Uncovered

The scathing results of the U.S. Justice Department's investigation into the Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff's Office and its bias against Hispanic residents is likely to incense anyone with strong feelings about the state of immigration in this country, pro or con. But before Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his defenders start dismissing the three-year-old investigation as misguided and wholly political motivated, they ought to take a second look at the...

A 28-year-old guy living in his parents' basement in South Philadelphia just might be one of the foremost experts on the Archdiocese of Baltimore, if not the whole American Catholic Church. Rocco Palmo facetiously calls himself "The Church Whisperer," and over the past six years, his blog has become a must-read for ecclesiastical insiders. After starting with just three readers a few days before Christmas in 2004, Palmo has built up a audience of roughly 500,000 unique visitors each month.

Years ago, before we were married and moved to Maryland, my husband opened a checking account in Indiana and had the statements mailed to his office there. The account wasn't forgotten, just ignored. That wasn't a problem until his employer moved and the statements started bouncing back to the bank. Eventually, the account was turned over to the Indiana attorney general, who added it to a list of unclaimed property — where it was recently spotted by a family acquaintance. We put in a claim.

Archaeologists peeling back layers of history beneath the historic Lloyd Street Synagogue in East Baltimore have uncovered what is believed to be the oldest Jewish ritual bath complex in the United States. Hints of the presence of the 1845 bath, or "mikveh," were first detected during excavations in 2001. But further digging this winter has revealed about a quarter of a five-foot-deep wooden tub, and linked it to a related cistern found in 2008, and to remains of a brick hearth once used to warm the bath's water.

The investigation into the death of Baltimore Officer Thomas Portz Jr., who died last month when his police cruiser crashed into the back of a parked firetruck in West Baltimore, has yielded no new clues into what caused the accident, according to police. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said crash investigators have ruled out a mechanical problem with his vehicle, and an autopsy uncovered no underlying medical condition such as a heart attack as factors in the Oct. 20 crash. Portz, a 32-year-old New York native who had worked in the city's Western District, became the first officer to die in the line of duty since 2007.

Galina Zaporozhsky was known on Willow Vista Way in Cockeysville for several things: the cookies she would bake every Christmas for her neighbors, the daily walks she liked to take and the fact that her husband Alexander was in prison in Russia after being convicted of spying for the U.S. On Friday, in the largest spy swap since the Cold War, he was one of four men released by Moscow in exchange for 10 Russian sleeper agents arrested in the...

News item: A judge on Thursday denied bail to suspected Russian spies Richard and Cindy Murphy, whose arrests shocked neighbors in suburban Montclair, N.J. Cindy Murphy, who commuted to her financial job in New York, was admired for her gardening and baking, while her husband was a stay-at-home dad known for making his two daughters' lunches and walking them to the school bus. They are two of the 10 alleged spies arrested this week who...

Ask the average American about Romania, and the response would probably involve orphans, Olympic gymnasts or Dracula. Dispelling these common yet one-dimensional views of the country was, in large part, the inspiration for "Dracula is Dead," a new travel literature book by Sheilah Kast and James C. Rosapepe. The book, which will be released Monday, is a thoroughly researched yet conversational tour through the often-overlooked Eastern European country. "We had the opportunity to live there for three years and travel all over the country," Rosapepe said.