Law Enforcement Officers

MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. - For his first day at John P. McKenna Junior High School, Al DeMeo showed up in a suit. He wore his blond hair slicked back. He was quiet and serious for a seventh-grader. Before the final bell, some eighth-grader hazed Al, knocking his books from his hand. Al pushed the upperclassman against the lockers and pummeled his face until he dropped limp to the floor. Al continued on to class without a word. No one picked on Al DeMeo again. Most of his classmates knew there was already a perfectly compelling reason not to pick on Al: His father was in the Mafia.

After struggling over the 6-foot-tall metal wall, Lt. Maryann Foxwell barreled through the rest of the course. She slithered through a mesh tunnel, trained a laser beam on a series of opaque globes and dragged a 165-pound dummy back toward her starting point. Then, another go at the wall. Foxwell, 42, runs the fitness program for the state police, and she got a good workout yesterday in the Pikesville Armory. She was competing in what was dubbed the Law Enforcement Officer Performance and Reaction Drill - a sort of cross between boot camp stress and friendly Battle of the Network Stars competition, attracting police officers from across the country and cameras from ESPN.

Cortly "C.D. " Witherspoon, a Baltimore minister and activist, has been scoping out convenience stores that sell products such as "Scooby Snax. " The glossy package features a picture of a dazed-looking cartoon character, Scooby Doo. A sticker advises that the contents have a blueberry flavor, though the package contains dried herbs, not candy. The minister's mission has been to get such products out of the hands of Baltimore's youth, who are smoking the stuff in hopes of getting high.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- The marchers came to the old man in the wheelchair, some to tell him he was forgiven, some to whisper that he could never be forgiven, not now, not a million years from now.Yet to all of the people who retraced the steps of the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march 30 years ago, George C. Wallace offered an apology for a doomed ideal.The former Alabama governor, whose name became shorthand for much of the worst of white Southern opposition to the civil rights movement, held hands with men and women he had once held down with the power of his office.

A line of thunderstorms passed through Harford County Saturday afternoon, knocking down trees - including one at the Harford County Courthouse - and causing sporadic power outages. By 7:30 p.m., the BGE web site was reporting roughly 2,200 customers were without power in the immediate aftermath of the storm; more than 1,500 had power restored and more than crews were working to get 700 more back on line. Hardest hit were areas along Route 24 from Forest Hill to Joppa, and in the greater Havre de Grace area.

The two men wore body armor with "POLICE" written across the chest and spilled out of their unmarked car, weapons drawn, ordering Christopher Dukes and his passenger out of their vehicle at a South Baltimore gas station parking lot. When Dukes pulled off, they embarked on a high-speed chase down Interstate 295 until catching up and placing the pair under arrest, charging documents show. Then it was time for the real police to take over. The men in the body armor were not Baltimore police officers or federal agents, but instead a little-known classification of security guards known as "special police," who are commissioned by the city or state to arrest and detain citizens - but only on specific properties.

He went by the name "Preacherman," according to federal law enforcement authorities, and he made his living on the streets of East Baltimore robbing drug dealers and selling the stolen merchandise himself. It's a perilous way to spend one's day. Someone once dared rob "Preacherman," and, according to a federal indictment unsealed last week, he bragged to a police informant that he shot and killed the robbery suspect, Donte Vandiver, on Belnord Avenue on May 24. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says in court documents filed last week that "Preacherman" is 27-year-old Tyrell Smith.

Maryland Law Enforcement Officers Inc. regrets the death of our beloved life member, JOHN F. HORAK, and extends sympathy to the family. WILLIAM J. KILLOUGH, President

Maryland Law Enforcement Officers Inc., regrets the death of our beloved Life Member RICHARD S. FROSBURG and extend sympathy to the family. NORMAN M. PEPERSACK Jr. President

It will become a lot easier to obtain permits to conceal and carry guns in Maryland as of Aug. 7 under a court order filed Tuesday by a federal district judge. The order signed Monday by Judge Benson E. Legg gives state officials two weeks to implement his March ruling striking down a requirement that concealed carry applicants show a "good and substantial reason" to transport a firearm. The requirement prevented many from applying for permits, according to gun proponents who expect tens of thousands of state residents to seek — and be granted — such licenses.