Backup Baltimore Blast goalkeeper Hank Henry showed his youthful exuberance yesterday when he said, "I'm thinking about the playoff money."
Henry, 26, never has made much more than $20,000 for playing a season in the Major Soccer League. He rents a room from teammates Domenic Mobilio and Joe Barger, who recently bought a home in the Towson area.
"We get some playoff money," said Blast defender Mike Reynolds. "But it is so minimal that it's not even worth mentioning. If that's all anybody's playing for, it's not the right reason. The pride of being a champion means much more than that little bit of money."
If the Blast went to the MSL championship, each player on the team would receive only approximately $3,335.
Advancing past the first round would guarantee each player approximately $1,800, and being eliminated in the first round would bring in $665 a player.
"Getting $665 for making the playoffs is not much motivation," said Vaudreuil. "To me, being a fairly new player who was hurt last year and missed the playoffs, it's more important to help get the team over the final hump and into the playoffs."
The third-place Blast (20-30) leads the fourth-place Wichita Wings (19-31) by one game with two left in the battle for the final MSL Eastern Division playoff berth entering tonight's 8:05 game against the Dallas Sidekicks at the Baltimore Arena.
Wichita meets the first-place Cleveland Crunch tonight at 8:35 in Wichita. A Baltimore win and a Wichita loss would clinch a playoff spot for the Blast.
Baltimore finishes its season tomorrow night against Cleveland at Richfield Coliseum, and Wichita completes its regular-season Sunday at 3:35 with a game against the St. Louis Storm in Wichita.
Wittman (sore left knee) will miss the final two games of the regular season and attempt to come back next Friday night if the Blast makes the playoffs.
It's Fan Appreciation Night tonight in the final regular-season home game, with the featured attraction being the "Famous Chicken," Ted Giannoulas, formerly known as the San Diego Chicken.
Approximate figures from total playoff pool of $200,000, based on last year's playoff pool of $180,000:
* Dallas received $5,000 more than Kansas City last year because the Sidekicks won the regular-season Western division title.
Kathryne H. "Kitty" Broady, a gospel radio show host who was active in community affairs, died at her home last Thursday in a fire that police say was deliberately set. She was 76 and lived in the 3700 block of Liberty Heights Ave.
For the past three years, she had an afternoon show on WBGR-AM. Earlier in her more than 25 years in the Baltimore area, she broadcast gospel shows on WEBB and WCBM in Baltimore and WANN in Annapolis.
She also took up causes on the air, once sponsoring a benefit to feed the hungry in the late 1960s, a time when she also helped to expose problems at Baltimore City Jail through letters sent by prisoners in her listening audience. She continued her interest by doing volunteer work with the prisoners.
She was a founder of the Provident Hospital Community Mental Health Clinic and served as president of the Baltimore Black United Front.
The former Kathryne Holdman was a native of Greensboro, N.C., who was raised in Washington and graduated from Armstrong High School.
Before coming to Baltimore, she and her former husband, Robert Broady Sr., who lives in Washington, operated the K & B Upholstery Co.
Her survivors include two sons, Robert Broady Jr. of Baltimore and Stewart Guy Broady of Oxon Hill; a sister, Beatrice Turnborough of Chicago; five grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
Bay pact targeting rivers and grasses expected this week Critics complain new effort merely skims the surface
The effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay will expand to include cleaning up the bay's rivers and restoring its underwater grasses when region officials meet Wednesday in Annapolis.
Officials from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District of Columbia and the federal government plan to sign a seven-point agreement that calls for restoring water quality in the bay's 10 major tributaries, where most of the estuary's fish feed and spawn. A draft of the agreement was obtained by The Sun.
Officials also will pledge to restore the bay's underwater grasses, vital fish habitat which have been slowly returning since they all but vanished in the early 1980s. The proposed pact calls for practically doubling current grass beds to 120,000 acres by the end of the decade.
But environmentalists and some legislators complain that the new agreement, which builds on the Chesapeake Bay Agreement -- the bay cleanup pact signed in Baltimore in 1987 -- does not go far enough.
The cornerstone of that agreement was a pledge to cut nutrient pollution from sewage plants, farms and development 40 percent by the end of this decade. But environmen
talists contend that despite some progress, the states are not doing enough to combat farm and toxic pollution and suburban sprawl, all part of the original Bay agreement.
"If we don't address these issues, then we don't think we're going to make the kind of progress that is necessary to restore the bay," said Ann Powers, vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
The Annapolis-based environmental group recently wrote a letter the governors of the three bay states, criticizing the proposed pact. Foundation officials plan to release the letter today .
State Sen. Bernie Fowler, D-Southern Maryland, said the proposed agreement is "a very forward move" but "it isn't quite all we hoped for." Mr. Fowler is chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, which represents legislators from the three bay states.
An aide to Gov. William Donald Schaefer said yesterday that such criticisms are off base. The new plan focuses only on curbing the bay's nutrient pollution because the states agreed five years ago to take another look at that problem at this time, said David Carroll, the governor's bay program coordinator.
Though not detailed in this agreement, plans are being drawn up deal more aggressively with farm and toxic pollution, Mr. Carroll said.
The bay suffers from an over-enrichment of nutrients, which can trigger massive algae "blooms." Those thick growths of tiny aquatic plants block sunlight needed by underwater grasses. And when the algae die, their decay uses up all the dissolved bTC oxygen in the water that fish need to breathe.
A three-year study, aided by a sophisticated computer model, indicates that if the states stick to their goal of reducing nutrients by 40 percent, the vast area of "dead" water on the bay bottom in spring and summer will shrink between 20 percent and percent. That should be enough to restore many bay grasses and bring back the fish, officials said.
