Stream

An 8-year-old boy drowned in an Abingdon stream near his home Friday night, the Harford County Sheriff's Office said. Justin Hayes Wilson was playing with a 7-year-old friend about 7:30 p.m., skimming stones on a stream located about a half-mile behind a housing development in the 1300 block of Harford Town Drive, when he slipped and fell into the water. His friend tried several times to reach him, but couldn't and ran home to get help, police said. The child's parents called 911. Members of the Harford County Sheriff's Office, the Abingdon Volunteer Fire Company, the APG Fire Department and the Kingsville Volunteer Fire Company responded to the call.

In today's ever-growing coagulation of fact, fiction and rumor from print, digital and social media, where is the news consumer to look with confidence for the truth? The flood of instant accounts of the Boston marathon explosions and their alleged conspirators severely complicated the critical task of police and other law-enforcement officials in tracking down those responsible. Meanwhile, the airwaves and television screens were filled with inflammatory chatter resulting in conflicting and often unfounded charges of culpability against a range of ethnic, religious and immigrant groups, inflaming an already incendiary public climate.

Spring is almost here, and green groups are recruiting volunteers to watchdog Maryland's river and stream health. The Severn River Association is looking for help to protect the Chesapeake Bay tributary from  mud washing off construction sites in spring rains.  A recent audit by Community & Environmental Defense Services, a consulting firm, estimated that the Severn is being polluted with up to 1.4 million pounds of pollutants because...

A 2-year-old boy is in critical condition after the lawn mower he was riding on with his grandfather in Westminster overturned into a creek Sunday morning, according to the Carroll County Sheriff's Office. Deputies said the man and his grandson were cutting grass on the riding lawn mower in the 600 block of Jasontown Road shortly before noon when the mower crossed an embankment next to a stream and overturned, briefly trapping the child in the water until the grandfather could free him. Lt. Robert Cromwell of the sheriff's office said the child's injuries were from inhaling water and from the tractor overturning onto him, but the boy was not injured by the mower's blades.

MY FOOT sank into the muddy edge of the stream as I bent to pinch a stem. "Here, try it. It tastes a little like pepper," I said as I handed it to my daughter.It was one of the first warm evenings of spring, an invitation to investigate nature's rebirth. The awakenings seemed to spark memories.After seeing the grimace on the face of my obliging daughter, I conceded that maybe the taste was meant for an adult palate. But the story of my mother's watercress would be hers.I began to tell Mica of my mother's love of nature.

When it comes to politics, I no longer have any respect for our elected officials. I will not vote for an incumbent. First, there were guidelines as to how many casinos would be available for bidding. Maryland Live abided by the rules and gave the state a class operation. Now, a new casino opportunity is being touted forPrince George's County("A home run for the state," June 15). Gee, I wonder if Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller has anything to do with it? Will he benefit under the table?

In a city struggling to rebuild its population, construction cranes would seem to be a welcome sign. But office, shopping and housing projects in the works in Northwest Baltimore have some residents worried about the impact of development on a degraded stream that flows through their neighborhoods on its way to the harbor. Cranes tower over an 11-acre tract on Wabash Avenue, where the Social Security Administration plans to move 1,600 workers from the federal agency's aging downtown headquarters.

A Severn man who did not return home Friday night was found dead in a nearby stream Saturday morning, Anne Arundel County police said. Peter Anthony Dembrowicz, 30, of the 100-block of Gambrills Road, was found in the nearby Severn Run stream, police said. "We think he might have had a medical condition" that contributed, or that he might have gotten stuck trying to cross the stream, said Lt. Michael Brothers, a police spokesman. Police said there is no indication of foul play or any suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

A team of city employees, inmates in the state's correctional system and local volunteers gathered along Gwynns Run in Southwest Baltimore on Friday morning to clear trash and debris that had found its way into the stream. The effort, which the city said was the "first ever mass cleanup" of the stream, kicked off at 7:45 a.m., officials said. "It is our plan to remove all the trash in the stream and along the banks. We also want to point out that everyone can protect our streams, harbor and the Bay through proper trash disposal," said Department of Public Works Director Alfred H. Foxx in a statement.

