Baltimore District

Maryland's highest court put state Sen. Clarence W. Blount's name back on the ballot yesterday for the Democratic primary, reversing a lower court's decision that "overwhelming" evidence showed he did not live in the Northwest Baltimore district he represents.The Court of Appeals issued a unanimous order 30 minutes after attorneys for Blount and his challenger, Del. Frank D. Boston Jr., finished arguing their cases.A full written opinion explaining the ruling is expected later.The ruling ended an expensive lawsuit filed by Boston seeking to have Blount's name stricken from the Democratic ballot because, Boston alleged, the senator lives in Pikesville.

State Sen. Larry Young's likely expulsion from the Senate today would set off a process for filling the vacancy that is spelled out clearly in the Maryland Constitution -- but is more commonly a straight political deal worked out behind closed doors.Technically, a vacancy in the Maryland Senate or House of Delegates is filled by the party central committee for the district. Its recommendation is forwarded to the governor, who is bound to appoint the person named.As a practical matter, though, the five members of the Democratic State Central Committee from Young's West Baltimore district -- the 44th Legislative District -- are loyal to Young.

Aaron Gabriel Blum, a Baltimore native who became a torchbearer for Zionism in Maryland and Israel, died in a Tel Aviv hospital Thursday from complications of cancer. He was 76.For 43 years, Mr. Blum held leadership positions with Zionist organizations founded to build support for the state of Israel and strengthen its ties with the United States.From 1949 to 1982, he was executive director of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) Seaboard Region -- known for the past two years as the Baltimore Zionist District.

A $10.1 million dredging contract has been awarded to California-based Dutra Construction Co. Inc. by the Baltimore District of the Army Corps of Engineers.The company will dredge several waterways, including the Craighill, Brewerton and Tolchester channels.Pub Date: 9/20/96

If you want to know why the opening of the new Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center is so breathlessly anticipated, you can ask the politicians. Or you can ask schoolteacher Dorian Brice.The project, which will be unveiled today in the first public demonstration of its $10 million worth of high-tech equipment, is designed to bring efficiency to the city's bloated criminal justice system. Ms. Brice, who was arrested this year on a misdemeanor charge, knows about the current system's inefficiencies, which she contends cost her three days in a holding cell just waiting to be processed.

Imagine going to the post office and not having to get out of your car to stand in line for a postage stamp.Come tomorrow, you can stay in your car and use the new drive-through post office service by the Oakland Mills post office at 6801 Oak Hall Road to purchase stamps and money orders, and to mail letters and packages.The drive-through -- the second in the Baltimore District -- will not ... allow customers to apply for passports or pick up mail."We are trying to make it easier for our customers to do business with us and as pleasantly as possible," said Deborah Yackley, a postal spokeswoman.

Because of a production error, the continuation of an article about judicial appointments in Baltimore that appeared on Page 3B in yesterday's Maryland section was incorrect. The following should have appeared:" 'While we are disappointed that the governor did not appoint a woman to the Court of Special Appeals, we are pleased that the governor's choices in Baltimore City reflect his concern for diversity,' said M. Brooke Murdock, president of the Women's Law Center."Ms. Dancy, 49, said she was 'delighted' with the appointment she had sought for so long.

Steelworkers reorganizeThe United Steelworkers of America's executive board approved a restructuring late yesterday that reduces by almost half its number of regional districts. Baltimore-based District 8 will almost triple in membership.Union President George Becker said the consolidations better reflect the geographical makeup of the union and will give its membership a more unified voice politically.The reorganization, which reduces the number of districts from 21 to 12, makes Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky, with 41,800 dues-paying members, part of the Baltimore district.

Robert J. Penland was working undercover, negotiating to buy a ton of raw opium in a remote Pakistani farming village, when he got a sinking feeling.He was on his own.Armed guards were posted on rooftops of the village huts, and Mr. Penland, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, could quickly become their target. His backup protection was 10 miles away."I was all by myself, on my own wits," he said recently, recalling a sting operation that eventually netted a large cache of opium, the basic ingredient for heroin.

Baltimore legislators, usually allies in Annapolis, may soon be at each other's throats as their districts are redrawn.With the exodus to the suburbs continuing, the city stands to lose at least one and maybe two of its nine districts when new lines are drawn to reflect the 1990 census. That means a loss of clout in Annapolis as well as the loss of safe seats for four, and maybe eight, of the 36 city lawmakers."We realize that somebody will have to be bumped," said Sen. Clarence W. Blount, D-City.