Levels of one major nutrient, phosphorus, have dropped 19 percent in the bay since the mid-1980s, mainly because of improved sewage treatment and phosphate detergent bans. But despite control efforts, nitrogen from fertilizer, farm animal waste and air pollution has risen 2 percent.
Now, in recognition of the importance of the bay's tributaries, officials plan to clean them up enough so they can sustain underwater grasses and fish again. The new agreement pledges to draw up recovery plans for each of the 10 major river systems in the next year.
The governors also plan to commit to holding nutrient pollution down beyond the end of the decade, despite future growth in population and development, said William Matuszeski, director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's bay program.
Even environmentalists agree that the pact is a major improvement in the $400-million-a-year bay restoration effort. They also hail the commitment to restore underwater grasses, since reviving the bay's depleted fish and shellfish stocks are the ultimate goal.
But several studies have warned that the bay may never recover its health unless more is done to curb runoff of nutrient-rich fertilizers and animal wastes from farm fields and suburban lawns.
Farms account for nearly 40 percent of the phosphorus entering the bay and more than half the nitrogen, according to the EPA. Yet only about 5 percent of all cropland in the bay's vast 64,000-square-mile drainage basin is now covered by voluntary plans for curbing use and runoff of the damaging nutrients.
"Agriculture is going to have to do more," said state Sen. Gerald W. Winegrad, D-Anne Arundel, who unsuccessfully sponsored a bill this year to require farms to curb fertilizer and pesticide use.
Others say more aggressive action is needed to curb air pollution, sprawling development and the runoff of mud, nutrients and toxic chemicals from city and suburban streets.
There is a chance that the proposed pact may be revised to address environmentalists' concerns when the governors and EPA Administrator William K. Reilly meet Wednesday. But some issues may have to wait until next year. Mr. Carroll noted that a review of toxic pollution efforts is not yet finished.
But "the time to act is now," contended Ms. Powers of the bay foundation. "Every year we wait, the problems we have to deal with are going to grow."
New Baltimore-Washington jobs program for teens sails to success Teens from each city build rowboats, sail Chesapeake for 4 days.
It was blustery, chilly and wet as the four-day voyage from Baltimore's Inner Harbor by way of the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland ended yesterday evening at a marina in Southwest Washington.
They were met by balloons, flags, music, refreshments, presentations of awards and gifts, cheering parents, friends and sponsors, and a parade of government officials at the microphone, led by Mayors Kurt L. Schmoke of Baltimore and Sharon Pratt Kelly of Washington.
The mayors said the event marked a historic partnership by their two cities. Each praised the summer job-training program of Baltimore's Living Classrooms Foundation, including its sailing experience for young landlubbers.
But it fell to Willie Fedd, a 17-year-old resident of an East Baltimore housing project, to provide the eloquent high point of the oratory.
"Mayor Kelly, Mayor Schmoke -- thank you for believing in us," the Southern High 11th-grader said simply. Then, speaking for his 39 fellow crew members who had just helped dock the Lady Maryland and the Mildred Belle, he told the mayors, "We hope you are proud of us."
James Piper Bond, executive director of the Living Classrooms Foundation, which until recently was known as the Lady Maryland Foundation, presided at last night's festivities under umbrellas and canopies at the Gangplank Marina on Washington's Water Street.
"It is successes like this that people need to read about," Mr. Bond told the crowd, referring to "all the tragic news from our inner-cities."
His remark won a burst of applause from parents of the new graduates of the six-week summer program, described as "at-risk youth from diverse backgrounds."
None of the parents who watched the arrival of the foundation's 104-foot sailing vessel, the Lady Maryland, and its 60-foot Chesapeake Bay work boat, the Mildred Belle, was more excited than Margaret Jones Phifer of Washington. When she finally spied her 15-year-old son, Demetri, aboard the Mildred Belle, she exclaimed: "He's my baby. I just want to hug him."
Mrs. Phifer could not say enough in praise of the sailing experience her son was getting. Demetri called her on one of the stops during the four-day cruise of the bay, "right after a storm," ,, she said. "I was praying. But he was having a ball, despite his 90 mosquito bites."
Demetri said one of the 10 girls among the 40 teens on the two vessels got seasick, and he "almost did."
They received diplomas for successfully finishing the training that began July 6 and included building two rowboats and working on the foundation's Harford County farm. Their last four days on the bay took them to Tilghman Island, St. Mary's City in Southern Maryland and Smallwood State Park in Prince George's County.
The programs of the tax-exempt, nonprofit foundation, headquartered in an old lighthouse in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, emphasize leadership, career development, cultural enrichment and the history, economics and ecology of the bay region.
It has a staff of 25, including several who were themselves once "at-risk students," and an annual budget of about $750,000. In the foundation's seven years, about 100,000 young people from a variety of backgrounds have benefited from the programs, Mr. Bond said.
G. Dennis O'Brien of St. Michaels, the 52-year-old retired businessman who started the foundation, said its most rewarding successes have been with "troubled kids with lots of energy, lots of nerve and usually with a lot of talent, but not necessarily in traditional ways." He said the guidance is low-key and "the morality for these kids just comes from being part of the good, secure family" provided by the foundation.
Standing on the Lady Maryland, out of the rain, Mayor Schmoke said the just-concluded program "cemented good relations among young people and showed that our governments can work together."
The two mayors exchanged presents -- picture books about their respective cities -- as well as words of praise for each other.
Then, Mayor Kelly produced a second gift for Mayor Schmoke. It was a T-shirt bearing the inscription, "Got a Job."
What a difference a year makes -- but not quite enough difference for Loch Raven's No. 2 girls lacrosse team.
