News 2008-05-13 Andanh.com

Now 10, charity looks ahead Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
OSI-Baltimore seeks funds to continue urban initiatives

It's taken on drug addiction and tackled school suspensions. It's helped dozens of social entrepreneurs start nonprofits in some of the dreariest corners of Baltimore and along the way forged strong bonds with the city's political, social and financial elite.

Gasoline price blues weigh on dealers, too Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Profits falling as credit card, other costs rise

Sajid Chaudhry sells gasoline for a living, so with pump prices approaching $4 a gallon, you'd think he'd be celebrating.

Worst not over, governor warns Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Record rain across Maryland brings power outages, closes schools, floods roads, opens a huge sinkhole

High winds and torrential rains that topped 6 inches in parts of Southern Maryland stranded motorists, toppled trees and cut electric service to tens of thousands of customers yesterday, while a widening sinkhole threatened to swallow a cluster of homes in Prince George's County.

China quake kills thousands Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Temblor devastates Sichuan province; eight schools collapse

A powerful earthquake rocked China from mountains to coast yesterday afternoon, knocking down schools, homes and factories, and killing nearly 10,000 people.

Public transit grows popular Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
With fuel prices climbing, many are leaving their cars at home

As gasoline prices climb toward $4 a gallon, more commuters in Maryland are leaving their cars and trucks at home and hopping a bus or train to work.

Inmate's actions called strange Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Fellow prisoners testify on behavior before killing on bus

Two inmates who have been housed in the same prison tier as twice-convicted killer Kevin G. Johns Jr. testified yesterday that he acted strangely in the months before authorities say he strangled another prisoner on a bus traveling from Hagerstown to a maximum-security prison in Baltimore.

Path to a cleaner harbor Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Trash collector grabs debris before it floats past tourists

Normally, rain flushes garbage down Baltimore's storm drains to float in stomach-churning blobs around the Inner Harbor's tourist attractions.

Coach gets 6½ years for gun at game Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Aaron McCown, a youth football coach embraced by his team despite a criminal past, was sentenced yesterday to 6Ã¯Â¿Â½ years in prison for using a loaded pistol to intimidate a referee.

Finding strength amid the despair Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
W e hate talking about it. We fear saying something awkward or intrusive. We think we'll only make it worse by acknowledging it, so we fall silent.

Stray bullet may have hit infant Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
One of several shots fired penetrates wall of rowhouse

City police were trying to determine whether a 2-month-old baby boy was shot in the head yesterday evening by a stray bullet fired from outside his O'Donnell Heights home.

Parking minders stop where they please Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
THE PROBLEM // Some Baltimore parking enforcement vehicles routinely park in a "no-stopping" area.

Widow's friends plead for help Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Newborn's father was fatally stabbed in Catonsville

Carlos Santay was smiling while paying a gas station attendant as he prepared to return home to drive his wife to the hospital to give birth to their first child.

Men suspected of series of robberies Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Baltimore police say they think three suspects who were arrested in Baltimore County last week were responsible for a series of city crimes, including an armed robbery on Schenley Road about 11:30 p.m. April 30.

Man admits trafficking heroin Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
A Florida man pleaded guilty yesterday to distributing heroin in a case that began with a February traffic stop on Interstate 95 and was the largest bust of its kind in state history, Maryland State Police said.

SBA training program to include Baltimore Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Baltimore is one of 11 cities that will take part in a Small Business Administration program that will provide management training and other programs to 20 inner-city businesses, city and federal leaders said yesterday.

Staking Mom to a meal Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Restaurant offers Mother's Day lunch at Anne Arundel Medical Center's neonatal unit

Briel Crumb, 18 months, enjoys some potato chips as her mother, Elizabeth, prepares to dig into a cheeseburger from Morton's The Steakhouse. The restaurant provided a Mother's Day lunch at the Anne Arundel Medical Center's neonatal unit.

Arundel officials spar on changes to charter Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Charter changes could alter board picks, spending

A showdown could be brewing between the Anne Arundel County Council and County Executive John R. Leopold over which branch of government can exercise more control over expenditures and a key board that reviews county building projects and growth plans.

Armed with the literary canon, St. John's College grads face world Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Armed with the literary canon, St. John's graduates face world

The commencement ceremony yesterday at St. John's College in Annapolis was an apt display of a school that prides itself on individuality and freedom through learning.

Burtis House battle Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Museum advocates, preservationists debate use for old building

Museum advocates, preservationists debate use for old building

Cost of thousands of Md. students being suspended each year Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Thousands of Md. students are suspended each year, often those who most need to be in class

Tens of thousands of students are being suspended in Maryland for relatively minor infractions each year, the result of zero-tolerance discipline policies that critics say are harming some of the most vulnerable children.

Engineering students race solar-powered toy cars Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Engineering students race solar-powered toy cars

What do you get when you give some engineering students small solar panels and little electric motors, and you tell them to make something that goes fast?

