Unspeakable

The National Center on Institutions and Alternatives is reporting today that well over half of the young black men in this city are entangled in the criminal justice system on any given day.NCIA's study found that 56 percent of Baltimore's black men between 18 and 35 years old were either incarcerated, on probation or parole, awaiting trial or sentencing, or being sought on an arrest warrant.These findings mirror the results of a similar survey NCIA conducted this spring in Washington as well as the findings of a host of national studies dating back to the mid-1960s.

Randall Terry, founder of the anti-abortion organization that blockaded a Wichita, Kan., clinic amid controversy last summer, told a Columbia audience last night the United States America is "engaged in a life-and-death life and death struggle of countercultures." counter-cultures.""We want to define for you the nature of the battle," he said. "And the nature of the battle is this: whose God god and whose God's god's laws will dominate the culture? It's good vs. evil, good guys against bad guys.

Washington -- For years, Nancy Reagan wouldn't speak about it. She'd refer to the event by its date, or obliquely call it "the thing that happened to Ronnie."But today, she and the former president of the United States are spending the day in Washington, their second trip here since they left the White House, to actually commemorate what was once the unspeakable -- the shooting of Ronald Reagan 10 years ago this week.George Washington University, calling the occasion "the 10th anniversary of President Reagan's care at the University Hospital," is awarding the former president an honorary doctor of public service degree "in recognition of his service as the nation's chief executive," says university president Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, noting the "special bond" between the university and the Reagans.

ANNAPOLIS -- Republican legislators have come up with a novel idea they think could improve the quality of legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled House of Delegates. They call it "debate."They think there is not enough of it in the House, and today they intend to propose a rule change they hope will encourage more debate.The problem, as the Republicans see it, is an unwritten but severely enforced House rule that they contend ties the hands of committee members once their committee passes a bill and sends it to the full House for consideration.