Maryland House

Maryland has taken the first step toward replacing its two travel plazas on Interstate 95 north of Baltimore with expansive, airy welcome centers filled with amenities and operated by a company with years of experience serving travelers. The two-year, $56 million project to rebuild Maryland House and Chesapeake House as a public-private partnership with Areas USA was approved Monday by the Maryland Transportation Authority board. The deal requires the approval of the Board of Public Works next month and review by the General Assembly.

Phyllis Scott was waiting for the day her son would be released from prison to return to East Baltimore, and she hoped he could steer clear of trouble in the future. But that day never came. Malcolm Jerrod "Rod" Pridget, who was just shy of his 20th birthday, left the Western Correctional Institution in late November in critical condition after sustaining severe head injuries in his cell. He died at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center a couple of days later - another victim in a recent spate of deadly violence in the state's prisons.

Clarence M. Mitchell III, who helped steer a sweeping desegregation measure through the General Assembly, died Thursday of cancer at Seasons Hospice at the Northwest Hospital Center. He was 72. Mr. Mitchell became the nation's youngest black legislator when he was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates at age 22. He served as a delegate from 1963 to 1967, when he was elected to the Maryland Senate, serving until 1986. He also contended in city elections during the civil rights era of the 1960s.

Gerald J. Curran, a member of a well-known political family who represented Northeast Baltimore neighborhoods in the Maryland House of Delegates, died of pancreatic cancer Wednesday at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He was 74 and lived in Lauraville. "Gerry was the epitome of a classic Irish personality, full of fun, love and courage," said former Speaker of the House Casper R. Taylor, who lives in Cumberland. "I am going to miss one of my dearest friends, but I know the Curran family will carry on his legacy.

People driving down a two-lane road in Jacksonville often slow down at a large Maryland Historical Society marker with the heading "Quinn. " It reads: "500-acre grant in 1704 to Thomas Mac Nemara. Later called Sweet Air. Charles and Daniel Carroll, Mac Nemara's kinsmen, acquired the property and sold it in 1751 to Roger Boyce, who built the present house. It was purchased in 1785 for Henry Hill Carroll, who died here in 1804. His son, Henry Carroll, sold it in 1838. " This could almost be a page from a 200-year-old courthouse document, were it not for the fact that a three-story, brick colonial sits at the end of the lane as a monument to the past.

Casper R. Taylor Jr., speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, was in serious but stable condition at a Washington, D.C., hospital after complaining yesterday of chest pains. Page 2B.

Tim Wheeler 's most recent article about the fight over black liquor in Maryland's renewable energy standard ("'Black liquor' bill resurrected," March 25) highlights the overwhelming need to reform our state energy policy. Over the last seven years, Maryland ratepayers have spent millions of dollars - money that was supposed to encourage new clean energy like wind and solar - on polluting energy from old out-of-state paper mills. The mills receive this subsidy by burning "black liquor," a carbon-rich byproduct of the paper pulping process and other mill residues.

LAST WEEK, Glen Burnie High School honored the outstanding students of the graduating class of 1999 at the annual awards ceremony. The following students received awards and scholarships for their commitment to excellence in scholastics, athletics and community service:Deborah Anthony: Talent in the Arts Award-Drama; Rotary Club of Glen Burnie Scholarship.Alicia Beads: Omicron Gamma Omega Chapter Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Award.Andrew Bonn: Severn Athletic Club Soccer Achievement Award; Paul Rusko Award.

For 32 years after noted artist Grace Turnbull died in 1976, the house that she built in Guilford in 1928 sat empty, except for a few erstwhile renters - and some squirrels in the roof. Then, in 2008, manufacturing executive Douglas Hamilton III and his wife, Angela, a procurement manager, bought the six-bedroom, five-bath Spanish Colonial with Bermuda influences, in the 200 block of Chancery Road. But the Hamiltons didn't move in until December 2011, because the house, though uniquely artistic, was antiquated, poorly laid out and in ill repair.

ANNAPOLIS - Corey Simmons, 24, was indicted by an Anne Arundel County grand jury Friday on one count of first-degree murder in the Sept. 11 stabbing death of a fellow inmate, Lamont Waller, 22, at the Maryland House of Correction in Jessup. Simmons was sentenced in July 1998 to two consecutive life terms after he pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree rape in Baltimore. Simmons is behind bars at the Maryland House of Correction Annex in Jessup.