Vials

The biodefense lab at Fort Detrick in Frederick began a thorough search of its freezers yesterday to ensure that it has an accurate inventory of the deadly bacteria, viruses and toxins accumulated there over a period of 40 years, Defense Department officials said. Col. John P. Skvorak, commander of the U.S. Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases, ordered a "stand-down," or pause in ordinary operations, and a complete inventory last week after 20 vials of "biological select agents and toxin" (BSAT)

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore City Western District Arrests: Sgt. Schuyer Denham and Officer Mark Korman were in the 300 block of N. Monroe St. about 2 a.m. Monday when they stopped a 1997 Nissan Pathfinder that was being driven without lights. A check showed the SUV was taken in a carjacking July 17 in the 1900 block of N. Fulton Ave. Arrested and charged with auto theft was the driver, Lamar Lomax, 20, of the 3300 block of Piedmont Ave. and his passenger, Donnell Taylor, 20, of the 2300 block of Edmondson Ave. Lomax also was charged with traffic violations.

A 20-year-old man who police said passed several vials of powdered cocaine to a 10-year-old boy moments before both were arrested in northwest Baltimore is being held on $25,000 bail today.City police said the man, Daryl McCain of the 3400 block of St. Ambrose Ave., was arrested yesterday afternoon in the 3200 block of Woodland Ave. and charged with possession of cocaine and using a minor to distribute cocaine.McCain was to face a bail hearing review this afternoon at the Edward Borgedine Building on Walbash Ave. An August 8 court hearing on the charges has been set by the District Court commissioner.

Police today were seeking at least two gunmen who fatally shot a 17-year-old boy and critically wounded a man as they sat on the front steps of an apartment building on Fulton Avenue, police said.Homicide Detective Harry Edgerton said the shootings may be drug-related because police found several vials of suspected cocaine in the building's hallway immediately behind the victims.Dead on arrival at University of Maryland Medical Center was DaShawn Powell, of the 1700 block of St. Paul St., Edgerton said.

Free Vials of Life to be given out July 4 The Kiwanis Club of Columbia has volunteered to distribute 2,000 free Vials of Life at its Fourth of July celebration at the Lakefront in Columbia. Vials of Life are small containers designed to hold personal emergency medical information; they are to be kept on the top shelf of the refrigerator for retrieval by ambulance paramedics or others in the event of an emergency, when the patient is not able to communicate. Verizon Telecom Pioneers, an industry-related volunteer organization, provides the Vials of Life and an emergency medical information sheet.

A policeman who knocked on an apartment door to ask the occupants to quiet down, ended his visit by arresting the men inside and busting a drug-stash house.Northeastern District Officer Paul O. Dean said he went to the apartment in the 5900 block of Goodnow Road about 9:30 a.m. yesterday after a neighbor complained about noise there. He said that when he told the person on the other side of the door that he was a police officer, he heard people running about. He suspected they were attempting to jump out a window.

Only the hardest of hearts could deny sympathy to parents whose children suddenly develop autism or some other debilitating ailment for which there is no proven cause. As a society, we know enough about how the world works politically and so little about how chemicals in our environment affect us medically that skepticism of official assurances can be, well, healthy. Yet politicians, in particular, must be careful not to let a natural concern about the safety of vaccines mushroom into a public health emergency, in which fear and ignorance cause far more sickness and death than the vaccines might have.

A man who was shot by Baltimore police officers during a traffic stop two years ago was sentenced yesterday to more than eight years in prison after pleading guilty to drug trafficking, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Cornell Slater, 22, admitted in court to selling cocaine, prosecutors said. He qualified for a longer sentence because he has been convicted twice before in state court of offenses that include crimes of violence and drugs. Baltimore police said officers stopped Slater's car Oct. 12, 2006, at Cottage and Violet avenues in Northwest Baltimore for a traffic infraction.

For three decades, Dr. Thomas C. Butler pursued medical science with quiet dedication at Texas Tech University, treating patients, publishing research papers and occasionally flying off to India or East Africa to study diseases. But only this month did he achieve fame. After Butler reported 30 vials containing plague bacteria missing, about 60 local, state and federal law enforcement agents swooped down on the medical school as word of the bioterrorism scare was broadcast worldwide. When the scientist then admitted that he had, in fact, destroyed the samples, he was hauled off to jail in handcuffs, accused of lying initially to the FBI. He has been released on bail, but he has surrendered his passport and is required to stay home on electronic monitoring to await a federal grand jury hearing next month.