused the motorcyclist to lose control, causing him to hit a curb and strike the back of a pickup truck at about 2 p.m. in the parking lot of Frank's Seafood in the 7900 block of Oceano Avenue. The driver of the KTM SMR 525 Enduro was pronounced dead at the scene and has not been identified because of pending family notification.

Howard County Police are searching for anyone who recognizes a child who was discovered in a North Laurel elementary school parking lot Monday afternoon. The boy, estimated to be about 2 or 3 years old, was found by a school administrator in the parking lot of Laurel Woods Elementary School in the 9200 block of North Laurel Road around 2:20 p.m., according to police. The boy is black and has a small scar in the center of his forehead. When he was found, the boy was wearing brown corduroy pants, a gray long-sleeved shirt with red and blue stripes on the sleeves and the number 36 in the center, blue and white ankle socks and black and red sneakers.

A 19-year-old Westminster was arrested and charged with first- and second-degree assault after a Frederick man was stabbed in the parking lot of TownMall in Westminster on Oct. 17. The Westminster Police Department said that on Monday at 7:01 p.m., officers responded to a report of a stabbing in the mall's parking lot. When police units arrived on the scene they found that a 23-year-old Frederck man had been stabbed in the abdomen. The victim was transported to University of Maryland Shock Trauma for treatment.

It sounds like an oxymoron: a "green" parking lot. But behind the Visitors Center in downtown Annapolis is a new parking lot designed to be environmentally friendly. With six rain gardens, two solar-powered payment machines, recycled construction materials and a permeable surface, the lot is meant to be an improvement over its predecessor — better able to manage storm-water runoff and blend with the Historic District. An improved parking area was part of the city's plan for the Annapolis & Anne Arundel County Conference & Visitors Bureau's center that was overhauled a few years ago, as a way to provide short-term parking for visitors, businesses and stores on the section of West Street close to the tourist-laden Main Street hill.

City police have identified a 19-year-old man who was shot and killed on a Park Heights Avenue parking lot in Northwest Baltimore on Friday morning, a department spokeswoman said. Jose Estrella of the 2700 block of Oswego Ave. was found injured, lying between cars on the parking lot of the Jenny Beauty Supply/Food City store, police said. Det. Nicole Monore, a police spokeswoman, said officers were called at about 10:30 a.m. to the parking lot in the 4000 block of Park Heights Ave. near Shirley Avenue.

It never ceases to amaze me how when certain people are put in positions of power they shred, flaunt and abuse the privileges of their office. Take the gnarled mess that is going on in Anne Arundel County, where Police Chief Col. James E. Teare Sr. is facing a "no confidence" vote from the very people he supervises ("Teare appears before council, won't answer," March 27). How can he possibly stay in his position while those he commands are reluctant to carry out their duties while he remains the chief?

Baltimore County police are investigating the early Saturday stabbing of a woman outside of a club in Woodlawn. Cpl. John Wachter said police transported the woman, whose name was not released, to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center with non-life threatening injuries. Her status was not available. Police responded to a call at 1:36 a.m. in the Days Inn parking lot at 1660 Whitehead Court and found an adult female suffering from several cuts, Wachter said. The hotel shares a parking lot with Club Paradise, he said.

Gunpowder Falls State Park ranger Robert Bailey will lead a Mill Hike on Feb. 25 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Winter is the best time of year to see the ruins of mills that once operated along the Gunpowder Falls. The hike begins at the Paper Mill Road parking lot of the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail. Participants will visit the site of Ashland Furnace, an anthracite-fired furnace active in the mid-19th century, as well as other buildings from that same time period. Bailey will have old photographs showing the area in its prime.

Here comes the bride. All dressed in white. With a hint of sawdust. The Woodworking and DIY Show and the Wedding Show take place simultaneously each year at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, sharing a parking lot if not much else. Sunday was no exception, as carloads of patrons parked and made a decision: bride's side or groom's side? Waiting inside the Exhibition Hall, which was bedecked in flickering tea candles and floral arrangements, were vendors and booths full of the accoutrements of matrimony.

Anne Arundel County police said a Glen Burnie woman was robbed early Friday by a man who hid in her car, arose from the backseat, and demanded her purse. The incident happened in the parking lot of the Glen Ridge Apartments, in the unit block of Glen Ridge Road, at about 4:30 a.m. The unknown suspect grabbed the purse, which contained an undisclosed amount of cash and property, and fled the car on foot. County police searched the area, but did not find him.

It has been a long slow decline for Harold's Market since former owner Ronnal Simpson moved to Florida. Today, Harold's has been reduced to rubble, and it is uncertain what will happen to the property it occupied now that the new owners are seeking a zoning change through Baltimore County's Comprehensive Zoning Map Process. Located at 1750 E. Joppa Road for nearly 40 years, it had been the place to pick up fresh fruits and vegetables for those who didn't want to bother with the parking and check out lines of a large supermarket.

Baltimore County Police are searching for two men who robbed a Royal Farms store in Towson Friday morning and then robbed a person in the parking lot on their way out. The incident was reported at the Royal Farms at 6:58 a.m. in the 1500 block of Joppa Road, near Pleasant Plains Road, said Cpl. John Wachter of Baltimore County Police. One of the men had a silver handgun, but there was no indication the weapon was fired, Wachter said. Both men, described as under 30 years old, wore masks covering their noses and mouths and carried black backpacks, Wachter said.

A Baltimore man was fatally shot in the parking lot of a nightclub in eastern Baltimore County early Saturday morning, police said. George William Bryant Jr., 36, of Pentwood Road was shot multiple times in the head and neck in the parking lot of Club Baltimore at 8014 Pulaski Highway in the Rosedale area, according to police. Detective Cathy Batton said the shooting resulted from an argument that occurred inside the club around closing time. A security guard at the club called police at 1:51 a.m. to report shots fired and "people screaming," said Baltimore County Police Cpl. John Wachter.

Editor: Mr. John Harvey's letter to the Aegis of Nov. 30 beat me to it. I was going to write about the tax surplus also and agree with Mr. Harvey's comments 100 percent and would add that Bel Air had a surplus of $2 million and elected to purchase the old bank building on Main Street stating it was being done as an investment, first to be torn down and made into a parking lot and possibly later to have the new town office built there. In both cases Harford County and Bel Air should have reimbursed the tax payers and there should be laws put in place to make sure that all future surpluses are given back to the rightful owners, the taxpayers.

Two employees of the Odenton Dollar Tree were robbed at gunpoint Friday night, police said. Shortly after 11 p.m., the clerks had just left the store in the 1100 block of Annapolis Road and were crossing the parking lot when a maroon minivan pulled up near them, Anne Arundel County Police said in a Saturday statement. A man got out of the van, pointed a handgun at the victims and demanded money, police said. A cell phone was also taken from one of the victims. The robber was last seen driving west on Annapolis Road.