Gladden

Tara Allison Gladden, 15, a sophomore at Atholton High School in Columbia, was found dead Tuesday in Columbia after she had been missing since July 22. A cause of death has not yet been determined, police said.Educated in Howard County public schools, Tara previously attended Wilde Lake High School.Tara was a native of Cockeysville and moved with her family to Columbia 13 years ago.Her interests included dance and soccer, which she played while attending Wilde Lake High School.William Ermatinger, an uncle of Tara's, said she was interested in pursuing a career that involved animals.

Elzee C. Gladden, an innovative educator who devoted his life to championing the needs of inner-city youth, died of cancer Thursday at Liberty Medical Center. The Baltimore resident was 61.During his 37-year career in the city school system, Dr. Gladden was seen as a trouble-shooter who was dispatched to fix schools that seemed beyond repair. He had been principal at five schools. He was best known for the stewardship of his alma mater, Dunbar High School, where he was principal for a decade until his retirement in 1992.

As Tara Allison Gladden was laid to rest yesterday morning, medical officials and Howard County police were still unsure what caused her death.The 15-year-old whose family and friends in Columbia knew her as a "quiet and shy girl who liked to laugh," was buried at a Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium yesterday after Catholic funeral services in Columbia. Her coffin was topped with white and pink roses.Inside the Meeting House, an interfaith center in the Village of Oakland Mills, more than 400 friends and neighbors gathered.

Two state Senate candidates in the district that includes Pimlico Race Course said yesterday they support allowing slot machines at the track, while a third candidate, Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman, said she is against the idea. In an interview on WYPR radio's Marc Steiner Show, Del. Lisa A. Gladden and former Del. Frank D. Boston Jr., Senate candidates in Northwest Baltimore's 41st District, said they believe slots will play an important role in resolving Maryland's budget shortfall and providing funding for schools in the city and across the state.

A Howard County judge yesterday sentenced a Baltimore man to life in prison without parole for killing a 15-year-old Columbia girl in 1993 to cover up his unlawful sexual relationship with the minor.Curtis A. Jamison, 30, showed no emotion as Circuit Judge James Dudley told him he could never hope to leave prison. He scratched his head with one finger and glanced at his mother, father and sister after hearing the sentence.On the other side of the courtroom, tearful relatives of the victim, Tara Allison Gladden, greeted the ruling with the cry, "Yes!"

The 41st District Senate race became more negative yesterday, with allegations of dirty political tricks and property vandalism as the campaign moved into the final week before the Sept. 10 primary. Supporters of Del. Lisa A. Gladden's bid accused one of her opponents, Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman, of spreading inaccurate reports about Gladden's record in the House of Delegates to voters in the Northwest Baltimore district during telephone poll questions Thursday and Friday. They said other poll questions, conducted by a firm they believe is in Colorado, put Hoffman in a positive light.

Nearly three months after her partially decomposed body was found in a culvert under busy Little Patuxent Parkway, the state medical examiner's office confirmed yesterday that 15-year-old Tara Allison Gladden was murdered, probably by suffocation or strangulation.A one-page press release confirmed the worst suspicions of family members who reported her missing from their home in the 5600 block of Vantage Pint Road on July 22."In consideration of the circumstances under which the body was found together with the autopsy and toxicological findings, the cause of death is probable asphyxiation (obstruction of airway)

About 40 friends and relatives of Tara Gladden spent Saturday soliciting donations from drivers along Little Patuxent Parkway, hoping the lure of a sizable reward will help police find the teen-age girl's killer.From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the group approached vehicles stopped at traffic lights along a four-block stretch. As vans, trucks, Corvettes and family station wagons drove by, the volunteers would run through traffic with their pails and ask for money. At times, they were lured by horn-blowing motorists with handfuls of dollars or coins.

MOST OF THE EFFORTS to encourage or stop a veto override when legislators reconvene in January have been focused on the so-called Wal-Mart bill, which mandates higher health care spending by large companies. But lawmakers also are preparing for a struggle over a number of lower-profile bills Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. vetoed, including four that Democrats say would make voting easier and more secure but which Republicans claim are an invitation to fraud. At a rally celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act last week, Sen. Lisa A. Gladden and Del. Samuel I. "Sandy" Rosenberg, both Baltimore Democrats, launched an override effort for the bills.

A Baltimore man police say is a suspect in the slaying of 15-year-old Tara Allison Gladden of Columbia was cleared yesterday of sex abuse charges for his alleged relationship with the girl.County prosecutors say they dropped the charges against Curtis Aden Jamison of Baltimore because they can't pursue the case without court testimony from Tara, whose body was found in a culvert near her home last summer.Mr. Jamison, 28, appeared before Judge Lenore Gelfman in Howard District Court, where prosecutors dropped charges of battery, perverted sexual practices, three sexual offenses and making falsements to police.