Fliers

Racist fliers left at two Finksburg homes -- proclaiming "Revolution!" by the World Church of the Creator -- have prompted the commander of the Westminster state police barracks to schedule a visit to the community this month.Only two copies of the flier have surfaced, Lt. Terry Katz said yesterday. Left in newspaper boxes, one copy was faxed to and one was left at the barracks earlier this week by anonymous residents. State troopers working a series of shed burglaries in Finksburg, Sykesville and Eldersburg have been asking about the fliers but have not found any others.

A body found almost a month ago near a Woodlawn apartment complex's playground might be that of a Hispanic teen-ager, police said Friday. They have readied fliers, asking for help in Spanish, for distribution in the city and county.The identity of the young woman, whose age is estimated at 19 or younger, is not known, nor is how she died, said Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey."They still have not come up with cause or time of death," he said.Police hope the fliers, which were translated by Maria Cumming, a Puerto Rican native who lives in Towson, will bring forward someone who knows the woman.

An armed robber and his prison psychologist paramour are being investigated in a series of alleged mail order schemes through an Annapolis post office box, state police said.Fliers detailing the operation were found at the home of psychologist Elizabeth L. Feil, who is being investigated to determine whether she aided in the escape of her former patient, Byron Smoot, from Maryland Correctional Institution -- Jessup. Shoe boxes filled with correspondence between Feil and other inmates were discovered by her husband, Glenn Bosshard, at their Annapolis home and turned over to police.

Racially charged fliers with invitations to join the Ku Klux Klan were left on North Laurel driveways over the weekend, leaving residents upset and angry.Several dozen leaflets from an organization identifying itself as the Invincible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were apparently rolled up with rubber bands and randomly delivered to area homes Saturday.The letter made an appeal to residents who "believe in White pride and God and want to see this county put back into the hands of honest law-abiding people," and it asked them to join the national organization, based in Rocky Ridge.

At a loss for a suspect in the killing of the Rev. Junior Lee Gamble, Baltimore police will begin papering the minister's Park Heights neighborhood tomorrow with fliers -- including an unusual distribution to rush-hour motorists on Reisterstown Road.Interviews have yielded only the vaguest description of the suspect -- a black male in dark clothing -- said Agent Angelique Cook-Hayes, a department spokeswoman. Police hope the fliers might produce more witnesses."Someone passing through the neighborhood may have seen or heard something, and not realized it," she said.

White-supremacist fliers found tucked under windshield wipers Monday night at Westminster High School were signed by the same organization that a few students have joined, a school administrator said yesterday."

White-supremacist fliers found tucked under windshield wipers Monday night at Westminster High School were signed by the same organization that a few students have joined, a school administrator said yesterday."

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Rochelle Friedlich climbs 24 feet to the trapeze platform. She reaches for the bar with one hand. Takes flight. Grabs hold of the bar with her other hand. Then she soars.On this, her first day flying on the trapeze, the 39-year-old Manhattan attorney is flexing beyond a swing. She means to execute her first trick: flying into the arms of a catcher who is hanging upside down and swinging.Friedlich hoists her legs over the bar, lets go with her hands and drops backward, leaving her legs curled around the bar.The moment comes.

A settlement was reached yesterday in the multimillion-dollar libel suit brought by Little Italy leader Giovanna M. "Gia" Blatterman against three men she accused of plotting to damage her reputation, partly in order to harm her political future.Terms of the pact, reached in the courtroom of Baltimore Circuit Judge Edward J. Angeletti during the second day of a jury trial, were not disclosed, and the parties involved were barred from discussing specifics. But Blatterman's lawyer, Gerald Ruter, said his client was "very happy" with the arrangement.

George D. Grundy Jr., 99, believed to be the last of the world's first fliers, died Tuesday in Leesburg, Fla. He was the last surviving member of the Early Birds -- pilots who flew solo before Dec. 17, 1916.Pub Date: 5/24/98

Baltimore County Councilman John Olszewski Sr. has added an exemption for free newspapers to his original proposal that bans the delivery of unsolicited advertising circulars to homes throughout the county. The rewritten proposal, which comes before the council Tuesday, also allows those advertising twice a year a waiver from printing a toll-free number on the circular. The legislation, which would take effect Sept. 29, would also prohibit advertisers from placing fliers on the windshields of vehicles, particularly those in public parking lots.

