Credentials

Veteran firearms examiner Joseph Kopera routinely brought to court an oversize wooden bullet as a prop, taking it apart and showing jurors precisely how lead projectiles and the weapons that fire them worked together in so many murder cases. He liked to walk around the courtroom, explaining the path of bullets, the pump-action mechanism of some firearms and how an accused gunman could have stuffed a sawed-off shotgun into a seemingly too-small shopping bag, just as prosecutors alleged.

ALONG time ago, when my college-age friends and I were young, over-privileged and not very responsible, family togetherness was the last thing on our minds when we rushed home to Baltimore for the Christmas holidays. Rather, the main attraction was an exhausting series of parties -- lunches, receptions, dinners, balls -- that filled part of every day and most nights.We slept while the sun shone after dancing into the early morning hours, to the music of Lester Lanin amidst the gilded excess of the Belvedere Hotel ballroom, or to the home-grown arrangements of Rivers Chambers at the plainer, if more tasteful Elkridge Club.

The Indy Racing League, yielding to criticism and mindful of the possibility of a media boycott, changed its position and issued a credential to a Sports Illustrated reporter for the May 30 Indianapolis 500.Tony George, president of the IRL, yesterday granted a credential to Ed Hinton, SI's senior auto racing writer, but not before calling Hinton "a danger to himself and to the sport he covers."It's my hope that I never see him or they never come around," George told the Associated Press.

MOSCOW -- Robert Kocharian was formally declared Armenia's second president yesterday as the nation avoided both a return to the Communist past and the tanks in the streets that accompanied the previous presidential election.Despite the burnish of nostalgia and last-minute momentum, Armenia's former Communist Party ruler, Karen Demirchian, faltered in a run-off election Monday, taking 41 percent of the vote.Kocharian, 43, Armenia's prime minister and its acting president since February, had about 59 percent of the vote with 99.4 percent of polling stations counted, according to the nation's Central Elections Commission.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration reportedly is eager to name Dr. Jane E. Henney, vice president of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, to fill the nearly yearlong vacancy created at the Food and Drug Administration by the resignation of its high-profile commissioner, Dr. David A. Kessler.Among her credentials -- which include nearly a decade at the National Cancer Institute -- is that she worked for Kessler for two years as a close deputy.While this makes her very appealing to the White House, consumer groups and Democrats, it could hurt her confirmation chances among Senate Republicans, many of whom were angered by Kessler's aggressive, hands-on style.

The nursing assistant's credentials looked solid when she applied at the Elizabeth Cooney Personnel Agency in Baltimore last fall. But the agency's investigation revealed that the entire resume was a sham, and the woman was never hired.She had no experience in the New York City group home that she listed. In fact, the home didn't exist. Nor did a second reference in New Jersey. The certificate attesting to her credentials was fake, too.Although Maryland monitors dozens of health care professions, nursing assistants are not among them, making it harder to weed out incompetents and putting Maryland's elderly at greater risk of fraud and abuse.

State officials acted swiftly yesterday to remove the head of Bowie State University's fund-raising foundation and vowed to clean up tangled financial problems at the organization.Russell A. Davis, who was director of the Bowie State University Foundation, also faces a state investigation into whether he lied about his academic credentials when he applied for a job at the university, said John Lippincott, a spokesman for the University System of Maryland.Davis told Bowie State officials that he had a master's degree and doctorate in education from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Spectera Inc. landed a health insurance-management contract with the state of Oklahoma that has added 18 jobs at the company, most of them in Baltimore.The Oklahoma contract, covering 150,000 people for five years, is the first state-government work for Spectera's CARE case-management division. It goes into effect Jan. 1 and will be administered mainly from Baltimore, although Spectera also is opening an office in Oklahoma City.Odie A. Nance, chief of the Oklahoma State and Education Employee Group Insurance Plan, called Spectera "the most qualified vendor at the most affordable cost" in a news release issued by Spectera.

FOR THOSE who prefer a more active agenda than snuggling up with a cup of cocoa and a good book as cold weather descends, there's plenty to do right in our corner of the county.Savage Senior Center holds a Bingo Extravaganza from 10: 30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday.The cards are only a nickel. Admission is a nonperishable food item to be donated to a food bank.Coffee and doughnuts will be provided, and dolls will be raffled.Although the center will be closed Wednesday, you can enjoy a flea market there Thursday.

