Paralegal

William Butler III was 20, unemployed, living in a public housing project and the unmarried father of two when he decided to do something with his life.He enrolled in a job training program sponsored by Anne Arundel County's Business and Workforce Development Center and gota job with Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., where his supervisor called him a "model employee."That job whetted his appetite for electronics and led him to the Army. He leaves tomorrow for a tour of duty in Alaska.On Friday, Mr. Butler was among eight workers honored for their success after completing job training programs administered by the Business and Workforce Development Center.

Steve Renehan stopped by the mall yesterday to pick up a few things: a pizza cutter, some good books and a woman.AWith the first two in the bag, he slouched against a store window searching for the third.The scenery's nice," said the Irvington carpenter as several young women walked by. "And I ain't talking about the potted plants."Instead, he was talking about the more than 600 singles at the Hunt Valley Mall yesterday. The center gave new meaning to the idea of one-stop shopping by playing host to Single Mingle, a festival for the unhitched that featured everything from palm readers to workshops on how to be married a year from today.

A photo accompanying an article in Sunday's Sun about th murder of an ex-Marine whose experiences were the basis for the movie "A Few Good Men" misidentified the man's attorney. )) His name is Don Marcari.The Sun regrets the errors.NEEDHAM, Mass. -- They are apparently unrelated flashes of violence, framing the final eight years of David Cox's life, from the front lines of the Cold War in Cuba to a muddy river bank in suburban Boston.The most traumatic incident of his military tour in Cuba would inspire a movie that left him indignant, his and his comrades' service careers altered to quench Hollywood's desire for drama.

Days after undergoing gastric bypass surgery, Brenda Maker's diabetes was gone — her body producing enough of the hormone insulin to turn sugar into fuel. It's a phenomenon seen in recent years by doctors who increasingly are using the operation not only to help patients lose weight and improve their health generally but specifically to address the national epidemic of Type 2 diabetes. Now some researchers at the University of Maryland believe their work may explain why the surgery succeeds, and how a common drug may be used to induce similar effects.

After 25 Preaknesses, Annette Thomas has her routine, and recipes, down pat. Thirty pounds of ribs, both pork and beef, marinated overnight in vinegar and soy sauce, then grilled in front of her house on Saturday. Fifty pounds of red-skin potatoes — "Never russets, oh no, no, no!" — boiled in her crab pots for dill whipped potato salad. "Half-and-half," or homemade sweet tea — not the bought tea, she explains — and lemonade to wash it down. For the hungry hordes heading into or out of Pimlico Race Course , sidewalk chefs like Thomas serve up a home-cooked alternative to the concessions inside.

As a child, Terry Landau used to look over her mother's shoulder as she did the daily crossword puzzle in the New York Herald Tribune. By age 15, she was hooked. Today, Landau still does daily puzzles, but quite differently from the way her mother did. Every night about 10, the 52-year-old paralegal logs on to the Internet from her Manhattan apartment to do the next day's puzzle on The New York Times Web site. Using crossword puzzle software, she types her answers into the black-and-white grid on the screen.

A Baltimore judge summoned attorneys from a large foreclosure law firm Monday to explain whether signatures on key documents were genuine, part of the fallout from revelations last year that foreclosures nationwide were being processed based on deficient — or fraudulent — paperwork. Virginia-based Shapiro & Burson was the third law firm called this year before Baltimore Circuit Judge W. Michel Pierson. He has heard admissions from several attorneys — at Shapiro & Burson and elsewhere — that their signatures on affidavits required to foreclose on homeowners were sometimes made by other people.

J. Lynne Wood, an attorney who worked in government before joining the Anne Arundel Community College faculty and developing its paralegal program, died yesterday of pancreatic cancer at her home in Arnold. She was 53.On March 1, the student Paralegal Association at the college honored her efforts in a ceremony dedicating a collection of law books in her name the J. Lynne Wood Paralegal Collection saying she single-handedly built the program.Beginning in 1987, Ms. Wood worked to change a few nonaccredited paralegal courses into a degree-conferring program.

Between 1987 and 1993, J. Lynne Wood turned a couple of nonaccredited paralegal courses at Anne Arundel Community College into a degree-conferring program fully accredited by the American Bar Association.Tomorrow, the student Paralegal Association at the school will honor her work by dedicating a collection of law books in Mrs. Wood's name. Mrs. Wood has cancer."She's the kind of person who I can say that when I grow up, I want to be like her," said Peggy Bronstein, an association member who will graduate this summer with an associate's degree in paralegal studies.

He'd been controlling his temper all day, plotting how to say what was on his mind. His chance came at 6:45 that evening. Andres Alonso, Baltimore schools chief executive officer, arrived in Mount Vernon to meet with a few dozen of the city's most active school parents and wasted no time getting to what was eating at him. "How many of you called City Council today?" his Cuban-accented voice thundered through the conference room. There was silence. "Raise your hand if you did!" Nothing.