Bristol

Mario Gozzini, 79, the father of Italian prison reform, died Jan. 2 in Rome. Mr. Gozzini was the author of a 1986 prison reform bill under which prisoners are allowed a partial freedom, including long furloughs. Many have praised the measure as humane, but critics have noted that several high-profile inmates, including some accused of terrorism, have used the furloughs to escape.The Marquess of Bristol, 44, who squandered millions on drugs and was jailed twice for heroin and cocaine possession, died in his sleep yesterday at his family's estate in eastern England near Bury St. Edmunds, said Simon Pott,his agent.

The University of Maryland men's basketball team was one of four Division I programs in the state with declining graduation rates, according to the most recent NCAA graduation rate report.Maryland's graduation rate declined to 15 percent in the 1996 NCAA report, which covers freshmen who entered the men's basketball program between 1986 and 1989. That compares with 38 percent in the 1995 report, which includes freshmen entering between 1985 and 1988. The University of Maryland-Eastern Shore (from 20 percent to 17)

University of Maryland officials said recently that their athletes are doing better academically than the overall student body.But 10 years after Len Bias' June 1986 death, the men's basketball team still is struggling to balance athletics and academics.Of the eight players who have spent four years in coach Gary Williams' program, one -- reserve guard Wayne Bristol -- has graduated, according to university records and interviews with players and their families.Those eight players include Williams' four seniors this past season -- Exree Hipp, Mario Lucas, Johnny Rhodes and Duane Simpkins.

Bristol, Connecticut -- "Each truck pulling away from the 106-year-old General Motors plant carries more than cold steel. It takes part of the soul of Bristol and the generations of families who worked there.''That was the lead last Sunday of a story by Susan Houriet and Michael Kodas in the Hartford Courant on the closing of the GM plant called ''New Departures'' around here, a factory that employed as many as 11,000 people once upon a time and turned farms into an industrial town of 60,000 in the middle of one of the richest of the United States.

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- He came to the University of Maryland when the basketball program was about to bottom out, barely competitive in the Atlantic Coast Conference while suffering through a nasty NCAA probation.He will complete his eligibility after a season that began here Monday ends in the spring, probably sometime in March and possibly in April. By then, the Terrapins might have finished the storybook they began writing last season.In a way, Wayne Bristol's college basketball career has mirrored Maryland's own roller coaster ride.

* Kenneth Gordon Davies, 70, a historian and expert on the American Revolution, suffered a stroke and died on Feb. 17 in Bristol, England. His 21-volume "Documents of the American Revolution, 1770-1783," published between 1971-1982, used previously unavailable documents held at the Public Record Office where he began his career in 1947. He taught at the London School of Economics before moving in 1952 to New College, Oxford University. He left Oxford in 1963 for Bristol and retired in 1969.

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- He came to the University of Maryland when the basketball program was about to bottom out, barely competitive in the Atlantic Coast Conference while suffering through a nasty NCAA probation.He will complete his eligibility after a season that began here Monday ends in the spring, probably sometime in March and possibly in April. By then, the Terrapins might have finished the storybook they began writing last season.In a way, Wayne Bristol's college basketball career has mirrored Maryland's own roller coaster ride.

COLLEGE PARK -- Despite sitting out a couple of practices last week because of it, Maryland center Joe Smith doesn't seem to be bothered too much by the jammed big toe on his right foot.Smith, a consensus preseason All-American going into his sophomore year, dominated the team's intrasquad scrimmage yesterday. Though he didn't put up 40 points on 16-for-17 shooting as he did two weeks ago, the rest of the Terrapins couldn't stop him.Playing against Smith might help prepare junior Mario Lucas or freshman Rodney Elliott, but does it help get Smith ready for the season?

Wayne Bristol, a 6-foot-1 junior guard who appeared in 21 games last season, is academically ineligible for the fall semester and will miss at least Maryland's first six games. If Bristol makes sufficient academic progress this fall, he'd be able to return to the Terps on Dec. 15.Bristol, of Beltsville, averaged 2.6 points and 1.2 rebounds in a reserve role last season.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- If Mark Martin can take the Southern 500 Sunday at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, he will become the third driver in as many years to win four NASCAR Winston Cup races in a row.Harry Gant was "Mr. September" in 1991 for the Leo Jackson-owned team. And Bill Elliott was "Mr. March" last year in his first season with car owner Junior Johnson, sweeping four starts that month.Martin can't be a "Mr. Month" should he win the Labor Day weekend classic on the historic track, because his streak would stretch from August into September.

John Stanley Mullin, Email condolences may be sent to the family at akardfh akardfuneralhome.com. Akard Funeral Home, 1912 W. State St., Bristol, TN (423) 989-4800 is serving the family of Mr. Mullin.