When kindergartners return to Owings Mills Elementary School this morning, one class will be missing an important member -- teacher Sharon Weber.After a tearful farewell, Weber left the Baltimore County school last week because Baltimore school officials are seeking a rare ,, suspension of her teaching license for breaking an agreement to work for the city.The kindergarten teacher signed up for a city school assignment this summer but resigned the day after finding that her classroom lacked such basic materials as books, building blocks and puzzles for 5-year-old students.

WASHINGTON - Democratic leaders seeking to bar Roland Burris from the Senate suffered an important crack in support as they prepared to meet with him today to begin negotiations over whether he will be able to take the seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and outgoing chairwoman of the committee that judges senators' credentials, urged that the Senate seat Burris, arguing that his appointment by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich was lawful regardless of the corruption allegations swirling around the Illinois governor.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- He owns 31 PGA Tour tournament championships and ranks second in the world. His credentials include three major titles, including two of the past four Masters. His performance chart this year shows a victory in Los Angeles and a near-miss in Phoenix. Yet, Phil Mickelson - like all the others - comes to the 72nd Masters reduced to almost an afterthought. The Masters Today through Sunday, Augusta (Ga.) National Golf Club Today's TV: ESPN, 4 p.m.-7 p.m., 8 p.m.-11 p.m.

Drawing a distinction between a police firearms expert's perjured testimony about his education and his analysis of bullet fragments that linked a former Baltimore police sergeant to a 1993 murder, a Baltimore County judge ruled yesterday that James A. Kulbicki should not receive a new trial. In ruling on the case - the first to include longtime ballistics expert Joseph Kopera's falsified credentials as part of a challenge to a defendant's conviction - Circuit Judge Kathleen G. Cox found that Kopera had repeatedly committed perjury in courtrooms across Maryland in testifying to college degrees that he never earned.

A. Robert Kaufman isn't giving up on socialism, but he has had it with the hardscrabble Walbrook neighborhood where he was twice attacked. He's moving to Northwest Baltimore. The perennial candidate shared that news last week, phoning from a hospital bed where he was recovering from an infection related to the dialysis he has needed since a near-fatal beating and stabbing in 2005 at his home in an apartment building he owns. The mayoral and kidney-transplant hopeful told The Sun's Dave Ettlin that he will become a tenant at the Brookview Apartments on Western Run Drive.

No doubt, there are a few Little League moms out there who think it was just terrible the Orioles and the Detroit Tigers nearly got into a brawl Monday night at Comerica Park. I can almost hear them self-righteously asking what kind of message it sends to the youngsters of America when highly paid professional athletes can't settle their differences without resorting to epithets and violent posturing. I suppose they're right, in a wimpy, new-age sort of way, but it was good to see the Orioles still have a pulse.

Marilee Jones, the dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, became well known for urging stressed-out students competing for elite colleges to calm down and stop trying to be perfect. Yesterday, she admitted that she had fabricated her own educational credentials and resigned after nearly three decades at MIT. Officials there said she did not have even an undergraduate degree. Jones said that she would not make any other public comment "at this personally difficult time" and that she hoped her privacy would be respected.

Veteran firearms examiner Joseph Kopera routinely brought to court an oversize wooden bullet as a prop, taking it apart and showing jurors precisely how lead projectiles and the weapons that fire them worked together in so many murder cases. He liked to walk around the courtroom, explaining the path of bullets, the pump-action mechanism of some firearms and how an accused gunman could have stuffed a sawed-off shotgun into a seemingly too-small shopping bag, just as prosecutors alleged.

A high-ranking police ballistics expert who testified in courts throughout Maryland and neighboring states killed himself after being confronted with evidence that he had lied about his credentials - a revelation that defense attorneys say could force new trials for some of the hundreds of people he helped convict. Joseph Kopera, head of the Maryland State Police firearms unit, claimed on witness stands to have degrees that he never earned, state police acknowledged yesterday as they began notifying prosecutors and defense attorneys across the region of their findings.

The nation's truckers undergo federal background checks and must pay for separate licenses to haul materials for the U.S. Defense and Energy departments, to drive across the border and to carry hazardous materials. And come March, if they pick up goods at a seaport, they must obtain another credential that may cost nearly $160, according to rules announced this week. The Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC, is the government's latest layer of security since the Sept.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican who is a favorite of social conservatives, announced yesterday that he was taking the first step toward a 2008 White House run by setting up an exploratory committee. "I have decided, after much prayerful consideration, to consider a bid for the Republican nomination for the presidency," he said in a statement. "There is a real need in our country to rebuild the family and renew our culture, and there is a need for genuine conservatism and real compassion in the national discussion."