Taxicab

Bel Air Police say an Edgewood man is in custody in Pennsylvania after allegedly stealing money from a convenience store Sunday morning, carjacking a taxicab and being chased by police into York County, where he was arrested. At about 9 a.m. Sunday, a man later identified as Raymond Kallenberger, 24, of Edgewood, allegedly entered the 7-Eleven store in the 200 block of Baltimore Pike in Bel Air and removed cash from the register, according to a news release from the Bel Air Police Department.

Bel Air Police say an Edgewood man is in custody in Pennsylvania after allegedly stealing money from a convenience store Sunday morning, carjacking a taxicab and being chased by police into York County, where he was arrested. At about 9 a.m. Sunday, a man later identified as Raymond Kallenberger, 24, of Edgewood, allegedly entered the 7-Eleven store in the 200 block of Baltimore Pike in Bel Air and removed cash from the register, according to a news release from the Bel Air Police Department.

Thirty-three Baltimore taxicab permits were auctioned off yesterday after the companies that held them defaulted on loan payments. Nine cab companies, all members of the Royal Taxicab Association Inc., had put up their combined 90 permits as collateral for a financing agreement. When they didn't make payments on time, the financier, Medallion Funding Corp. in New York, repossessed the permits. In an auction on Jan. 13, 45 permits were sold. Forty-five more were available yesterday, but 12 were not purchased and will be offered again Feb. 2. Just as the bidding began yesterday at Alex Cooper Auctioneers Inc. in Towson, a lawyer who represented the nine companies stood to protest the proceedings.

Baltimore City police found a 30-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to his back at an area hospital Sunday morning, police said. Police said the victim told detectives that he had been driving a taxicab with two passengers inside and that one pulled out a gun and demanded money. The victim, who had pulled into a parking lot in the 2700 block of Sisson Street in Remington, was shot in the back and the suspects fled with the cash, whose amount was unknown, police said.

Annapolis taxicab drivers would become the first in the nation to take mandatory drug tests, if the City Council approves a bill proposedby Alderman Wayne C. Turner, R-Ward 6.The council's rules committee will conduct a public hearing on the bill tonight.The bill would set a national precedent, said Jim Peck, associatedirector for research for the Maryland Municipal League, and Alfred Lagasse, executive vice president of the International Taxicab Association in Kensington."I certainly know of no other community that requires drug tests of cab drivers," Lagasse said.

Samuel A. Hartman, a taxicab owner and former president of the Diamond Cab Co., died Wednesday at the Meridian Nursing Center/Multi-Medical of complications after surgery. He was 87 and lived on Chesterfield Avenue.Services for Mr. Hartman were being held today at the Loring Byers funeral establishment, 8728 Liberty Road.He began driving a cab in the mid-1920s and soon became a charter member of the Association of Independent Taxi Operators, which became the Diamond Cab Co.Mr. Hartman was president of the company in the 1930s and 1940s and managed the Diamond Cab baseball team that won the Maryland Amateur Baseball League's 1937 championship.

Annapolis taxicab drivers are furious with an unspoken, dubious practice that they say has long been imposed upon their industry -- if they don't pay hotel valets $10 for high-paying trips to the airport, they don't get called.In a city where hotels often have no space for taxicab stands and valets know they have full control over who gets high-dollar fares, Annapolis drivers want an end to a practice that some call bribery and many say is unfair to customers who sometimes are charged more to make up for the required tip.Taxicab drivers and companies want city officials or hotel managers to intervene.

Howard Community College's Student-Alumni Arts will present Hellcab, a play by Will Kern, from Dec. 6 to 15 in the college's Theatre Outback, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. The play follows a day in the life of a Chicago cabdriver just before Christmas, with vignettes of more than 20 of his fares - represented by members of the HCC student and alumni ensemble. The production contains strong language and mature subject matter. Performances will be held at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

Baltimore City police found a 30-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to his back at an area hospital Sunday morning, police said. Police said the victim told detectives that he had been driving a taxicab with two passengers inside and that one pulled out a gun and demanded money. The victim, who had pulled into a parking lot in the 2700 block of Sisson Street in Remington, was shot in the back and the suspects fled with the cash, whose amount was unknown, police said.

ISSUE: -- Frustrated with the noise outside her apartment complex, Annapolis Alderwoman Julie M. Stankivic is drafting a bill that would subject city cabdrivers to fines for honking their horns to pick up passengers. Stankivic, who has filed eight complaints in five weeks against cabdrivers, said the city is being besieged by the disruption familiar to every city dweller. She prefers that the drivers use their cell phones to alert fares of their arrival. She declined to offer details of her legislation.

