Cousin

Schools Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin and the county Board of Education have begun negotiations to renew his contract. Cousin's contract does not expire until July, but state regulations required him to inform the board by the end of January whether he wanted to continue leading the school system. The board was then required to decide by the end of this month whether to renew his contract. The board unanimously approved this month entering into negotiations with Cousin this month. Cousin and the board have until the end of his current contract to work out the details of his extension.

City police obtained an arrest warrant yesterday charging an 18-year-old man with stabbing his young cousin in the chest in their East Baltimore rowhouse. Detectives said they would delay serving the warrant on Kevin Trinell Brown of the 1400 block of E. Eager St. until after he was evaluated by psychiatrists at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup, the state's maximum-security hospital. Police sources said that they were concerned that Brown would not be able to handle confinement and that they were working on a way to arrest him but not take him to be formally booked or held in the city's Detention Center.

Did Richard Anthony Cooper die for want of a couple hundred dollars?Havre de Grace police think so.Investigators believe the 22-year-old Havre de Grace man's dispute over a debt with his cousin, Cornelius Marcellous Cooper, came to ahead March 28 when Cornelius allegedly gunned down Richard Cooper inthe 200 block of Bloomsbury Ave. Police believe 20-year-old Cornelius Cooper was fed up with his cousin's badgering him for the money, thought to be between $200...

Q: I have a problem that I don't think is normal. I'm scared to die. My cousin died and I was scared to look at her. Then, I started to cry. Her daughter cried many times and I felt sorry for her. Her aunt is taking care of her. My pastor said something about death. That's when I started to think about my dead cousin. Can you give some advice?A: First of all, how you're feeling is normal. It's scary when someone you know and love dies. It's also very hard to understand and accept the person's death, especially if the person died suddenly or was young.

Donta's little cousin.For Keith Booth, those three words were a label he never could seem to shake. He picked it up years ago, when he began tagging along with his cousin, Donta Bright. It stuck with him through last season, when, side by side, the cousins helped lead Dunbar High School to a national title.No matter what he did, how much he accomplished, Booth always was Donta's little cousin."That's what everybody used to call me," Booth said. "I got no recognition at all. Everybody would talk about Donta, and I'd think, 'I'd like to be just like that.

Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin intends to remain as head of Howard County's school system and will ask the Board of Education to renew his contract, he said yesterday. "I would really like to stay," Cousin said. He has been inundated with e-mail asking him to stay as superintendent, he said, after an article in The Sun last week revealed that he was contemplating retirement. "It is a big decision to commit yourself to an additional four years," Cousin said. The superintendent's contract does not expire for more than six months, but state regulations require him to inform the Howard County Board of Education by the end of January whether he wants to continue as superintendent.

The redistricting process for Howard County high schools continues tonight when Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin is to present his boundary recommendations to the Board of Education. His proposal follows the months-long work by the Howard County School Boundary Line Committee as the county prepares to open its 12th high school, Marriott's Ridge, next fall in Marriottsville. Last month, the committee unveiled for the community two redistricting plans, dubbed "green" and red." Cousin has reviewed the committee's proposals.

Howard County schools Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin got high marks for leadership in his first year on the job, according to a performance evaluation conducted by the Board of Education last week. Cousin's first yearly evaluation found "his performance to be outstanding in his first year," said Courtney Watson, the board chairman. "The most significant [accomplishment] was the dramatic change in the climate of the school system," Watson said. "Improving the school system's climate was the critical goal without which the system cannot move forward on other goals."

World heavyweight champion Hasim S. Rahman helped launder $37,000 in suspected drug money for a cousin in 1998, shortly before the relative was sent to prison for trafficking in cocaine and heroin, federal authorities say. The allegations came to light in a sworn statement by U.S. Customs Service investigators seeking to seize an investment account belonging to Rahman's cousin, William A. Fryson Jr. Rahman is not charged with any crime. In the affidavit, Customs agents say Rahman used suspected drug cash to write personal checks and buy cashier's checks, which then were deposited as legitimate earnings into Fryson's account with Legg Mason Inc. The affidavit said Fryson's girlfriend and another woman made similar transactions, putting the total deposits at $58,000.

Teacher salaries and benefits resulting from union negotiations contributed to the bulk of the $43.8 million increase to Howard County Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin's proposed 2009 operating budget. The $656.7 million budget would allow the school system to hire 151 new employees and to perform upkeep maintenance on older buildings. "This budget is a realistic and responsible one," Cousin said Thursday before he unveiled the plan to the public. Under Cousin's budget, teacher salaries would increase by about 5 percent.