Stukes

Midway through a 90-minute meeting yesterday, Lottie Carroll, a tenant of a West Baltimore housing development, heard a list of concessions from the building's management that she never thought possible. The community and laundry room at the Harvey Johnson Towers will remain open three extra hours until 11 p.m. Trash collection will be Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, a switch from Tuesday and Thursday. The security system is being upgraded to include all-night monitoring, and a new company could begin rodent abatement as early as next week.

BaseballAngels: Signed P Mark Harriger to one-year contract.Astros: Agreed to one-year contracts with P Wade Miller, C Paul Bako, IF Carlos Hernandez and IF Daryle Ward.Blue Jays: Agreed to one-year contract with P Steve Sinclair.Indians: Agreed to minor-league contract with C Pat Borders; invited him to spring training.Marlins: Agreed to one-year contracts with IF Amaury Garcia, OF Julio Ramirez and OF Ryan Jackson.Rangers: Agreed to terms with P Dan Kolb, C Cesar King and OF Ruben Mateo.

Baltimore's 6th Council District is unique in at least one respect: It is the only district in which there is a contested race on the Republican side in Tuesday'sprimary for three council seats.Among the city's other five districts, three Republicans have filed in the 4th District and two have filed in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th. Each of those 11 candidates will be listed on the ballot in November's general election.But in the 6th, covering southern and Southwest Baltimore, four GOP candidates are vying for three seats.

A Baltimore councilman who was swindled out of $20 after giving two women a ride is pursuing a police investigation to find the culprits, saying they "disrespected my office and the people who elected me."Melvin L. Stukes, a 6th District Democrat, said the women told him they would pay him $4 for a ride home Sunday afternoon but told him they needed to get change first. He gave them $20 to change, and the two took off and "never returned," a police report filed Monday says."I let my guard down, and I got had," Stukes said Tuesday.

Sixth District Councilman Melvin L. Stukes introduced a resolution last night calling for establishment of a task force to find funding to relocate residents of two tiny south side neighborhoods -- Fairfield and the Heights -- that sit in the shadow of chemical and oil plants.Stukes represents both neighborhoods, which are home to about 30 people. The neighborhoods had been included in a residents' proposal for a government and industry-financed buyout of nearby Wagner's Point and its 270 residents.

Facing threats to his support in Baltimore, Gov. Parris N. Glendening toured Cherry Hill yesterday to tout his role in bringing new public housing, an after-school program and small signs of revitalization to a community long in decline.Glendening chatted with school children and merchants but skipped a prepared speech in favor of casual remarks during his low-key, two-hour visit."We'll be there for you in September," City Councilman Melvin L. Stukes assured Glendening at the end of a ceremony at Patapsco Elementary School, one of eight city schools that has an after-school program funded with the governor's help.

Despite a glaring loophole that could allow Baltimore to become a dumping ground for medical waste from around the country, the City Council gave its blessing last night to easing the limits on an incinerator at Hawkins Point.Detractors failed in a testy, last-minute attempt to correct the legislation's vague wording that opens the door for shipping in medical waste from anywhere in the nation.The bill, given final approval in a 10-7 vote, allows the Hawkins Point Medical Waste Incinerator in South Baltimore to collect trash from any municipality within 250 miles instead of just a handful of Maryland counties.

At times, Baltimore's City Council has had all the tact and professionalism of a late-night barroom brawl.Twice in two years, fists were bared. Once, the word "racist" passed a member's lips. Shouts have become commonplace. And occasionally, the call for a vote comes as a great surprise.Fed up, Council President Lawrence A. Bell III today will fire off a missive to all 18 members outlining new rules of conduct that begin Monday when the council returns from its summer recess. He is ordering them:Not to impugn another council member's character, integrity or motives.

Business was brisk at Eastport's only grocery store Saturday as customers scavenged the scantily stocked shelves for bargains."They're supporting us now that everything is discounted. They didn't before," said Gary Jefferson, co-owner of the Thriftway on Bay Ridge Avenue.The store is going out of business after a decade in the Eastport Shopping Center. A small, red-bordered sign posted in the store's front window declares that everything in the store is 50 percent off.Sarah Postlewaite does not usually shop at Thriftway but heard from her daughter that everything had been discounted.

Cherry Hill residents, led in part by 6th District Councilman Melvin L. Stukes, are circulating a petition in support of a long-stalled proposal for a senior housing complex at Harbor Hospital Center.Hospital officials put a hold on the proposal earlier this spring after residents of Reedbird Avenue complained that the complex, which would be built in the hospital's south parking lot, would block their views of the Patapsco. The hospital said in February that it would not move forward without more community support.

