Lerner

A bill banning discrimination against homosexuals became state law yesterday after organizers of a campaign to overturn the legislation admitted they did not gather enough valid signatures to force a referendum. The measure took effect at 3:31 p.m., when Judge Eugene M. Lerner of Anne Arundel Circuit Court approved an agreement reached by opponents and advocates earlier in the day. "I'm glad you were able to work it out," Lerner said, shaking the hands of lawyers Charles J. Butler and Dwight H. Sullivan, who represented gay rights organizations.

A 45-year-old greater Annapolis man charged with first-degree murder pleaded guilty yesterday to the reduced charge of manslaughter for bludgeoning his wife to death in their home. Stephen John Washko admitted in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court that he clubbed his wife, Linda Tansill Washko, 43, in the head more than a dozen times with a ball-peen hammer in the couple's Bon Haven home Jan. 30. Her family, somberly watching in court, told Judge Eugene M. Lerner that they agreed with the plea, which specified that Lerner should recommend that Washko be evaluated for psychiatric care at Patuxent Institution.

With his relatives asking an Anne Arundel County judge for leniency so that he could care for his ailing father, a disabled man was sentenced to 18 months in jail for killing his brother in self-defense. "Words cannot describe the pain I went through and pain I will go through for the rest of my life," said David M. Bouchelle, 36, who told police that he fatally stabbed his brother because Alvin C. Bouchelle had beaten and threatened to kill him Jan. 26 in a drunken dispute in the Annapolis home they shared.

Frances M. Lerner, 75, advocate for the autistic Frances M. Lerner, who devoted her life to helping families whose children suffered from autism, died Sept. 20 at Mariner Health Nursing Home in Catonsville after a stroke. She was 75. The longtime Catonsville resident's first experience with autism came in the 1960s, when her second son, David H. Lerner, failed to develop speech and social skills. At the time, researchers did not know a great deal about autism, which is not caused by a specific disease or genetic disorder.

He is known to wield a tough sentence in his anger at criminals for fouling his home turf, but he also carries a soft spot. He is a judicial workhorse, but he makes time for whoever wants to speak with him and reads five newspapers a day. He is also an admittedly old-fashioned man who holds the hand of his wife of 47 years as they go to lunch every day. He watches Lawrence Welk reruns on television and believes in hard work and the love of family and...

George W. Bush says Jesus is his favorite political philosopher and describes a religious experience that changed his life. Al Gore says he measures his life by asking "What Would Jesus Do?" the message printed on colorful bracelets worn by evangelical youth. He chose as his running mate Joseph I. Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew known as well for his moral conscience as his political acumen. Could this be the most overtly religious presidential race in American history? Not hardly, says Rabbi Michael Lerner, who, as a spiritual advisor to President Clinton, is no stranger to the struggle with values in the Oval Office.

A man convicted of bringing a New York teen-ager to Laurel so that she could work for him as a prostitute in Washington was sentenced yesterday to eight years in prison. Minutes after Jessie Lee Young, 34, told Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner that "I just want to get on with my life," Lerner gave Young, of Alexandria, Va., the maximum 10-year sentence. Lerner then suspended two years of the sentence and added five years' probation for Young, who was convicted of bringing a person into Maryland for the purpose of prostitution.

An Arnold landscaping foreman was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in jail for bashing a bar worker so severely with a beer bottle that it took 396 stitches to close his facial wounds. "It should have been longer, but justice has been served," said John Payne of Linthicum, who required extensive transfusions to replace blood after an artery on the left side of his face was cut during a fight Sept. 27, 1998, at Daytona's nightclub in Pasadena. Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner sentenced Douglas A. Hoover, 28, to five years in prison, but suspended 3 1/2 years and added three years of supervised probation.

A little bit of baseball March Madness reared its head Thursday, opening day, when Centennial and Hammond pitching staffs each produced abbreviated no-hitters. The Eagles' Nate Ochsner launched his comeback season by shutting down Atholton, 10-0, at Centennial. The senior right-hander struck out eight and walked five during a five-inning game that ended because of the 10-run rule. "One ball was hit pretty well off me in the fourth inning," Ochsner said about his first high school no-hitter.

For legions of musical theater fans, Lerner and Loewe's "My Fair Lady" is the fairest of them all. Written in 1956, this musical based on George Bernard Shaw's play "Pygmalion" is a witty exploration of altering class distinctions by acquiring proper speech. In the production running through April 23, the cast delivers all that is required, and more, to make "My Fair Lady" one of the best shows ever at Chesapeake Music Hall. The play opens outside Covent Garden, where Professor Henry Higgins takes notes on cockney flower seller Eliza Doolittle's speech patterns.