Question

A few months after Maria Andrea Espejo Quezada arrived in Baltimore from Mexico nine years ago, her son and two of his young relatives were beaten, strangled and almost decapitated. She was the first witness to take the stand as the state tries for a third time to convict Policarpio Espinoza Perez, accused of carrying out the killings with his nephew Adan Canela. Quezada provided insight into the life of her immigrant family, answering questions about romantic advances from extended members and alleged threats from a former husband in Mexico.

An electrician sued a Bel Air payroll company five years ago, alleging that it failed to submit payroll taxes for his employees, so he wonders why it took until last week for the Internal Revenue Service to start an investigation. "They know what's going on," said Ron Biskup, owner of Biskup Electric LLC. The authorities, including the IRS, were notified of the issue. And two other businesses also sued the payroll firm AccuPay Inc. around the same time, for similar reasons. Still, it wasn't until after a veterinarian's office filed a suit on Feb. 27 that the IRS put its criminal division on the case.

Friday's edition of the paper included a Q&A with Maryland redshirt junior goalkeeper Niko Amato. Due to space constraints, here are some more answers that didn't make the cut. UMBC coach Don Zimmerman said one of the more potent aspects of your game involves your ability to turn a save into a transition chance. Is that a facet of your game that you've been honing? I think that's always been a part of my game. I like to throw the ball a lot. It's fun when you start transition.

Joe Mechlinski, CEO and co-founder of Canton-based management consulting firm entreQuest, has worked with more than 400 businesses since starting the company 12 years ago. Last month, he released his first book, "Grow Regardless: Of Your Business' Size, Your Industry or the Economy … and Despite the Government. " Mechlinski — who grew up in Highlandtown and graduated from Patterson High School and Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics — describes his book as a "how-to guide for growing a small to midsize business in difficult economic times.

I just finished reading Mary Tilghman's article "Church members vote to become Catholic" in the Feb. 27 issue of the Catonsville Times. The subject of this article is intriguing, to say the least. I've lived in the Catonsville community for over 50 years and teach history at a nearby high school so the news that the congregants of St. Timothy Episcopal Church have voted to join the Roman Catholic Church was indeed surprising. However, for all the information related to the nature of the congregational vote, pastoral support, and future plans, nowhere in the article was a very crucial piece of information mentioned: Why was this decision made?

Lawyers for the man convicted of killing Phylicia Barnes are again seeking to undermine the credibility of a small-time criminal who provided key state testimony in his trial, citing a letter from Montgomery County prosecutors detailing James McCray's removal as a witness in a separate murder case. The information, sent to Baltimore prosecutors on the day after Michael Maurice Johnson was found guilty of killing the visiting North Carolina teen, contains statements that the defense says shows McCray — whom they described at trial as a "jailhouse snitch" — is not reliable.

The debate about massively open online courses, or MOOCs, has reached such fevered pitch that we recently got to witness an internecine argument about it at The New York Times. On one side was the technology-optimist columnist Thomas Friedman, who imagines a time when students in a remote village in Egypt could install a couple of computers with high-speed Internet access, hire a local facilitator and study with the best professors in the world. On the other side, the Times' editorial board felt compelled to point out that most online courses are pretty dreadful, with high dropout rates and poor learning outcomes.

A businessman and competitive sailor, Frank Savage has benefited from following seas and been battered on rocky shoals. Born in North Carolina and raised by a single mother in segregated Washington, Savage rose to prominence in the world of international banking and investment at Citibank and Alliance Capital Management, a subsidiary of AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. that managed more than $450 billion in assets. He served on prestigious boards, was a trustee at both Howard University and the Johns Hopkins University, and jetted around the world, making deals and money.

With no thanks to the Democratic state senator who represents the area, the Baltimore County community of Perry Hall is safer from gun violence than it was six months ago. We can say that much. Sen. Kathy Klausmeier might have voted against the important gun control bill that her colleagues in the Maryland Senate passed on Thursday, but Bobby Gladden has gone to prison, and that means his former fellow students at Perry Hall High won't have to worry about seeing him with a gun in the cafeteria again.