Has Del. Melvin Stukes ever had any bones broken, like the woman who was brutally beaten on the No. 27 bus? He didn't let on. But the former Baltimore city councilman let it be known that he'd had his heart broken. Which is why he could relate to Sarah Kreager's attackers. "Please tell me what you would do if someone SPAT on you," Stukes wrote in an e-mail. "In a heat[ed] exchange of words. If you don't think words can hurt you then I am sure you have never been in love. Words and [names]

On November 4, 2007, LUCILLE STUKES HALL beloved mother of Mary A. Thompson and Bonita D. Thomas. She is also survived by two grandchildren, a devoted cousin and a host of other loving relatives and friends. On today, friends may call at VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (RANDALLSTOWN), 8728 Liberty Road from 4-8 P.M. On Thursday, Mrs. Hall will lie in state at Ebenezer AME Church, 20 W. Montgomery Street, where the family will receive friends from 10:30-11 A.m., with services to follow.

Midway through a 90-minute meeting yesterday, Lottie Carroll, a tenant of a West Baltimore housing development, heard a list of concessions from the building's management that she never thought possible. The community and laundry room at the Harvey Johnson Towers will remain open three extra hours until 11 p.m. Trash collection will be Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, a switch from Tuesday and Thursday. The security system is being upgraded to include all-night monitoring, and a new company could begin rodent abatement as early as next week.

WHY DO ALL these things have to happen around the same time? It's getting so a columnist would have to write seven days a week to keep up with all this stuff. Since that's not how we operate around here, I'll have to touch on several topics in the same column. So here goes. A bill to permit slot machines in Maryland once again failed to pass in the legislature, and I have a pretty good idea as to why. No, it's not because those Democrats opposed to slots do so on ethical grounds. They know better than that.

Kim Rekart is ready to do what few college athletes can bring themselves to do these days. The former Mount Hebron standout will walk away from Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., with one year of eligibility remaining as a top Division II soccer goalkeeper. "It's time to move on," said Rekart, who has a 3.86 grade-point average and will graduate in May with a computer information systems/finance double major. "I'm done with my undergraduate work. I obviously gave what was required of me [to the soccer program]

Every night Levi Stukes walks on the court for the University of Georgia, he finds himself in a perfect situation. The 6-foot-1 freshman guard from Randallstown High has the luxury of starting with four seniors in the basketball tradition-rich Southeastern Conference. "They [seniors] can tell me to slow down a little or don't get down," said Stukes said from Athens, Ga., yesterday as the Bulldogs prepared to head to Atlanta for the SEC tournament. "I believe we can win this tournament if we all play the way we're capable of."

Kelsen LaBerge could write a book about patience, perseverance and the agony of defeat. They were all a major part of her swimming life for 18 years, especially the past four years at Ohio Northern University. LaBerge (Towson) spent four years chasing what seemed like an impossible dream of a first-place finish in an individual event. So why would anything change in the final event in the final meet of her collegiate career? The big breakthrough came in the most dramatic of fashions at the Ohio Athletic Conference swimming championships at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland last month.

WELL, THAT was some swell showdown yesterday at City College. Pay attention, children: This is how the grownups look after your lives. Cassandra Jones, chief academic officer for the city's schools, and Melvin Stukes, chairman of the City Council's education committee, wanted to confront City Principal Joseph Wilson about his job, Wilson says. But Jones didn't show up -- and then denied she was supposed to. And Stukes, insulted that the meeting wasn't stacked the way he'd intended, took a powder a few minutes after he arrived -- and then sheepishly came back an hour later, when most of the day's important work was done, and gave a long speech telling everybody what a swell fellow he is. "I do not participate in witch hunts," Stukes then announced.

Ask most political observers, and the race for the 8th District seat on the City Council is clearly between incumbents Helen L. Holton and Melvin L. Stukes. But if you ask challengers David Maurice Smallwood, Beatrice Hawkins and Patrick J. Burns, they beg to differ. "I think out of everybody in the race it's not a real wide field," said Smallwood, 41, director of the city's Ralph J. Young Center in East Baltimore. "I think it's coming down to myself, Helen Holton and Melvin Stukes." Hawkins, 52, owner and president of Hawkins Enterprises, an assisted living facility, said the race is between her and Holton.

Some school board members have been trying to oust the system's second highest-ranking employee, Chief Academic Officer Cassandra W. Jones, angering city leaders who say Jones is being unfairly pushed out. City Council President Sheila Dixon has scheduled a news conference this afternoon to express her support for Jones, who has been in charge of the school system's academic direction for two years. "Baltimore's school system has had more than its share of burnout and constant turnover of talented individuals, with leadership changing every two or three years," Dixon said in a release.