So says DCRTV:

DCRTV hears reliable rumblings that Baltimore could soon see another sports talker on the AM radio dial. In addition to WJFK-AM (1300) and WNST (1570 AM)

Baltimore Sun

A Howard County man pleaded guilty yesterday to attempted second-degree murder in the stabbing of a teenager after a drug deal went sour outside a Columbia mall this year.

Bernardo Leconte, 18, of Columbia, could face 30 years in prison. However, prosecutors recommended a sentence of 20 years, with all but 15 suspended. State sentencing guidelines suggest a sentence of five to 12 years.

The near-fatal stabbing, which occurred on a weekday afternoon when the mall bustled with shoppers, shocked Columbia residents unaccustomed to violent crime in the Town Center. The crime prompted the mall operator, General Growth Properties, to launch a review of security measures.

WJZ

The family of a 22-year-old Montgomery County honor student, and Baltimore police want to know how he ended up dying in the waters of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Richard Sher reports around 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, Ankush Gupta, and several friends, stopped at Harbor Place on their way home from New York. They were tired. Some stayed in the car.

Ankush and at least two friends went to rest on a bench outside the Light Street Pavilion.

Ankush said he was taking a walk. Minutes later, according to Ankush’s sister Rajni, “His friends heard a scream and a splash and saw a white guy running very fast.”

“They went to look in the water and saw nothing and called police. Baltimore City Fire Department divers pulled Ankush’s body from the Inner Harbor about two hours later. This is being investigated as a suspicious death,” said Police Detective Nicole Monroe.

WBAL.com

Maryland general fund revenues were $73.5 million below forecasts for fiscal year 2008, according to final numbers released by the comptroller’s office on Thursday.

Individual income taxes, the sales tax and the tobacco tax were $140 million short of expectations for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

“My office is currently hard at work preparing next year’s revenue estimates, but it is safe to say that in the current economic climate, we’re in for more bad news,” Comptroller Peter Franchot said in a statement.

Franchot’s statement also said that “whatever happens in November, we will still have a significant budgetary shortfall. Some have estimated it to be as much as $1 billion.”

November sees Maryland voters decide on a constitutional amendment which would allow legal slot machines, a move Franchot has opposed. In his statement, the Comptroller said that slots “won’t solve our fiscal problems; in fact they will only make them worse.”

Individual income tax revenues increased 3.9 percent to $6.9 billion, $46.3 million below expectations.

Sales tax collections went up 7.5 percent to $3.7 billion, but they were $76.5 million less than the forecast. If the sales tax rate had not been increased from 5 to 6 percent in November’s special session, receipts would have been flat – the worst performance since 1991, the report said.

Corporate income tax collections dropped 6.5 percent to $551.7 million – $7.1 million lower than expected. However, David Roose, the state’s director of the Bureau of Revenue Estimates, wrote that the “good news is that the bad news may be in the past” for the corporate income tax revenue.

That’s because estimated corporate income tax payments reflecting current activity went up 10.8 percent. Estimated payments for tax year 2008 activity alone grew 32.3 percent, though boosted in part by the rate increase from 7 to 8.25 percent during the special session.

“The decline in net collections was a result of substantial growth in corporate income tax refunds, which largely reflect prior years’ activity,” Roose wrote.

WJZ

In just two weeks, a deer hunt will be staged around the Loch Raven Reservoir.

It’s the first time hunters have been allowed in the area, and as Jessica Kartalija reports, it’s stirring up plenty of controversy.

Some two million Marylanders use water from the Loch Raven Reservoir. The land around the water is a popular place for deer.

“Department of Natural Resources says its usually good to have anywhere between 10 and 20 deer per square mile, but here at Loch Raven there are somewhere between 40 and 90 deer who are eating up all the vegetation,” said a spokesperson.

Which leads to erosion and sediment buildup reducing the reservoir’s capacity.

Now, hunters will be allowed in to help control the deer population.

[...]

Deer Solutions Maryland believes darts delivering contraceptives will better control the deer population.

“We have looked at every alternative. There are no contraceptives approved by the FDA, everything is experimental,” said Kurt Lee Kocher.