Kenneth Lee

The Parkton trucker who shot his unfaithful wife has been released from the Baltimore County jail, a year after his sentencing by Circuit Judge Robert E. Cahill Sr. caused a national uproar.Kenneth Lee Peacock, 37, was freed Saturday morning after earning credits on work release that reduced his 18-month sentence for manslaughter, said James M. Dean, administrator of the Baltimore County Bureau of Corrections.Mr. Peacock caused no problems and worked steadily, Mr. Dean said. "Obviously, he did well enough to get out of here."

THE NATIONAL Association for the Advancement of Colored People, just nine years shy of its 100th anniversary, was formed to secure full citizenship rights for the nation's African-American population. In this endeavor, it has been exemplary. When the organization has been right, it has been very right - NAACP lawyers argued successfully to end all-white primaries and segregated education. But oh, does the NAACP commit lulus when it's wrong. In the 1920s, the NAACP aided and abetted federal government officials in trumping up questionable mail-fraud charges against black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, who was eventually deported.

At his confirmation hearing Wednesday night, Baltimore's Police Commissioner-designate Thomas C. Frazier got an earful.City Council President Mary Pat Clarke wanted to get a fixed date by which he would clear open-air drug markets at street corners.Kenneth Lee wanted to know when the police would arrest the killer of his 21-year-old son, a computer science student, who was slain in September.Councilwoman Sheila Dixon wanted to know whether the city's new top cop was "a spiritual person.""Yes," replied Mr. Frazier.

When justice in one of Baltimore's most sensational murder cases gets meted out tomorrow, who will have decided the killer's fate? The prosecutor, the judge or the family of the victim?Those questions are at the heart of a pending plea arrangement in the killing of a Johns Hopkins University student.They are also at the center of a nationwide debate over just how much influence families of crime victims -- who are steadily gaining power in the judicial process -- should have in crafting the sentences of criminals.

Korean-American leaders mourned the killing of their own yesterday, leading a 65-car funeral motorcade past two stores where Korean merchants were slain recently and blaming the tragedies not on racial tension but on "the common enemy" -- crime."

Six months ago, Patricia Alston was unemployed and living in a shelter for battered women. Today, she has a job and her own apartment, and thinks her life is only going to get better.She is one of eight homeless people who have been hired by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore to sweep sidewalks and trim trees in the business district."This is the beginning," says Ms. Alston, 37. "I see good things ahead."Ms. Alston says a local business person has already offered her a part-time cleaning job. She eventually hopes to land a job managing other workers.

`She Loves Me' The lowdown -- It started out as the play Parfumerie, by Hungarian writer Miklos Laszlo. Then filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch turned it into the 1940 movie The Shop Around the Corner. Nine years later, it became a movie musical, In the Good Old Summertime, for Judy Garland. More recently, Nora Ephron created a film version for the Internet era, You've Got Mail. But best of all is the 1963 stage musical adaptation, She Loves Me, which features a lilting score by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof)

The county commissioners agreed yesterday to add nine farms with more than 650 acres to the state's farmland preservation program, which pays landowners not to develop agricultural land. Commissioners Donald I. Dell and Robin Bartlett Frazier voted in favor of the petitions after a brief meeting yesterday. Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge was not present. "I'm real happy with what is happening right now," Dell said. "All the farmers seem to be getting interested in the program." Situated mostly near Taneytown and Lineboro, the farms will be officially enrolled in the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Program if they get final approval from the board of the state Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation.

A 19-year-old Northeast Baltimore man -- wanted by city police in the killing of a Towson State University student in September -- was captured by Harford County sheriff's deputies late Thursday after a routine drunken driving stop and brief chase, authorities said yesterday.Davon Antonio Neverdon of the 2400 block of Bridgehampton Drive was being held at the Harford County Detention Center yesterday in lieu of $150,000 bond, said Capt. Marlin L. Mills of the sheriff's office.City police filed a detainer yesterday so the suspect will be held to answer warrants on murder and drug distribution charges in Baltimore, the captain said.

A 32-year-old Eldersburg man was fatally shot in his home yesterday by a housemate who then ran several blocks away before killing himself, state police said.Kenneth Lee Sims and Jeff Lott, 20, both of 6511 Marvin Ave., were arguing in an upstairs bedroom shortly after 3 p.m. when Mr. Lott apparently grabbed a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol and fired twice, state police spokesman Michael McKelvin said.At least one bullet hit Mr. Sims, who lay on the floor when Mr. Lott took the gun and ran out of the house, Mr. McKelvin said.