Cumberland

Arthur H. Bremer, who shot and paralyzed former Alabama Gov. George Wallace in 1972, is living in an apartment in Cumberland as he begins the transition to life in the outside world after 35 years behind prison walls, an Allegany County official said yesterday. "He is in Cumberland. ... It's really not a big deal," said Allegany County Administrator Vance Ishler. In an effort to avoid media attention, Bremer, 57, was released from a state prison in Hagerstown on Friday before dawn. Prison system officials declined to say where he would be living but had previously said they would try to find a place for him in a rural part of Maryland.

A former correctional officer pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Baltimore to accepting bribes to smuggle cigarettes and other contraband into the federal prison in Cumberland, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Robb Phillips, 33, who lives in Cumberland, had worked for the Federal Bureau of Prisons since July 2000 and worked as a teacher at the Cumberland institution since November 2001, prosecutors said. After smoking and cigarettes were banned in federal prisons in April 2006, Phillips was approached by an inmate to smuggle cigarettes into the prison, in exchange for $50 per pack or $1,000 per carton, prosecutors said.

Katherine S. Oster, 88, of Cumberland went to be with the Lord, Saturday, October 27, 2007 at her residence. Katherine was a nursing assistant at Shepherd and Pratt Hospital, Towson, MD for 23 years. Scarpelli Funeral Home, P.A., Cumberland is handling the arrangements.

Mitchell Phillip Myers, a retired maintenance electrician and former Cumberland resident, died Sunday of a heart attack at a hospital in Spartanburg, S.C. He was 81. Mr. Myers was born in Baltimore and raised in Hampden. He was a vocational school graduate and enlisted in the Navy during World War II. "He was an electrician aboard a ship that was sunk during the Battle of Okinawa. He earned a Purple Heart but never talked about the war very much," said his wife of 60 years, the former Margilee Fletcher.

There are wonderful things to see and learn about everywhere you turn in Maryland. From Antietam National Battlefield to the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse. From the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to the Appalachian Trail. Even the Patterson Park Pagoda is pretty wonderful. At least that's what Sun readers said last month when we asked them to name the seven man-made wonders of Maryland. The responses were so diverse and deserving that narrowing down the list became a not-so-wonderful task.

On Sunday, August 26, 2007, MARY D. TYSON peacefully slipped away. Devoted mother of Carla Tyson; dear grandmother of Milini Hamlett; loving daughter of Charles and Mary Tyson; beloved sister of Ernestine Boyd, Diane James, Charlene Danielsand Geraldine Ezigbo. A memorial service will be celebrated at Simmons Memorial Church, 601 Cumberland Street at 10 A.M. on Saturday September 1. In lieu of flowers contributions will be accepted by the family for a donation to the American Kidney Foundation.

On August 26, 2007 NATHANIEL, SR.; devoted husband of Lucille, 1 son Rev. Nathaniel Grogan, Jr., 2 step daughters, 1 step son, 1 daughter-in-law, 1 step daughter-in-law, 3 grandchildren, 1 sister, uncles, nieces, nephews and a host of other relatives and friends. Friends may call at the Carlton C. Douglass Funeral Service, P.A., 1701 McCulloh St., on Thursday 1 to 9 P.M. Family will receive friends Friday 10 to 10:30 A.M. at the Simmons Memorial Baptist Church, Pennsylvania Ave. and Cumberland Sts. with service following.

Man gets two years in DUI crash fatalities A drunken driver was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison yesterday for killing his wife and daughter in a New Year's Eve crash. Garrett County District Judge H. Jack Price Jr. found John D. Carden Jr., 52, of Swanton guilty of two counts of homicide by motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. Price sentenced Carden to 10 years but suspended eight. Carden's pickup truck struck a tree along a country road about 1:20 a.m. Jan. 1, killing Georgina M. Alton, 45, and Precious T. Alton, 11, police said.

CUMBERLAND -- Home prices in the Baltimore metro area? Up 5 percent. In the Washington area? Barely budging. In San Diego, Tampa, Las Vegas and several dozen other metros areas? Down, down, down. But in this corner of Appalachia - in this long-struggling, geographically isolated metro area - home prices have just shot up 17 percent. The National Association of Realtors, which calculated the change in median price for single-family homes sold in the first quarter of the year vs. the same period last year, says the Cumberland increase topped all other metro areas in the nation.

Cumberland Court, with its brightly painted houses, blooming gardens and people walking their dogs past the quiet cul-de-sac, looks like any peaceful street in the Historic District of Annapolis. But five years after the brutal carjacking and murder of one of its own stunned the neighborhood, residents and employees of local businesses say concern about crime lingers. On Monday - the day that the trial of Leeander Jerome Blake began in the fatal shooting of Straughan Lee Griffin - the city council was handed a petition with the signatures of more than 200 downtown residents and merchants demanding more of a police presence.