Strike Force

Baltimore will send an "ambulance strike force" to New Jersey to help victims of superstorm Sandy, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday.  “The people of Baltimore stand with the people of New Jersey and New York who have suffered great damage and tragedy as a result of this historic storm," the mayor said in a statement.  Two Baltimore city medics and a supervisor will travel to New Jersey, overseeing a team of five medic units...

Baltimore will send an "ambulance strike force" to New Jersey to help victims of superstorm Sandy, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday.  “The people of Baltimore stand with the people of New Jersey and New York who have suffered great damage and tragedy as a result of this historic storm," the mayor said in a statement.  Two Baltimore city medics and a supervisor will travel to New Jersey, overseeing a team of five medic units...

Carroll Sheriff John H. Brown's decision to start his own drug unit has caused a split among the County Commissioners over the propriety of allowing the sheriff to conduct narcotics investigations.On Friday, Commissioner W. Benjamin Brown and his colleagues called a press conference to affirm publicly their support of state police drug enforcement efforts in the county.But behind that apparently unified declaration of support is a disagreement between Commissioner Brown and the other two commissioners over Sheriff John H. Brown's role in the drug eradication business.

BAGHDAD -- Insurgents took aim at volunteer security forces working alongside U.S. and Iraqi troops yesterday, killing at least three and injuring 13 others in a string of gunfire and bomb attacks. Also yesterday, U.S. forces announced the death of an American soldier, and Iraqi officials said they had arrested four suspects in connection with a bomb blast this week that killed 28 people in southern Iraq. The attacks occurred as Iraqis prepared for the Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha, the Islamic feast of sacrifice, which begins this week.

FREDERICK -- Tired of shuffling convictions through the courts, Assistant State's Attorney Jerry F. Barnes decided more needed to be done to dam the river of crack cocaine flowing from New York to Maryland.Mr. Barnes called the Maryland State Police in late 1991 to complain that New York drug dealers had infiltrated Frederick County, providing the impetus for setting up the Interstate Drug Traffickers Strike Force."Barnes was one of the first, if not the first, to see the trend of out-of-state drug traffickers coming down to Maryland," said Scott McCauley, a former spokesman for the Maryland State Police, which gave Mr. Barnes a certificate of recognition in August.

An interstate drug strike force has been approved by Gov. William Donald Schaefer to stop drug traffickers -- primarily from New York -- from sending teen-agers into Baltimore and other Maryland cities to set up street-level narcotics operations.The strike force is to be formally announced during the Governor's Summit on Violent Street Crime this Thursday at the Convention Center.Dr. Neil Solomon, chairman of the Governor's Drug and Alcohol Abuse Commission, said the new strike force, which is to be coordinated by State Police investigators, is being organized to disrupt, intercept and dismantle any organized trafficking and to prosecute those who are arrested.

At ports from Virginia to Maine, a federal "strike force" is conducting three days of sweeping truck inspections in a search for violations of rules governing the transportation of hazardous materials.Virtually all of the loaded trailers leaving terminals at the port of Baltimore are being stopped and examined.The inspections began Tuesday and are to continue through today.The federal Department of Transportation, which is spearheading the inspections by an array of federal agencies assisted by state and port police, said the program was designed primarily to detect improper documentation and handling of hazardous materials.

WASHINGTON -- The United States began withdrawing the last of its troops from northern Iraq yesterday but warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that "residual" allied combat forces would be poised to strike quickly if he renews a reign of terror against Iraqi Kurds.Iraqi army and paramilitary forces will be barred from entering a designated security zone for the Kurds in northern Iraq, and any use of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in that area will not be tolerated by the United States and its allies, said Pete Williams, the Pentagon's chief spokesman.

WASHINGTON - Two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third was injured yesterday during a fierce 90-minute firefight in a rugged border region of eastern Afghanistan, the latest in a series of mounting Taliban attacks, according to U.S. Central Command. The Americans were on a combat patrol near Firebase Shkin in a remote area of Paktika province when they encountered what a Centcom spokesman called "former Taliban fighters" who opened fire, mortally wounding the two soldiers. Coalition commanders dispatched a quick-reaction strike force and two A-10 Thunderbolt II jets to drive off the attackers, and helicopters evacuated the two U.S. soldiers to Bagram Air Base, where they died of their wounds.

Carroll County Sheriff John H. Brown has disbanded his agency's Drug Strike Force, citing a shortage of deputies to provide adequate security for the courthouses.Brown said Friday he hated shutting down his strike force, but felt he had no choice because the county's circuit judges have been asking for additional security since 1994.The sheriff formed the strike force amid controversy in September 1995, a month after removing his deputies from the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force, a joint effort among law enforcement agencies under the supervision of the state's attorney.

