Prince George

Teacher sentenced for threatening notes A sixth-grade teacher was sentenced yesterday to nine months in jail plus nine months of home detention for writing threatening notes to five students with messages such as, "Tick Tock Tick Tock. Is it a bomb or is it a clock?" Michelle J. Dohm, 42, of Thurmont didn't acknowledge guilt or remorse during the hearing but expressed sympathy for the students' families. Dohm was convicted by a judge in April after agreeing to a statement of facts that included handwriting analysis and a microscopic comparison of fibers in postage stamps.

Seeking to head off legislation that would ban smoking in bars and restaurants statewide, a Baltimore County senator has revived a proposal to give tax breaks to businesses that voluntarily go smoke-free. Sen. Katherine A. Klausmeier, a Democrat, said she wants to offer a "carrot instead of a stick," in an effort to blunt pressure for a mandatory smoking ban. "This bill is a compromise to allow restaurants and bars to voluntarily go smoke-free, but to allow them to make a business decision on whether or not to do so," Klausmeier said.

During the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials (IAABO) 25th Annual Girls Invitational Christmas Tournament at Prince George's Community College last night, Arundel was sitting comfortably on an early 14-point lead. The Wildcats were getting solid offensive production in the paint, and their 1-2-1-1 full-court press defense was causing loads of turnovers by their opponent, Largo of Prince George's County. But Largo chipped away at the lead - even tying the game late - before a furious fourth quarter, with Arundel slipping away with a 67-57 victory.

LANDOVER -- Glen Burnie sprinter Justin Murdock continued his record-breaking week last night. Murdock won the 55-meter dash in 6.21 seconds in the Class 4A-3A state championship meet at the Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex. That is a meet, class and facility record, and is the nation's best this season. This was the second time in three days Murdock ran the country's top time (according to Track and Field News) and set a facility record. He ran a 6.27 in Tuesday's Class 4A-3A Central Region meet before lowering it in this meet, a time that surprised the Glen Burnie senior.

D.C.-area homeless population declines The homeless population in the D.C. area declined slightly over the past year - the first drop since 2004, an annual survey has found. Researchers found 11,762 people living in shelters or on the streets in Washington and its surrounding counties, according to a report released by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. That represents a 3 percent reduction from last year's tally of 12,126. The survey, released this week, found that an additional 4,696 formerly homeless people are living in permanent housing programs, up 37 percent since 2004.

A Prince George's County man was seriously injured yesterday when the single-engine plane he was piloting crashed near an airport in New York state, authorities said. Jeremiah Murphy, 68, of Larchmont Road in Laurel was piloting a single-seater 1986 Falcon XP aircraft about 2:30 p.m. when the plane crashed in woods west of the Orange County Airport near Montgomery, located about 60 miles northwest of New York City, said Montgomery Fire Department Chief Bob Reynolds. Murphy's destination and take-off location were not immediately available.

A state prison inmate who was hit by a truck and killed Thursday while working along the Capital Beltway was identified yesterday as Rodney Jennings, 28, who had been serving a two-year sentence for possession of drugs with intent to distribute. Maj. Priscilla Doggett, a spokeswoman for the Division of Correction, said the prison system is suspending road work crews from the Herman L. Toulson Boot Camp in Jessup until better safety standards can be established. The incident was the second fatality involving a Division of Correction highway crew member in the past three months.

Prince George's Hospital Center, the largest medical facility in the state's second-largest county, could close within months, sending its largely indigent patient population into the already crowded emergency rooms of hospitals in the region, including neighboring Anne Arundel and Howard counties, officials say. "It's not just a financial issue but the impact on the health delivery system in Maryland," said Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, a former delegate from...

Former Maryland basketball player Travis Garrison won't have to register as a sex offender or serve jail time for a 2005 incident in which he was accused of assaulting a woman at a College Park bar. A judge approved a sentence revision yesterday in which a fourth-degree sex offense charge against Garrison was declared "inactive," said his attorney, Thomas C. Mooney. "We mutually agreed to place the case in limbo. He did not admit to anything," Mooney said after a hearing in the courtroom of Prince George's Circuit Court Judge Michael Whalen.

Dec. 15 Howard County Winter Track Festival, Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex, 9 a.m. Dec. 27 Frostbite Invite, Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex, 11 a.m. Jan. 18 MIAA/IAAM championship, Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex, 4 p.m. Feb. 9 Private schools state meet, Georgetown Prep, 9 a.m. Feb. 18 Class 2A and 1A state championships, Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex, 11 a.m. Feb. 19 Class 4A and 3A state championships, Prince...

