Tape Recorder

A man known as Joe Homeless,who spent more than a decade living on the streets of New York City and had his story published, died Tuesday of heart failure at 56.The man used Joe Homeless as a pen name and, according to friends, did not want his name known. He died at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, according to George McDonald, president of the Doe Fund Inc., a nonprofit organization that assists homeless people.Using a tape recorder he had fished from the trash, Joe Homeless dictated his story while living on the streets.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The red-headed girl who shocked Maryland horse racing with her daring debut in 2005 was coronated as an elite jockey Friday at Churchill Downs. Rosie Napravnik won the Kentucky Oaks on Believe You Can. She is the first woman to win the most important race for 3-year-old fillies in its 138-year history, and she did so in front of a crowd of 112,552. "This is how it feels to have your dreams come true," Napravnik said. Believe You Can convincingly won a late duel with Napravnik, a former Hereford student and top jockey in Maryland, extending her fist in celebration as she crossed the finish line.

When Don Wardlow talks about baseball, it's hard to believe he's never seen a game -- even though he's been to thousands of them.It's even harder to believe that Wardlow is a color commentator for radio broadcasts of baseball games."

John Francis "Jack" Cullen, 80, a madcap disc jockey who befriended Bob Hope and was blacklisted by Frank Sinatra for a bootleg recording, died Saturday in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mr. Cullen was best known during five decades at CKNW as host of the late show Owl Prowl. A nostalgia act in his last years, Cullen was taken off the air in a station shake-up in 1999. A Vancouver native, Mr. Cullen served as a naval wireless operator in World War II and was hired at CKNW in 1949. He interviewed virtually every entertainer who came to town, becoming friends with Hope, Sammy Davis Jr. and Henry Mancini.

Speaker system makes its debut at the town hallThe Hampstead Town Council, at its monthly meeting on Tuesday, inaugurated a new public address system that will make it easier for those in the audience to hear and at the same time will record the meetings for the town's archives."

I just left the Orioles' clubhouse, where stadium workers are covering the lockers in plastic for the big champagne celebration. That's two wins in a row. Who wants to pop the first cork? The bullpen, which has been a huge concern to manager Sam Perlozzo and club officials, held the Marlins to one hit over five scoreless innings yesterday in a 5-0 victory. Eddy Rodriguez gave up the only hit, but he struck out three in two innings. Vic Darensbourg got the last three outs. "Guys are settling in better, and it's starting to show," Perlozzo said.

A 38-year-old Ellicott City man who pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his wife last year in an attack that left her with irreversible brain damage was sentenced yesterday by a Howard County Circuit Court judge to 30 years in prison. Ghafour Asemani pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder in April. According to charging documents, Asemani entered a Howard County police station on July 9, 2005, and told officers: "I killed my wife; ... she is dead." According to a statement of facts from the case, Asemani told investigators that earlier that morning, he struck Samira Salmassi with a tape recorder after taping her conversations with other men. The document added that Asemani choked his wife as she was in the bathtub.

Making an unauthorized call to a sex chat line in Lower Slobovia is about to get more difficult.AT&T Corp. said yesterday that it is offering a $90 computer-based device that lets the people who pay the phone bills prevent others from completing unauthorized toll calls.AT&T touted the device, which is about the size of a small tape recorder, to parents, vacation home owners and small-businesses owners who are trying to hold down their phone bills.The device, called the AT&T Call Controller, fits between the phone set and the wall jack.

A Baltimore plumber will go on trial for murder more than five years after his arrest, and 23 years after the killing of Mark Schwandtner, a Towson construction worker who was beaten and thrown over a railroad trestle into the Gunpowder River. Baltimore County Circuit Judge Christian M. Kahl has ruled that a tape recording that allegedly contains a confession by John S. Derry - one of three suspects in Schwandtner's death - can be introduced as evidence. Prosecutors have said the tape is crucial to their case.

Mark S. Schwandtner drowned 22 years ago after being thrown from a railroad trestle into the Gunpowder River. But the case is far from being solved, even though three suspects were charged with the killing more than four years ago. A court hearing in Baltimore County yesterday moved the case no closer to a conclusion. Circuit Judge Christian M. Kahl gave lawyers two months to write legal arguments concerning the use at trial of a secretly taped confession by one of those accused in the killing, John S. Derry, 47, a Baltimore plumber.