Langston Hughes

Jamie Butcher, 34, a severely brain-damaged man at the center of a right-to-die case, died Saturday at his parents' home in White Bear Lake, Minn., 11 days after his feeding tube was disconnected. He had been in a vegetative state since the car he was driving slammed into a tree 17 years ago. Although he sometimes opened his eyes and moved, he could not see or hear. A county court gave his parents, Pattie and Jim Butcher, permission to disconnect his feeding tube, overruling objections from groups representing disabled people.

The African-American holiday of Kwanzaa, which begins Monday and lasts for seven days, provides an antidote to the commercialization and consumer excesses of Christmas.Lavish gifts aren't the focus of Kwanzaa. Created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, a professor at Cal State-Long Beach, Kwanzaa is based upon different African customs.It celebrates the Nguzo Saba, which is Swahili for seven principles: Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility)

Sequoia Boone, 11, said she reads for at least 30 minutes a day. "It's interesting, and you get to learn more about people you didn't know about," said Sequoia, a sixth-grader at Southeast Middle School in Baltimore. If officials at the Greater Baltimore Urban League have their way, the new Freedom Readers Program will prompt Sequoia and hundreds of other middle school pupils to read an hour or more daily. The pilot program, which began yesterday at the Enoch Pratt Free Library's main branch, is designed to improve children's reading skills - and make them enthusiastic about it - by having them read aloud from inspirational and motivational works by people of color.

A Baltimore police officer shot and killed a 20-year-old man just before dawn Saturday after chasing him from a 7-Eleven to a nearby block in the Langston Hughes neighborhood near Pimlico Race Course . Police received an anonymous call shortly before 6 a.m. about an armed man at the 7-Eleven near West Belvedere Avenue and Reisterstown Road, Sgt. Anthony Smith said. When officers arrived, the suspect ran away and was chased to the 5100 block of Arbutus Ave. The suspect was armed with a semiautomatic pistol.

An 8-year-old student punched a Baltimore police officer in the stomach yesterday after an "Officer Friendly" presentation at a West Baltimore elementary school.The boy, who apparently was disruptive throughout Agent Carolyn Salley's program at Langston Hughes Elementary in the 5000 block of Arbutus Ave., was charged as a juvenile with assault on a police officer, said Sam Ringgold, a police spokesman. He was released to his parents.Agent Salley, 37, was not injured.The assault baffled school and police officials and left the spokeswoman of the Baltimore Teachers Union nearly speechless.

Mae W. Peck-Williams, a retired teacher and a former national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, died Thursday at Keswick of cardiovascular disease. She was 88.Mrs. Peck-Williams retired in 1972 after 41 years of teaching English and Latin in the Baltimore school system, including assignments at Douglass High School, where she was head of the English department, and at Lemmel Junior High School.After she retired, she worked for Maryland Public Television as a consultant on instructional television, supervising production of printed materials to accompany the programs.

After a five-week run, including three weeks of sold-out performances, the Center Stage production of "for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf" is moving to an African-American culture center in Manhattan. The same cast of seven women and two musicians, under director George Faison, will present Ntozake Shange's "choreopoem" at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. "George is a personal friend, and we have been looking for opportunities to collaborate," says Schomburg Center director Howard Dodson.

Shirley Johannesen Levine will take her show, "Puppets and Poems: Colorful Characters Come Alive," to Sandymount Elementary School in Carroll County on Thursday.Ms. Levine and her Puppet-Dance Productions shows incorporate music, mime and make-believe to bring puppets of all sorts and sizes to life.The Columbia-based performer and educational consultant will perform at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m."I have been able to adapt the skills I have to literature," she says. "I feel that I have been able to take the puppets and make them fit with my earlier love of literature.

Editor's note: Jerdine Nolen today writes about holiday reading selections. Her column appears biweekly.Another holiday season, another list of books to share with family and friends. These suggestions include craft and holiday titles as well as favorite authors and series for gift giving.Crafts* "Christmas Ornaments Kids Can Make" by Kathy Ross* "101 Things to do for Christmas" by Debbie Trafton O'Neal* "175 Easy-To-Do Christmas Crafts" by Sharon Dunn Umnik* "Aleene's Christmas Craft Quickies" by Heidi BorchersChristmas Books* "Addy's Surprise: A Christmas Story" by Connie Rose Porter* "Albert's Christmas" by Leslie Tryon* "All I Want for Christmas is ...: Letters from Santa's Mailbag" by Carl Anderson* "Amahl and the Night Visitors" by Gian Carlo Menotti* "The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza" by David Shannon* "An Angel Just Like Me" by Mary Hoffman* "Arthur's Christmas Cookies" by Marc Brown* "Auntie Claus" by Elise Primavera* "B is for Bethlehem: A Christmas Alphabet" by Isabel Wilner* "The Bells of Christmas" by Virginia Hamilton* "The Biggest, Best Snowman" by Margery Cuyler* "The Black Snowman" by Phil Mendez* "The Candymaker's Gift: A Legend of Candy Cane" by Helen Haidle* "Carol of the Brown King: Nativity Poems" by Langston Hughes* "Chita's Christmas Tree" by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard* "Christmas Adventure of Space Elf Sam" by Audrey Wood* "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens* "Christmas Lights" by Ann Fearrington* "A Christmas Tree in the White House" by Gary...

A few jazz musicians have been successful in blending jazz and classical music, infusing old forms and sounds with new concepts. Among past masters, two of the most famous crossover jazz artists are Dave Brubeck and Duke Ellington, who wrote classical music with a twist, or jazz with a classical patina. At 8 p.m. tomorrow at Jim Rouse Theatre in Columbia, music fans will have a rare opportunity to hear some of Brubeck's choral music performed by the Columbia Pro Cantare. The concert will also feature the Eric Mintel Quartet, performing instrumental works by Brubeck and Mintel.