Fighter

Elly Wierda, a volunteer who was a member of the Dutch Resistance during World War II, died July 7 of cancer at her Rock Hall home. She was 88. Born Elly Klein Bog, the daughter of a wealthy textile company owner and a homemaker, she was raised in Amsterdam, where she received her education. During World War II, she joined the resistance movement in her homeland. With the cessation of hostilities in 1945, she went to Germany seeking art that had been looted during the Nazi occupation of Holland.

Rep. Donna F. Edwards slipped into the F-35 cockpit - a stationary demonstration model - and gave the jet a simulated spin, trying out the controls, shooting down enemy aircraft over the Chesapeake Bay and executing a celebratory roll. "This feels so cool ," said Edwards, a Prince George's County Democrat. "OK, let's land this thing - give somebody else a chance. " This hands-on version of show and tell, held in Linthicum on Thursday, is part of a public-relations campaign for the most expensive weapons program in the nation's history.

The majority of callers to SUNDIAL support the Air Force's new generation of costly Stealth fighter planes.The Air Force has awarded a contract to a Lockheed team to build about 650 Stealth fighter planes for about $65 billion. Of 438 callers yesterday, 301, or 69 percent, said they supported the plan to build and purchase the fighters, while 137 callers said they did not support the plan."It's Your Call" represents a sampling of opinions from certain segments of the community, but it is not balanced demographically, as would be done in a scientific public opinion poll.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has proposed additional cuts to the Baltimore City Fire Department in her proposed budget ("'Tough choices' in city budget plan," March 21). The budget includes a proposed schedule change for the men and women who run into burning buildings that would increase their work hours along with reducing their hourly rate of pay while ultimately reducing the staffing of the department by as many as 300 positions. Those fire fighters already work on average two hours a week longer than other city employees without additional compensation.

After a recent training session at his Broadway gym, veteran manager-trainer Mack Lewis decided it was time to tell welterweight Wade Duncan the facts of life."

The Pentagon delayed for a year yesterday a decision on whether to begin producing the new F-22 stealth fighter, but said the $62 billion Lockheed Martin Corp. program is not in trouble.Undersecretary of Defense Jacques Gansler, criticized by Congress for moving too quickly on the F-22, said the Defense Department would decide on low-rate production in December 1999 instead of late this year, as scheduled, so it can examine additional test results.But he stressed that initial flight testing of the plane had gone well and that $595 million would be committed to Lockheed at the end of this year to build two additional "production representative" aircraft in 1999.

LAS VEGAS -- You remember the first time Mike Tyson and Donovan "Razor" Ruddock went at it here. The bout was March 18 and it ended in controversy when referee Richard Steele stopped it in the seventh round with what seemed undue haste, proclaiming Tyson the winner.Steele's action precipitated a post-fight ruckus in the ring between both fighters' camps and brought a howl of protest from a crowd that only a round earlier had seen Ruddock connect with punches apparently potent enough to register on the Richter scale.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- What Borislav Herak remembers most vividly about the sunny morning in late June when he and two companions gunned down 10 members of a Muslim family is the small girl, about 10, who tried to hide behind her grandmother as the three Serbian nationalist soldiers opened fire from a distance of about 10 paces."

There are no gracefully lethal curves on this fighter plane. The F-22 looks like it was designed for pain, as flat and sharp as a blade.The Air Force intends the F-22 stealth fighter to be the grimmest perdition to darken the skies since mythological times. It can smoke anything that flies without even showing up on radar, the Air Force says, and perform any maneuver a human can stand.With the first of its breed set to fly in May, the F-22 marks a new era for the military and a new generation of corporate sustenance for the plane's builders -- Lockheed Martin Corp.

The Air Force announced yesterday the release of nearly $11 billion in contracts for the full-scale development of the first 13 production models of the new Advanced Tactical Fighter that is designed to provide the United States with air superiority well into the 21st century.And at least a portion of that money is expected to trickle down into Maryland's struggling economy.The bulk of the money, about $9.5 billion, goes to the contracting team of Lockheed Corp., Boeing Co. and General Dynamics Corp.

