Rash

Residents of the farms, rolling hills and historic villages of Baltimore County's Long Green Valley have long basked in the tranquility that comes from country living. Now, they are increasingly worried about a rash of crime in their remote communities, and are urging police to step up patrols of the area. In response to the spree, some people have bought weapons to protect themselves, according to a resident, who along with others began to agitate publicly for help after a shootout on Jan. 7 between a burglary suspect and a female homeowner on Glen Arm Road.

Baltimore police are investigating three shooting deaths that took place early Saturday during a rash of overnight violence in the city. Officers have also reported a suspicious death, after answering a report of a 42-year-old woman's body found wrapped in plastic in the 1800 block of E. 29th St. No further details were available. Police believe that two of the three overnight killings being investigated as homicides were connected and might have been related to a domestic dispute.

A man was wounded in West Baltimore Sunday night, capping off a weekend in which six shootings in the Northwestern district, which includes the Arlington, Park Heights, and Reisterstown Station neighborhoods, left one man dead and five others hurt. In the Southwest, a man was shot Sunday night in the 2900 block of Riggs Avenue in the Franklintown Road neighborhood, police said. Officers found a 36-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the stomach around 10:30 p.m. The victim was taken to an area hospital and police had no motives or suspects as of Monday morning.

Responding to a violent weekend that left three dead and eight injured — one critically — Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III urged residents to keep the city's overall crime declines in mind and not to "dwell on the negative." Nine people were shot over a period of 24 hours Saturday, and the violence continued with a man killed Father's Day morning and another fatally shot in the back early Monday. But Bealefeld said homicides remained down 14 percent from last year while nonfatal shootings, which plummeted in 2009, were also off last year's pace, albeit slightly.

Travel is supposed to be fun, and normally it is. Sure, sometimes things happen that raise your hackles. Airport security lines move too slowly, and you get antsy as flight time nears. You're stuck in a middle seat between two heavyweights. Your hotel room isn't ready when you're hot to check in. Stuff like that. Good travelers adapt and keep their cool. Even so, there some things we all can live without: Airline baggage fees Yes, airlines are hemorrhaging financially, but fliers still have to take clothes with them.

Baltimore police detectives were busy Sunday investigating six separate shooting incidents over the weekend, four of them fatal. The first man to die in the rash of shootings was Ronald Anderson, 30, who was pronounced dead shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday at Harbor Hospital, less than an hour after police responded to a report of gunshots in the 4100 block of Pennington Ave. in the Curtis Bay area and found him wounded. Anderson's home address was undetermined. Davon Dorsey, 18, for whom no address was available, was pronounced dead at 4:25 a.m. Saturday at Johns Hopkins Hospital, three hours after an incident in the 400 block of N. Rose St. in East Baltimore.

A 31-year-old man was fatally shot Sunday night in Westport, capping a weekend in Baltimore that saw at least 13 people shot in 11 incidents. Police said Kareem Guest of the 2700 block of Maisel Court was found about 10 p.m. suffering from gunshot wounds in the 2400 block of Maisel Court. Guest was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:36 p.m., said Detective Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman. Additional details, including a motive or suspect, were not available.

As soon as Maryland's Gang Prosecution Act went into effect in 2007, prosecutors in Harford County tested it, filing charges against a group that had stabbed and beaten a man. But when prosecutors couldn't show how the attack had furthered a criminal conspiracy, as required under the new law, the judge balked. They had to drop the gang charges and move forward with simple assault. "It's a very unworkable statute. ... Most prosecutors haven't really bothered to do anything with it," said Harford County State's Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly, who contends that the law is watered-down and useless.

This is one of those products Gear Girl wishes she did not have to test. But although she is very careful outdoors, she sometimes misses the warning signs ("Leaves of three ... "). The lack of vigilance leads to little red bumps, a rash and the insatiable desire to scratch 24/7 - the calling card of poison ivy. The American Academy of Dermatology estimates that 85 percent of us will develop an allergic reaction if we touch poison ivy, oak or sumac, so finding relief ranks high on the adventure must-have list.