After playing scared against No. 1 Mount Hebron last year in the Class 1A-2A state title game, the Raiders came out challenging the Vikings yesterday. But the Raiders rushed too many shots and forced too many passes to knock the Vikings from their lofty pedestal.
Howard County champion Mount Hebron (18-0) took a 9-7 victory for its second consecutive Class 1A-2A championship and second straight unbeaten season.
The Raiders (17-1) started preparing for Mount Hebron three months ago, but yesterday they couldn't put together the whole package needed to upset the Vikings.
Although they played excellent defense against the Vikings' high-scoring homes Cathy Nelson and Lori Pasquantonio, the Raiders couldn't get their offense rolling. Too often they missed the connections in the midfield, upsetting their usually fluid transition game.
"The defense started bringing the ball out and we threw it away or the attack didn't catch the ball and it came right back down our throats," said Raiders coach Wendy Galinn.
Defenders Christina Bhanos and Robyn Disney did a good job preventing Nelson and Pasquantonio from rolling the crease. Bhanos took an early charge from Pasquantonio and also blocked a shot.
The few defensive mistakes, however, were costly. Nelson scored the first two goals on free-position shots caused by Loch Raven shooting-space fouls.
"We pretty much knew how they played and they liked to go one-on-one," said Disney. "Hardly ever did they beat us [rolling around the crease]. Most of their shots were free shots, because we made too many errors like shooting space."
Nelson added another goal coming around and diving past Raiders point Alison Jones. Amy Fine made it 4-0, capping an interception by running half the field to score.
The Raiders finally got on the board when Jones hit Lauren Volk with a pass out of the defensive end. Volk ran in to slip a bounced shot past Vikings keeper Ali True.
The rest of the half the Raiders answered each Mount Hebron goal to stay within 6-3 at halftime. Robyn Harry scored on a low scoop shot, and Michele DeJuliis also put a nice back-handed effort past True.
In the second half, the Raiders pulled within two when Shelley Klaes fed Heather Kormanik, who popped the ball over the charging True's head.
Although the Raiders outshot the Vikings 22-9 in the half, they couldn't get closer than two. True made 14 saves, including a couple of nice stops against free-position shots. She finished with 18 saves.
"She stuffed us," said Galinn. "I give her a lot of credit, but I also attribute it to poor shot selection."
Klaes scored two goals -- one on a free position and another rolling the crease -- to keep the Raiders within 9-6 with 8:25 left in the game.
"I think we panicked to a point," said Galinn. "We were much more prepared for this game than we were last year. Last year, I said before the game I knew we weren't going to do well, but this year, the kids played with a lot of heart. They never gave up."
A day after American Online Inc. announced its bid to buy Time Warner Inc., the chief executives of the two companies publicly campaigned in support of the deal yesterday, saying it would bring broad social benefits.
Policy-makers expressed concern about whether the biggest corporate acquisition in history would be in the country's best social and economic interests, while skeptical investors sent the stocks of both companies into sharp declines.
"This is not just about big business. This is not just about money," said Gerald M. Levin, chairman and chief executive officer of Time Warner. "This is about making a better world for people, because we now have the technology and the instruments to do that."
Levin's counterpart at AOL, Steve Case, said on NBC's "Today" show: "Together we have an unbelievable opportunity to really make a difference, not just in terms of the services people use, but also in terms of the kind of impact we can have on society."
The $179.1 billion deal, unveiled Monday, would create a company with unparalleled Internet and media assets. AOL is the largest Internet access company, and Time Warner owns CNN, Time magazine and a galaxy of other well-known news and entertainment entities.
That immensity gives some policy-makers and industry experts pause. The AOL-Time Warner marriage would continue a long trend of media consolidation and raises the prospect of a single company with unequaled power over what Americans read and watch.
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said in a statement that the acquisition "may make strategic sense" for the companies involved, but "at some point, all of this concentration and convergence has implications for consumers because it will minimize competition and choice, giving us fewer voices and fewer pipelines in the marketplace."
Two of Leahy's colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee -- Republican Mike DeWine of Ohio and Democrat Herb Kohl of Wisconsin -- said they plan to conduct hearings on the acquisition.
Senate staff members said the hearings would probably be held before the lawmakers' spring recess in late April but that the timing would depend on when Case and Levin could appear together in Washington.
One of the chief concerns raised by the AOL-Time Warner deal involves Internet access. The telephone and cable TV companies that carry Internet traffic are scrambling to offer high-speed connections that greatly improve the quality of Internet transmissions. In the past, AOL has been concerned that those phone and cable companies, such as AT&T Corp., would seek to control Internet access on those networks and bar competing Internet service providers.
AOL has advocated open access, saying it had no high-speed wires of its own and depended on access to other companies' networks.
The acquisition of Time Warner would change that. Time Warner is the nation's second-largest cable company, and AOL would gain access to those high-speed communications lines. With that bounty in hand, AOL might be tempted to give up its open-access crusade and seek to dominate Internet access on Time Warner's cable systems.
Mark Cooper, research director of the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America, said open Internet access becomes especially important in a market in which two companies, AT&T and Time Warner, own such a large share of the nation's high-speed cable networks.
"They monopolize all the cable wires. They dominate all the [cable television] programming. Their wires don't even overlap, because they don't compete with each other," Cooper said.
Other opponents of the deal said it would mark another long step in the march toward media consolidation.
In recent years, U.S. magazines, newspapers, television networks, book publishers, movie studios, Internet service providers and other industry organizations have increasingly come under the control of a small number of large corporations. The Sun, for example, is owned by Times Mirror Co., a nationwide newspaper chain based in Los Angeles.
Some industry experts say the trend has ensured the survival and even the improvement of many broadcast and print outlets. Critics say it has contributed to a decline in the quality and variety of news sources.
