Enoch

The Walters Art Museum announced yesterday plans to purchase a 36,000-square-foot building at Park Avenue and Centre Street from the Maryland Historical Society for $1.5 million. The 77-year-old, three-story building currently houses the Contemporary Museum, the Maryland Humanities Council and storage space for the Maryland Historical Society. Its purchase will be made possible through a gift from an anonymous donor, Walters officials said. "Buying this building is a golden opportunity for the Walters," William Paternotte, president of the Walters' board of directors, said in a statement.

Standing O's current production of "Mr. Marmalade" is the edgiest and most complex in its two-year history. Founder and artistic director Ron Giddings offers audiences this black comedy, which enters unknown theatrical territory to provide an entertaining and disturbing evening. In 2004, at age 25, playwright Noah Haidle premiered his savage comedy in Los Angeles exploring how irresponsible parenting can damage children. In his director's notes, Giddings recalls seeing the play in 2005 when it ran off-Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre.

A disclosure statement on the "Operation EMU" home page gets right to the conspiracy-theory point: The Web site (operationemu.com) is a collection of odds and ends "related to the alleged 1974 NASA experiment during which an entire Hollywood film crew, contracted by the government, disappeared in a remote section of Nevada." Travis and Mabel Mountjoy vanished, too. The 17-year-old twins from Rockville -- child-prodigy physics students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- assumed leadership of an obscure Maryland research organization founded by their late father.

NATIONAL Rain tapers off in Wash. Heavy rain tapered off in western Washington after causing severe flooding that killed at least one person and left others to be rescued by police and the National Guard. pg 3a WORLD Hussein asks Iraqis to forgive A subdued Saddam Hussein, who has been sentenced to hang in a human rights trial that concluded this week, walked into a courtroom for another case and called on warring Iraqis outside to let bygones be bygones. pg 20a MARYLAND An English debate in Taneytown A proposal to make Taneytown the first town in Maryland with English as its official language has drawn fire from critics who say it might violate state law. The resolution, scheduled for discussion by the City Council tonight and possibly for a vote Monday, would require all city government business to be conducted in English in the small Carroll County town.

CARLA D. HAYDEN richly deserves the coveted "Librarian of the Year" award from the Library Journal. Since taking over as director of Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library in 1993, she has performed a miracle by turning a poorly run and demoralized system into an institution that is a "new model for libraries in the old Eastern cities," as the Journal put it.The improvements are noticeable in the Central Library and the various neighborhood branches....

Three days after being derailed by Gilman, second-ranked Loyola got back on track yesterday and rolled past No. 5 St. Paul's, 15-3, in a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference game at Blakefield."

Carver A&T Wildcats 1994 record: 0-10. Coach: Christine Folden.Top players: Carol Douglass, M, Sr.; Lisa Cullison, Sr., G; Bryna Wasserman, Jr., D; Lynn Grabenstein, Jr., D; Emily McFarlane, Soph., F.Outlook: It should be another developmental year for the Wildcats in just their second varsity season. Carver A&T returns six players, but the bulk of the team is comprised of underclassmen. "We're just working on basic skills and trying to get them working together as a team," Folden said.Catonsville Comets 1994 record: 6-6. Coach: Kathy Schuyler.

24 of 24 counties Joseph F. Murphy Jr. Retain: 1,442,123 86 Don't retain: 231,707 14 ANNE ARUNDEL 185 of 185 precincts reporting (Absentee votes not included.) Circuit Court (Three are elected) Candidate Vote Pct Paul Goetzke 87,470 19 Michele Jaklitsch 84,104 18 Paul Harris 83,032 18 David Bruce 79,758 17 Rodney Warren 75,407 16 Stephen Beatty 49,623 11 Questions A: To amend the county charter to permit the County Council to increase the minimum level of purchases and contracts requiring competitive bidding from $10,000 to $25,000.

The two men wore body armor with "POLICE" written across the chest and spilled out of their unmarked car, weapons drawn, ordering Christopher Dukes and his passenger out of their vehicle at a South Baltimore gas station parking lot. When Dukes pulled off, they embarked on a high-speed chase down Interstate 295 until catching up and placing the pair under arrest, charging documents show. Then it was time for the real police to take over. The men in the body armor were not Baltimore police officers or federal agents, but instead a little-known classification of security guards known as "special police," who are commissioned by the city or state to arrest and detain citizens - but only on specific properties.

Before gangsta raps there were raps about libraries and teen-age pregnancy; before Dannemora State Prison and the killing bullets, there were pillow fights and the exuberance of youth.Tupac Amaru Shakur did not grow up in Baltimore. He was not a finished product when he left. But his years here encompassed that crucial time when childhood ends and self-discovery begins.He was 14 when he and his mother moved here from the Bronx in 1985. He called himself MC New York and won a rap contest sponsored by the Enoch Pratt Free Library.