House Of Delegates

When bartender David A. Lessner goes door to door seeking his Parkville neighbors' votes in next month's 8th District Democratic primary election, he carries a personal typewritten letter reproduced in a local copy shop."

Judge Sol J. Friedman, a retired Baltimore District Court judge and former member of the House of Delegates, died of heart failure Thursday at Atrium Village in Owings Mills. He was 89. A protege of James H. "Jack" Pollack, the erstwhile political boss of West and Northwest Baltimore, he was elected to the House of Delegates five times before he became a judge. In 1973, his old friend, then-Gov. Marvin Mandel, appointed him to the bench. Judge Friedman presided over a highly publicized peeping Tom case in 1975, and in 1979 he joined District Judge Jerome Robinson in ruling that Baltimore's blue laws were unconstitutional.

Cornell N. Dypski, one of Baltimore's longest-serving state legislators who was in both the House of Delegates and Senate, died Tuesday of Alzheimer's disease at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 77. During yesterday morning's session, Del. Peter A. Hammen, a Baltimore Democrat, announced Mr. Dypski's death, and delegates observed a moment of silence in his honor. "He was an awfully decent fellow," former Gov. Harry R. Hughes said yesterday. "He typified the public official who worked really hard as a legislator representing the people who had elected him."

Dozens of disabled adults and their advocates pleaded for the General Assembly to close the Rosewood Center, a state-run facility in Baltimore County that they said is unsafe and unnecessarily confining. But others say the center, which was the subject of a scathing inspection report in January, is much improved in recent years and provides crucial support for those who can't get proper care elsewhere. State troopers rearranged the seats in the House of Delegates' Heath and Government Operations hearing room yesterday afternoon so a row of people in wheelchairs, many of them former Rosewood residents living on their own, could roll up to the microphones.

The House of Delegates yesterday rejected a controversial bill that would have deregulated Maryland's mortgage industry, legislation that opponents said would have removed protections for borrowers from state law.On a vote of 66-66, the House failed to reach the majority of 71 needed to pass the bill, which would have changed a host of laws governing the regulation of second-mortgage brokers, lenders and bankers.House leaders said last night that there may be an attempt to reconsider the vote later this week.

Ending months of contentious debate over the cost of returning professional football to Maryland, the House of Delegates voted yesterday to approve state funding for stadiums in Baltimore and Prince George's County.House passage of the state's $14.5 billion budget, which included $270 million in stadium spending, guaranteed legislative approval of the projects and hands a major victory to Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who had made them his top priority for the General Assembly session."Responsible members of the House ignored the political rhetoric which has characterized much of the debate on this issue and voted their conscience based on what is good for the entire state," Mr. Glendening said.

Hugh Burgess, a retired Howard County attorney who advanced environmental causes while serving in the Maryland House of Delegates for 16 years, died of complications from kidney failure April 25 at Ellicott City Health and Rehabilitation Center. He was 78. Born into an old Howard County family, he was the son of Lionel Burgess, who also served in the Maryland House of Delegates. The younger Mr. Burgess was a 1946 Ellicott City High School graduate who earned a premedicine degree from Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College)

Highlights in Annapolis today:House of Delegates meets at 10 a.m., House chamber.Pub Date: 3/28/98