"The defenders of deals like this one will claim exultantly that we now have three 24-hour news operations on cable. Well, fine. I challenge anyone to watch those channels and tell me what the difference is" between them, said Mark Crispin Miller, a professor of media studies at New York University.
Miller said the growth and diversification of large media companies will make it more difficult for journalists to cover the activities of high-technology businesses owned by or affiliated with their parent companies.
The International Federation of Journalists warned yesterday that the AOL-Time Warner deal could "threaten democracy, plurality and quality in media."
A Baltimore County school bus driver and an attendant were suspended from their jobs for five days without pay yesterday, a day after a 3-year-old boy was left alone on a bus in a storage yard for about four hours.
The driver, Louise N. McLean, 57, of Glen Arm and the attendant, Elisabeth Linde, 64, of Perry Hall apparently failed to complete a search of the bus Tuesday, leaving 3-year-old Malik S. Lucas alone in a locked bus at a gated yard near Kenwood High School in eastern Baltimore County, said Rita Fromm, director of transportation for the school system.
Fromm interviewed McLean and Linde yesterday. The five-day suspension is standard punishment for failing to check a bus for students or possessions at the end of a trip, she said.
Baltimore County police have turned over investigation of the incident to the county Department of Social Services.
Malik's mother, Nicole T. Lucas of the Hillendale area, said she became worried Tuesday when her son failed to return home from his pre-kindergarten classes at the Halstead Academy elementary school near Hillendale. Malik has a speech impediment that makes it difficult for him to communicate, she said.
Lucas sent the boy's father, Ben T. Wilkins, to Halstead to look for Malik. School administrators told Wilkins that Malik had not come to school.
Yesterday, Malik seemed to be doing fine. He attended classes at Halstead but refused to ride the bus, said Lucas, adding that she no longer trusts school bus drivers. "I am very angry," she said.
October 03, 2001|By Eileen Ambrose and William Patalon III | Eileen Ambrose and William Patalon III,SUN STAFF
The Federal Reserve policy-makers cut a key interest rate yesterday for the ninth time this year - sending it to a 39-year low - and signaled that it was prepared to move again as it fights an economic malaise that has deepened since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The policy-making Federal Open Market Committee cut the overnight lending rate - what banks charge one another for overnight loans - to 2.5 percent, matching its lowest level ever set in May 1962.
"The terrorist attacks have significantly heightened uncertainty in an economy that was already weak," the Fed said in announcing the rate cut.
And though the nation's long-term economic prospects are good, the Fed said near-term risks "are weighted mainly toward conditions that may generate economic weakness in the foreseeable future."
The half-point cut was widely expected, prompting a positive - but not dramatic - reaction in the stock market.
"Everyone and his shoeshine boy knew it would be" a half-point, said Alfred Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 113.76 points, or 1.29 percent, to close at 8,950.59. The Nasdaq composite index rose 11.87, or 0.80 percent, to end at 1,492.33. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange was 1.27 billion shares.
Major banks, including Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank One Corp., announced that they were cutting their prime lending rate - what they charge their best customers - by half a point to 5.5 percent. The prime rate affects commercial loans as well as some consumer borrowing, such as credit cards and home-equity credit lines.
While the U.S. economy was sagging before Sept. 11, the attacks have further eroded consumer confidence and pushed down consumer spending - which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.
In fact, although statistics don't yet show it, many economists believe the economy has soured so deeply and quickly that it's almost certainly entrenched in its first recession since 1990-1991.
"This is a Fed that's no longer hedging against a recession - they are fighting a real recession," albeit one that was event-triggered, said Diane Swonk, chief economist with Bank One Corp. in Chicago.
A recession is typically defined as two consecutive quarters of a contracting economy. Because economic reports tend to lag, recessions are often labeled well after they've ended.
With the near-term prospects so dour, many economists say the central bank's rate-cutting campaign still has room to run. Before yesterday, the Fed had already cut rates by 3.5 percentage points this year. In normal times, such strong moves would give the central bank time to step back and give its actions time to work.
"The economy is limping along. We are probably in a recession," said Gus Faucher, senior economist with Economy.com in West Chester, Pa. "There is a feeling that both the Fed and the federal government need to take action to provide further stimulus."
Although it can take six to 18 months for a rate cut to work its way through the economy, the Fed is expected to pare rates again at its next meeting, in November.
Opinions again differ on just how aggressively the central bank will act. Futures traders were betting yesterday on a quarter-point reduction no later than the Fed's Dec. 11 meeting, taking the overnight lending rate to 2.25 percent. But many economists said yesterday that short-term rates must fall to 2 percent.
The Bush administration's tax cut and rebate program is putting hundreds of extra dollars into the hands of most American taxpayers. And Congress is allocating tens of billions of dollars for reconstruction, domestic security and possible military action. Most analysts expect federal spending to rise, too.
One picture shows Clarissa as a first-grader, her pigtails hanging in several directions and a huge smile spreading across her face. The other shows her this summer - at age 17 - looking intently at her young son, cradled in her arms, connected to life through tubes jutting from his body.
She even dreamed of becoming a nurse to better care for 13-month-old Tyquan, who has been treated for heart problems most of his life. But her hopes ended suddenly about 12:20 a.m. yesterday while she was taking down Christmas lights from her porch in East Baltimore, police said.
Shot during an apparent robbery attempt, the mother of two became the city's first homicide of the year.
She was talking to someone relatives described as a casual acquaintance, Darnell Chambers, 26, when a man walked up to the house in the 2900 block of E. Madison St. and pulled out a gun, police said. The gunman, clad in a puffy black coat and wearing a skullcap, told the two to sit down on the steps, police said.
