Ralston

WASHINGTON - A top assistant to White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove appeared last week before the federal grand jury investigating possible criminal wrongdoing by the Bush administration in the exposing of a CIA operative, a person familiar with the case said yesterday. The interest in Susan Ralston, Rove's longtime executive assistant, was unexplained, but it comes as special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has been focusing on differences in witness statements made to federal agents and the grand jury investigating who revealed the identity of Valerie Plame.

On July 29, 2006, ALDO P. BRIGIDE, beloved husband of Patricia Ralston Brigide; dear father of Robert Paul Brigide, Susan Ceresini and husband Gerry, Lynne B. Peters and husband Michael; loving step-father of Patricia, Jim, Jane and Tom Ralston; cherished grandfather of 7 grandchildren; Tina Ceresini-Baker and husband Brian, Jennifer Ceresini-Nuessle and husband Michael, Paul Jason (P.J.) Ceresini, Amanda E. Peters, Erin N. Peters, Joseph (Nate) Peters, and Luke T. Peters; and 2 great grandchildren; Alexandra and Samantha Baker; dear brother of Eva Kerr.

Aldo P. Brigide, a retired wholesale foods sales manager and World War II veteran, died of circulatory surgical complications Saturday at St. Agnes Hospital. The Ellicott City resident was 81. Born in DuBois, Pa., he was drafted into the Army shortly after his high school graduation and sailed to England aboard the SS Scythia, a British-flag Cunard passenger liner that had been converted to troop-carrying service during World War II. Part of an anti-aircraft unit, he helped defend the south coast of England near Dover from German flying bombs.

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon officials are looking at scrapping any one of three expensive new fighter plane programs or cutting purchases by as much as half, an Air Force general told lawmakers yesterday.Gen. Joseph Ralston, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told members of the House National Security Committee that military leaders are putting the Air Force F-22, the Navy Superhornet and the multiservice Joint Strike Fighter on the table in a review of defense priorities.With a combined cost of about $350 billion, the three tactical aircraft programs are believed to be the most expensive defense initiative in history.

Betz LabsBetz Laboratories (OTC, BETZ, around $40), says Dow Theory Forecasts, Hammond, Ind., is one of the few chemical makers positioned to prosper in 1991."

WASHINGTON -- The last time we looked, President Clinton was still the commander in chief. But the president has played no role in the controversy over adultery in the military except to issue a statement praising Gen. Joseph W. Ralston after he walked the plank.It may have been unrealistic to expect any president to interject himself into the situation, even though he is the one who will nominate the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and he is the one with the ultimate responsibility for any unfairness in the treatment of General Ralston or the commanding officer of the Aberdeen Proving Ground or Lt. Kelly Flinn.

On August 10, 2003 MARGARET M. SCHLEUPNER (nee Ralston) of Salisbury, MD. Formerly of Baltimore. Beloved wife of Michael N. Schleupner, loving mother of Michael N. Schleupner, Jr. and his wife Cathy of Rosedale, MD, Margaret S. Blair and her husband David of Leesburg, VA and Joseph G. Schleupner and his wife Annetta of Mardela Springs, MD; loving grandmother of Patrick Blair and Joshua, Michael, Christopher, Elizabeth and Matthew Schleupner. Devoted sister of the late James W., John H. and David T. Ralston.

Both brothers loved to fix cars. They labored side by side at their garage in East Baltimore. Both came to the United States from Jamaica looking for a better life. Both were forgiving, almost to a fault. "They worked real well together. They would tell jokes about each other," said Samuel Murdock, a relative. "They were close." But five days before Christmas, Ralston and Everton R. Holder were killed. First, the older brother, Ralston, 52, was fatally shot at 10 a.m. in the parking lot of his Northeast Baltimore apartment complex as his 3-year-old son sat in a truck.

The caskets were a mirror image of each other, the brothers inside them dressed in black suits and fedoras and the floral arrangements atop them done in the Rastafarian colors of red, yellow, green. Outside the church, matching light-colored hearses idled side by side. Ralston "Roy" Holder and Everton "Cliffy" Holder, Jamaica natives and East Baltimore auto shop owners, were shot to death hours apart on the same day last week. Yesterday was their double funeral. The two ran the Eveready Towing & Repair shop in the 3300 block of E. Fayette St. They had a reputation for generosity, giving steep discounts to customers who were paying out of pocket and letting a homeless employee sleep at the shop for a time.

Adultery does not belong in military codeThe opposition of government officials, including Sen. Barbara Mikulski, to the appointment of Gen. Joseph Ralston as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was misplaced.Although General Ralston's affair might come within the definition of adultery as defined in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, his conduct was far different from the behavior which led to the courts martial of Army personnel at Aberdeen and the discharge of Lt. Kelly Flinn.General Ralston's affair was a private matter between consenting adults.