The County Commissioners are considering hiring a consultant to study moving a stream that could undermine the county's effort to cap Hodges Landfill and could carry pollutants to a larger body of water.The closed landfill, off Hodges Road in south Carroll, is one of several abandoned dumps that the Maryland Department of the Environment has ordered be properly sealed to avoid land and water contamination.The stream, which flows near the landfill and feeds Morgan Run, anatural reproductive habitat for trout, could erode a cap on the landfill, said James E. Slater, director of the County Department of Natural Resource Protection, in a meeting with the commissioners.

Cub Scout Pack 497 Wolf Den from St. Joseph School, in Cockeysville participated in a stream cleanup of the Gunpowder River on March 15. This was organized by the Gunpowder riverkeeper, Theaux Le Gardeur, in Monkton. Pictured from left: Grant Horn, Zak Smith, Chase Horn, Peter Frain, Asher Clarke, Finn Christopherson, Liam Christopherson, Brian Rogers, Holly Christopherson, Cameron Hays, Zander Smith and Kristen Clarke.

A team of city employees, inmates in the state's correctional system and local volunteers gathered along Gwynns Run in Southwest Baltimore on Friday morning to clear trash and debris that had found its way into the stream. The effort, which the city said was the "first ever mass cleanup" of the stream, kicked off at 7:45 a.m., officials said. "It is our plan to remove all the trash in the stream and along the banks. We also want to point out that everyone can protect our streams, harbor and the Bay through proper trash disposal," said Department of Public Works Director Alfred H. Foxx in a statement.

The first thing you should know about St. Mary's College of Maryland is this: it's kind of remote. Know how people are always describing a place as being in the middle of nowhere? Well, St. Mary's is 20 miles past nowhere. And then you hang a right. Great school, beautiful campus on the St. Mary's River, sure. But Daniel Boone couldn't find this place. It's as far down Maryland's Western Shore as you can go without falling in the Chesapeake Bay. It's in this unlikely setting that Chris Harney has built a national hoops power.

At a lively Central Booking hearing, a Baltimore judge denied bail to Frank James MacArthur, the local blogger who live-streamed a standoff with police on the Internet, two days after a different judge ordered him to be released. MacArthur, 47, appeared Wednesday dressed in a yellow jumpsuit, his head shaved and his hands cuffed behind his back. District Judge Joan B. Gordon pointed to MacArthur's criminal history and apparent "violent and assaultive nature" as reasons for denying bail on gun charges filed against him late Monday.

Harford County reported three storm-related sewage spills last week during power outages at pumping stations at the height of Sandy, a hurricane turned tropical storm. The largest spill, nearly 2 million gallons, occurred at the Bush Creek station for about two hours starting at 8:15 p.m. on Oct. 29. The station experienced a total lack of power when its back-up generator, which had been operating for several hours after utility power was lost, failed due to a mechanical problem.

Beginning this week, the Baltimore County school system will begin live-streaming its bi-weekly school board meetings on its website, in part for the public's convenience but also to continue fulfilling a pledge to be more transparent, officials said.  The meetings, normally held the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, can be watched here.  The first meeting of the month starts at 7:00 p.m. The second meeting each month, typically a...

Last week marked an anniversary worth noting. It was on Feb. 1, 2010, that Baltimore County made the switch to single-stream recycling. Two years in, single-stream looks like a success story. "It's just gotten better and better," said Charles Reighart, county recycling coordinator. Once upon a time, people sorted various kinds of recycled materials into separate bins. Participation in recycling, however, was low - people who otherwise might be inclined to recycle didn't like the bother of sorting.

In a city struggling to rebuild its population, construction cranes would seem to be a welcome sign. But office, shopping and housing projects in the works in Northwest Baltimore have some residents worried about the impact of development on a degraded stream that flows through their neighborhoods on its way to the harbor. Cranes tower over an 11-acre tract on Wabash Avenue, where the Social Security Administration plans to move 1,600 workers from the federal agency's aging downtown headquarters.

Alan Hudson, the farmer at the center of a environmental law case that could shake up the Eastern Shore chicken business, took the stand in federal court Wednesday to tell his side of the story. Hudson testified that as a 19-year-old, he built the chicken houses at issue in the case, on the Berlin-area farm that has been in his family for at least a century. "That was going to be my contribution to getting my foot in the door farming with them," the 37-year-old Hudson said, adding that the farm needed a new stream of revenue after its dairy closed down a few years before.