WEEK IN REVIEW

The Baltimore Sun

Anne Arundel

Officer settles criminal charge

A second Anne Arundel County police officer in a week has settled a criminal charge against him stemming from claims of violence at his home.

Richard Mauk, 37, of Davidsonville is at least the third county police officer to face such allegations in little more than a year.

A fourth is scheduled to be tried next month on charges of misconduct after he was accused of taking a photo of himself groping a teenage girl during a traffic stop and threatening to jail her for drunken driving if she failed to cooperate.

Three of the four men remain on the force, Sgt. David Feerrar, a department spokesman, said yesterday. He would not discuss any of the cases, saying they are personnel matters and not public.

"Whenever you have officers charged criminally, it reflects on all of us," he said.

Anne Arundel section, Friday

Annapolis

Limit proposed on aid to nonprofits

Already grappling with reduced grant funding from Anne Arundel County, Annapolis-based nonprofit groups could be confronting a second round of cuts.

Alderwoman Julie Stankivic has proposed a bill to prohibit organizations from requesting federal and city grant money in the same year.

"We have limited funding available, and it makes no sense that the same entity gets [federal] funds as well as city funds, when there are so many worthy causes that go unfunded," said Stankivic, an independent from Ward 6. "If we want to have the greatest impact for the greatest number, we have to prioritize the funds."

The city allocated $499,000 from its fiscal 2008 budget to fund 23 nonprofit groups, an increase from the previous year. This fiscal year, the city received about $329,000 in Community Development Block Grants, which are administered through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

About $50,000 in federal block grants are split among eight organizations - four of which also receive city funding. Under the proposed legislation, introduced Monday evening, the four projects would lose $185,000 in city funding.

Anne Arundel section, Wednesday

Annapolis

Snowden's son faces drug counts

The son of the civil rights director for the Maryland attorney general's office is facing drug charges after police searched the home he shares with his father during a drug sweep, police said.

Police charged Kojo Lummuba Malik Snowden, 22, son of Carl O. Snowden, with possession and intent to distribute marijuana last week as part of an undercover investigation that included more than 30 drug buys throughout the city. Details of those charges, which police said resulted from a three-month investigation of drug dealing in the city, were sealed.

In May, an informant claimed that drugs were stashed in Kojo Snowden's vehicle, according to records. Officials searched the car and the Snowden home with Kojo Snowden's consent and found no drugs, police said.

Maryland section, Thursday

Annapolis

Anxiety, cost grow along with sinkhole

Sherman Offer was taking his daily walk around his Annapolis apartment building one day when the pavement opened and swallowed his leg.

The hole that Offer, 66, encountered 2 1/2 years ago was about the size of a basketball. It has since grown into a giant sinkhole, slowly eating nearly 40 parking spaces at the Glenwood high-rise for senior citizens - an inconvenience for residents, an eyesore for the community and a source of frustration for the federally funded agency that manages the building.

Eric Brown, executive director of the Annapolis Housing Authority, said it would cost nearly $1.9 million to plug the hole, which is 18 feet wide and 5 feet deep, and it's not likely to happen anytime soon.

Brown said the hole was formed by a corroded water pipe that runs under the parking lot.

Though he said the hole is not threatening the structural integrity of the 154-unit building, the agency over the past two years has diverted nearly $850,000 in HUD funds for engineering, patches and a fence.

Maryland section, Sunday

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