Ripple

It's likely that Yaroslav Korolev and Fran Vazquez, a pair of 6-foot-10 forwards from Europe, will have to sit for a while during the NBA draft tonight. Having to wait until the middle of the first round doesn't seem like a tough life, but it's a far cry from the treatment the league was lavishing upon the best international players in the draft at the beginning of the decade. In 2002, three of the top 10 picks - Chinese center Yao Ming, Georgian Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Brazilian Maybyner Hilario - were players who had never performed regularly in the United States before being drafted by Houston, Denver and New York.

On April 15, 2005, MILDRED, beloved wife of Albert Ridges and devoted mother of Jacqueline Thornton and Mildred Harris-Taylor. She is also survived by two grandchildren, three sisters other relatives and friends. Friends may call at JAMES A. MORTON & SONS FUNERAL HOMES, INC., 1701 Laurens Street, Tuesday 3 to 7 P.M. Funeral services will be held Wednesday at City Temple of Baltimore Baptist Church. The family will receive friends 10 to 10:30 A.M. Funeral services immediateley following.

LAUREL, Del. - When a neighbor came to Iris Weston's door yesterday to say her son, Jamell, was lying in the street, her first thought was that he had had a seizure. "I got there, he was laying in blood," she said. After walking his 6-year-old nephew to the bus stop yesterday around 8 a.m., Jamell Weston, 24, was returning to his mother's apartment when the shooting began. He tried to run, his mother said, but he didn't get far. A gunman - wielding a 9 mm handgun and wearing a bulletproof vest - shot him in the face.

PARK CITY, Utah -- The applause rippled through the Library Center Theatre after Doug Sadler's Swimmers premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Where its echoes spread will decide the movie's fate. "This will launch Doug Sadler," co-producer David Leitner said. But blast-off is no guarantee for the Easton-based Sadler, a writer-director who overcame many obstacles simply to bring Swimmers to fruition. The festival placed his underdog project in a category, American Spectrum, that receives less exposure than the dramatic competition.

Oregon, a state that has long prided itself on having the nation's toughest curbs on suburban sprawl, appears on the verge of relaxing those limits or being forced to pay untold millions of taxpayer dollars it doesn't have to landowners affected by the restrictions. Last month, as the majority of them were backing Democrat John Kerry for president, Oregon's usually liberal voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative entitling landowners to be compensated if any environmental or zoning regulations reduced the value of their property or to get an exemption from those rules.

On November 20, 2004, JAMES W. RIPPLE; beloved husband of Christine (nee Wilson); devoted father of Michael Ripple, Neil Ripple and his wife Sebrina and Patrick Ripple; loving son of Marie Ripple; dear grandfather of Kayla, Evan, Olivia and Mason Ripple; dear brother of Dave, Barry Ripple and Judy Krause. James will be greatly missed. Friends may call at the Connelly Funeral Home of Essex, 300 Mace Avenue, Monday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Funeral Services Monday 7:30 P.M. Interment private.

JENNER, Calif. - "Psst." Darkness was coming, and with it coils of mist. The only sounds had been of heavy surf and the clacking together of water-smoothed stones, but now came the sharp call from a drifter settling in for the night in the cove, where overnight camping is prohibited. "Psst. Hey. You a cop? A ranger? I already talked to you guys. I wasn't even down here when it happened." For decades, the coastal route running north from San Francisco to the Canadian border has been among the last stretches of welcoming road for the nation's wanderers, a series of highways and byways where raising a thumb will still get you a ride, eventually, often from people who live along the way and perhaps once did some hitchhiking themselves.

You've heard of the refi boom. Now get ready for the refi ripple. Lenders nationwide are reporting a significant late summer mortgage refinancing revival -- a 21 percent surge in applications last week alone, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. While most of the applicants appear to be simply taking advantage of the nearly half-percentage point downward flutter in interest rates over the past several weeks, a sizable minority are "cashing out" -- converting their inflation-fed equities into spendable dollars through larger first mortgages.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Paulette Crawford-Webb felt giddy when her daughter called her at work to say two military men were at the door. Her son, Army Staff Sgt. Morgan Kennon, was due home soon from Iraq for her 47th birthday. The "military men" had to be Morgan; her son and daughter were pulling a prank. "My baby's home!" she sang out to her pharmacy co-workers that day last November. Instead of his smile, she got the news every soldier's parent dreads. Her son was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade in the soft light after dawn.

On Wednesday, June 2, 2004, BETTY RAFFEL (nee Hornstein); loving wife of Stanley Raffel; beloved mother of Barbara Raffel of Springfield, VA and Janet Raffel of Owings Mills, MD and the late Michael Barry Raffel; loving grandmother of Samuel Nachman and Sara Nachman. Services at Sol Levinson and Bros, Inc., 8900 Reisterstown Road, at Mount Wilson Lane on Friday, June 4 at 10 A.M. Interment Bnai Israel Congregation Cemetery, 3701 Southern Avenue. Please omit flowers. Contributions in her memory may be directed to The National Parkinson Foundation, 1501 N.W. 9th Avenue, Bob Hope Road, Miami, FL 33136.