John Brown

Six Analog Devices employees were transported to area hospitals following a chemical exposure that was controlled quickly thanks to the company's emergency management plan. Read More

Washington County middle-school students captured slices of local history in a series of minifilms that were screened Wednesday at the Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick , Md. Their films explored aspects of Antietam National Battlefield and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park. One film team looked at Civil War photography; another told a story of C&O Canal lockkeepers. Read More

The nearly six-month process to appoint a permanent police chief is entering a new phase where the outside consultants hired to aid in the search will review the pool of 42 applicants who applied for the job.

Those applicants include Interim Police Chief Dan Fish and his immediate subordinate, Lt. Dave Sears, whose recent demotion generated controversy.

City Manager John Brown declined to release the identities of any other applicants for the $150,000 to $180,000 position, citing their expectation of privacy.

The consultants will now interview the strongest applicants and submit a shorter list of candidates to be interviewed by a panel of police chiefs, said Brown.

Once the police chief panel recommends semifinalists, another panel — comprised of city management staff, Police Officer Association leadership, community representatives and possibly other police chiefs — will interview them.

"I expect two or three finalists will be referred to me (from this panel), and after interviewing them and conducting detailed background checks, we should be ready to offer someone the position," Brown said, adding that he plans to announce the new hire by July 1.

Which police chiefs will be consulted during the process, the number of semifinalists interviewed, and which community members will sit on the panel has not been decided yet, said Brown.

Fish and Sears both said that they are looking forward to the final selection.

"I'm confident that the process will produce the best person for the job," said Fish, who has been running the department on an interim basis for about three years. Read More

After four years of painful cost-cutting, Petaluma's budget remains tight, but new version aims to pay the bills in the coming year without layoffs or requiring concessions from employees.

The city has cut spending from $43.2 million in 2007-08 to a proposed $32.5 million for the fiscal year beginning in July. Read More

In the past few weeks, the public has been inundated with the report of American Front Nazis in St. Cloud, Fla., planning terrorist attacks on local government and leftist groups they saw as threats; the American Front Nazis even planned on infiltrating and attacking an anti-racist skinhead group in Melbourne and Orlando, Fla. To many who read or saw the story unfold, the news of Nazis attacking an anti-racist skinhead group was shocking and confusing. Read More

John Brown , a white, 19th-century abolitionist, was born on this day. Read More

On May 10th, progressive reggae band John Brown's Body kicks off a ten-date east coast tour. Read More

Progressive reggae band John Brown's Body will kicck off a ten-date East Coast tour next week. Read More

THE Science Rocks! event at Bearsden Primary School on Saturday was so popular that tickets sold out in the run up to the day. Read More

Morris will talk about the friendship and enduring legacy of Douglass and fellow abolitionist John Brown. Read More