Clarissa panicked and ran toward the front door of the rowhouse, where she lived with her mother, police said.
The gunman opened fire, hitting Clarissa in the back of the head and Chambers in the left forearm, police said. Both were rushed to Johns Hopkins Hospital, about a mile away, where Clarissa died and Chambers was treated and released.
In just a few days, Clarissa was scheduled to meet with doctors at Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital, where Tyquan has been treated for the past few months, to see when she might take her son home, relatives said.
"She has been learning how to care for him," said Clarissa's grandmother, Beverly Chase. "She was really excited about it because he's been sick for so long. We didn't think he was going to live this long. She was really excited after what we all went through."
Born and raised in Baltimore, Clarissa most recently attended the city's Paquin School for pregnant girls but withdrew in late 2000, school officials said.
Her sick son took too much of her time to attend school, relatives said, and the birth of her second child, a daughter she named Jada, four months ago had consumed even more.
Clarissa had never been a fan of school but was known as a "jolly" kid who loved music and dancing. She also wasn't afraid to buck the rules, family members said.
Several winters ago, Chase walked with Clarissa every morning to a Mass Transit Administration bus stop for the ride to Patterson Park High School. Chase would wait, make sure Clarissa got on the bus and then leave.
Clarissa's carefree spirit waned after she became pregnant with Tyquan and, especially, after his birth.
He was born two months premature and had severe heart problems, requiring constant hospitalization and surgery, relatives said.
But Clarissa pressed on, visiting Tyquan almost every day at hospitals and slowly gaining an appreciation for nursing.
Then, in August, Clarissa gave birth to Jada and began feeling better - once again resembling the smiling youngster in her first-grade photograph.
"That photo shows it all," Chase said. "That's what she was like. ... Jada brought back to her life what she missed with her first child."
Clarissa's room was messy, like the typical teen-ager's. But clothes strewn across the floor and bed were not just her own - they were infant garments.
Clarissa also made two small notes of Baltimore's violence - taping two funeral programs of friends onto her mirror. Both were killed in East Baltimore in the past two years.
Family members said they had called police and city officials in the months leading up to the shooting to complain about drug dealing across the street and crime in the area.
"Someone had to get killed before they do anything about it," Chase said. "I hope three, four, five more don't have to die."
The Eastern District is one of the city's most dangerous, though violent crime has plummeted there in the past two years by 25 percent. Last year, 38 people were killed, and 145 were shot.
Anyone with information about the killing is urged to call Detective Darren Sanders of the homicide unit at 410-396-2100.
Fan, some wags have reminded us, is short for fanatic. As in "a zeal or passion which goes beyond that which is reasonable," according to the dictionary definition.
Add to the latest act of fanaticism the stupidity of one idiot attending Tuesday's Lake Clifton-Douglass basketball game, who threw a can of soda on the floor just as Douglass' Ducks were smoking Lake Clifton's Lakers and about to hand them their butts.
Douglass was leading by 12 points in the third quarter when the incident occurred. The game was stopped and postponed until a later date. Not exactly fair to Douglass' team, was it?
Douglass is, as of this writing, undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the Baltimore area. The Ducks have two tough games against top-notch Philadelphia schools this weekend. Suppose one of Douglass' key players gets hurt and is not available for the resumption of the Lake Clifton game. In that case, the postponement would have worked to the advantage of Lake Clifton, the school that didn't provide enough security to prevent the can-throwing incident.
There are no doubt many old-school West Baltimoreans - who remember classic battles past pitting Douglass or Carver against East Baltimore's pride Dunbar - who ask, "Why wasn't Lake Clifton forced to forfeit the game?"
Bill Burroughs is Maryland's rules interpreter for high school basketball. The game officials had a number of options, Burroughs said.
There would have been problems with that, of course. Since no one knew who threw the soda can, the refs might have ended up penalizing the wrong team.
"In most cases, officials are recommended to suspend the game until cooler heads prevail," Burroughs said.
Douglass was on a 17-2 run when the game was stopped. Basketball has a certain rhythm and poetry. "Runs" occur when a team gets in a certain rhythm and outscores its opponents. Runs are hard to duplicate, especially days later.
I'm sure Douglass' fans and alumni would have appreciated the option of "clear the gym, finish the game."
Game officials and school administrators did the choosing, but they still face a dilemma: how to deter such acts in the future. Fortunately, there's a precedent, one stemming from an incident anything but fortunate.
Let's go back almost 31 years. It's February 1971. Dunbar is playing a home game against Mount St. Joseph in a Maryland Scholastic Association A Conference Division II game to see which team will advance to the best-of-three championship series against Carver.
St. Joe is leading by 2 points with seven seconds left in overtime of a thriller when one of its players, Gary Jones, tries to inbound the ball. He's scratched and kicked by fan(atic)s, and officials delay the game five minutes.
After St. Joe inbounds the ball, the Gaels run out the clock. Several Dunbar fan(atic)s surge onto the court and attack St. Joe's players. Dunbar players and police officers try to protect them.
St. Joe faculty, staff and students in the stands aren't as lucky. The principal is hit over the head with a stool, and a teacher is hit in the eye. When the melee ends, three police officers and nine St. Joe players, students or teachers have been injured.
Forty-four days later, the MSA, in its first punitive action, puts Dunbar on probation. For the 1971-1972 basketball season, Dunbar will have no home games. All of its contests will be on the road.
In 31 years, no such incident has been repeated at Dunbar. When the Poets lost at home to Catholic League power Spalding this season, Dunbar fans took it in stride. The lesson from 1971 had been learned.