I miss Murphy Brown. Not so much the sitcom of old, although I did watch it regularly and loved Candice Bergen's sass and style (great white shirts, cool accessories) as TV reporter Murphy Brown. But what I really miss is a time when campaign discourse about unwed pregnancy centered on a grown-up, albeit fictional, woman rather than a 17-year-old, and very real, girl. Back then - 1992, to be exact - it was slightly comical when Vice President Dan Quayle triggered a dispute by holding up Murphy Brown as a symbol of the breakdown in family values because the fictional character had a fictional baby out of fictional wedlock.

A Forest Hill teenager, accused of shooting at a Harford County sheriff's deputy last week, was ordered yesterday by a judge to undergo a competency evaluation. Justin Jacob Bristol, 16, appeared briefly via video for a bail hearing at Harford County District Court. The teenager told Judge Victor K. Butanis that he had lived in Forest Hill for 16 years and that he was an 11th-grader at a school connected to the Sheppard Pratt Health System. Butanis ordered that Bristol be held without bail pending the evaluation.

A 16-year-old Forest Hill youth has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, accused of shooting at a Harford County sheriff's deputy early yesterday, authorities said. Justin Jacob Bristol, who was charged as an adult, was being held without bail at the Harford County Detention Center, police said. The Emergency Operations Center received a call about 7 a.m. yesterday from someone saying that a teenager was agitated and possibly suicidal, police said. The caller said the teenager, who does not have a driver's license, had taken his grandmother's 2002 red Jeep Liberty without permission.

It won't get nearly the attention of Brett Favre's tearful farewell, but NASCAR will be bidding adieu this weekend to one of its longtime stars. Dale Jarrett, 51, will take his last spin this weekend at the big race in Bristol, Tenn., in his No. 44 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing. Jarrett comes out of the North Carolina racing tradition and ran for 24 years and won 32 races, including seven in 1997 and three at the Daytona 500. His father, Ned, was a two-time Grand National champion, and his son, Jason, drove in the Busch Series.

On July 13, 2007, AVA. Loving wife of John Briston; caring mother of Damaris Bristol. She is also survived by four sisters, Annette Spriggs, Arlene Barrett, Doris Thomas, and Barbara Roberts; two brothers, Rev. Alvin Gwynn and Alfred Gwynn, and a host of other relatives and friends. Friends may visit at the Gary P. March Funeral Home, 270 Fred Hilton Pass, on Thursday, 11 A.M. to 7 P.M. Family will receive friends at Friendship Baptist Church, 600 Loch Raven Blvd., on Friday, 10:30 to 11 A.M., with homegoing services immediately following.

This is how to hold a corporate executive accountable. Bristol-Myers boss Peter R. Dolan did poorly by shareholders, regulators and ultimately his board of directors. So they fired him. That wasn't so hard, was it? Corporate America, take notes. From May 1, 2001, when Dolan became chief executive, to yesterday, when Wall Street celebrated his ejection by buying the stock in herds, Bristol shares lost 56 percent of their value. The company's vaunted diabetes drug, Pargluva, flopped and had to be scrapped.

CECIL CLAGGETT KNIGHTON, 87, a lifelong resident of Anne Arundel County and a well-known Annapolis business figure and philanthropist, died of heart failure July 12, 2006 at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. The son of Cecil B. Knighton and Ida Belle Bassford Knighton was born November 5, 1918 on his family's farm in Birdsville. He graduated from Annapolis High School in 1936 and attended St. John's College for two years. In 1938, he married the former Martha Elizabeth Jones of Lothian and went to work for the J.E. Greiner Co. on the construction of the Potomac River Bridge.

On March 30, 2006, BRISTOL WHITE SR. Friends may call at the CHATMAN-HARRIS FUNERAL HOME, 5240 Reisterstown Road, Tuesday after 1 P.M. to 8 P.M. The family will receive friends at the Laborers For Jesus Church, 4714 Erdman Avenue, Wednesday, 11 A.M. Funeral Services will begin 11:30 A.M., due notice of Interment.

CALENDAR NASCAR NEXTEL CUP Golden Corral 500 Site -- Hampton, Ga. When -- Today, 11 a.m. TV -- FX Pole-sitter -- Kasey Kahne Food City 500 Site -- Bristol, Tenn. When -- Sunday, 2:10 p.m. TV -- Ch. 45 (1:30 p.m.) Track -- Bristol Motor Speedway (.533-mile oval) Distance -- 500 laps, 266.5 miles 2005 champion -- Kevin Harvick 2005 pole-sitter -- Elliott Sadler Last year -- Harvick won his first short-track race and got his first victory in two seasons while his crew chief, Todd Berrier, was serving a four-race suspension for cheating a few weeks earlier in Las Vegas.