Takoma

A 13-year-old student at Severn River Junior High School was chargedwith assault Thursday after police say he threatened the principal and other school officials with a bayonet.A 14-year-old student atthe school also was arrested Thursday after school officials found him with a handgun, police said.The older student told police he got the gun from the 13-year-old, who asked him to hold it until the end of the day, when he planned to run away from home.Police were called to the Arnold school at11:30 a.m. and were told the 13-year-old had threatened Principal Don McClenahan with a bayonet and run into the woods behind the school.

On chilly nights, after he tucks 3-year-old Grace into bed, Mark Flory turns up the heat the old-fashioned way. He checks the flame in the downstairs stove, lifts the lid and pours in a big bucket of dried corn. It could be a scene from a century-old farmhouse on the prairie. But Flory, his wife and their little girl live far from the American heartland in a congested suburb inside the Capital Beltway. Nevertheless, like a small but growing number of homeowners nationwide, the Florys are keeping their Takoma Park house cozy this winter by burning dried, shelled corn.

First District: Voters of the sprawling district that embraces the Eastern Shore as well as parts of Harford and Anne Arundel counties have been well served by eight-term Republican Wayne T. Gilchrest. He is a stalwart in the shrinking moderate wing of his party, which reflects the libertarian bent of his constituents. He supports embryonic stem cell research and was among the first House Republicans to call for an orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. More important than party affiliation for Mr. Gilchrest, though, is his commitment to the environment - a cause that has often pitted him against GOP leaders.

James R. Kelly Jr., a retired federal official who helped institute outpatient treatment for military veterans who otherwise faced weeks-long stays in nursing homes, died of throat and mouth cancer on Thursday at the Casey House Hospice in Rockville. He was 68. Before the Churchville native helped establish the federal government's adult day-care program in the early 1990s, ailing veterans went to nursing homes for weeks of costly treatment. As a high-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Mr. Kelly formulated an alternative: a program allowing the veterans to visit a nursing home or a VA hospital during the day and return to their homes.

TOWSON UNIVERSITY freshman point guard Tamir Goodman is close to becoming a regular student-athlete again. After a three-year whirlwind media tour that included profiles by "60 Minutes," ESPN and Sports Illustrated, the young man who turned the college basketball world upside down because he is an Orthodox Jew with game will finally get to enjoy campus life like most students. Towson's basketball season came to a close when the Tigers fell to Delaware, 66-51, on Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the America East tournament.

LOTTOBowie couple wins $7.5 million jackpot"I've worked all my life -- time to take it easy," John W Schmidt said yesterday after he and his wife, Vivian, stepped forward as the winners of Wednesday's $7.5 million Lotto jackpot.Mr. Schmidt, 59, who admitted that he likes "to gamble a bit," beat odds of 6.99 million-to-1 with a Lotto ticket bought at a Bethesda drug store during his daily run to the bank and post office as purchasing agent for the Society of American Foresters.Yesterday, Mr. Schmidt went to work and explained he had to go to Baltimore "to take care of some business.

Voters in Takoma Park last week narrowly approved a referendum calling for the extension of municipal voting rights to non-citizens. Sometimes derided as "Berkeley East," Takoma Park has a history of trendy gestures. It has proclaimed itself a nuclear-free zone and a sanctuary for Central American refugees. Now it has declared that aliens, legal or not, shouldn't be discriminated against just for not being American.That sounds noble, and furthermore appears at first sight to rest upon a principle as old as the Republic -- no taxation without representation.

A body found in a large trash can in Clarksville was identified yesterday by Howard County police as that of Rolando Andrade of Takoma Park. The body of Andrade, 29, of the 6800 block of 10th Ave. was found about 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the 7300 block of Guilford Road near Route 32. An autopsy found that he died as a result of a head injury, police said. Police declined to describe the wound but said they are investigating the death as a homicide. Police ask anyone with additional information to call investigators at 410-313-3200.

A 27-year-old Takoma Park man, who drove women to locations in the Annapolis area for the purposes of prostitution, has been charged with numerous counts of human trafficking and prostitution. Freddy Leguisamon was arrested last month by Annapolis police, after an investigation that combined the efforts of several law enforcement and government agencies. He faces 54 counts of general prostitution, eight counts of receiving compensation from human trafficking, five counts of taking another person to a place for the purpose of human trafficking, and four counts of operating a prostitution business.

TAKOMA PARK -- By a 5-to-1 margin, voters in a mock election called on the City Council to enact a ban on handguns.The petition question on Tuesday's ballot lost its authority when a Montgomery County Circuit judge ruled that state law prohibits local jurisdictions from passing gun control laws in all but a few circumstances.However, at least two City Council members say they will attempt to draft an ordinance that complies with state law but allows Takoma Park to ban handguns within 100 yards of public places.