Forrest F. Gesswein, a decorated World War II veteran who owned a Parkville taxicab business, died of heart disease Sunday at his Parkville home. He was 89. Born in Baltimore, he was a 1937 Towson High School graduate. As a young man, he assisted his parents at their Parkville family restaurant. He handled the beer kegs and bought eggs from local farmers. As World War II approached, he enlisted in the Marines and was sent to the Pacific. He fought and was wounded at the Battle of Guadalcanal.

ISSUE: -- Frustrated with the noise outside her apartment complex, Annapolis Alderwoman Julie M. Stankivic is drafting a bill that would subject city cabdrivers to fines for honking their horns to pick up passengers. Stankivic, who has filed eight complaints in five weeks against cabdrivers, said the city is being besieged by the disruption familiar to every city dweller. She prefers that the drivers use their cell phones to alert fares of their arrival. She declined to offer details of her legislation.

It all started with a honking cabdriver outside the apartment complex of an irritated Annapolis alderwoman. Words were exchanged, complaints were lodged, meetings were held, and now, the alderwoman is mounting a charge against an annoyance familiar to every city dweller. She is drafting a bill that would make taxicab drivers subject to fines for honking their horns to pick up passengers. "I'm looking at what we can do. I'm living in a community that has been besieged," says Alderwoman Julie Stankivic, who declined to discuss the bill's details.

A fuel surcharge that Anne Arundel County taxi drivers collect may soon be tied to the price of gasoline under a measure before the County Council tomorrow night. The Anne Arundel County Council will hold a public hearing tomorrow on emergency legislation that, if passed, would establish a sliding scale of gas surcharges that would change each April and October based on the average price of gas in Maryland. Annapolis passed a bill last year that instituted a range of gas surcharges on taxi passengers.

An unlicensed taxi driver who was shot Monday night during a robbery attempt in North Baltimore died yesterday. The victim was identified as a 50-year-old former Martinsburg, W.Va., resident whose local address was unknown and whose relatives had not been located. Police said that shortly after the driver stopped in the 2700 block of Greenmount Ave. about 10:30 p.m., a gunman approached his Honda Accord and announced a holdup. Before the driver could give up money or valuables, he was shot several times.

Pushed by rising prices for gasoline, insurance and repairs, taxicab fares will go up Friday in Baltimore City and Baltimore County for the first time in seven years, and Howard County isn't far behind. A five-mile ride will cost $10.15 in the city and Baltimore County, up about 20 percent from current rates of $8.50 in the city and $8.60 in the county, under a decision by the Maryland Public Service Commission. When city and county cab drivers got their last fare increase, in 1998, unleaded regular gas averaged $1.06 a gallon, according to government statistics.

I DEPEND on cabs. I am legally blind. According to Sharon Maneki, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland, there are over 3,000 blind people in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Also, the federation has its national headquarters here. Blind people can tell you horror stories about canceled appointments, missed trains and planes and hours spent waiting for taxis that never arrive.But we are not alone. Anyone in Baltimore who regularly uses taxis will tell you that cab service here is terrible.

For years, Severna Park residents who needed a taxicab had to call companies in either Annapolis or Glen Burnie and shell out an extra $5 or $10 for the added distance.Now, they can catch a ride from a neighborhood cabbie.Severna Park Taxi is up and running, serving residents of the greater Severna Park area, Crofton and Lake Shore."We just want to say, 'Hey, Severna Park, we're here to service you with a smile,' " said cabdriver Mick Brown. "That may sound corny, but that's what we want to do."

MOSCOW - Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia said yesterday that they had discovered two boxes of highly radioactive material that officials said could have been used to make a "dirty bomb," as well as a container of nerve gas, in a taxicab in the capital, Tbilisi. The announcement appeared to underscore concerns about the vulnerability of the former Soviet Union's vast, crumbling nuclear infrastructure and chemical weapons arsenal to thieves and terrorists. Georgian officials said police were conducting a routine search of the cab on May 31 on the road to Tbilisi's main railway station when they found three boxes, two of which contained Cesium-137 and Strontium-90, both of which are by-products of nuclear fission.

A 40-year-old Harford County mother of four was killed early Friday in Albany, N.Y., when a cabdriver who didn't have a driver's license lost control of his taxi and hit her, police said. Lisa Keene of the 2000 block of Armstrong St. in Edgewood was in Albany for the Valentine's Day wedding of her sister, which was postponed after the accident. Keene was standing at a crosswalk at 4 a.m. after leaving a bar where relatives had been celebrating when the cab struck her and dragged her more than 300 feet, police said.