Trash Bin

Let's table, for the moment, our chat about how much, if anything, should be tipped to the folks who rustle up your morning coffee. But even customers who customarily would toss in their change, or a whole dollar bill, in the tip jar when they've paid with cash often leave el-zippo when paying with plastic. It's DipJar to the rescue, as reported on by Bon Appetit . "It's as simple as a cash tip jar but with the technology to accept and pass along tips left with credit and debit cards," according to the DipJar website.

The body of a 2-year-old Annapolis girl was found Thursday night in garbage bound for a Virginia landfill, police said, and documents charging her mother with first-degree murder say Chelsea Booth admitted to smothering her daughter and dumping the body. Police were awaiting results of an autopsy of Kassidey Capri Booth performed Friday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, hoping to learn if it supports what 25-year-old Booth told detectives earlier in the week. Questioned by investigators following a tip that the girl had not been seen in a few days, Booth said the girl's father put a "Muslim curse" on her and that she "believed Kassidey to be possessed by an evil spirit," according to charging documents.

A woman was found dead in a trash bin in the 200 block of North Charles Street at 8:12 a.m. Sunday, Baltimore police said. Police said that the woman's body bore no obvious signs of trauma and that she appeared to be in her early 20s. Police were continuing to investigate Sunday. This is the second time a body has gone down a trash chute in that building in the past year.

Howard County detectives are offering a reward of up to $2,000 for information that helps identify two masked men they say shot a Columbia Taco Bell manager early Sunday. Gary M. Graham, 42, of Columbia, remains in critical condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center after he was shot multiple times. Just after midnight, Graham and another employee had walked outside of the fast-food chain restaurant on the 7100 block of Minstrel Way to confront a suspicious person when police say two masked men appeared near a trash bin. One fired at Graham, who was struck several times in the torso.

State and local authorities are asking for help in identifying the people responsible for setting 70 trash bin fires over the last month in the vicinity of Harford County's Edgewater Village Shopping Center and Meadowood townhouse development.Allen L. Ward, deputy chief state fire marshal, said the fires have cost the owners of the destroyed and damaged equipment about $20,000."The fire melts the plastic lids, and the heat generated by the hot plastic warps the metal," said Robert Hooper, owner of Harford Sanitation Services Inc., who has seen 20 of his trash bins set on fire.

The state medical examiner's office has ruled that the death of a newborn who was found Oct. 4 in a Charles Village trash bin after his mother went for treatment at a local hospital, was a homicide by asphyxiation. Police say the investigation is continuing; the death is not yet reflected in this year's homicide count. Police said the 22-year-old mother, who was involved in a training program with a Christian volunteer organization, went to Union Memorial Hospital with abdominal pain, and doctors discovered during an examination that she had recently given birth.

The father of 7-week old Dorian Anthony Russell, the baby found stuffed inside a trash bin near his Cockeysville home last night, has been charged with first-degree murder in the child's death, Baltimore County police said.Charged at 3 a.m. today after a lengthy interview with homicide detectives and an intensive investigation was Michael Donnell Russell, 27, of the 100 block of Breezy Tree Court in the Reflection Knoll Apartments off East Padonia Road.The infant's mother, Yolanda Russell, 24, of the same address, also was interviewed by police for several hours but was released from custody without being charged.

A 7-week-old infant reported missing from his crib by his parents was found dead last night -- stuffed in a denim diaper bag at the bottom of a Dumpster in Cockeysville.Baltimore County police said the body of Dorian Anthony Russell was found off Padonia Road in the metal trash bin shortly after 7 p.m., about four hours after he was reported missing from his parents' home in the Reflection Knoll Apartments.The parents, Michael Russell, 27, and Yolanda Russell, 24, were being questioned by the police when K-9 units discovered the baby's body in the 100 block of Breezy Tree Court -- about a block from the couple's apartment.

"Dear baby, I'm sorry what your mother did to you." This was written in cursive magenta letters on a white sheet of paper attached to the side of a trash bin in an alley behind St. John's United Methodist Church in Charles Village. There had been more than a dozen more like it - unsigned prayers and admonishments, expressions of anger and sadness - accompanied by drawings of trash bins, colored in bright blue and green. Some words were misspelled, some grammar fractured, but the meaning was not lost.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - In their biggest protest since this West African nation's civil war began five months ago, hundreds of opposition supporters clashed with police yesterday after the discovery of a body thought to be that of a key opposition figure. Supporters of the opposition Rally of the Republicans said the body of Kamara Yerefe, a popular comedian known as "H," was found in a trash bin near an auto junkyard early yesterday. Yerefe, a northern Muslim, was a key political figure in the party.

