Streets

He's across the Atlantic from his native Ireland, but Ken Keady was wearing the green Sunday as he bobbed his 3-year-old daughter on his shoulders to see Baltimore's St. Patrick Parade. "It's a great occasion, a lot of color, a lot of flags and lot of music. I come every year," said Keady, now of Towson, with daughter Carolyn waving the Irish flag above his head. Keady pronounced Baltimore's parade as "one of the best I've ever seen" - and he's seen them in Dublin, he said. The Keady family was among thousands of people lining the route for the kilted bagpipe bands and eye-popping string bands, dance troupes, students, classic cars, floats and more.

The drumbeat for weeks has been that $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts known as the sequester would be so horrendous for the economy that lawmakers in Washington would be forced to compromise by the March 1 deadline. When no deal was reached, not only did the stock market shrug it off, but the Dow Jones industrial average of 30 blue-chip stocks soared to new heights. On Tuesday, the Dow blew past its old record of 14,164.53 from Oct. 9, 2007, and continued to climb, ending the week at 14,397.

Several closures have been announced in Carroll County due to inclement weather on Wednesday, March 6. Carroll County Public Schools and offices, including the Central Office, are closed today, March 6. Gerstell Academy in Finksburg is closed. Carroll Community College and its Mount Airy Center are closed today. All classes and activities are canceled. Students should check Blackboard for instructor information. McDaniel College is closed through 11 p.m. Wednesday. All undergraduate and graduate classes are canceled, and Wednesday evening's performance of the play, "The Sleep of Reason," is also canceled.

An Essex man, who faces criminal charges relating to a May homicide where the body was left inside a burning truck, was shot in the back of the head early Friday morning, according to Baltimore County police. Joseph Thorpe, 27, was found shortly after midnight Friday, lying in the middle of the street at Middle River Road and Compass Road, suffering from a gunshot wound, in addition to other traumatic injuries, according to a police statement. Thorpe, of the unit block of Glenwood Road, was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and was listed in critical condition, police said.

A collision in Baltimore City and debris in the roadway in Howard County slowed Tuesday morning's commute, according to the state Department of Transportation. A collision in Baltimore City and debris in the roadway in Howard County slowed Tuesday morning's commute, according to the state Department of Transportation. A collision on Interstate 395 North at Martin Luther King Jr. Highway in Baltimore City was reported at 8:45 a.m., no additional information was given. In Howard County, debris in the roadway on MD 32 at West Linden Church Road closed the westbound right turn lane and shoulder at 8:39 a.m. The Maryland Transportation Administration reported minor delays on the light rail.

Amelia J. Brooks, a retired store manager and active church member, died Feb. 16 from heart failure at a daughter's home in Buford, Ga. The former longtime West Baltimore resident was 90. The daughter of a cobbler and a housekeeper, the former Amelia Juanita Soden was born in Baltimore and raised near Harlem Park. Mrs. Brooks was a 1941 graduate of Frederick Douglass High School and at an early age began attending church at Union Baptist Church and Douglas Memorial Baptist Church.

I was surprised there is opposition to requiring all bike riders wear helmets ("Helmet bill gets objections from bike advocates," Feb. 13). In my 2,500-pound car I must wear a seat belt and am surrounded by airbags. It is because people may be involved in accidents (by definition an unplanned event) that these auto safety measures are required. Paved streets are designed to move autos, trucks and buses. Traffic signals left turn lanes, and barriers help keep traffic safe and facilitate its flow.

A portion of Light Street near the Inner Harbor will close Friday night through the weekend as crews remove a pedestrian bridge over the street, the first of intermittent closures through the spring, officials said. The road will be closed between Conway and Pratt streets from 10 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday. Construction crews are replacing a bridge that connects Harborplace's Light Street Pavilion to the Hyatt Regency Baltimore hotel's parking garage. The bridge will be rebuilt in the spring, requiring additional overnight and weekend closures during the construction process, said Scott Weaver, chief of bridge engineering for the city transportation department.

The Freshii on Light Street downtown has closed. The other Baltimore location, on St. Paul Street in Charles Village, will remain open, the company says. "Closing a restaurant is never something we want to do,'" said Freshii project manager Mia Jacobs in an emailed statement, "however it is the right move when it means we can refocus our efforts on other opportunities within the community, such as our Charles Village location. " Founded in 2005 in Toronto, Freshii provides a fast-food alternative with customer-created salads, wraps, soups and bowls.

Leta Dunham got her breakfast order to go at a Roland Avenue Starbucks Wednesday morning: a grande triple skim latte in her cup and, on her forehead, an ashen reminder that we are all destined to become dust. Dunham was among Ash Wednesday observers who took advantage of Ashes to Go, a service offered by area Episcopal and Methodist churches at more than a dozen spots around the city and nearby counties, part of a national movement that began with an Episcopal church in St. Louis in 2007.