Sales Academy

In Baltimore City 16-year-old receives 5-year sentence for drug, gun charges A 16-year-old was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison without the possibility of parole after he pleaded guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court to drug and handgun charges, the city state's attorney's office said. Joseph Woodson of the 2700 block of Tivoly Ave. was convicted of felony cocaine possession, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and using a handgun in a drug trafficking offense. He was charged as an adult because his offenses involved a handgun used in drug trafficking.

Last Saturday, 114 young women dressed in formal white gowns, each carrying red roses, became the 150th graduating class of historic Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville. And in accordance with tradition, each graduate entered the stage and curtsied to the seated audience, dignitaries and assembled guests. "In the current, less formal age, these may well be the first and last curtsies executed by a girl," according to An Academy of Every Virtue: A History of Mount de Sales Academy, Catonsville 1852-2002, a sesquicentennial history written by Richard C. and Susan M. Randt and published this year.

The hand-painted ornithological prints that were hung around the bow-shaped Bird Room sparked Susan Randt's interest. But it was the cast-iron cemetery crosses that she and her husband, Richard, found on Mount de Sales Academy's 14-acre campus that spurred the Randts to take on the job of compiling the history of the all-girls' school. The couple, who live in Ellicott City, spent three years doing research. They visited the academy's archives, local libraries and basements, and they contacted alumni, their families, staff and faculty.

In Baltimore County Towson woman gets 30-year sentence for suffocating newborn TOWSON -- A Towson woman has been sentenced to a 30-year prison term for killing her newborn daughter, who was found suffocated in a closet. Kelly Elizabeth Norton, 30, of the 900 block of Beaver Bank Circle pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in July after an autopsy showed she had given birth in July 2000 to a healthy baby girl who was breathing on her own before she was killed. Norton, who was sentenced Tuesday, received the maximum term for second-degree murder from Baltimore County Circuit Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. Public defender Gayle Robinson said Norton had no prior criminal record.

In Baltimore County Democratic Club in 10th District backs condemnation law TOWSON - Members of the 10th Legislative District Democratic Club have voted to endorse Senate Bill 509, the neighborhood renewal law backed by Baltimore County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger. In a statement, Ruppersberger called the endorsement a "real coup" because the legislative district includes part of the Liberty Road corridor that is among three areas targeted for revitalization - and possible condemnation - under the legislation.

In Baltimore County Mount de Sales Academy names new headmistress CATONSVILLE - Mount de Sales Academy has a new headmistress, Sister Mary Reginald. A native of Bedford, England, Sister Mary grew up in Oak Ridge, Tenn. She received a bachelor's degree from Siena College in Memphis, Tenn., and master's degrees from Xavier University in Cincinnati and the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy. A Dominican nun for more than three decades, she has been a principal of schools in Tennessee, Ohio and Virginia and was president of Aquinas College in Nashville, Tenn.

In Baltimore City Pratt Library statistics office to move downtown The Enoch Pratt Free Library is moving its Center for Maryland Neighborhoods, a two-employee office that administers an electronic database of local demographic statistics and other information. Gordon Krabbe, director of administrative services for the library system, said yesterday that the office will be moved in the next two months from 1401 Hollins St. in West Baltimore to the main library at 400 Cathedral St. downtown.

The student: Mary Kate Nugent, 18 School: Mount de Sales Academy Special achievement: Chosen as a National Merit Scholarship finalist. What she says about it: "I nearly died of shock because I didn't expect to make it that far. It was a nice surprise, and I'm very happy about it." What motivates her: "I am trying to do better in a little competition with myself. I like a challenge, and if things are too easy it's dull. Reading has always been important to me. If I hadn't read so much and such varied books, I wouldn't know half as much as I do."

MY FAMILY joins me in wishing you a very merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah and happy Kwanzaa.We hope that however you celebrate the holidays, you take time to be with family and to count your blessings.We have many wonderful blessings here in western Howard County.Glenelg resident Barbara Bychich recently received an unexpected gift.Bychich was walking her dog, Bruce, one day when the Jack Russell terrier interrupted an organized soccer game at a school playing field -- and took over.The coaches and kids loved Bruce's antics as he dribbled the ball back and forth on the field.