Mixed results for black students in report Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Students fare better academically, but punished more often

Black students in Anne Arundel County schools are doing better in reading, English and math, but they still get punished more frequently and get placed into special education at a higher rate than their majority peers, according to school officials.

To curtail crime, new tack is proposed Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Interim Annapolis police chief to pursue 'targeted enforcement'

Homicides in Annapolis continue at a record pace despite an influx of state and federal resources, and the city's interim police chief said strategic changes are in the works to stem the tide.

Anne Arundel Education Notes Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Anne Arundel Datebook Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Hampton mansion gets federal grant Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
The Hampton National Historic Site in Towson has received a $195,000 matching grant as part of the National Park Service's Centennial Challenge.

Child-rearing topic of talk Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore will host a talk on being a parent at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Rosenbloom Owings Mills Center, 3506 Gwynnbrook Ave.

BGE seeks cause of electrical fire Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
About 175 senior and disabled residents of a Towson apartment complex remained displaced yesterday as utility crews worked to repair an underground electrical cable.

3 students named scholarship winners Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
The county school system has awarded scholarships to three high school seniors in a program that helps graduates to pursue careers in education.

Police, firefighters to honor their dead Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Separate memorial ceremonies have been planned in Towson to honor county police officers and firefighters who have died in the line of duty.

Public seminars planned on zoning Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
The county Office of Planning will hold free informational seminars for residents interested in learning how to participate in development and zoning decisions in their communities.

Birth, death collide on Mother's Day Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Woman delivers first child hours after husband is fatally stabbed in robbery

Claudia Sales spent Mother's Day teetering between grief and joy. On the same day that she welcomed her first child into the world, she learned that her husband and her tiny son's father was dead.

Inmates housed near Johns testify in murder trial Mon, 12 May 2008 20:18:00 -0400
Men say he acted strangely before other prisoner was strangled

Two inmates who have been housed in the same prison tier as twice-convicted killer Kevin G. Johns Jr. testified Monday that he acted strangely in the months before authorities say he strangled another prisoner on a bus traveling from Hagerstown to a maximum-security prison in Baltimore.The two men, who are both serving time for murder convictions, told the judge hearing the case that Johns covered the walls of his cell with writing and drawings, often could be heard talking to himself and sometimes refused to eat prison food or candy from his friends for fear that it was poisoned.Asked whether Johns had a cellmate during the times that he was heard babbling for up to two days straight, inmate Samuel Small laughed."No, he ain't got no cellmate," Small testified. "Unless that little green man he sees is his cellmate."The inmates testified on the fourth day of Johns' capital murder trial as defense attorneys opened their part of the case, focusing on evidence regarding Johns' mental health and criminal responsibility.Johns, 25, who is serving a 35-year sentence and life without the possibility of parole for two separate murder convictions, has pleaded not guilty and not criminally responsible by reason of insanity in the death of Philip E. Parker Jr. The 20-year-old inmate was strangled Feb. 2, 2005 on a prison bus as it rumbled through the pre-dawn darkness from Hagerstown to Baltimore's Supermax prison.The legal standard for determining a defendant's criminal responsibility revolves around his ability to "appreciate the criminality of his conduct" or "conform his conduct to the requirements of the law." In Johns' case, defense attorneys must generally prove by a preponderance of the evidence -- that is, it is more likely than not -- that a mental defect or mental disorder prevents him from controlling his behavior or understanding that his actions are criminal. In his opening statement last week, defense attorney Harry J. Trainor Jr. told the judge that Johns has been institutionalized for most of his life and was first prescribed anti-psychotic medications at the age of 8. The defense attorney said his client has suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome, lead paint poisoning and serious child abuse and has variously been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, a dissociative disorder and bipolar disorder.Baltimore County prosecutor S. Ann Brobst countered in her opening statement that although the defendant has a long history of mental health problems, Johns knew what he was doing when he strangled his fellow inmate aboard the prison bus and hoped that his standing within the state's Division of Correction would improve with the third killing.Doctors from the state's maximum-security, forensic psychiatric hospital found him to be criminally responsible.Seeking to rebut those conclusions, Johns' attorneys called to the witness stand Monday two Supermax inmates who have been housed near him, a nurse from a residential treatment center where he spent several years as a teenager and a social worker who helped his lawyers prepare for the sentencing hearing in his last murder case when he was convicted of strangling his cellmate at a Hagerstown prison.The defense team also made arrangements for their client to be examined by a forensic psychiatrist, a clinical psychologist and a behavioral neurologist. The doctors are expected to testify this week.Reflecting the security concerns that have affected most every aspect of Johns' case, the neurologist sought permission from the warden of Supermax to have the defendant uncuffed for 15 minutes to test his fine-motor movements but requested that correctional officers be brought into the room for that portion of the exam, according to court records.Johns is generally brought to and from the Harford County courthouse, where the case is being tried, in a prison vehicle by himself. In court, he has remained heavily restrained -- his ankles shackled and his wrists cuffed tightly to a thick chain locked around his waist -- and guarded by an unarmed DOC security team and a number of sheriff's deputies with guns.Deputies checked the bags Monday of most witnesses and everyone sitting in the gallery of the courtroom and used hand-held metal detectors at the courtroom door, even though the people and their belongings had been screened by courthouse security at the building's entrance.Inmates testifying in the case also remain shackled and handcuffed in the courtroom.One prisoner, Robert L. McFarlin testified that he sometimes saw Johns "in a deep conversation" in an empty cell about a dozen times during the three months or so when they were housed on the same tier at Supermax and that Johns once told him that he had been talking to the devil.Small, who slept in cell B20 when Johns was assigned to cell B21 at Supermax, testified that he could sometimes hear Johns talking nonstop for two days straight through the thick concrete wall that divided their cells."It would drive me crazy," he testified. Later, he added, "No disrespect, but he was zapped out."Cindy Rowe, a social worker who researched Johns' personal history for the defense attorneys handling his last murder case, testified that the defendant was often distracted and fidgety during her meetings with him and that his mental health seemed to deteriorate as the Feb. 1, 2005 sentencing hearing approached."One thing Kevin had made very clear to me ... was that the main thing he wanted was to get treatment," she testified. When the judge sentencing Johns in Washington County for the death of his cellmate explained that he was not going to specifically order psychiatric treatment, Johns "let out this ... guttural sound," Rowe said. "It was a very odd sound. That concerned me."But during cross examination, she acknowledged that it might have been to Johns' advantage to portray himself as "crazy" if he was trying to persuade the social worker that he needed treatment.At the sentencing hearing on Feb. 1, in 2005, Parker testified for Johns, who told the judge that he would likely kill again if he didn't get the treatment he needed. jennifer.mcmenamin@baltsun.com

