Time Limit

Parking meter rates would double, some time limits would shorten, and more short-term parking would be encouraged in city garages under a committee proposal to overhaul downtown Annapolis' parking pricing policies. An 11-member ad hoc committee appointed by Mayor Ellen O. Moyer released last week its draft recommendations for easing the parking crunch downtown. The more controversial proposals would raise parking meter rates from 50 cents to $1 per hour on all streets and cut the time limit at some meters from two hours to one, with the limits expiring at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. Committee members sought to encourage turnover at metered spaces, draw city residents into parking garages, and encourage employees to park at the Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium lot and take the free shuttle.

WASHINGTON - President Bush, under fire from his Democratic opponent over the conditions of his testimony to the Sept. 11 commission, will not rigorously enforce a one-hour time limit when he meets with the panel, the White House indicated yesterday. White House spokesman Scott McClellan signaled that Bush was prepared to show flexibility on the time limit to accommodate the panel, which is investigating the circumstances of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. "Many of their questions have already been asked and answered," McClellan said.

A state court panel voted 11-10 yesterday against a proposal to restrict the nearly complete discretion judges have to shorten violent criminals' sentences, but sent the controversial issue to the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, for a final decision. Prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers both found a silver lining in what is simply an advisory vote by the court system's Rules Committee. Prosecutors say they are closer in their decade-long quest to see time limits on sentence reductions.

A state court panel will consider today whether to end the nearly complete discretion judges have to shorten criminals' sentences - a restriction that prosecutors and victim advocates have sought for a decade over the objection of defense lawyers and some judges. The judiciary's little-known Rules Committee will take up a proposal to place a five-year limit from the date of the original sentence on the time judges have to reduce sentences for violent crimes. There is no time limit - a situation that opponents say is unique to Maryland - and criminals have returned to the courtroom more than a decade after being imprisoned to ask judges to shorten their sentences.

A state court panel will consider today whether to end the nearly complete discretion judges have to shorten criminals' sentences - a restriction that prosecutors and victim advocates have sought for a decade over the objection of defense lawyers and some judges. The judiciary's Rules Committee will take up a proposal to place a five-year limit from the date of the original sentence on the time judges have to reduce sentences for violent crimes. There is no time limit - a situation that opponents say is unique to Maryland - and criminals have returned to the courtroom more than a decade after being imprisoned to ask judges to shorten their sentences.

THE STIGMA and shame of child sexual abuse typically haunt victims through their lives, compromising not only their emotional health but their ability to seek help or fight back. Sadly, by the time some reconcile their pain and try to move on as adults, they discover some avenues for legal redress are blocked: Maryland law says they should have come forward when they were very much younger. Victims and children's advocates have long said Maryland's time limit on bringing a civil claim benefits the abuser instead of helping the abused seek justice.

A broad court rule permitting the reopening of criminal cases at any time based on new DNA and other scientific evidence will take effect across Maryland in January. The Court of Appeals rule goes beyond legislation enacted this year, which wiped out a one-year time limit for felons convicted of murder, manslaughter and violent sex crimes to seek post-conviction DNA testing and reopen a case based on results. This rule erases the time limit for all inmates and covers scientific evidence beyond DNA, making it one of the broadest provisions of its type, advocates say. Nationwide, there has been concern that prisons hold some wrongly convicted inmates.

WASHINGTON- In response to last month's terrorist attacks, Congress is nearing a vote granting the government police powers so sweeping that many lawmakers might agree to their enforcement for a limited period of time, perhaps two years. Separate versions of the counterterrorism legislation have emerged in the House and Senate that would provide Attorney General John Ashcroft with many of the new surveillance tools he has requested. The new police powers include making it easier for federal investigators to obtain nationwide court orders and allowing them to do "roving" wiretaps on cell phones as callers switch numbers.

The July death of a Baltimore man who was shot in 1974 has been ruled a homicide, but no one can be charged with murder in the case, according to a legal expert. State law at the time of the shooting set strict limits on when homicide charges could be filed, said Byron Warnken, a law professor at the University of Baltimore. Frank Phillips of the 100 block of S. Gilmore St. was shot in the 1500 block of Vine St. in July 1974, suffering massive injuries and eventually becoming a paraplegic, police said.

The Carroll County commissioners are considering whether to use county dollars to retain a site manager at South Carroll Senior Activities Center. Betty J. Merenda of Sykesville has been working at the center, which serves 40 to 45 seniors a day, for two years through the federally funded senior aide program. She runs the facility's nutrition program, which includes food preparation and meals. The federal initiative limits employment to two years, which means the county must step in and fund the position as a permanent job, or use federal money and continuously train new employees.