Frederick County

Maryland State Police were investigating a Monday afternoon robbery of the Frederick County Bank on Commerce Street. The holdup was reported at 2:52 p.m., police said. A man entered the bank and gave a teller a note stating he had a bomb, police said. The man took an undisclosed amount of cash and fled the scene in a green or blue Toyota Yaris with Maryland registration 1AH2856, police said. When police arrived, they established a perimeter and told school officials, police said.

The Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, or MCRC, and Frederick, Md.-area fair-housing organizations will present a screening of “Stealing Trust,” MCRC's documentary about the impact of financial fraud and mortgage-lending abuses on Maryland families, on Wednesday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m. at the Bayard Brown Community Center, 629 N. Market St. in Frederick. The film's Frederick-area premiere also will feature a panel discussion about how families can survive the foreclosure crisis. It will be led by MCRC Executive Director Marceline White, leaders of the Frederick Community Action Agency and other housing activists.

George F. "Fred" Bode, 83, of 7219 Mountain Church Road in Middletown, Md., died Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2012, at Meritus Medical Center near Hagerstown, Md. He was the husband of Joyce B. Bode, whom he married Nov. 7, 1947. He was owner of Magnetic Energy Products Co. Inc., an electronics/hydraulics company he founded in 1972. Throughout his life, he was passionate about continued learning and education, where his love of mathematics and quantum physics would always prevail. These concepts would be the foundation for the electronics and hydraulics products he would design, build and repair for his own company.

Raymond (Ray) W. Kline, 78, loving husband, father, grandfather and friend to many, passed into eternity with his Lord Jesus Christ on Friday, Aug. 24, 2012. He fought a short, but courageous battle with lung and brain cancer at his home and farm in Myersville, Md. Born Jan. 31, 1934, in Chewsville, Md., he was the son of the late Raymond M. and Beulah Toms Kline. He enlisted in the Army at an early age, trained as a paratrooper in North Carolina and served in Germany and Korea.

Maryland Public Television will broadcast the television premiere of “The Heart of the Civil War” on Tuesday, Sept. 11, at 8 p.m. “The Heart of the Civil War,” an hourlong MPT documentary film, showcases the towns, battlefields and sites of the Civil War in Washington County and central Maryland. During the war, Confederate and Union forces clashed for control of strategic points throughout three counties in west-central Maryland, as the war marched north to south from the Confederacy to the union, and back again.

A former Hagerstown man recently sentenced to state prison for a series of Washington County burglaries received another prison term this week for a Frederick County break-in. Christopher Lee Hays, 28, was sentenced in Washington County Circuit Court in June to two concurrent terms of 15 years in prison with 10 years suspended, according to court records. Hayshad pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree burglary in exchange for more than a dozen charges being dismissed, the records said.

A pasture walk will be held in Frederick County Thursday, July 19, from 10 a.m. to noon.  Ron and Kathy Holter will host the event. The 110-cow Jersey herd is milked seasonally with the dry period running from late December until early March. The 200-acre farm is certified organic. The purpose of the walk is to allow livestock producers a chance to learn more about the use of rotational grazing as a way to increase agricultural profitability and improve a farm family's way of life.

Through the generosity of Harley-Davidson of Frederick, the Frederick County (Md.) Sheriff's Office is sporting two new police-package Harley-Davidson motorcycles. The motorcycles will be used for special events and details, rides, escorts and traffic enforcement. Since 2008, Michael Vantucci, owner of Harley-Davidson of Frederick, has provided motorcycles to the sheriff's office on three occasions through the company's law enforcement program. The latest contract was signed in May and provides the office with two police-package motorcycles for six months.

Area temperatures are expected to hover in the upper 90s Wednesday and Thursday as a heat wave envelops the mid-Atlantic region, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a heat advisory for part of Maryland. A heat advisory will be in effect for Frederick County from noon to 8 p.m. today, but a similar advisory had not been issued for Washington County as of Tuesday afternoon, said Heather Sheffield, a weather service meteorologist in Sterling, Va. The expected heat wave prompted the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to activate its state heat plan for Central Maryland today and statewide for Thursday, the agency said in a news release.

Four people were pulled out of the Potomac River near U.S. 340 and Keep Tryst Road on Saturday night, according to Washington County Emergency Services. All four, one adult male and three female teenagers, refused transport to the hospital, Potomac Valley Fire Chief Eric Gray said. The foursome was tubing on the river around 11 p.m., Gray said. Also responding were emergency services officials from the Boonsboro fire department's Rohrersville substation and Brunswick fire department in Frederick County, Md., according to a 911 supervisor.