Mom's the word Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Local mothers relish a day filled with tradition and family

Local mothers relish a day filled with tradition and family

Churchville Elementary worker named School Nurse of Year Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Churchville Elementary worker is named School Nurse of Year

About 55 children visit Susan Brock in the health suite at Churchville Elementary School each day.

Construction on Hatem Bridge will continue for 3 years Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Construction on the Hatem Bridge will continue for 3 years

The $56 million reconstruction of the Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge across the Susquehanna River, which begins June 9, will disrupt traffic along the Route 40 corridor during the next three years.

Newcomer joins City Council Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Teacher voted onto Havre de Grace panel; 2 veterans return

Havre de Grace voters returned two experienced politicians to the City Council and selected a newcomer, all to serve two-year terms.

Asbury Methodist Episcopal added to Harford's historic list Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Asbury Methodist Episcopal is added to Harford's historic list

The most recent addition to the list of Harford County landmarks won its place for its simplicity, history and role in the life of its community.

Funds sought for study of central water system Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
County and municipal leaders are moving forward with a partnership that would establish one regional water system and consolidate the myriad facilities that now supply Harford's homes and businesses.

State not feeling sting of missing bees Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
On the Farm -- Ted Shelsby

Those hard-working honeybees so vital to the success of Maryland's $80 million-a-year fruit and vegetable industry are faring better here than in other parts of the country.

Harford County Datebook Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

News Digest Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Recreation Notes Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Building history restored; future is still uncertain Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Slave quarters completed, but educational mission just beginning

Slave quarters completed, but educational mission just beginning

Groups trying to meet cost of fuel Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Howard nonprofits are scrambling after county discount ends

Several Howard County nonprofit groups are banding together to seek ways to cope with rising costs for fuel and vehicle maintenance since the county government stopped providing discounted services for many agencies.

Future Columbia transit previewed for residents Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Consultants gave residents a glimpse last week of a Columbia no longer so dependent on cars -- a place where walking, biking and taking a train or bus were all very real options for getting around.

Budget debate, tax rate hearing re-ignite political wars in county Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
The political wars over Howard County tax policy pop up each spring, as evidenced by a County Council budget debate and the four people who came to the annual constant-yield tax rate hearing before the council's May legislative meeting.

Hot air balloons in Preakness festival Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
For the second year in a row, Turf Valley Resort is hosting a hot air balloon festival and other activities in the days leading up to the Preakness, the second leg of thoroughbred horse racing's Triple Crown.

Livestrong event Tuesday for cancer awareness Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Howard County will host one of more than 500 Livestrong Day events nationwide Tuesday at Lake Kittamaqundi in Columbia.

Keep up extraordinary work, Glinda moms of the world Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Janet's World

Mothers get a lot of bad press these days. It's disappointing that we typically only read stories about the ones who are abandoning, neglecting or otherwise harming their children, changing their identities so they can rip off a series of unsuspecting senior citizens or fleecing company accounts after years of loyal service.

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