Allegany County

The night of Oct. 26, the town of Frostburg threw its annual Halloween warm-up parade. School bands, cheerleaders and volunteer firefighters snaked down Main Street. Local politicians rode in pickup trucks, tossing candy into the crowd, talking sweet talk to one another. "See you at the polls November 7th!" shouted Mike Wade, a write-in candidate for the Allegany Board of County Commissioners. Frostburg State University students turned part of a municipal building into a haunted house for kids.

CUMBERLAND - The textile factory closed in 1983, the tire plant in 1987. By the early 1990s, the glass company that once employed 1,300 moved its final 50 jobs out of town. When word came recently that a cabinet manufacturer would bring 500 jobs to Allegany County, the biggest new opportunity in a generation, some residents didn't believe it until the steel skeleton of the plant began rising in a field where cattle once grazed in the shadow of the ever-present mountains. Then the floodgates opened.

CUMBERLAND -- Slot machine gambling is against the law in most parts of Maryland, but you would never know it here.Throughout Allegany County, bars, restaurants and fraternal clubs feature video poker machines that produce cash payouts for lucky players. The machines bear signs "For Amusement Only," but everyone knows that winners can collect their money -- anywhere from $10 to $300 or more -- at the bar.Such illegal electronic gambling is not unique to the county and can be found in many spots across the state.

HOUSE SPEAKER Casper R. Taylor Jr., who needs all the friends he can get these days, has found one in Gov. Parris N. Glendening. Taylor has come under fire in his hometown, Cumberland, for his role in a controversy about school closings. He was the subject of an effusive testimonial by the governor last week in a letter to the Cumberland Times-News. Praising his fellow Democrat's "character and integrity," Glendening defended Taylor against rumors that he had "sold" his vote on the governor's gun-safety bill for $1 million to stave off school closings in Allegany County.

In two Western Maryland communities, people are battling efforts to bring in trash from other states that are running out of landfill space -- a fight that state environmental officials have so far refused to join.Along the Potomac River, in the Frederick County town of Point of Rocks, residents formed a group called Halt Imported Trash (HIT) to protest a proposed recycling business that would take in more than 1,000 tons of trash daily, much of it from other states.And about 90 miles west, a coalition of local groups is lobbying Allegany County officials against a proposal from a private waste management firm to truck in more than 600,000 tons of trash annually to a landfill in Vale Summit now under construction.

On May 23, 2004, ALOYSIUS B. YUCIS, of Delta, PA and formerly of Baltimore and Allegany County. Beloved husband of Diana C. (Wescott) Yucis. Loving father of Christopher L. Yucis. Dear brother of Mary Y. Bernard. For service details, please contact Harkins Funeral Home, Delta, PA at 800-550-5915.

On Page 13 of today's Sun Magazine, the person pictured is not "Miss Annie" Bellinger but "Miss Minnie" Piper, a bridge tender in Oldtown, Allegany County. Above is a photo of "Miss Annie" Bellinger.L On Page 8 of the Magazine, Leon Summers' name is misspelled.The Sun regrets the errors.

A 15-year-old girl from Allegany County has died after being struck by a car Tuesday along Coastal Highway in Ocean City , police said Wednesday. The driver of the car that struck her, a 17-year-old boy from Worcester County, was not charged and was released by police at the scene. Neither have been identified due to their ages, police said. Police first responded to the intersection of Coastal Highway and 21st Street about 5:45 p.m. for reports of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle.

Arthur H. Bremer, who shot and paralyzed former Alabama Gov. George Wallace in 1972, is living in an apartment in Cumberland as he begins the transition to life in the outside world after 35 years behind prison walls, an Allegany County official said yesterday. "He is in Cumberland. ... It's really not a big deal," said Allegany County Administrator Vance Ishler. In an effort to avoid media attention, Bremer, 57, was released from a state prison in Hagerstown on Friday before dawn. Prison system officials declined to say where he would be living but had previously said they would try to find a place for him in a rural part of Maryland.

MARGARET S. BEALL was born in Cumberland, MD April 16, 1900. The daughter of Ella and John Schwarzenbach, she attended the Allegany County Academy and the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, PA. She was the last surviving member of the Schwarzenbach family. She was married to former United States Senator J. Glenn Beall on September 12, 1926 after which they resided in Frostburg where she lived until moving to the Kensington Algonquin several year ago. Mrs. Beall died Monday, July 25, 2005 in her residence.