Baltimore Md

A woman who neighbors said tried to force drug dealers off her street corner was killed, along with five of her children, when fire tore through their home Wednesday. It was the second fire to strike the corner row house in two weeks, investigators said. The only survivor of Wednesday's fire was the woman's husband, who was critically injured. He suffered third-degree burns and jumped from a second-floor window, fire officials said.

"My son was murdered." That's how the mothers and the fathers begin their sentences. They've lost loved ones to the violent streets of Baltimore -- just weeks ago, or maybe years ago -- and they want to talk. Need to talk. They seek out a reporter. "Do you want to talk to me about my son?" They're wearing T-shirts with photos of their lost children on the front. They're holding pictures above their heads for all to see. They're clutching white angels to put on a tree in a room at the downtown courthouse.

"My son was murdered." That's how the mothers and the fathers begin their sentences. They've lost loved ones to the violent streets of Baltimore -- just weeks ago, or maybe years ago -- and they want to talk. Need to talk. They seek out a reporter. "Do you want to talk to me about my son?" They're wearing T-shirts with photos of their lost children on the front. They're holding pictures above their heads for all to see. They're clutching white angels to put on a tree in a room at the downtown courthouse.

Crisis pregnancy centers that don't offer abortions or birth-control referrals would have to post notices saying they exclude those options under legislation approved Monday night by the Baltimore City Council. The measure, which must still get a final ruling from the city's mayor, is thought to be the first of its kind in the nation. Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a Democrat who sponsored the bill, called the vote a victory for women's well-being. She cited a study by an advocacy group indicating that women have been misled at pregnancy centers that provide counseling, clothing and food for expectant mothers -- but not abortions.

The Rev. Ann Gordon stood in front of her United Methodist congregation last fall and announced that she was now he. Surgery and testosterone had transformed Ann into the Rev. Drew Phoenix -- still as liberal and laid-back as always, but now legally male. Most in the small congregation accepted their pastor's transition; they even threw him a renaming party, complete with birthday cake.

The painter, prepping to apply a couple of coats of linen white, didn't know who was about to move in. A neighbor had no clue either. Even the seller didn't realize who had bought his South Baltimore row house.

Two off-duty Baltimore police officers were shot to death at a suburban town house, and another law enforcement officer turned himself in a short time later, authorities said. The suspect and the victims knew one another, Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey said. But he said he did not know their exact relationship. The slain officers, a man and a woman, were both assigned to the midnight shift. Police did not cite a motive.

A man critically burned in an arson fire died Wednesday, a week after his wife and five children were killed in the blaze. Police say the fire was set in retaliation for the family's efforts to rid the neighborhood of drug dealing. A suspect has been arrested. Carnell Dawson Sr., 43, was burned over 80% of his body in the fire that gutted the family's row house in East Baltimore. Funeral services were held today for Angela Dawson, 36, and the five children, aged 9 to 14.

Darrell Brooks, accused of starting a fire that killed an anti-drug crusading mother and her five children, was on probation at the time of the arson, but officers never made contact with him, an official said. Besides arson, Brooks, 21, faces six counts of first-degree murder in the blaze that engulfed Angela Dawson's three-story Baltimore row house.

The newly installed chief executive of Baltimore schools announced major reforms for the financially strapped district, including as many as 1,000 layoffs. The layoffs, effective in January, will come from all areas of the system, with the last cuts being teachers, Bonnie S. Copeland said. As of June 30, the system had about $51 million in cumulative deficit. School officials said they were hoping to get the system in the black by June 30, 2005.

The 19th century laborers pooled their money to build the biscuit box of a church along Offutt Road in the southwest corner of Baltimore County. Atop a stone foundation they put four walls, eight windows, a peaked roof, three rows of pews, a pulpit for inspiration and a wood stove for warmth -- and called the thing done. It can hardly have been much to look at when it was completed in 1887, and it surely isn't now. But that could change if the Friends of the Cherry Hill African Union Methodist Protestant Church make good on their plans to turn it into a museum dedicated to local black history.

A man accused of kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter during a supervised visit in Boston last weekend was arrested in Baltimore and the girl was found safe, authorities said. A "concerned citizen" tipped off authorities that Clark Rockefeller was living in a Baltimore apartment and had a 26-foot catamaran sailboat docked at a nearby marina, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said. The arrest ended a suspenseful week that began in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood when police said Rockefeller attacked a social worker and fled during a supervised visit with his daughter.

Before they fell victim to violence, students who were slain or shot had poor school attendance, according to data released Thursday by the Baltimore school system and health department. Between 2003 and 2007, 115 youths in Baltimore were killed and 405 were victims of nonfatal shootings, health department figures show. The school system was able to retrieve attendance data going back to 1999 for 391 of the 520 victims. The health department pooled the data from the two agencies.

The painter, prepping to apply a couple of coats of linen white, didn't know who was about to move in. A neighbor had no clue either. Even the seller didn't realize who had bought his South Baltimore row house.

The Rev. Ann Gordon stood in front of her United Methodist congregation last fall and announced that she was now he. Surgery and testosterone had transformed Ann into the Rev. Drew Phoenix -- still as liberal and laid-back as always, but now legally male. Most in the small congregation accepted their pastor's transition; they even threw him a renaming party, complete with birthday cake.

The pope has appointed the head of the U.S. military archdiocese to succeed retiring Cardinal William Keeler as archbishop of Baltimore, the Vatican said Thursday. Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien will be taking over the nation's oldest Roman Catholic diocese. Keeler turned 76 in March, making him a year past the normal retirement age for bishops. O'Brien, 68, has extensive experience training priests. He served as head of his alma mater -- St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y.

After nearly a quarter-century of assessing admission fees, Baltimore's two largest art museums -- the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum -- will be free of charge as of Oct. 1. The new policy, modeled on that of several other museums nationwide, is aimed at boosting attendance, increasing visitor diversity and raising the city's profile as a tourist destination.

An underground fire of undetermined origin knocked out traffic lights and sent smoke and flames shooting from a manhole near Baltimore City Hall, officials said. No injuries were reported. The blaze damaged an electric cable that powers nearby traffic lights and knocked out electricity at City Hall, the courthouse and other city and state buildings downtown, officials said. Many state and city employees were told to stay home.

Large swaths of Baltimore could be declared emergency areas subject to heightened police enforcement -- including a lockdown of streets -- under a city councilman's proposal that aims to slow the city's climbing homicide count.

Immigration agents arrested 69 people Thursday in raids on a temporary-employment agency's offices and places where it provided illegal immigrants as workers, including the port of Baltimore, authorities said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents also seized a bank account containing more than $600,000 from the company, Jones Industrial Network.