Charles H. Latrobe III, a retired Koppers Co. executive who was a highly decorated World War II Navy night fighter pilot, died Feb. 16 of complications from pneumonia at Roland Park Place. He was 90. "He was a very private person who had the highest level of integrity possible and was intolerant of those who did not," said Joseph M. Coale III, a political adviser, Baltimore County preservationist and former head of Historic Annapolis. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., Charles Hazlehurst Latrobe III was 3 when he moved to a home on Ridgewood Road in Roland Park with his family in 1926.

In her State of the City address Monday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called for employee contributions to the current non-contributory pension system for "civilian employees," and while I agree and understand the subtle distinction made, my fear is that I may be in the minority of taxpayers ("Trash fee, job cuts urged," Feb. 12). Perhaps lost in the "civilian employees" reference is that the "other employees" are Baltimore's public safety (fire and police) employees, who currently contribute 9 percent of their wages, which will rise to 10 percent (twice the 5 percent amount by elected officials)

An early-morning fire in Brooklyn sent four people to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, including one firefighter and three occupants of the house. According to Baltimore City Fire Department Chief Kevin Cartwright, the one-alarm fire broke out about 4:20 a.m. in a dwelling in the 800 block of Glade Court in Brooklyn. According to Cartwright, units responded to find a two-story dwelling with smoke and fire visible, and crews put out the fire by 4:35 a.m. Cartwright said one adult and two children suffered mild smoke inhalation, were evaluated at the scene and transported to Harbor Hospital for additional treatment.

In the midst of one of many tributes to former state Sen. Clarence M. Mitchell III at his memorial service in an Upton church Sunday night, hundreds of family members, friends and fellow politicians broke out into an impromptu singing of the hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing. " The message of the hymn, popularized during the civil rights movement, is one of steadfast devotion to liberty. Many who spoke during the hours-long service honoring the late legislative pioneer used their own voices to laud what they said was his same devotion.

Shogun Fights has teamed up with the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, also known as BARCS, to help sheltered animals in Baltimore. Shogun Fights is a mixed martial arts organization that showcases some of the most talented MMA fighters in Baltimore. And the MMA fighters aren't just tough on their opponents, they are also combating animal cruelty. Shogun Fights owner and former MMA fighter John Rallo began advocating for animals as a member of the "Show Your Soft Side" campaign.

It's time to move UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones to the top of the list as the top MMA pound-for-pound fighter in the world. UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva currently holds that distinction. It's no argument that he has clearly dominated mixed martial arts since 2006. He has the record for the most consecutive title defenses (10) as well as the UFC record for most consecutive wins (15). He has dominated his weight class with his striking accuracy, knockout power and superior performances.

SEATTLE -- Boeing Co., the world's biggest aircraft maker, said yesterday that it will cut as many as 7,000 jobs in St. Louis -- about 35 percent of the work force there -- as a result of dwindling orders for its F-15 fighter-bomber.Boeing also said for the first time that it will have to stop production of the Cold War-era fighter early next year, after it finishes delivering the F-15 to its customers, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Air Force.The cuts follow Greece's decision last month to pass over the pricier F-15 -- widely viewed as the world's most advanced air-to-air fighter -- for Lockheed Martin Corp.

WASHINGTON -- Boeing Co. is pursuing a new military jet that could put it back in the fighter plane business for the first time in almost 60 years.And Boeing isn't talking of just getting back in the business; it's pondering re-entering on a grand scale with a fighter that could ++ serve the Air Force, fly from carriers for the Navy and lift off vertically for the Marines.The aircraft would be "what we think is the fighter of the future," says Peri Widener, spokeswoman for Boeing's Defense and Space Group.

Mixed martial arts fighter Darren Costa and his longtime friend Matthew Morrow were shot early Saturday at a house party in Pasadena as a wave of violence swept across the region. Morrow, 21, died from the wounds he suffered at the party in the 7000 block of Outing Ave.; Costa, 20, was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Anne Arundel County Police did not name Costa as one of the victims, but his trainer Noel Smith, owner of a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gym in Glen Burnie, confirmed Costa was injured at the party.

One city firefighter received minor injuries battling a three-alarm fire that broke out Thursday morning in a commercial building in the 1700 block of Fleet Street near Broadway in Fells Point. According to Chief Kevin Cartwright, spokesman for the Baltimore City Fire Department, the fire was reported around 5:30 a.m. in a three-story, mid-block building with a liquor store on the first level. He said fire fighters reported heavy smoke on the first level and fire on the second and third levels.