Seizures

Speaking from behind a display of handguns and mug shots of violent offenders, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake reiterated on Monday a desire to pursue legislation to strengthen penalties for people caught with illegal guns. Police said surveillance operations, car stops and search warrants led to the arrest of several men over the weekend on gun charges. Among those arrested was 20-year-old Haymond Burton Jr., who in 2009 was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and handgun offenses, and was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit second-degree assault, court records show.

About 3.3 tons of dead and decaying striped bass were recovered by Natural Resources Police Tuesday from an illegal net submerged in the waters off Tilghman Island. It was the second largest seizure of poached fish this year. The net, the 10th seized since Feb. 1, was found on Sunday by a recreational fisherman whose lines became fouled in the tangle of mesh and fish. Police believe it had been in the water since the beginning of the year. It took an 80-foot work boat with a crane several hours to gather up the nearly mile-long net and the ensnared fish, which averaged 15 pounds.

State lawmakers have told Baltimore officials they can't seize houses for unpaid water bills so quickly, or for so little money owed . Under legislation that gained final approval this week in the Senate, the city would be able to enforce a lien on a home only if the owner were at least nine months behind and owed more than $350 in outstanding water and sewer bills. That's slightly more generous than current law, under which the city may take a home if the bill is just six months behind and totals $250 or more.

He had been at the Iraqi front for months — and before that, in the war zones of Kuwait, Somalia and Bosnia — so for Sgt. 1st Class Mark Gwathmey, the day-to-day presence of shelling and explosions seemed like no big deal. Sure, there were headaches from an old head injury, and a few hand tremors, and some pain from a past broken foot. "[It] was nothing I wasn't ready to deal with," Gwathmey says. "I'm a Marine. " Then he got home. Back in Maryland in 2006, Gwathmey saw his shakes worsening.

Eminent domain, which gives government authority to forcibly purchase private property, is a last resort in countries that aren't run by juntas or Politburos. It's potent and potentially abusive. It should be exercised only in matters of public interest and when private parties repeatedly fail tests of competence, reasonableness and good faith. Only an extraordinarily feckless company can make a good case for its assets to be seized by the state. The owners of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park are working hard at making that case.

A gunshot wound to the face didn't kill Wilbur Street, but 28 years later the seizure disorder that he developed as a result of the injury made him Baltimore's 195 t h homicide victim of 2010. Street, 52, was shot in the face on Aug. 29, 1982 in the 4700 block of Haldane Rd. in Northeast Baltimore, said Anthony Guglielmi, the police department's chief spokesman. A woman was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison for the shooting. Street continued to suffer seizures, but racked up a criminal record and was sent to prison himself after a 2003 assault conviction.

He ate buffalo wings and drank nine Blue Moon drafts at Burke's Cafe. At Shucker's, he washed down a pound of steamed shrimp with three glasses of Tanqueray Gin, two Coronas, a Heineken and a Johnny Walker Black Label scotch. Day after day, year after year, Andrew Palmer dined at restaurants all over Baltimore and beyond, including Anne Arundel, Baltimore and St. Mary's counties. He even traveled as far south as Florida and sampled restaurants there. His tastes ran the gamut: a Chinese joint in Fells Point one day, the upscale Capital Grille at the Inner Harbor another.

In a time-honored rite of passage, Sarah Klos received her diploma in the sweltering heat Thursday afternoon, along with many of the 905 eligible students in the largest graduating class in Howard Community College's 39-year history. But unlike students who knew their big day in black cap and gown was coming and were impatient waiting for it to arrive, she had good reason to wonder whether such a day was even possible. Klos, who lost her short-term memory as a child after two debilitating strokes and delicate brain surgery, waged a fierce battle for nine years to achieve an associate's degree in general studies typically earned in four semesters.

After a six-day trial, a federal jury awarded $225,000 on Wednesday to a Baltimore County police detective who suffered a seizure on the job in 1996. William Blake, 40, who remains in the department, contended in his suit against the county's government that it had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by ordering him to submit to neurological and fitness-for-duty tests 10 years after he had the seizure. Blake, a member of the department since 1987, was pronounced ready to work three weeks after becoming ill, returned to his duties and suffered no further epileptic episodes.

A federal jury will begin deliberations today in a case brought by a Baltimore County police detective who suffered a seizure in 1996 and said his bosses tried to remove him from active duty after he testified on behalf of another officer with a similar problem. William Blake, a member of the department since 1987 who now works in its undercover criminal intelligence unit, has accused the department of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by ordering neurological and fitness-for-duty tests a decade after his on-the-job epileptic seizure.