Section: REG

Maryland Lottery

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00

Drawings for Saturday, Nov. 7:

]

Pick 3: Midday — 901, Evening — 332
Pick 4: Midday — 2585, Evening — 1355
Bonus Match 5 — 10 16 24 33 39 01
Multi Match — 07 11 27 40 46�� 08
] Wednesday's jackpot is an estimated $1,200,000.

Gift card scandal could sink Baltimore mayor

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00

BALTIMORE (AP) — The accusations that Mayor Sheila Dixon used holiday gift cards for the needy during personal shopping sprees may sound like a minor embarrassment at worst, a small-time case of a politician enjoying the perks of power. For Dixon, the stakes could not be higher.

Dixon, 55, will put her political future in the hands of a jury Monday, when her trial on theft charges begins. She's accused of asking wealthy developer pals...

Beltway sniper witnesses unable to forget

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00

ROCKVILLE - On a sunny, fall Thursday seven years ago, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, the "Beltway Snipers," shot and killed five people in Maryland and Washington. For many of the witnesses to Muhammad's crimes that day, his execution Tuesday would represent justice served. But the countdown to Muhammad's death has also forced those who witnessed his carnage to remember the horror and the fear of that day in October.

Region Digest

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00

Steel plant under investigation

BALTIMORE, Md. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a furnace fire at a Maryland steel plant.

A state spokesman said Friday officials are investigating the Sept. 29 fire at the Severstal steel plant at Sparrows Point and that the plant has been cited for multiple air pollution violations over the past year.

Authorities said the steel company faces unspecified civil penalties for...

House GOP sparks rally against health care bill

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00

WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Republicans, including Maryland Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Frederick, rallied against the House health care reform bill Thursday, speaking to a large crowd of supporters chanting "Kill the bill" and "U-S-A, U-S-A."

The House is expected to vote on the bill this weekend. According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis, it will cover 36 million people without insurance by 2019.

At the ra...

Hundreds of Va. watermen offer to sell back licenses

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - One-third of Virginia's watermen have offered to sell their licenses back to the state under a buyback program intended to ease pressure on the Chesapeake Bay crab.

The bids, however, far exceed the $6.7 million in federal disaster aid bankrolling the buyback, meaning only a fraction of the watermen who bid will likely be leaving the water.

The 665 bids received by a Nov. 1 deadline totaled $30.4 million, ...

Regional Digest

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00

7 hospitalized after school bus crash

ASPEN HILL - Seven people were taken to hospitals after a car collided with a Montgomery County school bus in the Aspen Hill area.

County fire department spokesman Capt. Oscar Garcia said the crash was reported about 3:30 p.m. yesterday at Layhill and Norbeck roads. Garcia says it was a front-end crash between a four-door Toyota Corolla and the bus.

Two people from the car have serious...

14 charged with illegally buying 77 M cigarettes

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) - Fourteen people have been charged with illegally purchasing 77 million contraband cigarettes from undercover agents in Virginia over the last year and smuggling them to New York.

Two of those charged also allegedly paid an undercover hit man to murder a man and his wife whom they believed had stolen from them.

The indictments handed up yesterday in federal court in Alexandria culminate a yearlong investiga...

Federal officer, 3 others injured in PG accident

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00

DISTRICT HEIGHTS (AP) - Prince George's County authorities said four people, including a Federal Protective Service officer, have been hospitalized with minor injuries following a multiple car accident this morning.

County fire department spokesman Mark Brady said a Federal Protective Service car and three other vehicles crashed early today at Route Four and Silver Hill Road near District Heights.

Brady said the federal law en...

Victims, relatives to witness sniper execution

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Some ache for revenge, others simply for justice. There is frustration, too, and defiance. For those wounded by the D.C. snipers and for the relatives of those killed, the emotions leading up to the execution of the mastermind behind the 2002 attacks vary as widely as those who found themselves in the cross hairs.

John Allen Muhammad, 48, is set to die by injection in a Virginia prison Nov. 10, seven years after he an...

Dixon 'excited' about upcoming trial

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon says she's "excited" about the prospect of putting theft charges behind her. Jury selection for Dixon's trial is set to begin Monday. She says she's looking forward to "getting it over with and moving on" with her life.

The Democratic mayor is accused of stealing gift cards donated for needy families. She has denied all wrongdoing. If convicted, she would be thr...

Competency evaluation delayed in Holocaust museum shooting

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials at a prison hospital housing the 89-year-old accused of fatally shooting a guard at Washington's Holocaust museum say chronic medical problems are complicating his psychiatric evaluation. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton granted an eight-week extension for the evaluation of James von Brunn. Walton said the warden at Butner Federal Medical Center in Butner, N.C., requested the extension because several chr...

