Chronicle

Eric Siegel is on assignment. His column will not appear today.

John Richard "Dick" Irwin, a tough, accurate veteran police reporter with a heart of gold whose signature Police Blotter became required reading for both crime aficionados and the just plain curious, died Wednesday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center of complications from diabetes. Mr. Irwin, whose career at the News-Post, News American, The Evening Sun and The Baltimore Sun spanned more than 40 years, was 76. "He had the mutual respect of the police. He was an honest man, and he didn't like when people tried to fudge things with him. He believed that the police had to be as transparent as possible, and he was right," said Bill Toohey, former Baltimore County police spokesman.

Its politics are progressive, its readers blue collar, its margin of profit marginal. Anyone who picks up the Baltimore Chronicle knows that this monthly community newspaper has a healthy disregard for the conventions of journalism.For 20 years, the Baltimore Chronicle has been tilting at windmills local and global. From their converted rowhouse on W. Street, editors Alice Cherbonnier and Larry Krause take on the Star Wars missile defense, right-wing regimes in Central America, domestic violence, Operation Desert Storm, illiteracy, health care, public apathy and, on stressful deadline days, each other.

The four-story brownstone near Washington's Lafayette Park is one of the most exclusive hotels in the world. There's a fireplace in the master bathroom, and the thread counts on the sheets is high enough to rival the Four Seasons. And only four people can get reservations to stay there right now - possibly because the coverlet bears the presidential seal, and there are accommodations for the Secret Service in the basement. The townhouse on West Jackson Place is the residence where Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and both George Bushes stay when they are in Washington on official business.

STUDIO CITY, CALIF. -- Ed Begley Jr.'s wife, Rachelle Carson, was freezing inside the couple's 1,700-square-foot home last week. "He's like the Marquis de Sade," she said of her energy efficiency-minded husband, who refused to turn on the natural gas despite plunging temperatures inside the Begleys' house. "What about the warmth that I'm sending you right now, honey?" Begley asked. Carson smirked and then embraced her husband. Welcome to life at the Begleys. On Tv A sneak preview of Living With Ed airs at 1 p.m. Monday on HGTV.

Reporters will avoid prison time Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters will avoid prison time after a defense lawyer agrees to plead guilty to leaking them secret grand jury documents in the BALCO case. Pg 8D

Kathleen Tynan, 57, who won widespread acclaim for a biography of her late husband, drama critic Kenneth Tynan, died of cancer Tuesday in London. Her husband, who died in 1980, was London's most influential theater critic and played a major role in shaping British drama. Her 1987 biography, "The Life of Kenneth Tynan," was hailed as the high spot of her literary career. Her other works include the 1975 novel "The Summer Aeroplane" and the screenplay for the 1978 movie "Agatha," which starred Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave.

Excerpts from a forthcoming book by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters offer more evidence that Barry Bonds used myriad illegal performance-enhancing drugs to further his already impressive career. The book is coming out a year after Jose Canseco's Juiced first implicated Bonds and other major league players. PG 1A

They are everywhere. From graduations to art festivals to a regular day in the city. No life event is complete without the long eye of the lens. Some cameras are conspicuous while others only come out of pants pockets and handbags when it's time to chronicle some of life's major milestones. Say "cheese!"

`The Intimate Ellicott City' For their new exhibit at Andrei Kushnir/Michele Taylor American Painting, members of the Washington Society of Landscape Painters went indoors to chronicle a slice of historical Ellicott City life. The more than 15 pieces they created chronicle busy store displays and dark, atmospheric bar scenes. "I love being here, and part of this is kind of a little labor of love to show the community itself through the eyes of these artists," said Kushnir, who painted a scene of Yates Market.

Jeanine Cummins wants more than anything in the world to give a voice to people who are unable to speak for themselves. In the past, she has spoken for family members. In her 2004 memoir, "A Rip in Heaven," Cummins spoke for her cousins, Julie and Robin Kerry, who were gang-raped and murdered in 1991. She spoke for her older brother, Tom, who also was hurt in that attack on a bridge outside St. Louis. "My cousin, Julie was a really gifted writer," says Cummins, 38, who grew up in Gaithersburg.