But not, apparently, by the can-throwing cretin who attended the Lake Clifton-Douglass game. Whether the dolt was a Lake Clifton or Douglass fan, he or she had better consider how the actions of fan(atic)s sometimes hurt the teams they're rooting for.
Because of a few hoodlums, Dunbar students in 1971-1972 who had nothing to do with the riot had to travel to Douglass or Carver or Edmondson not once, but twice during the season.
A different but not unrelated outcome has resulted from the stupidity at the Lake Clifton-Douglass game. Jessica Ivy, a spokeswoman for the city schools athletic office, said the game will resume Friday at Lake Clifton.
Tim Toone, aka Mr. Irrelevant XXXV, is in town for three days. The arrival party for Toone is at 5 p.m. today in the atrium of the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa.
Toone will receive gifts and mingle with fans. The event is free, so if you root for the Detroit Lions, which drafted Toone with the 255th pick, you have a reason to cheer before the actual NFL season.
An hour later, Toone is off to the All-Star Lowsman Banquet, where the wide receiver will catch grief for having blond dreadlocks. Toone will be toasted and roasted by former NFL greats, Ron Yary and Ron Mix, and coaches like John Robinson and UCLA's Norm Chow. Tickets are still available for the banquet because Toone is not a household name yet in the NFL.
On Thursday, Toone is heading to Disneyland to donate some hair to Dopey of the Seven Dwarfs. He'll also be a special guest at Toontown. In the evening, Toone will be part of a regatta and guest of the Balboa Bay Yacht Club.
Friday is Toone's final day. He visits the Goodwill Fitness Center in Santa Ana before giving his first national interview. Toone expects to talk with the NFL Network's Rich Eisen, who of course will fall in love with Toone's hair because Eisen is losing his.
The day ends with Toone attending a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim game. The baseball team will give him a jersey with his name on the back of it and a tryout with the grounds crew. That might be the team Toone has a better chance of making than the one in Detroit.
The preliminary approval of mandatory ID badges for county teachers by our Board of Education raises one question: To whom are the teachers identifying themselves by wearing such identification? The kids know the teachers.
I know that in some county schools the principal is rarely ever at the school, but the administrators should know who teaches in the building. I would guess that perhaps the ID badges are to help Theresa Flak or Herman Bartlett identify the teachers, except they are never in any of the schools.
Before the board in its typical style-over-substance philosophy adopts this expensive and seemingly useless policy, the obvious question as to the proposal's purpose ought to be answered.
In regards to the offense to the Blessed Virgin Mary recently at an art museum in a major city I would like to make some comments about this wondrous woman:
Mary was the young Jewish virgin, chosen by God the father to be the mother of his son Jesus Christ, adding her humanity to his divinity. Her yes to God was the most important event ever to happen to this world because it meant our salvation by her son Jesus coming to us. Her generosity allowed Jesus to save us, and it's becoming more and more apparent that this world needs a savior.
Mary was with Jesus all of his life, from his birth in a poor stable to the flight to Egypt on a donkey while escaping Herod's jealous rage. She was at the marriage feast at Cana asking her son Jesus to remedy the problem of their running out of wine. This was Jesus' first miracle, changing water into wine. She told the servers "Do whatever he tells you." She was at the foot of his cross at his cruel death, for us. It should never be forgotten that his blood washes away our sins.
Mother Mary still comes today in many places around the world, such as Felina Lourdes, Garadandal, Dazule, Akita, Batania, Kibeho, Ukraine, Medjugorje and many more.
Her message is still the same - prayer, fasting, repentance and reconciliation. He request for our prayers is always so urgent because she knows this is our lifeline to God who is the only one who can change situations including calamities of weather.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is God's greatest gift to the world, second only to his son Jesus and the pouring out of herself for us should always be remembered with gratitude as something so very extraordinary.
Criticism and applause surrounds the "Hell House," a Halloween "soul-tickler" directly sponsored by three or four area churches and supported by many others. Designed and created to nudge people out of Satan's den and into the realm of God, this rendition of religion is troubling and deserves a response.
"Hell House" bids the question, "What is a healthy faith?" Jesus spoke to the holders of an unhealthy religion saying, "You cross land and seek to make a convert and when you make a convert, the person is twice the child of hell that you yourselves are." (St. Matthew 23:15). Scaring people out of a particular hell may indeed be casting them into another hell. I once knew a man who was so convinced he was eternally doomed that he spent weeks reading the Bible and then suffered a nervous breakdown.
I must question all religious efforts that are about scaring people "out of hell," and dividing people up into good guys/bad guys, as if any of us fully know the heart of God. I oppose this subtle focusing on gay and AIDS-riddled people as societal contaminants and persons who are beyond the bounds of God's grace and love as they are.
I know the pastors of two of the sponsoring churches of "Hell House" and they are good and God-fearing ministers. I do oppose their emphasis, however, which is more about a "God of vengeance" and less about a caring, compassionate and forgiving God.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Rookie Phil Lombardi broke open a close game with a two-run single in the seventh inning Tuesday night to lead the New York Yankees to a 4-0 Grapefruit League victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Lombardi, a 23-year-old from Kennedy High in Granada Hills, is ticketed for the Yankees' Triple-A farm club at Columbus this season. He lined his two-run single to left after Toronto left-hander Stan Clarke had walked the bases loaded.
The quintet of Phil Niekro, Marty Bystrom, Dennis Rasmussen, Mike Armstrong and Dave Righetti combined on a six hitter. After three Grapefruit League games, Yankee pitchers have allowed only four runs.
The game also marked the spring debuts of Yankee outfielders Dave Winfield, Rickey Henderson and Ken Griffey.
