Latest Maryland and Delaware news, sports, business and entertainment

SUSPECT DIES-BALTIMORE-THE LATEST

Latest on Baltimore police-custody death: Police meet family

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts has met with members of Freddie Gray’s family. The day Gray died, Batts said at a City Hall news conference that the family had declined at that point to interact with police. He promised the department would try again during the week to share information with them.

CAR WRECK

Driver enters plea in fatal DC crash

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Maryland man has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and driving under the influence of PCP after a crash in downtown Washington that killed a pedestrian.

Thirty-three-year-old James Chandler Jr. of Silver Spring entered an Alford plea Thursday in Superior Court in Washington. Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but agrees that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.

Prosecutors say on Feb. 23 during rush hour, Chandler was speeding on H Street NW when his SUV hit a curb, mounted the sidewalk and hit a retaining wall.

Authorities say the SUV rolled several times and struck 27-seven-year-old Philip Snodgrass of Baldwin, Maryland, who was walking on the sidewalk. Snodgrass died at a hospital.

Chandler faces a maximum of 30 years in prison at sentencing July 17.

SHA HEAD RESIGNS

Head of State Highway Administration resigns

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The head of the State Highway Administration has resigned to spend more time with her family.

Forty-one-year-old Melinda Peters said Thursday she was leaving the job. She tells The Baltimore Sun that it’s time to make her personal life her first priority.

Peters, the first woman administrator of the SHA, was appointed to the post in 2011 by Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat. She tells the Sun that her resignation wasn’t related the continuing transition under Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who took office in January.

Deputy Administrator Doug Simmons will be the top official at the agency until a successor for Peters in named.

PETRAEUS-SENTENCING

Petraeus sentenced to 2 years’ probation for military leak

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Former CIA Director David Petraeus, whose career was destroyed by an extramarital affair with his biographer, has been sentenced to two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine for giving her classified material while she was working on the book.

Thursday’s sentencing came two months after Petraeus agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material.

The plea agreement carried a possible sentence of up to a year in prison. In court papers, prosecutors recommended two years of probation and a $40,000 fine. But the judge was not bound by that.

The agreement was filed in federal court in Charlotte, where Paula Broadwell, the general’s biographer and former lover, lives with her husband and children.

JOHN HINCKLEY

Government wants strict conditions for man who shot Reagan

WASHINGTON (AP) — Government lawyers are arguing that if the man who shot President Ronald Reagan is allowed to leave a mental hospital for good, he should have to live under strict conditions. Prosecutors want John Hinckley Jr. to wear an ankle monitoring device and drive a car with a GPS tracking device.

Lawyers were discussing those and other potential conditions Thursday during the second day of a multi-day hearing on whether Hinckley should be allowed to live full-time at his mother’s Virginia home. Hinckley’s attorney Barry Levine says his client is ready and that the mental illness that drove Hinckley to shoot Reagan has been in remission for more than two decades.

But Levine and prosecutors disagree about the conditions he should have to live under if allowed to move to Virginia.

SHAKESPEARE UNREQUIRED

Report finds few colleges have a Shakespeare requirement

NEW YORK (AP) — As Shakespeare would say, “We have seen better days.”

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni has found that less than 8 percent of the nation’s top universities require English majors to take a course focused on Shakespeare.

The study, “The Unkindest Cut: Shakespeare in Exile 2015 ,” found that only four of the nation’s 52 highest-ranked universities and colleges by U.S. News & World Report have a Shakespeare requirement.

The schools that still ask English majors to study the Bard are Harvard University, the University of California-Berkeley, Wellesley College and the U.S. Naval Academy.

The report says: “The Bard, who is the birthright of the English speaking world, has no seat of honor.”

TUBERCULOSIS-CATONSVILLE

Tuberculosis case at Baltimore County high school probed

CATONSVILLE, Md. (AP) — Baltimore County health officials are investigating after a case of tuberculosis was confirmed in the Catonsville High School community.

Health officials announced Thursday that the patient is being treated and poses no risk to the community.

Officials say they have identified a small number of people who had significant contact with the patient and need to be tested. They say the Department of Health will follow up with anyone else who needs testing and the process is on-going.

Tuberculosis is a disease caused by bacteria that usually affect the lungs. It is spread from person to person through the air, but officials say a person needs to be in close contact for an extended period to become infected.

COMPUTER HACKING RING

Defendant in computer hacking case gets 18 months in prison

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A federal judge in Delaware has sentenced a Canadian man to 18 months in prison for his role in an international hacking ring that gained access to an Army computer network while targeting computer giant Microsoft and several video game developers.

Twenty-two-year-old David Pokora of Ontario was sentenced Thursday. Prosecutors say he is the first foreign hacker to be sentenced after being convicted in the United States of computer theft of trade secrets from American companies.

Pokora pleaded guilty last fall to conspiracy to commit computer fraud and copyright infringement. Three U.S. residents also have pleaded guilty in the case and await sentencing.

Prosecutors say the hackers once gained access to an Army computer system through hacking of a game company working on flight-simulation software to train Apache helicopter pilots.

SCHOOL TAXES

Delaware House approves Sussex Tech school tax hike

DOVER, Del. (AP) — House lawmakers have passed a bill allowing the Sussex Technical school district to temporarily raise tax rates on residents.

The legislation approved Thursday and sent to the Senate is aimed at shoring up the finances of Sussex Technical High School, which has seen enrollment increase sharply in recent years.

Republican House Minority Leader Danny Short says the district has been spending $1 million in cash reserves annually to offset growth-related expenses

The current tax rate is capped at 23.5 cents per $100 of property value. The legislation allows the rate to be increased to 29 cents for 2016 and 30 cents for 2017.

The bill also requires the high school, which currently has about 1,550 students, to reduce enrollment to no more than 1,250 students by the 2017 school year.