WJZ

Seven-year-old Steven Richards was killed in his own yard in early April. A tree branch broke and fell on his head. While struggling with the unexpected loss, someone has stolen money from the family.

[...]

As if losing a child unexpectedly isn’t tough enough, Steven died while playing with his siblings in their yard. Three weeks later, the financial burden of this tragedy is getting worse.

“I never thought to have life insurance on my kids,” said mother Jenn Titchenell.

Money for a funeral was something this family just didn’t have. They asked the community for help, by putting out 10 collection cans in Glen Bernie.

‘They’ll ask, ‘who’s this? And what happened?’ And I’ll tell them, ‘it’s my nephew and he was killed. And I’m helping my sister bury her little boy,’” said Kathy Clark, Steven’s aunt.

The next blow came last week. Two of the cans were stolen.

“Somebody probably needed it more than he needed it. I don’t see how,” said Titchenell.

Every few days the family would come to each of the 10 spots to collect the money out of the cans. But when they came to Pizza Express, the can wasn’t there. Workers say they didn’t see anything.

The security camera wasn’t rolling last Monday, when they think the theft happened.

“You’re going through so much tragedy. Three months before, we lost my nephew. It seems that more and more is just building up,” said Titchenell.

Steven’s aunt has tied down the can at her store. The family still needs $2,000 by May 10. Every little bit helps pay off the bills.

“I hope you needed it more than my son needs it. What can you say to people who are like that? I’ll pray for you,” said Titchenell.

Titchenell is praying that the remaining eight cans will collect enough. There’s little hope they’ll see the stolen donations again.

Steven’s dad has taken a second job and is considering taking on a third to cover the bills.

WTOP

The former mental patient accused of stalking Uma Thurman appeared at her front door repeatedly at odd hours, and he left her a frightening letter, according to testimony Tuesday by two of the actress’ employees.

Thurman’s housekeeper Dorota Janas testified on the second day of Jack Jordan’s trial that he rang the bell at the actress’ Greenwich Village town house at least twice a day for at least 10 days last summer.

Jordan, 37, is on trial in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court charged with stalking and aggravated harassment. He was arrested in October 2007 after following and trying to contact Thurman from early 2005 until about a month before his arrest. He faces up to a year in jail if convicted.

His lawyer, George Vomvolakis, says Jordan is a former mental patient who has been diagnosed as schizophrenic and bipolar and should be in psychiatric treatment, not in jail.

Janas, testifying through a Polish interpreter, said she saw Jordan sitting on the front stoop a few days before another employee called police. Some time later, she retrieved a letter Jordan had left for Thurman on the stoop.

Samara Koffler, a film producer who was Thurman’s former personal assistant, testified that she returned from the Bahamas in August 2007 and saw the letter Janas had found. She read part of it in court.

“Dear Uma,” Koffler read, “I love you completely. Unless rousted, I’ll spend the night in front of (Thurman’s address).”

At another point, she read: “Ask your assistant to let me wait inside until you return. I feel afraid that if I see you with another man I’ll kill myself.”

Koffler said she told Thurman about the letter and called 911 and told police “an unstable man” was hanging around the house.

[...]

Her mother, Birgitte “Nena” Thurman, testified that she believed Jordan “was someone who would benefit from medical attention.” She said the first time she spoke to the defendant was in 2005 when he called her home in Woodstock, N.Y., and told her that he “and my daughter had a predestination to be together.” She said he asked her to relay that message.

“I tried to assure him in no uncertain terms that this was just a fantasy and he was projecting,” Thurman said, and that her daughter had no interest in him.

Related:
Pretrial hearing for MD man accused of stalking actress

WJZ

Anne Arundel County police are trying to determine who owns the 18 chickens found in a homeowner’s yard in Glen Burnie.

The woman living in the 1600 block of Lorimer Road told police last week the chickens did not belong to her and she wanted them removed from her year.

Police say they spoke with neighbors but could not find the owner of the birds.

If they aren’t claimed by Thursday, the chickens will be moved from the county police animal control unit to Cheryl’s Rescue Ranch in Harwood, which has offered to take them.

Baltimore Sun

The last Little Tavern restaurant — part of a local chain that served bags of small burgers for more than 70 years — permanently closed this afternoon, the owner said.

The restaurants, known for their green-and-white storybook cottage buildings and the slogan, “buy ‘em by the bag,” were one of the area’s first fast-food chains, opening in Baltimore in 1930.

Little Tavern was founded in Louisville, Ky., in 1926 by entrepreneur Harry Duncan, but the chain soon moved to this area. In the 1950s, more than 40 Little Taverns operated in the Baltimore-Washington area. The restaurants closed one by one until only a location on Holabird Avenue in the southeast corner of the city remained open.

The owner of the last Little Tavern, Al Roy of Abingdon, said today that his declining health caused him to abruptly shut down the restaurant at 1 p.m. today.

The Holabird Avenue location, which opened in 1983, had been open 24 hours a day, offering fried eggs and hash browns, french fries, onion rings, and other snacks. The famous hamburgers were made from fresh ground beef, sprinkled with finely chopped onions and served on a small bun from H&S Bakery. The restaurant was profiled in The Sun on Sunday.

Roy, 63, said that he hoped new Little Taverns could open through a licensing agreement.

“I’m going out of the picture altogether, but [some associates] are fighting to keep the name going,” he said.

Related:
Another Sun article
Dan Rodricks
Baltimore Ghosts

WJZ

Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler will release a report Tuesday from a task force that examined voting irregularities in 2006.

Gansler is holding a news conference in Upper Marlboro in the morning and then another one in Baltimore.

The report will include recommendations that the task force believes can be implemented before the November general election.

A second report will be issued later with more long-term solutions.

In the Maryland 2006 primary, glitches with electronic voting and human errors caused delays.