Let's table, for the moment, our chat about how much, if anything, should be tipped to the folks who rustle up your morning coffee. But even customers who customarily would toss in their change, or a whole dollar bill, in the tip jar when they've paid with cash often leave el-zippo when paying with plastic. It's DipJar to the rescue, as reported on by Bon Appetit . "It's as simple as a cash tip jar but with the technology to accept and pass along tips left with credit and debit cards," according to the DipJar website.

Officials at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport shut down two concourses for about an hour Monday morning, while investigators tried to determine the nature and source of an unusual odor. All checkpoints reopened by 10 a.m., after investigators removed what they believe was a can of pepper spray from a trash bin. Investigators discovered the item, which they are still processing, discarded in a trash can near the security check point at Concourse B. A passenger may have tossed the aerosol can before going through security, officials said.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for snow, mainly after noon, with a high near 39 degrees. It is expected to be snowy early tonight, followed by clouds, with a low temperature around 32 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM LAST NIGHT... Fetus found in trash bin in Bel Air : A fetus was found in a Bel Air trash bin Tuesday night, following a phone call alerting police to the dead child, officials said.

Bel Air police are releasing few details about a woman who said she delivered a stillborn baby at a home in the town and then threw the body away. The unidentified woman contacted police Tuesday to say she had wrapped the infant's body in a plastic bag and placed it in a trash bin just outside the downtown area of the Harford County seat. Police escorted the woman to the 900 block of Sablewood Road, where she pointed out the exact location of the refuse container. Harford County Sheriff's Department deputies assisted the town police at the scene and recovered the body at about 6 p.m. The woman was taken to Upper Chesapeake Medical Center for treatment.

A fetus was found in a Dumpster Tuesday evening near Seasons at Bel Air apartments. Police received a call around 6 p.m. Tuesday from someone reporting that a mother had placed a stillborn baby in a metal trash container in the 900 block of Sablewood Road in Bel Air, according to Bel Air Police, which is handling the investigation. A woman, who identified herself as the mother, reported the birth of the baby to Baltimore County detectives and was escorted to the Bel Air address to point out the trash bin, according to a Bel Air Police Department news release issued Wednesday morning.

The parents of Annie McCann, the 16-year-old girl who disappeared from her Virginia home and was found dead next to a trash bin in Baltimore in 2008, are alleging that a state medical examiner threw away her internal organs, preventing a proper Catholic burial. Mary Jane and Daniel McCann, during a news conference in Washington, also continued to blast the Baltimore Police Department's investigation and conclusions by detectives that the girl committed suicide by drinking a lethal dose of Bactine.

A 16-year-old Northern High School student was shot to death and two other teen-agers were wounded last night when a gunman approached them near an East Baltimore alley and opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun, police said.Homicide detectives also were investigating the afternoon discovery of a newborn -- or perhaps stillborn -- infant's body in a Reservoir Hill trash bin.Killed in the triple shooting was Dennis Briscoe, of the 900 block of N. Broadway.Young Briscoe was identified by his mother, who arrived at the scene in the 1700 block of E. Eager St. from her home less than two blocks away.

A woman was found dead in a trash bin in the 200 block of North Charles Street at 8:12 a.m. Sunday, Baltimore police said. Police said that the woman's body bore no obvious signs of trauma and that she appeared to be in her early 20s. Police were continuing to investigate Sunday. This is the second time a body has gone down a trash chute in that building in the past year.

Police seek hit-run driver in death of woman, 70 Baltimore County police are looking for a driver who fatally struck a 70-year-old woman and left the scene about 5:30 a.m. Friday. Delores Stray, 70, of the 7700 block of Gough St. was hit by a dark-colored 2005 Mazda Tribute as she crossed Eastern Avenue just west of 54th Street, police said. Police said the vehicle has Maryland tag 825M302 and might have front-end damage, specifically in the headlight area. Stray was pronounced dead at an area hospital.