Woodlawn

Guy Thomas Germana Jr., a retired Woodlawn High School educator, died Sunday of a heart attack at his Millersville home. He was 81. Mr. Germana was born and raised in Atlantic City, N.J., where he graduated from public schools. He served in the Navy for two years in the early 1950s and earned a bachelor's degree from Bloomsburg State College in Bloomsburg, Pa., which he attended on a football scholarship. Mr. Germana, who taught biology for more than 20 years at Woodlawn High School, also taught the school's first honors program in entomology.

Three men were arrested in connection with a series of robberies and carjackings that occurred over a four-hour span Tuesday night across Baltimore County and the city, ending when the men crashed their vehicle near the Domino Sugars factory while fleeing police. Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III and Baltimore County Chief James W. Johnson, who announced the arrests at a joint news conference Wednesday afternoon, called the robberies a "mini-crime spree" and said police worked together to catch the suspects, who had open warrants and criminal records.

The National Basketball Association needs to make these contract talks work or do what the National Football League did years ago and hire and play temporary replacement players ("Will there be an NBA season of any kind?" Nov. 18). Maybe then these overpriced players and owners will come to agreeable terms and fully save the NBA season. Barry Apple, Woodlawn

A teenage girl was kidnapped by four men in Woodlawn, driven to an unfamiliar location and sexually assaulted on Nov. 1, police said. At about 3 p.m. that day, the 15-year-old was walking in the 1800 block of Woodlawn Drive when men in a teal, four-door sedan approached, according to a statement Wednesday from the Baltimore County Police Department. Two of the men were wearing ski masks, police said. One of the unmasked men began talking to the victim, displayed a handgun and then forced her into the car, according to police.

For the second time in a week, federal authorities are praising Baltimore County police for providing information that spawned a broader indictment against a violent criminal organization operating in Maryland and other states. The latest case, unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court, charges six people — none of them from Maryland — with taking part in a large-scale racketeering conspiracy to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana from Jamaica to New Jersey. Authorities say the organization was also responsible for the kidnapping and killing of a 50-year-old Woodlawn man in late 2009.

Woodlawn High School alumnus Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Johnathan York completed the nuclear power training unit course in Ballston Spa, N.Y. Catonsville resident Jeffrey Winns is his father.

A Montgomery County man was killed in an auto accident early Saturday morning on Interstate 70 in Woodlawn and a pedestrian was fatally stuck in Lansdowne Friday night, police said. Around 2:20 a.m., Michael Kenneth Nemes, 26, was driving a Chevrolet Suburban east on Interstate 70 toward the Interstate 695 interchange, according to a statement from the Maryland State Police Golden Ring barracks. Nemes' vehicle was cut off by a tractor-trailer that was trying to make a U-turn, police said.

First the governor wants to raise this and that, and next thing you know it's 15 cents more in tax for a gallon of gas. How about we tax our Maryland elected officials that extra 15 cents for every hour they spend going around in circles on just about everything that's important to the lives of people in Maryland? Of course, if such a tax were actually in place, maybe this state's elected representatives would stop cooling their heels and pass some sensible legislation. Barry Apple, Woodlawn

Responding to a call of shots fired, officers patrolled a Woodlawn neighborhood about 10 hours before a man was found dead in the yard of a single-family home, police said Thursday. Police received an emergency call to report gunshots on Woodmoor Road just before 9 p.m. Monday, said Elise Armacost, a spokeswoman for Baltimore County Police. Officers inspected the street but saw nothing amiss, she said. They also attempted to speak with the caller, but that person declined to talk to police.