Halfway House

Trying to do more to confront its drug problem, Howard County is looking for a place to put a halfway house for drug treatment, which would be the first residential facility in the county in years, local health officials said. County Executive James N. Robey has allotted $70,000 in matching funds for a halfway house in his proposed operating budget, said Raymond S. Wacks, Howard's budget director. Two years ago, Howard County released the DELTA Project (Drug abuse: Evaluation of Legal and Treatment Alternatives)

A Pikesville man whose illegal property flipping defrauded lenders out of as much as $2.5 million was sentenced to six months yesterday by a federal judge who recommended that he be sent to a halfway house. Leon Wilkowsky was also ordered to serve six months' home detention after he leaves the halfway house, to be followed by three years of supervised release and 400 hours of community service. He was also ordered to pay $25,000 apiece to two community organizations that are trying to cope with the effects of flipping.

Government documents accuse noted Maryland con woman Deborah Kolodner, the subject of a federal investigation into alleged real estate fraud, of asking a man to kill her probation officer in 1999. Kolodner is in jail awaiting a hearing to determine whether she will be sent back to prison for violating the terms of a 1998 mail fraud conviction. In the latest allegations against her, prosecutors say that Kolodner asked an unidentified man to kill Renata Ramsburg, a federal probation agent who had tracked and chronicled Kolodner's recent suspected activities.

Government documents accuse noted Maryland con woman Deborah Kolodner, the subject of a federal investigation into alleged real estate fraud, of asking a man to kill her probation officer in 1999. Kolodner is jailed awaiting a hearing to determine whether she will be returned to prison for violating the terms of a 1998 mail fraud conviction. In the latest allegations against her, prosecutors say that Kolodner asked an unidentified man to kill Renata Ramsburg, a federal probation agent who had tracked and chronicled Kolodner's recent suspected activities.

The operators of a Brooklyn Park drug treatment halfway house say they've already proved themselves. In 27 years, they say, Damascus House has done nothing but good things for the community. Hundreds of alcoholics and drug addicts have walked through its doors and improved their lives. Stable homes and businesses have emerged around the building on Ritchie Highway near the Baltimore border. The relationship between Damascus House and its community was reciprocal from the start. When Brooklyn Park ministers started the center, they realized the community needed a drug treatment center more than a drug treatment center needed the community.

YOU CAN understand why Brooklyn Park residents are concerned about a drug treatment halfway house's plans to nearly double its size. That said, Damascus House has earned the right to be heard, too. The halfway house has operated innocuously from a two-story building on Ritchie Highway for 27 years. It has been a model citizen serving a difficult mission. The center houses adult males who are recovering from substance abuse. Local police say they have no criminal complaints on record from the center.

PLANS TO expand Damascus House substance-abuser halfway house operations in the neighborhood will be discussed at a meeting of the Brooklyn Heights Improvement Association at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Brooklyn Park branch library, 1 E. 11th Ave. Speakers will be Charles Mooneyhan, program director of Damascus House, and Lisa Keough, coordinator of special programs and supervisor of field services for the county health department. Damascus House plans to purchase an approximately one-acre property on Edison Street near Ritchie Highway, demolish a house on the site and build a 15-bed facility that would be operated in addition to the halfway house it has had in the 4200 block of Ritchie for 27 years.

Attack stains not just metal, but men, women of valorOh, the irony (re: "Berrigan, others arrested in attack on Guard planes," Dec. 20).These activists, led by the "re-nowned" Philip Berrigan, have once again shown the country why we are able to do things like this and still receive a fair trial.In doing so they have shamed all the men and women of the Armed Forces, past and present, who have gallantly, bravely, proudly and graciously given their time, freedoms and even their lives so that people such as this can degrade the very images of what provides them this very right.

ROCKVILLE -- A Montgomery County circuit judge refused yesterday to shorten the jail sentence of former U.S. Senate candidate Ruthann Aron, despite her teary plea for forgiveness.During a three-hour hearing, Aron's lawyers sought to have her moved to a halfway house now rather than in April, saying her mental state is deteriorating.At the end of the hearing, Aron rose to plead her case."I don't know what I could say to the court. I don't know what anyone could say for me," she said in a soft, flat voice.