On a night when actresses will be draped in diamonds, Amnesty International USA and Global Witness have asked artists and filmmakers to wear a red teardrop pin to the Academy Awards to raise awareness about diamonds mined in war zones and their effect on child soldiers.
The groups said that Oscar nominees Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling and Djimon Hounsou and other members of the "Blood Diamond" cast would be wearing the symbols.
"Ours is a very modest gesture but one that affirms the message that all human life is precious," said Bonnie Abaunza, director of Amnesty International USA's Artists for Amnesty program. "Diamonds are not priceless -- human life is."
Federal investigators say one of Medicare's most wanted fugitives, who was convicted in a $20-million fraud case, may be hiding out in the Los Angeles area.
Authorities say Nuritsa Grigoryan fled last month after being found guilty for her role at a Glendale clinic where she was accused of posing as a doctor and writing prescriptions for pricey anti-psychotic medications.
Investigators with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services say the clinic often recruited homeless patients, used their information to bill Medicare and Medi-Cal for the drugs, and then resold the medications, such as Abilify, to rake in even more money.
Government officials said the scheme generated fraudulent billing of more than $20 million, and Medicare and Medi-Cal paid roughly $8 million.
Grigoryan was scheduled to be sentenced in June. She faced up to 30 years in prison, according to the government.
But authorities say she hasn’t been seen since Feb. 24. She was being monitored by the court with an ankle bracelet, but she must have disabled or removed it, said Eric Larson, a special agent with the Health and Human Services Department's inspector general.
Larson said that Grigoryan went to the Armenian consulate in Glendale for travel documents before she went missing, so it’s possible that she left the U.S.
But Grigoryan's family is still in the L.A. area as well as her small, white dog that was often seen with her in video surveillance conducted by investigators.
“That was just another thought that she might be close by,” Larson said. “The dog spent a lot of time with her.”
Grigoryan and two associates were convicted on numerous charges, including healthcare fraud conspiracy, making false statements and aggravated identity theft, according to the government.
The scammers were "driving extremely expensive cars and have a nice lifestyle, taking advantage of homeless people on the taxpayers’ dime," Larson said. "They have no intention of giving these people care."
WOULDN'T IT be great if the United States could withdraw its forces from Europe, as has been suggested in the wake of the air strike against Libya and criticism of that strike by European governments? And why not withdraw American forces from the rest of the foreign world?
Are the billions in expenditures each year made out of the kindness of our hearts to protect the people of the world? Or do we prefer to fight our wars on foreign soil?
Might this not be true in West Germany, where the Soviet armies and those of the United States stood facing each other at the end of World War II and are still standing there, now as enemies? Five full U.S. Army divisions are stationed there and another five can be airlifted to Germany within 10 days.
Being the policeman of the world, shaping it in our image whether other nations like it or not, does not come cheap.
Miami loses three recruits -- fullback Darius Frazier from Hallandale, receiver Dale Dawkins from Vero Beach and linebacker Nate Watson from Santaluces in Lantana. They will remain at school and work out with the team. Redshirt freshman Jeff Howard, a defensive tackle, has been declared academically ineligible and has left Miami.
Boone, which had lost 16 in a row, trailed Colonial, 10-3, at halftime. But it seemed as if the Braves (0-8, 0-5) would be spared another loss when the lights failed and officials announced the game would be finished today. Alas, power was restored and Danny Wagner led Colonial (3-5, 2-3) to 14 second-half points and a 24-10 Class AAAAA, District 5 victory.
During Colonial's first drive of the second half, Wagner broke loose for a 69-yard scoring run that gave Colonial a 17-3 lead.
But Boone forced a fumble later in the quarter, which eventually led to Robert Kasper's 1-yard score that reduced Colonial's lead to seven points entering the final period.
But Jeff Johnson and Wagner keyed a 61-yard drive in the fourth quarter that culminated with Wagner's third score -- a 5-yard run.
PINE LAKES — Thirteen-year-old Nickie Pyle's eighth-grade principal wrote a letter to her parents that brought tears of joy to their eyes Tuesday.
The letter said Nickie is so well liked at Eustis Middle School that fellow students raised $241.11 to help her family pay for the medical care of her father, Ernie Pyle, 32, who has a rare form of muscle-based cancer.
''When she came home and showed us the letter,'' said Pyle's wife, Betty Ann, ''my husband and I both just cried. It was so touching.''
A student-teacher benefit volleyball tournament was only one way in which residents of this rural Lake County community of 5,000, 10 miles from the Volusia County border, have responded to raise money to help defray the hospital bills that will cost the Pyle family more than $40,000.
Donations to a special account at Vista Bank in DeLand have reached $1,825.50. An encyclopedia company has donated a full set of books for use by the Pyle's three children -- Nickie, Betty Jo, 10, and Ernie Jr., 5. A benefit chicken dinner Sunday at Chuck's Place, on East State Road 40, attracted nearly 400 people.
''It was a good turnout for a small community,'' said Dot Robb, owner of Chuck's Place. ''We went through 300 pounds of chicken . . . 120 pounds of potato salad. I didn't know we could fit that many people.''
The fund-raising for the Pyles started last month when the 32-year-old mason was scheduled to undergo surgery at Shands Hospital in Gainesville for the removal of his left leg and part of his hip and pelvis.
At the 11th hour, Pyle canceled the surgery and returned home after doctors said there was little they could do to save his life. Since then, doctors have suggested that Pyle might try enrolling in an experimental drug treatment program, Betty Ann Pyle said.
The community is reponding to help Pyle, a partner with two brothers in a masonry business, Mud Brothers, which has no medical insurance.
