Wire

Agnieszka Holland's Holocaust movies, like "Angry Harvest" and "Europa Europa," are a world away from concentration camp tear-jerkers like Robert Benigni's Oscar-winning smash "Life Is Beautiful. " Holland's films are uninhibited and sexual, gutsy and tough-minded. With "In Darkness" (opening at the Charles on Friday) she tells the fact-based story of Jews who survived the Nazi onslaught by hiding underground in sewers. Set in large part beneath the Polish city of Lvov, this movie is an unremitting heart-stopper.

He played a hardnosed detective on HBO's The Wire, a trombonist on Treme and soon Wendell Pierce will be a grocery store owner. The actor who has a made a career starring in David Simon's popular television series plans to open Sterling Farms grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods in New Orleans, where there a shortage of good supermarkets. He talked about the plans recently with The New York Times. He and a business partner have already opened Sterling Express in the city where Treme is taped.

When Antonio Malone needed $15,000 to pay off the assailants who stormed his West Baltimore rowhouse and demanded money and heroin, a gang leader told him exactly where to go. Police say he was sent to a 12 t h floor apartment at The Redwood, the home of Felicia "Snoop" Pearson. The building on South Eutaw Street, within walking distance of the Inner Harbor and featuring a large ninth-floor deck and a 'round-the-clock fitness center, seems appropriate for an actress on the much-acclaimed HBO series "The Wire.

Two men were seen on video removing copper wire from BGE trucks in the 10500 block of York Road, at 4:25 a.m. on Feb. 8. Police said the men ran away when officers arrived, leaving the copper outside BGE fence. In addition to the above, the following items were compiled from police reports from the Towson and Cockeysville precincts. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. Cockeysville York Road , 10500 block, at 4:25 a.m. Feb. 8. Two men were seen on video removing copper wire from BGE trucks.

Richard Nash Jr., a retired businessman and avid boater, died Jan. 11 of pneumonia and heart failure at his winter home in Naples, Fla. The Towson resident was 82. The son of an IBM manager and a homemaker, Mr. Nash was born in Baltimore and raised on Roland Avenue. After graduating from Gilman School in 1947, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1951 from Princeton University, where he was a member of the Ivy Club. During the Korean War, Mr. Nash enlisted in the Navy and served as a flight deck officer aboard the carriers USS Oriskany and USS Princeton.

Over the weekend, the arrest of a 19-year-old man on a handgun charge caught my eye. His name? Omar Little. That of course is the name of the iconic stick-up man from "The Wire," a show that was based heavily on real people and events from Baltimore's crime history. Though the Omar character  was said to be based on several people - Shorty Boyd, Donnie Andrews, Ferdinand Harvin, Billy Outlaw and Anthony Hollie - none of them were actually named "Omar Little. "  I reached out to the show creator and former Sun reporter David Simon to see whether there was, in fact, an Omar Little who Simon or his writing partners had come across and used as the namesake for the character.

MISL Blast beats Lancers for 5th win in row The Blast won its fifth straight Major Indoor Soccer League game and improved to 5-1 with a 10-4 win over the Rochester Lancers on Saturday night. Defender Mike Lookingland led the way with two goals and an assist in the team's fifth consecutive road win. Stephen DeRoux and Adriano Dos Santos scored 49 seconds apart in the first quarter to give the Blast a 4-0 lead. It was the first goal of the season for both players.

Eighttofasttocatch led from start to finish in the $75,000 Jennings Handicap on Saturday at Laurel Park. First away from the gate under Sheldon Russell, the 5-year-old son of Not For Love opened up on his five rivals through the turn, where Russell gave him a breather until the pack began to close in. Then, with just a little urging, Eighttofasttocatch ran to a 4 1/4-length victory in 1 minute, 35.76 seconds for the mile distance. Indian Dance finished second, and Concealed Identity took third.

A Severna Park mortgage broker pleaded guilty Friday in a mortgage fraud case that left lenders with more than $940,000 in losses, robbed homeowners of at least $1.2 million in home equity and pushed 16 homes into foreclosure, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office said. Mary Anne Dean, 60, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Charles Donaldson, a loan officer described as her co-conspirator, pleaded guilty last week. The Maryland U.S. attorney's office said Donaldson, 57, recruited homeowners struggling with their mortgages for what he said would be a foreclosure rescue plan: They would sell their homes to investors, remain there as renters for a year or so and then buy the properties back after repairing their finances.

Michael Kenneth Williams is feeling lucky these days. The 44-year-old performer known to fans of HBO's "The Wire" as fearless stickup man Omar Little says there is nothing he's wanted more since the Baltimore-based drama ended than to "just continuously stay working" as an actor. And as the new TV season rolls out, evidence of his eminent employability is hard to miss. Williams returns to HBO tonight as a 1920s African-American community leader named Chalky White in the critically acclaimed drama series "Boardwalk Empire.