Precinct

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityEastern DistrictShooting: A man, 25, who was arguing with another man in the 1500 block of Holbrook St. about 12: 30 a.m. Tuesday, was shot in the back, right shoulder and left leg when he turned to walk away. The gunman escaped and the victim was in serious condition yesterday at Johns Hopkins Hospital.Southern DistrictTheft: Six generators valued at $3,000 were stolen Tuesday from Multimarine Services Inc. in the 1100 block of Frankfurst Ave.Southwestern DistrictRobbery: Two gunmen took more than $7,000 worth of scrap gold and several pieces of gold jewelry from Shine Corner Pawn Shop in the first block of S. Hilton St. about 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityNortheastern DistrictCarjacking: Police were seeking a gunman who stole a 1996 Mercury van with tags M201222 from the 1400 block of Havenwood Road on Sunday while a female motorist was removing articles from the vehicle.Robbery: A gunman robbed a man, 41, of cash and property, all valued at more than $250, about midnight Sunday in the 1200 block of E. Cold Spring Lane.Southern DistrictBurglary: Property valued at $2,000 was stolen Monday from a house in the 1100 block of Wicomico St. The thief entered through the front door.

In Baltimore CityRehabilitation center seeks volunteers for reading, escortingThe Maryland State Department of Education is seeking volunteers to read to blind or learning-disabled students at its Maryland Rehabilitation Center. Also needed are volunteers to escort new students to classes on Monday mornings.The center, at 2301 Argonne Drive in Northeast Baltimore, provides vocational rehabilitation for disabled adults. For an application to become a volunteer, call Mary Henry at 410-554-9458.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityNorthern DistrictBurglary: A gold ring, boombox and two pairs of shoes, all valued at more than $1,000, were stolen Sunday from a house in the 2400 block of N. Calvert St.Southern DistrictTheft: A Visa debit card was stolen from the mailbox of a house in the 100 block of W. Clement St. between April 1 and April 16 and used to withdraw cash from the owner's bank account...

In Baltimore County Board rejects proposal for bungee-jumping operation in TimoniumTOWSON -- The county Board of Appeals has denied a businessman's request to alter a one-story office and warehouse building in Timonium to open a bungee-jumping operation.The board rejected James Riffin's bid to open a business at 1941 Greenspring Drive that would hoist jumpers 100 feet into the air, hook them up to two or three bungee cords and allow them to jump off a platform.The board noted traffic, parking congestion and safety concerns in a Dec. 31 decision rejecting Riffin's request for the special exception and variance he would have needed to operate in a neighborhood zoned for warehouses and office buildings.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityNorthwestern DistrictShooting: A male, 17, was at Belle Avenue and Garrison Boulevard about 4 p.m. yesterday when he became involved in an altercation with several men. As the teen-ager ran away, one of the men pulled a handgun and fired several shots, striking the teen-ager once in the head. The victim fled down an alley to a house in the 3900 block of W. Cold Spring Lane, where a resident called 911. Police said the youth was taken to Sinai Hospital for treatment of a graze head wound and was released.

In Baltimore County Board rejects proposal for bungee-jumping operation in TimoniumTOWSON -- The county Board of Appeals has denied a businessman's request to alter a one-story office and warehouse building in Timonium to open a bungee-jumping operation.The board rejected James Riffin's bid to open a business at 1941 Greenspring Drive that would hoist jumpers 100 feet into the air, hook them up to two or three bungee cords and allow them to jump off a platform.The board noted traffic, parking congestion and safety concerns in a Dec. 31 decision rejecting Riffin's request for the special exception and variance he would have needed to operate in a neighborhood zoned for warehouses and office buildings.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CitySouthern DistrictAssault and robbery: A woman, 68, was about to enter her home in the 2400 block of Annor Court about 12: 30 a.m. Saturday when two men shoved her to the ground and stole her purse containing cash and property, all valued at more than $60. The woman was not injured.Eastern DistrictLarceny: Two diamond rings and a diamond watch, all valued at almost $1,200, were stolen Saturday from a bedroom dresser in a house in the 1000 block of E. Chase St.Shooting: A male, 31, was in the 2200 block of E. North Ave. about 2 a.m. Saturday when an unknown man fired several rounds from a handgun, hitting the victim at least once.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CitySoutheastern DistrictBurglary/arrest: Police entered the Matilda Koval Medical Center in the 2300 block of Orleans St. on Tuesday after a burglar alarm sounded and arrested a man found hiding in a ceiling crawl space.Central DistrictTheft: A briefcase and its contents, all valued at $500, were stolen Wednesday from the Baltimore Convention Center in the first block of W. Pratt St.Southern DistrictTheft from auto: A generator valued at $1,000 was stolen from a truck parked in the 1300 block of W. Hamburg St. between July 23 and July 28.Eastern DistrictCarjacking: A woman, 36, had stopped her car Wednesday afternoon in the 1200 block of Bonaparte Ave. when a gunman ordered her out of the 1986 Chevrolet Cavalier with Pennsylvania tags and drove away.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.Baltimore CityEastern DistrictShootings: Two men, one 20 and the other 28, were shot by an unknown gunman about 1: 30 p.m. Tuesday in the 1900 block of E. Oliver St. One victim was in critical condition last night at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where the other was in stable condition.Southwestern DistrictRobbery: A man, 32, was at a bus stop in the 1800 block of N. Rosedale St. about 4: 15 p.m. Tuesday when a man asked him for the time.