WASHINGTON -- In what could become the largest evacuation by sea in modern history, about 10,000 Americans and tens of thousands of European and other civilians are expected to begin boarding ships from Beirut today amid the escalating fighting between Israel and Hezbollah forces. The American evacuees are to be ferried to the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus on charter ships, watched over by U.S. Marine and Navy jets and warships that will escort the vessels through an Israeli blockade of Lebanon and guard against other threats, according to U.S. military and civilian officials.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. warplanes struck insurgent-held Fallujah hard yesterday, the latest assault in a bombing campaign that has intensified with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Vowing to disrupt guerrilla bands planning car bombings and other attacks, and mindful that Ramadan last year brought a surge in such incidents, the U.S. military is targeting Fallujah sites that it says are being used by militants linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for the twin bombings Thursday in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, and security was tightened there and at other strategic sites housing Western soldiers and civilians.

WASHINGTON - Two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third was injured yesterday during a fierce 90-minute firefight in a rugged border region of eastern Afghanistan, the latest in a series of mounting Taliban attacks, according to U.S. Central Command. The Americans were on a combat patrol near Firebase Shkin in a remote area of Paktika province when they encountered what a Centcom spokesman called "former Taliban fighters" who opened fire, mortally wounding the two soldiers. Coalition commanders dispatched a quick-reaction strike force and two A-10 Thunderbolt II jets to drive off the attackers, and helicopters evacuated the two U.S. soldiers to Bagram Air Base, where they died of their wounds.

Helen Campbell has taught at Powhatan Elementary School in Woodlawn for 25 years, and on this morning, even she's in a quandary. Here it is, the 14th week of classes, and she's about to have a whole new dynamic during reading time with her third-graders. Tomorrow, her top kids, who were pulled out of class for months to be tutored by a reading specialist, are coming back, trading places with her middle-of-the-road pupils. What should she do, she wonders, when she has the advanced readers back in the classroom with the ones who are struggling?

JERUSALEM - In its first major military assault against the Palestinians, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon struck elite Palestinian security headquarters in the West Bank and Gaza with helicopter-fired rockets last night in response to a wave of terror attacks whose latest victims were two Israeli teens. The helicopter strike came after the closing of a 22- nation Arab summit in Amman, Jordan, that saw a hardening of the Arab world's posture toward Israel, even though leaders were unable to bridge divisions in their own ranks over Iraq and Kuwait.

Carroll County Sheriff John H. Brown has disbanded his agency's Drug Strike Force, citing a shortage of deputies to provide adequate security for the courthouses.Brown said Friday he hated shutting down his strike force, but felt he had no choice because the county's circuit judges have been asking for additional security since 1994.The sheriff formed the strike force amid controversy in September 1995, a month after removing his deputies from the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force, a joint effort among law enforcement agencies under the supervision of the state's attorney.

FBI Director William Sessions and U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr will join law enforcement and government officials from across the state today in Baltimore at the Governor's Summit on Violent Street Crime.The summit, which will also involve business and community representatives, is a gathering to develop new strategies to combat the sharp increase in violent crime, which has risen 37 percent statewide over the past 16 years. Organizers expect more than 800 people to attend.Gov. William Donald Schaefer is expected to unveil plans for a drug strike force to be coordinated by state police investigators to intercept and dismantle organized drug trafficking in the state.

Carroll County Sheriff John H. Brown has disbanded his agency's Drug Strike Force, citing a shortage of deputies to provide adequate security for the courthouses.Brown said Friday he hated shutting down his strike force, but felt he had no choice because the county's circuit judges have been asking for additional security since 1994.The sheriff formed the strike force amid controversy in September 1995, a month after removing his deputies from the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force, a joint effort among law enforcement agencies under the supervision of the state's attorney.

Carroll County Sheriff John H. Brown has disbanded his agency's Drug Strike Force, citing a shortage of deputies to provide adequate security for the courthouses.Brown said Friday he hated shutting down his strike force, but felt he had no choice because the county's circuit judges have been asking for additional security since 1994.The sheriff formed the strike force amid controversy in September 1995, a month after removing his deputies from the Carroll County Narcotics Task Force, a joint effort among law enforcement agencies under the supervision of the state's attorney.

A Continental Airlines Boeing 737 headed for Newark, N.J., with 95 people on board was apparently struck by lightning yesterday afternoon and made an emergency landing atBaltimore-Washington International Airport.Flight 1246 -- en route to Newark International Airport from Raleigh, N.C., -- was reportedly hit as it flew over Baltimore and encountered a violent series of storms about 5:30 p.m., said Continental spokeswoman Sarah Oates.Oates said the pilots believe a lightning bolt struck the plane's vertical stabilizer, on the plane's tail, and damaged a beacon light, causing a circuit breaker to blow.