Rasin

Gale E. Rasin, a Baltimore District Court judge for the past eight years, was appointed yesterday to the city's Circuit Court bench. Rasin, 52, will succeed Judge Thomas J. S. Waxter, Jr., who retired last month. In appointing Rasin, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said she will "further the best interests of the citizens of Baltimore City." Rasin, who was born in Baltimore, is familiar with the city's Circuit Court. She was a visiting judge handling misdemeanor trials this year from March until last month.

Start assessing school administrators With a county-wide increase in high school students who make a 2.0 GPA or below, with almost half of Anne Arundel County's ninth-grade algebra students making D's or E's, with low teacher morale, with oversized classes, with diminished curriculum in middle school and elementary school, isn't it time to perhaps expand school assessment to our school administrators? When Dr. Smith was in North Carolina, [that] state and Smith's own "high standards" led to what the Charlotte Observer called, "a dangerous downside that state leaders have widely ignored: a dramatic rise in dropouts.

On August 23, 2003, MARGARET E., beloved wife of Frederick F. Standiford; devoted sister of Franklin Zeller of New Freedom PA.; loving sister-in-law of Eleanor Shepard of Eustis, FL; also survived by her loving dog Rasin. Family wand friends are invited to attend a Memorial Service on Saturday, August 30 at 11 A.M. at THE JOHNSON FUNERAL HOME P.A., 8521 Loch Raven Blvd (Beltway exit 29B). Interment was private.

Jamil Molock, a welder and Cambridge resident, drowned Wednesday while swimming in the Choptank River near the Caroline County town of Choptank. He was 23. Mr. Molock, a Cambridge native, was a 1998 graduate of Cambridge South High School. He developed an interest in underwater welding and construction while in high school, and attended Divers Academy International in Camden, N.J. Mr. Molock enjoyed playing video games and performing odd jobs around his home. He was a member of Christ United Methodist Church in Cambridge, where services will be held at 1 p.m. tomorrow.

Man found dead in creek after falling from boat A 45-year-old man was found dead yesterday morning in Mill Creek near Ferry Point Yacht Basin in Arnold, county police said, apparently after having fallen from his boat home. The man's name was not released by police yesterday pending notification of his family, said Officer Charles Ravenell, a police spokesman. Police do not suspect foul play, he said. Suspect in husband's killing on home detention A 58-year-old Shady Side woman charged with first-degree murder in the death of her 66-year-old husband last month has been released on home detention, county prosecutors said yesterday.

Howard County District Judge James N. Vaughan, a 19-year veteran who has ordered criminals to read Les Miserables and invented a "maxim of red lights" for traffic cases, was named chief judge of Maryland's District Court system yesterday. Vaughan, 66, was appointed to one of the state's top three judicial positions by Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell. Vaughan takes his new post today, replacing Martha F. Rasin, who resigned to return to her previous job as a trial judge in Anne Arundel County.

Maryland Chief District Judge Martha F. Rasin announced yesterday that she would quit the position and return to Anne Arundel County as a trial judge next month, ending a five-year tenure marked by progress in domestic violence cases and high-profile political clashes over staffing and court reform. Rasin, 53, said her job overseeing 35 courthouses, 108 judges and 1,500 employees has isolated her from the work she loves. "I entered the judiciary to be a trial judge on the District Court, and that is a wonderful, wonderful job," Rasin said yesterday.

A speedier criminal justice system could be in effect in Baltimore by July 1 under a plan announced yesterday that ends -- at least for now -- a vitriolic debate between the mayor and state judiciary. But more hurdles remain before the courtroom at the city jail is turned into a clearinghouse for minor cases, as the mayor wishes. The estimated cost of putting the plan in place is about $10 million, much of which will likely have to come from state coffers. Officials aim for the courtroom to be operational by July 1. "Now we'll have to get it funded," said John H. Lewin Jr., chairman of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, a group composed of all criminal justice agencies, from judges to jail officials.

Action needed now to clean drug corners, unclog city's courts Some in the complacent bureaucracy and judiciary, accustomed to the well-meaning sloth of the city's prior regime, complain of Mayor Martin O'Malley's impatience in hustling them forward on the linked issues of crime and drug use. One suggestion: Make them read and commit to memory Kurt Streeter's article "Risking their lives to save their street (Feb. 27). Let them learn the names Clayton Guyton, Elroy Christopher, Kelly Brown, and Vincent Richardson; they are three heroes and one heroine, at a time when such citizens are in short supply.