El Capitan is an intimidating granite formation in California's Yosemite National Park, popular with climbers because its 7,573-foot vertical face presents such a challenge. Pete Davis has done the four-night, five-day ascent twice, which is an accomplishment in itself. And he did it with one hand. The native of Phoenix in Baltimore County was born without an arm below the elbow, but as he shows in the short climbing film "The Gimp Monkeys," he'd rather have "one hand and a good attitude" than two hands and a bad outlook.

Since some new readers have drifted my way, I thought it might be useful to summarize some of the grammar and usage points that crop up regularly in these parts, particularly the bogus rules and superstitions, sometimes called “zombie rules,” that distract people from real editing. If you want to dissent from any of these points, go ahead. But I will be ready for you.    Fully exploded Unless you are working for an uncommonly primitive and obtuse outfit, or your employer has slipped beyond ratiocination, you should not be observing any of these long-discredited superstitions: No prepositions at the end of sentences.

Paul Edward Kennedy Mullan, a photographer who made headlines as a foundling discovered in a Towson apartment vestibule, died of a brain tumor Feb. 27 at his parents' North Baltimore home. He was 34. The story of his first days filled news columns in January 1979. The Sun reported he was discovered near the vestibule mailboxes of a Towson garden apartment near Towson University. Days old, he was wrapped in a plaid blanket and dressed in a J.C. Penney shirt and a diaper held together with Scotch tape.

Harrison Demchick is by his own account an optimist. He doesn't think that human society or our ruling institutions have become irredeemably corrupt. He didn't make one single preparation for this past Friday, when the Mayan calendar came to an abrupt — and some would say ominous — halt. So the 28-year-old Owings Mills resident is an unlikely candidate to have made his literary debut last week with an apocalyptic horror novel called "The Listeners. " In the book, an unnamed city is being ravaged by an airborne, flesh-eating plague that turns those it infects into walking corpses.

Every week, I hope to bring you a quick Q&A with someone who covers the Ravens' opponent that week. On Sunday, the Ravens will take on the Houston Texans in Houston. Stephanie Stradley blogs about the Texans for The Houston Chronicle , and she was kind enough to answer a few of questions heading into the game. MV: Were you surprised by how the Texans played in Sunday night's loss to the Green Bay Packers? Is there reason for concern, particularly with the defense, or was it just a case of running into Aaron Rodgers while he was ticked off?

Bank tellers lose benefitsThousands of tellers at Bank of America are losing their full-time jobs and are being offered part-time positions without health or other benefits, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.The move is a sweeping attempt by the bank to slash costs and gain staffing flexibility after its merger with Security Pacific Corp. For many tellers at Bank of America, California's largest financial institution, paychecks will be cut by as much as 50 percent.@

LET'S hear it for Daniel L. Ritchie, chancellor of the University of Denver, who earned $1 last year, says he doesn't need a salary and would rather see his university use the money in other ways.Dr. Ritchie (a wealthy former cattle rancher and corporate executive) was the lowest-paid private college and university president, according to the May 5 Chronicle of Higher Education, while John Silber of Boston University ranked first at $414,700. (The figures are for the 1991-92 fiscal year and include "welfare benefit programs" such as health and pension plans.

Dr. Joseph Taler, a retired Glen Burnie family physician who survived the Holocaust in Poland by not wearing his Star of David armband, taking a Christian surname, and hiding in a village, died Sunday of heart failure at his Annapolis home. He was 89. The only child of an attorney and a pharmacist, Dr. Taler was born and raised in Rozwadow, Poland, where he attended high school. Dr. Taler's father, Abraham Taler, who had been a prominent member of the Polish infantry during the 1919-1920 Polish-Bolshevik conflict, had been recalled to active duty in 1939, was later arrested by the Soviets and was on a train bound for Russia when he escaped during a stop.

It wasn't until my husband held our son Aaron for the first time that I realized I'd been holding my breath - for months. In August, Judah had hugged me, 20-something-weeks' pregnant, and our 3-year-old goodbye before leaving for a tour in Afghanistan. Nearly five months later, he'd watched via Skype from the district center in Musa Qal'eh as Aaron was born, four days past his Christmas Day due date - at 1:58 p.m. by my watch, 2328 by Judah's. Since that day, I'd been staring at the baby, who wears my husband's face in miniature, and marveling at their similarities - the long eyelashes, the expression in sleep, the chin, the smirk - but refusing to fully acknowledge the fear that I'd never see those two versions of the same face together.