James Perry

The arrest of artist Mark Chase for painting at Baltimore'sInner Harbor without a city permit for engaging in commercial activity there raises an interesting First Amendment and civil liberties issue: When is making a painting in a public place a constitutionally protected act of expression, and when is it just a shtick to make a few bucks? In Mr. Chase's case, the answer seems to be a little of both. Mr. Chase was arrested Sunday by Baltimore police after he set up his painting gear outside Harbor Place and refused to leave when told he was violating trespass laws.

The parent company of AAI Corp., whose unmanned aerial vehicles have emerged as one of the technological darlings of the war in Iraq, saw its shares climb nearly 10 percent yesterday after the company reported a third-quarter profit of $7.4 million. The gain, equivalent to 56 cents a share, compares with a loss of $14 million, or $1.03 a share, in the third quarter last year for United Industrial Corp. The Hunt Valley company has benefited as the Bush administration has emphasized technologies that fit with the Defense Department's efforts to transform the military.

WASHINGTON -- Rebuffing mystery writers and press groups, the Supreme Court refused yesterday to stop the trial of a civil lawsuit against the publisher of a "murder manual" that was used by the killer-for-hire of three victims in Silver Spring.The killer, James Edward Perry, who has been convicted and sentenced to death, followed many of the tips on how to kill and get away with it in a book, "Hit Man," published by Paladin Enterprises Inc. of Boulder, Colo.Perry's victims were Mildred Horn; her paralyzed 8-year-old son, Trevor; and Trevor's nurse, Janice Y. Saunders.

WINTER: NOTESFROM MONTANA.Rick Bass.Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence.162 pages. $18.95.This is the sort of winter Rick Bass writes about:"A cold front came down out of Alaska yesterday, dropping the temperature from twenty above to fifteen below in less than an hour -- branches and limbs blowing from the trees, everything tumbling past, and the wind biting, ripping. The temperature kept dropping after dark, crackling cold stars, plunging, bottoming out around thirty-eight, thirty-nine below.

In a major shake-up of its top management, United Industrial Corp., the parent of Cockeysville-based AAI Corp., has announced the resignation of its president and chief executive and the firing of its chief financial officer.P. David Bocksch, the president and corporate chief, and Thomas J. Carmody, the financial chief, were hired in late March and late April, respectively, with the goal of turning around a company that has seen its sales and earnings drop significantly in recent years.Their departures come as UIC is undergoing a strategic review of all of its operations that could determine the company's direction in the years ahead.

Sophie M. Spear, 101, history and civics teacherSophie M. Spear, a former educator who was active in Jewish affairs, died June 23 in her sleep at the Brightwood Retirement Community in Lutherville. She was 101.Mrs. Spear, who formerly resided at Park Towers East in Pikesville, was a longtime member of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, where she had been president of the Sisterhood from 1949 to 1952. She had also been president of District 8 of the Federated Sisterhoods, a former board member of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods and was active in the National Council of Jewish Women.

The argument soon to be under way in a Maryland courtroom: Can a book publisher be an accomplice to murder for printing a "how-to" murder manual?Such a book, titled "Hit Man: A technical manual for independent contractors," may be on trial in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt because a hired killer named James Perry supposedly used it as a step-by-step guide to carry out a notorious triple murder in Maryland."

Alan Keyes was hot.Del. Martha S. Klima, one of his opponents in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, had claimed he supports higher welfare payments. She even distributed a flier with his picture. He was steamed.He called a radio talk show yesterday to denounce the flier as an inexcusable, "total distortion" of his record. In an interview Tuesday night he condemned it as "a bald-faced lie.""You would have to question the fitness for public office of anyone who would say such a thing," he argued.

The Harford County Sheriff's Office and Maryland State Police report: Aberdeen Emory R. Gullion, 25, of the 1900 block of Bennett Street, was charged Thursday with operating a motorcycle without the required headgear protection and eye protection, driving while his license was suspended, displaying expired registration plates, failure to obey traffic control devices, attempting to elude police by failing to stop and two counts of...

Let's put our bias on the table: We're daily journalists, combining half a century of experience. So, although we'll get to Gettysburg, Grant and the causes of the war, let us begin this survey of recent Civil War books with a glimpse at how the public got the news in the 1860s. James M. Perry's "The Bohemian Brigade: The Civil War Correspondents" (John Wiley & Sons, 305 pages, $27.95) is the latest of several books chronicling the first chroniclers of the war. It breaks no ground, but Perry is a good story-teller, and his book is full of colorful characters and hair-raising adventures.