Hagen

Sonus is a newly founded trio of musicians -- soprano, flutist and pianist -- that gave its first concert last night at the Mount Vernon United Methodist Church. It made its debut with a superb calling card -- a song cycle by the young American composer, Daron Aric Hagen, that was commissioned by the ensemble.Hagen's cycle is called "Dear Youth." It is a setting of letters and diary entries by American women during the Civil War. These are often heartbreaking texts and Hagen is a composer who -- like one of his teachers, Ned Rorem -- has a superb ear for catching the inflections of speech and supporting them sensitively with music.

Lucy S. Foster, a homemaker who enjoyed foxhunting, died Sunday of undetermined causes at her winter home on Cumberland Island, Ga. The longtime Glyndon resident was 80. Born Lucy Sprague in Boston, she was raised on Commonwealth Avenue in the city's Back Bay neighborhood. She was a 1946 graduate of the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Va., and earned a bachelor's degree in 1950 from Sarah Lawrence College. Mrs. Foster worked briefly as a photographer for several years in Boston, until marrying Franklin Rea Foster in 1952.

MILWAUKEE -- With quiet rage and sorrow, they come each day to sit in the courtroom where Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer's mind is on trial. Most are black. They are the victims' families."

On November 13, 2003; VIRGINIA D. (nee Demasi), 91, beloved wife of the late Giovannino D. Barrasso; devoted mother of Anthony T. Barrasso and his wife Mary, M. Stella Hagen and her late husband William F., Beatrice D. McIntyre, Carmela M. McCambridge and her husband Dr. Harry McCambridge. Also, survived by 13 grandchildren and their spouses, 27 great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews through-out the United States and Italy. Nonna to all her family and friends. Friends may call at the family owned Leonard J. Ruck Inc. Funeral Home, 5305 Harford Road (at Echodale)

Elsie Marie Brendle, a homemaker and former custodian, died of complications from diabetes Sept. 4 at Anne Arundel Medical Center. She was 79 and lived in Glen Burnie. Elsie Marie Sterling grew up in Severn and Glen Burnie, where she attended public schools. In the 1940s, she married Morris Taylor. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1955, she married Clarence David Brendle, who died in 1997. In the early 1970s, she worked as a custodian at schools in Anne Arundel County. She enjoyed playing bingo and shopping with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

On Wednesday, December 6, 2006, MRS. JUANITA LOUISE CESENARO, beloved wife of the late Vincent C. Cesenaro; loving mother of Guisto P. Cesenaro, Michael A. Cesenaro, Anthony J. Cesenaro, Barbara Ann Burnham and the late Marie Elena Stiles; 13 grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; and loving friend and neighbor Hazel Hagen. Visitation for family and friends will be held on Friday, December 8, 2006 from 3-5:00 and 7-9:00 P.M. in HUBBARD FUNERAL HOME, INC., 4107 Wilkens Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland, where Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 10:00 A.M. in St. Benedict's Catholic Church, Baltimore, Maryland.

Two Carroll families are homeless after a two-alarm fire gutted their apartment building at 2112 Hanover Pike in Greenmount early yesterday.The two-story wooden structure, which also housed landlord John Constantinides' law offices, caught fire in the kitchen of the downstairs apartment about 3 a.m. yesterday, said Deputy State Fire Marshal Al Ward.Damage was estimated at $70,000, he said.An unidentified Arcadia firefighter was sent to Carroll County General Hospital, where he was treated for smoke inhalation and released, Mr. Ward said.

The Pennsylvania attorney general's office announced yesterday that it has filed a lawsuit against Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger's son, alleging that he violated the state's Do Not Call law by making more than 500,000 illegal mortgage solicitations by phone between 2005 and 2007. The lawsuit, filed in late July in Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas, claims that C.A. "Cory" Ruppersberger, 34, working out of an Inner Harbor office, used an Indian call center to contact consumers in 36 Pennsylvania counties.

Ron Schmelzer has been living and breathing the startup life since he was a college student at MIT in the mid-1990s — and at his monthly tech breakfasts in Baltimore, he wants others to live it, too. The entrepreneur started his first company out of a dorm room, which evolved into another company and sold for more than $5 million to ClickCommerce. He's been through two more startups since then, and is now on his fourth, after moving from Boston to Baltimore six years ago. Many in Baltimore's technology community now know Schmelzer as the guy who organizes the monthly Baltimore TechBreakfast.

Dear Mr. Gisriel:Dear Mr. Gisriel:What are "brownfields?" What is the source and extent of the problem? Do "brownfields" exist in Maryland and what proposals are there to solve the problem?Robert HagenBaltimoreDear Mr. Hagen:Dear Mr. Hagen:"Brownfields" describe unused or abandoned urban properties that are either polluted or perceived to be polluted as a result of past commercial or industrial use and are not attractive to the real estate market.What causes a piece of property to sit idle while others attract much coveted commercial or industrial uses?