Every week, some people who live in and around Towson get an e-mail from their police precinct summarizing significant crimes. Last month, residents learned that a dozen youngsters had robbed a man at gunpoint on Castle Drive, taking his wallet and two cell phones. Two days later, another man robbed a bank at the Giant on York Road. Eleven houses were burglarized in a week. And a group of kids stole bicycles from the backyard of a house in the Gaywood community. All useful information provided by the Baltimore County Police Department as a public service to keep residents informed and alert.

Not that I have a thing for CNN's John King, but I long to feel his touch. Not directly, mind you, but I do get jealous when he glides his fingertips over that magic board, and it's never my precinct or even state that zooms up large and significant in the outcome of the election. It's always some burg in Ohio or other swing state, never reliably blue Maryland and our taken-for-granted 10 electoral votes. Which is why I spent part of yesterday in one of the few nearby places I could find with any sort of Election Day suspense, Precinct 11-16 in Carney.

The state fire marshal's office is investigating an arson early yesterday at an abandoned business in Joppa where Harford County plans to build a new sheriff's precinct station, authorities said. A passer-by saw the fire in the 600 block of Pulaski Highway shortly after 2 a.m., said Joseph G. Zurolo Jr., deputy state fire marshal. It took six fire companies about 45 minutes to bring the fire under control. Damage was estimated at $10,000. The two-bay block garage was formerly Edgewood Cars for Less, and it had been vacant and open to trespassers for some years, Zurolo said.

Election judges at a predominantly black precinct in Annapolis mistakenly required voters to fill out personal information- including party identification and address - during the first several hours of primary voting Tuesday, Anne Arundel County's top election official said yesterday. Joseph A. Torre III said that the chief judge at Mills-Parole Elementary School asked voters to fill out "contingency voter authority cards" between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. Those forms are supposed to be used only if the electronic poll books are unusable, Torre said.

Man gets 40-year term in killing-for-hire try Calling him "a scary guy," a Baltimore County judge sentenced a convicted sex abuser to 40 years in prison yesterday for trying to hire a fellow inmate to kill a developer and to set fire to the house of a woman who had told people at her church about the abuse case. Michael B. Martin, 46, maintained throughout his trial in November that any requests he made of his former cellmate to kill or hurt people were idle chatter. But in sentencing Martin, Circuit Judge Dana M. Levitz equated such discussions to an airplane passenger saying he has a bomb.

Sex assault suspect had blue bands on braces Baltimore County police have released additional information about a man wanted on a charge of sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl last month in the Bowleys Quarters area of the county. The suspect had blue bands on the braces on his teeth, police said yesterday, and they asked for the public's help identifying the man. Previously, police had described the suspect as a white man in his late teens or in his 20s, 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a medium build with a faint dark mustache and braces on his teeth.

A Parkville man who fired several rifle rounds at Baltimore County officers was fatally injured by their return gunfire early yesterday outside an apartment building near Cub Hill, police said. Officers had gone to the apartment building in response to a reported domestic dispute between the man and his live-in girlfriend. No officers were injured. The man - whose name was expected to be released today - had an argument with his girlfriend in his apartment in the 2200 block of Lowells Glen Court, off Satyr Hill Road in the Lowell Ridge development, earlier in the morning said Cpl. Mike Hill, a police spokesman.

Omi May figured she lived in a pretty conservative neighborhood. Despite its large Democratic registration, as this week's election grew near, there were signs galore for Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. The east Towson precinct where May votes went overwhelmingly for Ehrlich four years ago - with 59 percent of the voters supporting him. And the green-and-white signs she put up for his Democratic opponent, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, kept...

To campaign door to door along the rolling hills and tree-lined roads of Green Spring Valley requires real stamina to make it from one far-flung house to the next, down one long, winding driveway after another just to reach a doorbell and, hopefully, a voter. Both Democrats and Republicans do it anyway. They know that it is in northwest Baltimore County's precinct 3-13 where there are votes to be had, where people are paying close attention to next week's fiercely contested gubernatorial election, where constituents don't make their decisions based solely on whether the candidate is flanked by the letter R or D, but based on much more.

Baltimore is lagging behind Maryland counties in training and assigning thousands of poll workers needed to run the coming general election, raising concerns that next month's voting could suffer from some of the same problems that marred the September primary. With 16 days to Election Day, elections officials in the overwhelmingly Democratic city appear to have recruited the number of Republican poll judges they need. But just 700 of 3,500 of the workers have been placed in a precinct, said Cornelius L. Jones, interim elections director.