Columbia Democrats to hold forum on slots

The Columbia Democratic Club will hold a community forum on November's slot machine gambling referendum Wednesday night. The event will feature Del. Frank S. Turner, a Howard County Democrat who helped craft the proposal, and Aaron Meisner, the chairman of Stop Slots Maryland. Voters will decide in November whether to amend Maryland's constitution to allow 15,000 slot machines divided among five locations around the state. The forum, which is open to the public, is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at the Jeffers Hill Neighborhood Center, 6030 Tamar Drive.

Plastic bottles of caustic substance explode at park

Anne Arundel County and state fire investigators were seeking whoever placed several plastic bottles containing a caustic substance and a liquid, at least three of which exploded, in a park in Riva yesterday, said a Fire Department spokesman. No injuries were reported, said Lt. Stuart Peters, the spokesman. He described them as vapor-pressure devices but declined to be specific. Shortly before 5 p.m., a man and a child were walking in the park at Scottsborough Way and Westbury Drive when the man observed evidence that at least three plastic bottles had exploded, while two others remained sealed and intact. He called police, Peters said. He said firefighters cleaned up the remains of the detonated bottles and a remote-controlled robot was used to removed the remaining bottles. He said they were removed and rendered harmless.

Richard Irwin

Howard County man dies in single-vehicle accident

A Howard County man died early yesterday in a single-vehicle accident on St. John's Lane in Ellicott City, county police reported. Police said Matthew Pendleton Fuller, 42, of the 10300 block of Breconshire Drive in Ellicott City was driving a 1997 Jeep Cherokee on St. John's Lane between Brookwood Road and Misty Wood Lane shortly before 10 a.m. when he lost control of the vehicle, which struck an embankment and overturned. Police said Fuller, who was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the Jeep, sustained multiple injuries and was taken by ambulance to Howard County General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. There were no other occupants in the vehicle, police said. State police at Pikesville said that as of yesterday, 379 people had died this year on the state's roads, compared with 372 at the same time last year.

Baltimore officials are reporting a surge in recycling since the city launched its single-stream collection program at the beginning of the year. From January through August of this year, city residents - as well as government offices, public and private schools, and businesses - have recycled a total of almost 9,470 tons, compared with 7,488 tons during the same period in 2007, according to Baltimore's Department of Public Works. That marks a 26 percent increase.

To hasten hurricane aid, cargo restrictions eased

With trucks streaming south to deliver supplies and other emergency-relief equipment to the Gulf Coast region hit by Hurricane Gustav, Gov. Martin O'Malley has issued an executive order to temporarily ease restrictions on cargo weights. Vehicles transporting supplies on Maryland highways will be allowed to carry weights 15 percent above statutory limits.

Laura Smitherman

Harford expected to OK renovation of Booth home

The Harford County Council is expected to authorize extensive renovations to Tudor Hall, the 19th-century home of the nation's first presidential assassin, John Wilkes Booth, at its meeting tomorrow Tuesday evening. The county bought the 8-acre property with its two-story, four-bedroom cottage two years ago for $810,000. It dates to 1847, when actor Junius Brutus Booth built the home off Route 22, a few miles from downtown Bel Air, as a country retreat from Baltimore. The Harford County Center for the Arts has its temporary offices in the home, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. County officials are considering a theater museum there with space for acting troupes, and officials have appointed a nonprofit group to oversee theater-related events at the site. The council is also making final preparations for a public hearing Sept. 16 on the 800-page zoning code rewrite.

Mary Gail Hare