A Baltimore County councilman wants to curtail unsolicited advertising circulars, claiming the papers litter neighborhoods and can eventually clog area waterways. Councilman John Olszewski has drafted a bill that prohibits circulars from being dropped off at homes in the county. The County Council is expected to vote Monday on the proposal. If passed, the law would take effect in 45 days. The law will not apply to U.S. Postal Service deliveries or those by a private mail service. "Our streets and stream beds are denigrated with trash," he said.

What will happen to my frequent-flier miles now that Delta and Northwest will go ahead with a merger? Don't worry about losing hard-earned miles. They won't go anywhere, though finding an open seat to your favorite destination will probably be tougher after the merger. When American Airlines acquired TWA in 2001, it also absorbed the carrier's mileage program. Members of TWA's Aviators program were allowed to transfer their miles into American's AAdvantage account at no charge. You can expect the same thing to happen this time.

As a nervous flier, I wasn't too thrilled to hear Southwest Airlines could be fined a record $10.2 million for failing to inspect planes for cracks in the fuselage. This isn't the sort of thing that makes nervous fliers feel "free to move about the country," I can tell you that. In fact, when the story broke a few days ago, I could imagine hundreds of my jittery brothers and sisters who were flying Southwest at the time, opening a newspaper at 30,000 feet and seeing the headline: "AIRLINE FACES PENALTY ON PLANE CRACKS."

Minden, Nev. -- An experienced pilot takes off in a single-engine plane on a clear day for a short flight in the Sierra Nevada region and is never heard from again. Officials look for him without success, and his family is tormented by the questions about his fate that nobody can answer. It's a familiar tale, of course, because the headlines have been flooded with the search for millionaire aviator Steve Fossett, who took off Sept. 3 and remains missing in northern Nevada. But this case isn't a week old; it happened 43 years ago. And the hunt for Fossett might help resolve the enduring mystery surrounding Charles Ogle, then 41, who lifted off from Oakland, Calif.

Eight weeks after a botched primary brought national attention to the state - and thrust the act of voting to the forefront of several statewide races - Maryland officials and thousands of poll workers pulled together an election yesterday that was nearly glitch free. But while the electronic voting system hummed along smoothly inside the polling places - shouldering what appeared to be a higher-than-expected number of voters - a raucous political battle was taking place just outside, with Democrats crying foul over literature distributed for the state's two top Republicans.

Think about it as a wanted poster in reverse. The orange fliers handed out by five city police officers in upper Fells Point yesterday featured a mug shot of Charles Garrison. The number for a tip line was listed at the bottom. But this notice wanted nothing. Instead it provided an unusual update: Local and federal authorities wanted to let the Southeastern Baltimore community know that Garrison, a repeat offender and admitted murderer, had been sentenced to 22 1/2 years in federal prison for gun possession.

Julie Thirolf was a few seconds into her campaign monologue, imploring a potential voter to cast his ballot for her candidate, when she was stopped cold. Donald Owens, a resident of the city's Mount Vernon community, had heard pitches like this before and was not about to stay put for rhetoric. "I've been voting for over 40 years," Owens said to Thirolf. "I know who I'm voting for." And with that, Owens stepped into the Chase House in the 1000 block of Cathedral St. and exercised his right.

It was Christmastime when residents of Beverly Beach in southern Anne Arundel County got the anonymous typed letter on top of their mailboxes. A newly elected community board member, who was of Middle Eastern descent, was not to be trusted, the note said. He was an infiltrator and didn't belong. Angry neighbors called Diane Olsen, president of the board. "I didn't know what to do," Olsen said. "I didn't want to engage a bully." That inaction didn't last long. Olsen put aside her gift-wrapping, gathered the board and helped stuff envelopes and sent out a pointed response to 350 Beverly Beach residents.

Days after the City Council approved a ban on leaving commercial fliers on stoops and in fences, City Councilwoman Belinda Conaway said yesterday she wants to prohibit the placement of political advertisements as well. Conaway, the only council member who voted against the commercial flier ban, pointed to what some have called its hypocrisy: pizza fliers and Chinese menus would be forbidden, but campaign material would not. "It is dishonest to assume that residents will treat political literature any better than commercial circulars," said Conaway, who represents northwest Baltimore, in a statement.