Unlicensed

The Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation is advising homeowners who use unlicensed contractors for home repairs and improvements that they don't have access to the kinds of safeguards put in place by the Maryland Home Improvement Commission. The MHIC offers a guarantee of up to $10,000 for damage caused by a licensed contractor's poor workmanship or failure to perform work. That guarantee is not available to homeowners who use unlicensed contractors, according to the DLLR.

Anne Arundel County police kept four teen-agers from adding to Baltimore's problem of unlicensed motorbikes late Thursday when an officer caught them walking dirt bikes and a moped away from a burgled Brooklyn Park cycle dealership. Police said the youths - ages 16 and 17 - had intended to push the four stolen bikes to a light rail stop and get them into the city on the transit line. Three of them live in Park Heights, the other in West Baltimore, police said. In Baltimore, police say there are thousands of unlicensed and illegal off-road bikes, and recent incidents - including fatal accidents - prompted a City Council move to outlaw their use. County police said Detective Kevin Heiser stopped the youths near Hammonds Lane and Lednura Avenue about 10:30 p.m., after noticing them pushing what appeared to be new motorbikes.

A Baltimore County zoning official has recommended that the owner of a Catonsville assisted-living facility be fined $47,000 for defying an order to stop using an illegal addition. Mathew Decker, owner of Rolling Meadows Assisted Living, built the 2 1/2-story addition even though permits called for a one-story structure. In addition, Decker obtained permits for a single-family home instead of a home for the elderly. Thirteen residents live at the home at 303 N. Rolling Road. Last month, after nearly four years of zoning and court battles, the county ordered Decker to make the illegally built top floor of the addition uninhabitable.

State and federal regulators, taking a more aggressive look at charities that seek donations of used cars, are finding that many groups -- from tiny schools to huge health organizations -- don't follow the laws. Only a fraction of the charities that run such programs in Maryland are licensed to do so. Many delegate responsibilities to third parties, leaving titles blank. Some donations might not even be tax-deductible. "Charities are jumping on this bandwagon thinking that this is going to be the greatest fund-raiser since pizzas," says state Assistant Attorney General Jonathan W. Acton II, principal counsel to the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration.

A 21-year-old college student driving through Charles Village was killed yesterday afternoon when his Honda Civic was broadsided by a car being pursued by at least two or three Baltimore police cruisers.Marc David Levy, a student at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash -- 15 blocks north of where he lived at St. Paul and East Biddle streets in midtown.The impact of the crash sent the cars spinning around 2: 30 p.m. at a busy Charles Village intersection and trapped Levy in a mangled heap of metal.

An unlicensed contractor has been fined $1,000 by the state of Maryland for dumping water contaminated with lead paint into a Fells Point storm drain.James Joseph Lucas, 34, who lives in the Butchers Hill neighborhood of East Baltimore, pleaded guilty to the charge in Baltimore District Court and was sentenced to pay the fine to the Maryland Clean Water Fund.The environmental crimes unit of the Maryland attorney general's office received a complaint Oct. 15 that outdoor paint was being stripped from brickwork at 1915 Bank St. in Fells Point.

Opinion * Commentary trol activists, believing that the Littleton, Colo., school shooting tragedy might at last arouse Congress to toughen gun laws, have been knocked back on their heels in the wake of the Senate's vote to reject tightened procedures for sales at gun shows.The 51-47 vote against the Democratic proposal, and the subsequent passage by 53-45 of a Republican version making background checks on buyers from unlicensed gun dealers merely voluntary, jolted the anti-gun lobby at a time its leaders hoped the clout of the National Rifle Association and its allies might at last be slipping on Capitol Hill.

A Baltimore County engineering firm found to be using unlicensed copies of software has agreed to contribute $135,000 to the Business Software Alliance, a lobbying group whose members include Microsoft Corp. and other software makers.The alliance said it will use the donation for its campaign to raise awareness of software piracy.Robert Kruger, president of the Washington-based Business Software Alliance, said the organization conducted an audit of software used by Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson.

Prosecutors will have an easier time cracking down on illicit massages after last night's Baltimore County Council vote eliminating a loophole that made it difficult to convict offenders. The council passed an ordinance allowing police to arrest anyone "offering to administer a massage without a license." Howard B. Merker, deputy state's attorney, said county codes had prohibited a person from "administering a massage without a license." But that made it difficult to prosecute an unlicensed masseuse who agreed to perform an illicit service, but changed her mind when she realized the customer was a police officer, Merker said.

Calvary United Methodist Church is a dignified old building, a gray stone structure that presides over a gritty section of west Philadelphia. On a chilly night last weekend, this house of worship was the site of an odd spectacle.Inside the church, a Jolly Roger flag glowered from the dais and the walls bristled with homemade placards denouncing -- of all things -- the Federal Communications Commission."FCC Thugs Back Off," read one.Sitting in front of the skull-and-bones banner, an FCC official fielded angry questions from a young, spirited crowd of more than 100. The air was thick with accusations of "goon-squad tactics" and "SWAT-type raids" on the part of the agency.