Terre Haute

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The federal penitentiary where Timothy J. McVeigh awaits his death sits near the fairgrounds, the bowling center and the Miss Softball America field on Highway 63. Just beyond the penitentiary's clipped grounds, with its small "Do Not Enter" signs, are modest ranch houses, a gift shop and the Happy Hair beauty salon. The prison, set on a lush green lawn far from the road, almost seems to blend into the landscape. That is, until the field of television trucks pops into view, the guards in bulletproof vests shift at their posts and the sheriff's car zooms by for the second time in 10 minutes.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind.-- --Today, just thinking about the prom photos makes Jimmy Smith laugh. His son and Greg Oden, all dressed up in white tuxedos with those handsome black hats, making exaggerated faces for the camera. Even though Oden had moved away to Indianapolis before his eighth-grade year, he returned to town last May and attended senior prom at Terre Haute South High, where his best friend, Travis Smith, went to school. The two had been friends since the fourth grade and in their final weeks of high school, they had a plan: Oden would someday soon become a professional basketball player and Smith a pro golfer.

Puerto Rico 1, Navy 0. There is no place left on Earth safe and feasible for war exercises, though many are available for actual wars. Ben Cardin will run for governor when Townsend, Duncan, Ruppersberger, Curry, OMalley and Schaefer beg him, not before. Terre Haute, Ind., is famous as the birthplace of Eugene V. Debs and where Larry Bird played his college ball, and ought to stay that way.

Puerto Rico 1, Navy 0. There is no place left on Earth safe and feasible for war exercises, though many are available for actual wars. Ben Cardin will run for governor when Townsend, Duncan, Ruppersberger, Curry, OMalley and Schaefer beg him, not before. Terre Haute, Ind., is famous as the birthplace of Eugene V. Debs and where Larry Bird played his college ball, and ought to stay that way.

Allegra R. CroganPayroll clerkAllegra R. Crogan, a payroll clerk for the Maryland Department of Transportation, died Sunday of cancer at her Northeast Baltimore home. She was 29.Mrs. Crogan had worked for the state since coming to Baltimore about six years ago. Earlier, she was a laboratory technician in Madison, Wis.She was born Allegra R. Johnson in Terre Haute, Ind., and attended the University of Wisconsin. She played the bagpipes as a member of the John F. Nicoll Pipe Band and was a member of the Towson Unit of the American Legion Auxiliary.

After 16 months as mayor of Sykesville, Kenneth W. Clark will resign at the Sept. 26 council meeting.Mayor Clark, who has accepted a job offer out of state, notified the Town Council of his intentions last night.The 38-year-old mayor left his position in production development at Bell Atlantic, his employer for 16 years, a week ago. He will begin working for the Reuben H. Donnelly Co. in Terre Haute, Ind."I will be basically doing the same thing for the competition," Mr. Clark said.Town officials expressed surprise and dismay at the announcement.

A Baltimore man already serving a federal prison term for major heroin trafficking was sentenced yesterday in Indiana to an additional 17 years for conspiring with his wife to smuggle narcotics into one of America's toughest prisons.Michael Leroy Barnes, 39, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Larry J. McKinney in Indianapolis after he had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind.At the time of sentencing, Barnes already was serving a 17-year sentence after being arrested in 1991 in Baltimore with three-quarters of a kilogram of cocaine and a handgun.

George W. Johnson, a retired commercial and industrial real estate developer, died Sunday at St. Joseph Hospital after a heart attack Feb. 11. He was 75 and lived in Phoenix.Services for Mr. Johnson were being held today at the Loring Byers Chapel, 8728 Liberty Road in Randallstown.He retired more than a year ago. He had developed property in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia since the early 1960s.Earlier, he had been a regional real estate official for the Cities Service Co. and the Atlantic Refining Co.Born in New York City, he was reared in New Kensington, Pa., where he graduated from high school.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind.-- --Today, just thinking about the prom photos makes Jimmy Smith laugh. His son and Greg Oden, all dressed up in white tuxedos with those handsome black hats, making exaggerated faces for the camera. Even though Oden had moved away to Indianapolis before his eighth-grade year, he returned to town last May and attended senior prom at Terre Haute South High, where his best friend, Travis Smith, went to school. The two had been friends since the fourth grade and in their final weeks of high school, they had a plan: Oden would someday soon become a professional basketball player and Smith a pro golfer.

The Carroll Players' current dinner theater production of Larry Shue's "The Nerd" is well worth attending.This very funny and popularcomedy has become one of the most-produced scripts by community theaters. Of the productions I have seen recently, this one, under Roberta Rooney's capable direction, comes closest to fulfilling the script's challenges.Even before the action begins, it is clear this production has been carefully planned. The set, which is visible during dinner, is a joy.Those responsible for the physical production -- Phil Grout, Jan Halman, Dean Camlin, Mary Lou Grout and Roberta Rooney -- have provided an environment that is attractive and carefully constructed.