Two women were found fatally shot Wednesday morning in a Lothian house, and Anne Arundel County police said a suspect, the estranged husband of one of the women, was killed by an officer after a chase into the District of Columbia. Sheena Blandford, 50, and her sister, Cheryl Timmons, 55, of the 1800 block of Copeland St. in Annapolis, were dead on the floor of the home in the 200 block of Ella Welch Way in the Boone's Estates mobile home park that Blandford recently shared with her husband, Theodore Nathaniel Blandford, 51, police said.

At least two developers are vying to lure the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from its outdated Rockville complex in Montgomery County to spacious new digs in Prince George's County. Each firm is interested in building almost 1 million square feet of office space for HHS near a Metro stop in Prince George's County. If constructed, such a complex would relocate about 5,000 federal jobs to the county, fatten property tax coffers and serve as a major anchor near a transit station.

Union leaders said Wednesday that a federal judge's ruling that furloughs in Prince George's County were unconstitutional bolsters their fight against similar measures by cash-strapped governments elsewhere. But labor law experts said it is unclear what impact the ruling will have outside Prince George's, given the narrow focus of the decision and the county's plan to appeal. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. found that Prince George's violated the contract clause of the Constitution by effectively reducing the salaries of 5,900 employees with 10-day furloughs last fiscal year.

He's taught history to high-schoolers in those ubiquitous trailers called "portable classrooms." He's also worked as a substitute teacher. And he's intimately knowledgeable about education acronyms such as HSA (high school assessments) and AYP (annual yearly progress). Andrew C. Pruski, the Baltimore County schools administrator who was sworn in Friday as the newest member of the Anne Arundel County Board of Education, thinks those experiences will be an asset to his new position as he looks to improve the county's public schools.

Former D.C. mayor Barry charged with stalking WASHINGTON - Former District of Columbia Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. was arrested Saturday and charged with stalking a female acquaintance, the latest in a long string of legal troubles for the politician. U.S. Park Police said Barry, a current D.C. Council member, was arrested after a woman flagged down an officer and claimed that Barry was stalking her. He was charged with misdemeanor stalking and released. Police did not name Barry's accuser, but his spokeswoman, Natalie Williams, said Sunday afternoon that the 40-year-old woman is somebody that Barry had helped financially during "various stages of instability" in her life.

Lusby man critically hurt in 2-vehicle crash 2 A Lusby man was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center with life-threatening injuries after a two-vehicle crash Tuesday afternoon in Lothian, Anne Arundel County police said. A Ford pickup truck westbound on Lower Pindell Road collided with a Hyundai Genesis headed south on Route 4, police said. The Hyundai traveled about 65 feet on Lower Pindell Road before stopping, and the pickup went down an embankment into woods about 75 feet from the road, police said.

152,000 trees planted; goal of 1 million by 2011 Maryland officials are making progress toward their goal of planting 1 million new trees across the state by 2011. As of May 30, agencies including the State Highway Administration and the Department of Natural Resources had completed the plantings of about 152,000 trees. The trees, which were planted by inmates, comprise nearly 250 acres at eight state parks across Maryland. Funds for the trees' purchase come from the Federal Highway Administration's Transportation Enhancement Program.

The chief prosecutor in Prince George's County says he does not intend to charge anyone now in the death last year of a 19-year-old inmate who had been accused of killing a police officer, meaning a slaying once denounced by the county executive as "vigilante justice" is all but certain to go unpunished in state court. State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said that after nearly a year of investigation, he does not have enough evidence to secure an indictment in the death of Ronnie L. White. In an interview, Ivey endorsed calls by civil rights leaders for the Justice Department to take over the case, and a Justice spokesman said federal authorities would review the investigation.

A top-ranking Maryland delegate testified Wednesday before a grand jury investigating state Sen. Ulysses Currie, a continuation of a federal probe into the senator's work as a consultant for the Shoppers Food and Pharmacy grocery store chain. Del. Dereck E. Davis, chairman of the Economic Matters Committee, appeared before the federal grand jury in Baltimore, according to a source familiar with the matter. Davis, who had been questioned by the FBI in September, shares a district in Prince George's County with Currie.

2 child-care centers will remain open Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has decided not to close two child care centers, reversing a cut proposed in her initial 2010 spending plan. The mayor determined Friday that federal grant money can be used to keep the centers in Northwood and Waverly open. The centers were among the services the city planned to cut to fill a $65 million gap in the budget that begins in July. The two centers serve 85 children and cost $126,000 yearly to operate. -Annie Linskey Man found dead behind gas station City police are investigating the apparent beating death of a man whose body was found Sunday behind a service station near Northwestern High School in the city's Fallstaff neighborhood.