Even people who don't know the family are helping. A Eustis woman sent them a check for $100 and explained that she and her husband once lived next door to the widow of the famed World War II correspondent, after whom Ernie Pyle was named.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Notre Dame is missing from the Associated Press rankings this week for the first time since the end of the 2003-04 seasons -- a total of 30 weekly polls. But the Irish could soon return if Lindsay Schrader and Courtney LaVere continue to play the way they did in a 67-55 Big East women's basketball victory over Syracuse Tuesday. Schrader had a career high 24 points on 9-for-19 shooting plus 6-for-10 at the free throw line -- pretty decent for a 40 percent free throw shooter. She and Crystal Erwin each had eight rebounds, though Notre Dame was outrebounded, 40-35. LaVere scored 14, including the key tie-breaking field goal with 9:05 to play, as Notre Dame moved up to 13-7 overall and 4-5 in the Big East. Syracuse, trying for its third Big East victory in a row after an 0-7 start, instead fell to 2-8 in the league and 9-12 overall. "Schrader was the difference in the game,'' said Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw. "We were desperate. We still have a chance to go to the NCAA tournament and we need to start playing that way. Courtney was very poised and gave us some stability tonight.'' "We didn't have an answer for Schrader,'' said Syracuse coach Keith Cieplicki. The score was tied 11 times and there were eight lead changes. McGraw was stunned at a question about whether the Irish expected a close game. "You haven't seen us play lately; we make it interesting. We struggle every night. Everybody is always in the game against us,'' said McGraw. Sophomore Vaida Sipaviciute, a 6-4 native of Lithuania, was almost more than the Irish could handle. She didn't start, but scored 19 points and had seven rebounds. Several times she hit the bull's-eye on an out of bounds play. LaVere's base-line jumper broke a 48-48 tie and launched the Irish on an 8-0 run. Schrader and LaVere each had field goals and Duffy two free throws in the spurt. Sipaviciute ended the Irish run with a 3-point play with 5:14 to go, but that was the last Orange basket until her last field goal with 47 seconds left. Syracuse had a 27-25 halftime lead, but developed a rash of foul trouble early in the second half after taking a 31-26 lead. Notre Dame was shooting bonus free throws 13:11 to play, and point guard Cintia Johnson fouled out with 4:53 to play. "Johnson really did a good job against Duffy, and her fouling out was a key play for us,'' said McGraw. "I thought they looked a little fatigued after that.'' "She was all over me,'' said Duffy of Johnson. Duffy scored 12 and played without a visit to the bench for the ninth time this season. Schrader admitted her confidence has wavered lately. "I was glad to get some confidence back,'' said Schrader. "Coach has just been telling me to drive the ball and shoot.'' Tracy Harbut had 11 points and freshman Kari Laimbeer (daughter of former Irish player and Detroit WNBA coach Bill Laimbeer) scored five, including a 3-pointer when everybody from Notre Dame seemed to forget she was in the game. The hosts tried to avoid fouling Duffy when the game was on the line, but the others connected often enough to pretty much void the effort. "Notre Dame made the plays when they had to,'' said Cieplicki. "But we are developing a hardness that it takes to win in this league.'' Cieplicki pointed to an instant following a media timeout with 7:50 to play when Johnson missed a layup and her teammates missed three followup shots as a turning point. Notre Dame shot only 12-for-32 in the first half, missing numerous layups, but stepped up to 14-for-26 in the second half. The Irish never hit a 3-point shot, Duffy's 0-for-4 the extent of the Irish effort.
GOSHEN - John Dean Leer, 83, died at 1:58 a.m. Monday in his home. Survivors include a son, Gary of Milford; and a brother, Lamar of Goshen. Services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday in Yoder-Culp Funeral Home, where friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.
SOUTH BEND - Henry L. Smith Sr., 63, passed away Sunday in St. Joseph Regional Medical Center. He is survived by his wife, Pamela Smith; daughters, Annette Williams, Mary Styles, Maxine Smith, Karen Troupe, Jennifer Cuthird, Kelly Smith, and Amy Smith; sons, Marvin Johnson, Henry Johnson, Henry Lee Smith Jr., Victor Smith, Omar McFall and Tony Smith; eight sisters and ten brothers. Funeral services will be at 1 p.m. today, August 22, in Alford's Mortuary, where friends may call one hour prior to services.
PLYMOUTH -- The Marshall County Council made it more than halfway to its goal of cutting at least $604,000 from departmental budgets for 2009, before ending hearings Tuesday afternoon. The council slashed more than $455,000 from the general fund before adjourning after two days of hearings. Initial department requests would have pumped up the 2009 county budget to more than $11 million. By the end of the first day of hearings, that was pared down to just more than $10.8 million. Council President Matt Hassel kept the hearings on a fairly tight schedule both days, requiring department heads to outline where proposed expenditures "are most significant." On more than one occasion, council members explained that money would be tight in 2009, and even more so in 2010. Fred Lintner, past president of the council, told one department head he had made some "compelling" arguments when asking for more money in 2009 than the department received in 2008. "But we have requests over $11 million," Lintner said, "... and expected income at $605,000 less than the requests. ... If we grant you this, somebody out there pays the price. "There's a box of only so much money out there. ... The taxpayers are at their limit. ..." The council had, as guidelines, recommendations from the Marshall County Commissioners. They included: No new positions be funded. If followed, that will affect requests in the prosecutor's office and others. Fund only four of the seven vehicles requested by the Sheriff's Department. The council is considering funding five at this time. Give full- and part-time employees a 4 percent wage increase. Raises still are being reviewed by the council, and no decision yet made. The council will reconvene to resume work on the budget at 9 a.m. Sept. 8 in the commissioners' meeting room on the second floor of the Marshall County Building, 112 W. Jefferson St. Staff writer Anita Munson: amunson@sbtinfo.com (574) 936-2920