GOP takes Virginia, NJ governor races

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year. Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell's victory in the Virginia governor's race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and moderate Republican Chris ...

DC sniper asks Supreme Court to block execution

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorneys for John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area that left 10 dead, asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to stop his execution. The 48-year-old Muhammad is scheduled to die by injection on Nov. 10 at a Virginia prison. In court papers, his attorneys say the execution should be put off while the court considers whether his trial lawyer was ineffective.

Muhammad was ...

Program will monitor doctors' hand-washing

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00

CLARKSVILLE, Md. (AP) — Be sure to wash up, Maryland doctors and nurses. You're being watched. State officials said Tuesday they're creating teams of staff members at hospitals around the state to secretly monitor their colleagues' hand-washing habits as part of a first-of-its-kind program. The monitors will contribute to a systemwide report on hand-washing, using $100,000 in federal stimulus money.

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown said...

NBA's West faces more weapons charges in PG County

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cleveland Cavaliers guard Delonte West was indicted Tuesday on additional weapons and traffic charges stemming from his Sept. 17 arrest for speeding on a motorcycle and carrying multiple weapons. The eight-count indictment sheds no new light on why West, 26, was riding a motorcycle on the Capital Beltway in Prince George's County, Md., at 10 p.m. with two loaded handguns and a loaded shotgun. Prosecutors on Wednesday a...

GOP takes Virginia, NJ governor races

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans surged to victory in governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday, wresting control from Democrats in both states as independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for the GOP. It was a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year. Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell's victory in the Virginia governor's race over...

Schaefer to attend statue dedication

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00

BALTIMORE (AP) — Former Baltimore mayor, governor and state comptroller William Donald Schaefer will celebrate his 88th birthday with the dedication of a statue in his honor at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Schaefer was a key figure in the revitalization of the once-neglected harbor, which is now Baltimore's top tourist destination.

The 8-foot statue depicts Schaefer as he looked in 1980, the middle of his tenure as mayor. He's wa...

Lottery opens soon for DC Christmas tree lighting

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Park Service will hold an online lottery this week to distribute tickets for the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in December. The lottery opens at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday and runs through 11:59 p.m. on Friday. Nearly 10,000 free tickets will be distributed, including 7,000 standing-room tickets for the first time.

The tree lighting is scheduled for Dec. 3 at 5 p.m. on the Ellipse near the White Hou...

2,000 kids knock on White House door

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) - President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama doled out presidential M&Ms and dried fruit mixes to more than 2,000 trick-or-treaters yesterday, marking their Halloween at a White House event partly aimed at honoring military families.

Dressed as superheroes, pirates, fairies and skeletons, the kids came in with their parents from Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C., lining up at the orange-lit W...

Anti-illegal-immigration group draws controversy

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00

WASHINGTON - Brad Botwin has been called an extremist and even a Nazi. Others say he is an asset to the discourse on illegal immigration in the state, and Botwin himself maintains he is merely a concerned citizen asking questions about how the government spends his taxes.

In just two and a half years, Help Save Maryland, the anti-illegal immigrant group Botwin founded, has grown from a small protest movement in Rockville to a statewide organiza...

Cult member withdraws guilty plea in child's death

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00

BALTIMORE (AP) — A former member of a religious cult backed out of a plea deal Friday and will face trial on charges that he and others starved a toddler to death because the boy refused to say "Amen" after meals. Marcus A. Cobbs, 22, had agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of accessory after the fact. But his attorney abruptly withdrew the plea after a dispute with prosecutors over the conditions of his release.

Cobbs wil...

Book: White House 'the American house next door'

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lady Bird Johnson said walking through the White House was like walking "through history." Hillary Clinton called the home "a repository of America's storied past." Michelle Obama has called it "awe inspiring." The authors of a new book have another name for the president's residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: "the American house next door."

"Americans have this sense ...

NAACP gets hanging dummies taken down

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00

FREDERICK (AP) - City Hall reluctantly ordered three scarecrow-like dummies removed from the branches of a city park tree yesterday after the NAACP said the dangling Halloween figures evoked offensive images of lynchings.

Republican Mayor Jeff Holtzinger, reversing a stand he had taken earlier in the day, said he had the dummies cut down because news reports had made the central Maryland city of 59,000 seem racially biased.

"...

Levy slaying suspect threatened witness

unknown@hometownannapolis.com (Unknown) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Prosecutors said yesterday that Salvadoran gang members and the man accused of killing former intern Chandra Levy threatened to murder a potential witness in the case.

The jailhouse informant remains unidentified and in protective custody. But in a court hearing yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Fernando Campoamor said accused killer Ingmar Guandique and his alleged gang associates made their warnings abundantly clea...