Eastport

The Minister of Propaganda has churned out six news releases ("Would you like me to send you all of them?" she asks). The Minister of War is rattling the saber ("Our troops go to the gym every other day!" he said.) The Premier is making wild threats ("We will annex parts of the city!" she said.) It is that time of year again, and the breakaway "Maritime Republic of Eastport" is preparing for war. The annual tug of war. Ever since the Spa Creek Bridge closed temporarily for repairs in 1998, effectively cutting off the Eastport community from the rest of Annapolis and prompting a mock secession, the two "sides" have had an annual battle for superiority, bragging rights, or charity, depending on who you talk to. This year's tug of war starts at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

Marie Josephine Velenovsky, a retired bank auditor, died of cancer Saturday at the Edgewater home of a companion. The Eastport resident was 84. Born in Eastport, Miss Velenov- sky attended St. Mary's parochial school and was a 1937 graduate of Annapolis High School. She earned a diploma at the Fleet Business School. She retired 24 years ago from Farmers National Bank on Church Circle, where she had been an auditor. She was a donor to environmental and animal causes. A memorial Mass will be offered at 9:30 a.m. today at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, 109 Duke of Gloucester St. in Annapolis, where she was a member.

Jason Stearns didn't take the conventional route to become an opera star, but with his brilliant performance in the Washington-based Summer Opera Theater Company's Rigoletto, the Eastport resident has certainly arrived at that destination. "In my view, Jason is one of the best baritones in the world today and can be ranked with all the greats in the last half of the 20th century," said William Yannuzzi, music director of the Baltimore Opera Company. Said Annapolis Opera Company treasurer Nancy Lindley: "Wherever I go, everybody is talking about Jason Stearns."

TUESDAY Annapolis Alderman Josh Cohen hosts a public meeting on proposed changes to Eastport's RC Overlay zoning. The 7 p.m. meeting will be held at Eastport Elementary School, 420 Fifth St. The overlay zone was adopted in 1990 in response to concerns about the effects of new construction on Eastport's character. Cohen plans to introduce the changes at an April 11 city council meeting. THURSDAY The Countywide Citizens Advisory Committee will meet Thursday to discuss alternative education and safe schools.

As dusk fell on Annapolis' Eastport neighborhood, at least 100 residents accompanied by several dogs gathered for a festive spring ritual: taking off their shoes and burning their winter socks, pair by pair, in a small blaze on the waterfront. As several Eastporters explained, the burning of socks signifies a readiness for warm weather - warm enough to wear Docksiders (without socks) for the local pastime, sailing. It's a symbolic embrace of the vernal equinox, some said. Eastport, the offbeat maritime community just across the Spa Creek Bridge from downtown Annapolis, prides itself on a certain rugged character, though it technically lies within the state capital's limits.

The fatal shooting of an Annapolis man this week near the Clay Street community marked the city's second homicide of 2005, one shy of the total number of murders in Annapolis last year. Tarrod Lonta Wallace, 24, who had no fixed address but was apparently staying in a home on Copeland Road, was shot multiple times outside an address on Bates Street about midnight Wednesday, said city police spokesman Officer Carl Bouie. Wallace was taken to Anne Arundel Medical Center and then transported to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Concerned about public safety, some Eastport residents are demanding more police presence on neighborhood streets after several recent vicious attacks on pedestrians. "I don't feel so safe anymore. I have a different feel for my neighborhood, and I don't like it," said Richard J. Sharoff of Boucher Avenue. But Annapolis law enforcement officials insist that increased patrols would do little to change the situation. "We feel our manpower is adequate," said Officer Hal Dalton, a city police spokesman.

Concerned about public safety, some Eastport residents are demanding more police presence on neighborhood streets after several recent attacks on pedestrians. "I don't feel so safe anymore. I have a different feel for my neighborhood, and I don't like it," said Richard J. Sharoff of Boucher Avenue. But Annapolis law enforcement officials insist that increased patrols would do little to change the situation. "We feel our manpower is adequate," said Officer Hal Dalton, a city police spokesman.

Annapolis police say they have no suspects in the violent robbery of an Eastport teenager who was mugged and beaten with what police believe was a hammer while walking near his home Monday afternoon. Charlie White, 15, a sophomore at St. Mary's High School, was 50 feet from his family's house on Boucher Avenue when a man attacked him, striking him several times in the head and stealing his cell phone and one dollar, said police spokesman Officer Hal Dalton. Wounded, bleeding and disoriented, White was found lying facedown on the sidewalk by two passers-by, Dalton said.

Annapolis police are looking for a pair of men who they say twice robbed pizza delivery drivers on Cross Street in Eastport - most recently Wednesday about 8:20 p.m., when a man was accosted after attempting to make a delivery. Police spokesman Hal Dalton said the man knocked on the door of a home in the 1200 block of Cross St., but no one answered. As he returned to his car, two men confronted him; one brandished a gun and demanded money, Dalton said. Police determined that the delivery order was placed using a pay phone at the nearby Eastport Shopping Center.