Judge finds for homeowner over foreclosure scam A Baltimore homeowner who lost his house in a foreclosure assistance scam was awarded a $63,908 judgment Monday in Baltimore County Circuit Court. Judge Lawrence Daniels ruled in favor of the homeowner, David Moennich, who had filed a breach of contract lawsuit against defendant Michael Wolf in 2006. In his lawsuit, Moennich said that in 2004 when he was facing foreclosure, he signed over the deed to his $184,000 house to Wolf, who promised to prevent foreclosure and give Moennich a chance to buy back the house.

Simon Kahle Price, who owned a Canton restaurant and a Butchers Hill bar, died Jan. 20 at Johns Hopkins Hospital of post-operative complications after an aortic aneurysm. He was 41. Mr. Prince, the son of a pastor and a Baltimore District Court judge, was born in Baltimore and raised in Annapolis. Known as "Si," Mr. Price was a 1985 graduate of Broadneck High School, where he had been a member of the wrestling, football and lacrosse teams. He attended what is now McDaniel College and Catonsville Community College before earning a bachelor's degree in sociology from Towson University in 1992.

The details of the crimes in the small Russian city were as grisly and shocking as any on the streets of Baltimore: a wife, long abused, who bludgeoned her spouse with an ax; another, beaten to death by her slovenly drunken husband; or another woman, who refused to testify against her abuser. Although she had come as an adviser from more than 4,000 miles away, the crimes had a familiar ring to Maryland first lady Catherine Curran O'Malley, a Baltimore District Court judge who often handles aspects of such cases.

George Steuart Hupfer, who retired from the Army Corps of Engineers after helping design dams along the Susquehanna River, died Friday after undergoing heart surgery at University of Maryland Medical Center. He was 81. Born in Walbrook and raised on Lyndhurst Avenue, he was a 1943 graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School, where he played third base on the varsity baseball team. He enlisted in the Army at 17, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and participated in the occupation of Germany.

Alan B. Lipson, a retired Baltimore District Court judge and avid sailor, died Tuesday from complications of a stroke at the Pickersgill Retirement Community in Towson. The former Guilford resident was 75. He was born in Providence, R.I., and moved with his family to Manchester, N.H., in 1939. While living there, he developed lifelong interests in skiing, sailing and tennis. After earning a bachelor's degree in economics in 1952 from the University of New Hampshire, he served in the Air Force for two years, and remained in the reserve, attaining the rank of captain.

There are few things in life that one can completely rely on, making the steady presence of the U.S. Postal Service all the more comforting. The mere sight of those ubiquitous blue post boxes conveys a semblance of order. That all is right in the world. That a man like Eric Dunn can wake up in the morning, cross the street and drop a letter into the box at 3630 Reisterstown Road. Or maybe not. "They're what?" said Dunn, 51, when told that the mailbox was one of 120 across Baltimore City and parts of Baltimore County to be uprooted this month.

Karen Harris normally has to perform quite the sales pitch to persuade customers to try the U.S. Postal Service's automated, do-it-yourself mailing center. Yesterday, all it took was a glance at the line in the lobby, the towers of packages teetering in people's arms and the stacks of Christmas cards waiting to be stamped. "They look down there and then they look at me, and they decide to give it a try," said Harris, lobby director of Baltimore's main post office on Fayette Street. With Christmas bearing down on gift givers and card senders nationwide, Postal Service officials expected yesterday to be the busiest mailing day of the year with an anticipated 280 million postmarked cards and letters and millions of packages handled.

Charles J. Krysiak, retired chairman of the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission who represented a Southeast Baltimore district in the legislature for the better part of two decades, died of liver disease Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 67. Born in Fells Point, he was a graduate of Holy Rosary Parochial School and worked in area drugstores to put himself through Loyola High School, where he was a 1955 graduate. He earned a bachelor's degree from Loyola College and a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law. He went into law practice with George Hofferbert, who was long a figure in east-side politics.

Regina B. Friedel, a homemaker and widow of Samuel N. Friedel, who represented a Baltimore district in Congress for 18 years, died of emphysema Sept. 23 at a nursing home in Bedford, Texas. The former Cross Keys resident was 89. She was born Regina Bradley Johnson in Baltimore, the daughter of a Pennsylvania Railroad official. She was raised on 34th Street in Hampden and was a graduate of Baltimore public schools. In 1939, she married Mr. Friedel, who served in the House of Delegates and on the City Council, and represented the 7th Congressional District until being defeated in the 1970 primary by Parren J. Mitchell.

Architects, landscape architects and artists from around the world will have a chance to design an outdoor memorial to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 attack at the Pentagon, and federal officials in Baltimore will play a key role in determining what gets built. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was scheduled today to officially launch an international competition to select a designer for the memorial to be constructed near the site where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, resulting in 189 deaths.