Dundalk

Charges filed in killing of man found on highway

A 37-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a man whose body was found lying in a traffic lane of Pulaski Highway near White Marsh, Baltimore County police said yesterday. Gregorio Vergara, who lived in the same house in Dundalk as the victim, was arrested Monday evening and charged yesterday in the killing of Carlos Arizta, 28.

Home values stay up in city

Property values in Baltimore are rising faster than anywhere else in Maryland, according to state officials who were to mail more than 730,000 assessment notices today.

Dundalk man, 48, is killed in hit-and-run

Baltimore County police are asking for help identifying the vehicle that struck and killed a Dundalk man early yesterday. Randy Ervin, 48, was hit at Wise Avenue and Waterview Road in Dundalk, police said. Officers were called to the scene on a report of a man lying in the roadway at 1:38 a.m. An investigation revealed that a vehicle struck the man and continued along Wise Avenue toward Merritt Boulevard. Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to call 410-307-2020.

Why we love Bach

Crawling along the floor in front of a Steinway grand, Michael Lawrence aims his camera at two hands busily moving across the keys to articulate complex baroque counterpoint.

Fired Up

Sales of stoves fueled by wood, wood pellets and feed corn are soaring across Maryland as families try to control one aspect of a failing economy within reach: the cost of heating their homes.

Truck driver checkpoint set to begin in Dundalk

A checkpoint to examine truckers' identification is set to begin tomorrow for access to the Dundalk Marine Terminal, according to city transportation workers.

Dundalk man gets life in Dorchester murder

A Dundalk man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his first-degree murder conviction in a Dorchester County homicide case. Brian M. Cotter, 21, of the 2800 block of Page Drive, was sentenced in Dorchester County Circuit Court last week for the slaying of 18-year-old Raymond Zubrowski, who also lived in Dundalk. Zubrowski's remains were found in April 2007 in a shallow grave near a hunting club in Toddville. Cotter was convicted by a jury in September.

Cause of fatal Dundalk fire is under investigation

Baltimore County fire investigators continued yesterday to investigate the cause of a fire in a trailer home that killed a 73-year-old woman. Kay Jacobs died after an explosion in her trailer in the 3700 block of North Point Road in Dundalk on Saturday night, said Elise Armacost, a Baltimore County Fire Department spokeswoman. Neighbors told firefighters of hearing an explosion, and investigators believe that oxygen bottles in the home might have caused or contributed to the blast.

Laura Vozzella: For the upscale class of depressed patients

Sheppard Pratt seems to have found its target market: readers of The New Yorker.

Dundalk teen guilty in killing

A 17-year-old Dundalk boy pleaded guilty yesterday to first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a teenager whom he and his friends picked at random to beat up in January.

Court overturns driver's manslaughter conviction

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals has reversed the conviction of a Dundalk dump truck driver who had been convicted of manslaughter in the death of a 7-year-old boy. According to court documents filed yesterday, Kevin G. DiGennaro, 49, of Dundalk accidentally released a ton and a half of gravel onto state Route 136 near Churchville in Harford County on March 21, 2005. Soon after, 7-year-old Devon Sandmeier was killed when the vehicle in which he was a passenger skidded on the gravel and flipped. Police arrested DiGennaro under a Maryland law that requires drivers to remove spills and mark hazards they have caused. DiGennaro was convicted of vehicular manslaughter last year and sentenced to seven years in prison. The appeals court ruling hinged on the definition of the word "operate." The Harford County Circuit Court judge had decided that DiGennaro was "grossly negligent" in the "operation" of his vehicle. The appeals court, however, decided that leaving the gravel on the road did not constitute operating a vehicle in the legal definition of the term. While the court agreed that the truck driver had an obligation to remove the gravel, he was not guilty of vehicular manslaughter. Neither the appeals lawyer nor the state's lawyer was available for comment.

Man, 50, pleads guilty in thwarted attack on boy, 9

All Brian Jarrell initially saw were the hands.

A son looks to the future

Matthew Haarhoff left jail in Anne Arundel County and headed straight for a playground in Dundalk, where he executed a perfect back-flip dismount from a swing and chased his 10-year-old nephew around the jungle gym.

Bill to exempt some sites from smoking ban fails

A bill that would have created an "outdoor" exemption for Baltimore County bars and restaurants to the state ban on smoking in public places died in a House committee yesterday, effectively ending an effort that some health advocates feared could unravel statewide support for the newly imposed law.

Shooting victims identified

The two people gunned down in a road rage confrontation that began in West Baltimore and ended about a mile later in Bolton Hill were identified yesterday by police as a 16-year-old Dundalk girl and a 32-year-old Harford County man.

Haunted house fan has a flair for scares

In a former hair salon in a strip mall in Dundalk, a woman is screaming.

Baltimore County

Elementaries show modest, steady progress

Baltimore County's elementary school students overall scored slightly above state averages in this year's reading and math assessments and showed steady, if modest, gains countywide. But a significant gap remains between the county's lowest- and highest-performing schools, according to preliminary results of this year's statewide assessments released yesterday.