Van Gilder

The U.S. Justice Department has turned down a request by the state conference of NAACP branches to investigate the slaying of Glenn Lamont Jones, a case that has baffled county authorities."

THE MANNER in which the tea habit has increased is alarming, it is fast becoming universal. In former years, the tea drinkers were usually to be found among nervous old persons. The association of the fidgety old maid and her cup of tea is proverbial."In this present day, the temptation of tea-tippling is presently offered to us from childhood. Coffee contains aromatic and other agents which render it a stimulant to the whole digestive system. Tea has no such auxiliary effect on the digestion."

A charming riverfront town that traces its roots back to Captain John Smith, Havre de Grace once vied with Washington, D.C., for the seat of the U.S. capital. Today, the quaint city, which again nabbed the national spotlight in the 1920s for its horse racing prestige, could never be mistaken for a hub of political activity. Quirky, cozy shops line Washington Street, downtown Havre de Grace's version of Main Street. The town projects a 1950s-era ambience, quietly luring visitors with antiques, books and homemade candy.

Reality intruded into a daylong disaster drill that involved hundreds of Harford's law enforcement officers, fire and emergency responders and volunteers. While the mock drama played out at various locations in Havre de Grace and Aberdeen, a man was shot and killed in Edgewood Wednesday afternoon. Officers were on the scene of the murder within three minutes, said Robert B. Thomas, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Department. "The drill at several simultaneous locations showed us how far we could stretch resources and what the impact would be on operations," said Thomas.

Police said they arrested an Edgewood man Friday as he attempted to steal a pickup truck from the 1800 block of Pulaski Highway in Havre de Grace and are investigating whether he was involved in a string of automobile thefts in the city the past three weeks.At least nine vehicles were stolen between June 19 and Tuesday in Havre de Grace. Most were driven for a short time and then recovered in the city. Two of the vehicles have not been found, police said.An anonymous call to a police task force Thursday led officers to the suspect, Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Tom Golding said.

Six South Asian arms dealers who paid undercover customs agents in Maryland hundreds of thousands of dollars to ship restricted, high-tech weapons to rebels in Sri Lanka and the Indonesian Army have been arrested by federal authorities in Guam, officials said yesterday. The elaborate sting operation took center stage in Baltimore this summer, where federal agents put up a Singapore arms broker at a four-star Inner Harbor hotel, arranged for him to attend religious services at a mosque in Laurel and took him to a shooting range in Harford County so he could test-fire machine guns they said he was interested in illegally buying.