WBAL.com

Baltimore native and Georgetown junior DaJuan Summers is skipping his senior year and declaring himself eligible for the NBA draft.

Summers grew up in the Mt. Royal neighborhood in Baltimore and went to the McDonogh School in Baltimore County.

Georgetown coach John Thompson III says Monday that Summers is “in the process of choosing an agent.”

Summers averaged 13.6 points and 4.1 rebounds this season for the Hoyas.

Georgetown went 16-15 and lost in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.

The 6-foot-8, 236-pound Summers leaves Georgetown tied for 29th in team history with 1,129 points.

He averaged 11.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in his 101-game college career.

WBAL.com

There could be tough times ahead for drivers in downtown Baltimore.

The Baltimore Sun says the city is planning a major construction project that will cut the traffic capacity of Lombard street in half. Lombard is the primary westbound route through the downtown business district, and one of the busiest streets in the city.

The project will begin in May and The Sun says what could be the most disruptive downtown construction in recent years will continue for several months. It will involve resurfacing or replacing part of the Lombard Street roadway from President Street in east Baltimore to Martin Luther King Blvd. on the west side.

Baltimore Sun

University of Maryland economist Edward Montgomery has plenty of real-world experience, including a role in ending a Teamsters strike against UPS in 1997 while at the U.S. Department of Labor. He also has served as the No. 2 official at Labor with oversight of about 17,000 employees.

But nothing could prepare him for the huge job he assumed Monday. President Barack Obama charged the 53-year-old Howard County resident with marshaling federal aid to bring relief to reeling communities in Michigan and other auto-producing states.

And while the president did not directly say so, some auto industry experts predicted Montgomery would also wield influence in the boardrooms of General Motors and Chrysler. “I think he’s been given a very broad agenda that will not get narrower but only broader,” said Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

Obama announced the choice of Montgomery on a day when the president raised the possibility of a controlled bankruptcy for the two automakers, even as he sought to reassure consumers by pledging government backing of new-car warranties.

WBAL.com

A U.S. District Court jury ruled Monday that a Baltimore County SWAT team is not liable for the death of a Dundalk woman shot during a 2005 drug raid of her family’s row house.

Cheryl Noel, 44, was killed early Jan. 21, 2005, when a police team entered her house.

“They (the jury) believed the officers’ version of events, and believing the officers’ version led them to believe there had been no constitutional violation,” Assistant Baltimore County Attorney Paul Mayhew said.

But Noel’s family is “devastated” by the decision, according to their lawyer, Terrell Roberts III.

“There’s no margin for error here. It really should be examined closely whether a SWAT team ought to be used in cases like this,” the attorney said. “This was more of a military raid than it was a police execution of search warrant.”

Mayhew pointed out that two of the Noels – Charles, 55, and the couple’s son Matthew, 23 had violent criminal histories. The other two, Cheryl, and the other son, Jacob – had registered pistols.

Mayhew said police had gotten a warrant to search the Noel’s home after they found marijuana and cocaine residue in the trash, and served the warrant with everyone’s safety in mind.

DCRTV

Radio One stations take the top two positions in the Baltimore radio ratings, the monthly trends, age 12+. Urban WERQ is 1st, with adult urban WWIN-FM in 2nd. Clear Channel’s country WPOC places 3rd, CBS’s adult contemporary WLIF 4th, and Hearst news talker WBAL 5th. CBS’s hot adult WWMX is 6th, Mangione news talker WCBM 7th, Hearst rocker WIYY 8th, CBS classic hits WQSR 9th, and Clear Channel’s gospel WCAO 10th. CBS sports talker WJZ places 11th.