Timothy McVeigh's death by lethal injection yesterday was doubly newsworthy. His was the first federal execution in 38 years. And the bombing he carried out in 1995 in Oklahoma City, taking 168 lives, was the deadliest terrorist act on U.S. soil. The newscasts set a sober tone, largely avoiding the far-too-common hyperbole that frequently typifies coverage of major breaking news. That may have been because the event they were covering did not occur before a rolling camera. Instead, TV stations initially carried a roll call of those who had watched the execution in Terre Haute, Ind. - from the federal prison's warden, Harley Lappin, to a procession of media witnesses that included reporters from CBS, Fox News, local outlets from Terre Haute and Oklahoma City and the Associated Press.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Sitting on the other side of a smoked-glass window a few feet from Timothy J. McVeigh's lifeless body, Sue Ashford heard the prison warden pronounce the Oklahoma City bomber dead. She promptly burst into applause. "He doesn't deserve to live," Ashford, a survivor of the blast, said shortly after the execution as she walked across the damp grass of the federal prison in this western Indiana city. "I waited six years for him to die, and he did that. Finally." Shortly after the sun came up yesterday, those whose lives were scarred by the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City marked what for some was a final somber chapter in the deadly terrorist episode.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The federal penitentiary where Timothy J. McVeigh awaits his death sits near the fairgrounds, the bowling center and the Miss Softball America field on Highway 63. Just beyond the penitentiary's clipped grounds, with its small "Do Not Enter" signs, are modest ranch houses, a gift shop and the Happy Hair beauty salon. The prison, set on a lush green lawn far from the road, almost seems to blend into the landscape. That is, until the field of television trucks pops into view, the guards in bulletproof vests shift at their posts and the sheriff's car zooms by for the second time in 10 minutes.

WASHINGTON - Lawyers for Timothy J. McVeigh asked the judge in the Oklahoma City bombing case yesterday to stay his execution, calling the federal government's failure to turn over thousands of documents to the defense "a fraud upon the court." The lawyers, Robert Nigh and Richard Burr, said McVeigh had authorized them to ask for a delay in his execution, set for June 11, "to promote integrity in the criminal justice system." The execution had been set for May 16, but Attorney General John Ashcroft postponed it after the FBI said it had inadvertently discovered more than 4,000 pages of documents that should have been turned over to the defense before trial.

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John D. Ashcroft granted Timothy J. McVeigh a stay of execution yesterday until June 11 to allow his attorneys time to sift through thousands of pages of documents the FBI failed to turn over before McVeigh's 1997 trial for the Oklahoma City bombing. Maintaining that nothing in the documents would contradict the jury's finding of guilt or McVeigh's admission of responsibility, Ashcroft said he nonetheless felt compelled out of respect "for the rule of law" to postpone what would be the first federal execution since 1963.

A Baltimore man convicted of sending death threats to a state prosecutor in 1987 was back in federal court yesterday, accused of mailing the same attorney another menacing letter last summer - less than two months before he was scheduled to leave prison. Laced with profanity, the letter authorities say Pernell Parker mailed from the federal penitentiary at Terre Haute, Ind., warned Baltimore Assistant State's Attorney Linda Lee Panlilio that "Maryland is not big enough for both of us," and that Parker would pay her a visit when he returned to the state.

Timothy McVeigh's death by lethal injection yesterday was doubly newsworthy. His was the first federal execution in 38 years. And the bombing he carried out in 1995 in Oklahoma City, taking 168 lives, was the deadliest terrorist act on U.S. soil. The newscasts set a sober tone, largely avoiding the far-too-common hyperbole that frequently typifies coverage of major breaking news. That may have been because the event they were covering did not occur before a rolling camera. Instead, TV stations initially carried a roll call of those who had watched the execution in Terre Haute, Ind. - from the federal prison's warden, Harley Lappin, to a procession of media witnesses that included reporters from CBS, Fox News, local outlets from Terre Haute and Oklahoma City and the Associated Press.

A Baltimore man convicted of sending death threats to a state prosecutor in 1987 was back in federal court yesterday, accused of mailing the same attorney another menacing letter last summer - less than two months before he was scheduled to leave prison. Laced with profanity, the letter authorities say Pernell Parker mailed from the federal penitentiary at Terre Haute, Ind., warned Baltimore Assistant State's Attorney Linda Lee Panlilio that "Maryland is not big enough for both of us," and that Parker would pay her a visit when he returned to the state.

Allegra R. CroganPayroll clerkAllegra R. Crogan, a payroll clerk for the Maryland Department of Transportation, died Sunday of cancer at her Northeast Baltimore home. She was 29.Mrs. Crogan had worked for the state since coming to Baltimore about six years ago. Earlier, she was a laboratory technician in Madison, Wis.She was born Allegra R. Johnson in Terre Haute, Ind., and attended the University of Wisconsin. She played the bagpipes as a member of the John F. Nicoll Pipe Band and was a member of the Towson Unit of the American Legion Auxiliary.

After 16 months as mayor of Sykesville, Kenneth W. Clark will resign at the Sept. 26 council meeting.Mayor Clark, who has accepted a job offer out of state, notified the Town Council of his intentions last night.The 38-year-old mayor left his position in production development at Bell Atlantic, his employer for 16 years, a week ago. He will begin working for the Reuben H. Donnelly Co. in Terre Haute, Ind."I will be basically doing the same thing for the competition," Mr. Clark said.Town officials expressed surprise and dismay at the announcement.