Two cousins from Columbia have been arrested for allegedly firing shots at an empty truck last week and striking the furniture in a nearby apartment.

Jose Luis Gutierrez-Barron, 19, of 9632 Basket Ring Road, and Juan Antonio Gutierrez, 21, of the same address, were charged Feb. 13 with reckless endangerment, destruction of property and a weapons violation.

Police were called to the 5200 block of Brook Way in Columbia on Feb. 4 for a report of gunshots fired at a parked pickup truck. Police also recovered a spent bullet from a wooden dresser inside the bedroom of a nearby apartment. A woman and her daughter were asleep in the living room at the time.

The men were identified as suspects after interviews with witnesses at the scene and the owner of the truck, police said.

_ Mary T. Robbins

Trial postponed in alleged wife slaying

The trial of an Elkridge man accused of killing his missing wife has been postponed until July.

Paul Stephen Riggins was initially scheduled to go on trial Feb. 26 on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Nancy Lee Riggins.

But, granting a motion by defense attorney Joseph Murtha, a Howard County Circuit Court judge this week pushed the date to July 2.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.

Murtha told the judge he needed the delay to deal with some 7,700 pages of discovery in the case.

Nancy Lee Riggins was 37 when she was last seen on July 1, 1996, at a Columbia pool. She has never been found.

Her husband was arrested Sept. 21, 2000, after he was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of first-degree murder.

He told investigators at the time that he returned home from his night-shift job at Curtis Bay at 6 a.m. July 2, to find the front door open, the couple's 5-year-old daughter in bed and his wife gone. He reported her missing July 3.

_ Mary T. Robbins

Ellicott City parcel eyed for elementary school

School officials continue to negotiate with the family of an Ellicott City doctor in hopes of acquiring land for a new elementary school in the county's northeast.

The property is north of Tulip Way and Chews Vineyard in the Ellicott City development of Worthington Reserves.

A new school built there would relieve crowding at Deep Run, Ilchester, Rockburn and Worthington elementary schools.

Bruce Taylor, medical director and chief executive officer of the Taylor Manor Hospital in Ellicott City, said he could not recall the size of the site, but that it is near about 42 lots the Taylor family has sold to housing developers.

Sydney Cousin, associate superintendent of finance and operations, said the site is one of several school officials are considering, including county-owned property near Route 100 and Snowden River Parkway.

Last year school officials considered Taylor-owned land adjacent to the former New Cut Landfill for the school but dropped the idea because of community opposition.

Taylor said the new piece of land school officials are considering is farther from the landfill.

_ Jennifer Vick

Two decades later, man sentenced in murder

A county Circuit Court judge this week sentenced an Elkridge man to life in prison for murdering an elderly Elkridge woman _ more than two decades after the crime was committed.

Vernon Lee Clark, 45, pleaded guilty Feb. 13 to first-degree murder in the 1980 stabbing death of Rebecca H. "Dolly" Davis, 70, of Elkridge.

Circuit Court Judge Lenore Gelfman sentenced Clark to a life term.

He already is serving a life sentence in the 1989 death of 23-year-old Kathleen Gouldin, who was found beaten and shot in her Elkridge apartment.

Clark also is charged with first-degree murder in the 1981 death of Evelyn Dietrich, 68, of Catonsville, and is a suspect in the 1984 beating death of Iva Myrtle Watson, 61, of Ellicott City, police said.

Police say Clark, who did handy work for Davis and Dietrich but was never considered a suspect in either case, was linked to the crimes through DNA technology not available at the time.

Davis' partially buried body was found in the back yard of her home in the 6100 block of Lawyers Hill Road on Feb. 22, 1980. The body, which bore multiple stab wounds, had been exposed to the elements for at least a week. Police said there was evidence of sexual assault.

Charges of first-degree sex offense and perverted sex acts were dropped as part of the plea agreement.

Clark was interviewed by policeat the time because he had been identified as an occasional employee of Davis'. But investigators lacked forensic evidence linking him to the scene.

_ Mary T. Robbins

Voting system upgrade for county is 'on hold'

A state committee's recommendation to delay creating a uniform voting system in Maryland until at least 2003 leaves Howard County "between a rock and a hard place," Supervisor of Elections Robert Antonetti said.

"Everything is sort of on hold right now," said Antonetti, who was pressing the county to buy a $3 million voting system to replace one that he said is becoming obsolete, making parts difficult to replace.

A major concern, he said, is that the software that accumulates and tabulates precinct results is written in antiquated DOS language.

Howard County must decide whether to keep its current system and hope it lasts through the next election or lease a newer system that won't require much retraining of employees, Antonetti said.

He plans to ask the county's information systems office to examine the system and show him "technically where our weaknesses are," so the county can decide whether to keep it for the 2002 election, Antonetti said.

"I'm not going ahead without a written guarantee that our system will work," Antonetti said. "I don't want another Florida."

In the wake of the 2000 presidential election confusion in Florida and nationwide concern over voting accuracy, Gov. Parris Glendening appointed a commission to study voting systems in Maryland, with an eye toward creating a uniform system in time for the 2002 governor's race.

Howard County was shopping around for a new system even before the debacle in Florida.

But the committee believes sweeping changes can't be made that soon and recommends that the state's 24 voting jurisdictions move toward a unified system in 2003 or 2004.

Some election officials around the state agree, saying any change would require time for voter education and poll worker training.

But without immediate changes, some counties could be in a fix _ especially Prince George's, Allegany and Dorchester. They use lever-type machines, which have been decertified by the state and can't be used for the 2002 election unless there is a change in election law.

_ Larry Perl

Police seek two after baseball bat assault

Police are searching for two men who beat a Columbia man and an Ellicott City boy with a baseball bat.

William Burgess, 19, of the 5300 block of Brook Way in Columbia, and Charles Okeke, 14, of the 8600 block of Town and Country Boulevard in Ellicott City, were beaten Feb. 10 as they were walking home from a party in an Elkridge mobile home park, police said.

Burgess was cut on the legs with a knife and hit on the head with a bat, police said. The boy was hit on the head and a CT scan showed signs of internal bleeding, police said.

Burgess was released from the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. Okeke was in critical but stable condition at the trauma center as of Feb. 14.

_ Mary T. Robbins

Bartlett aims to restore 'Washington's Birthday'

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett has revived his quest to kill the Presidents Day holiday and restore the name "Washington's Birthday" to the third Monday in February.

Bartlett, a Frederick Republican whose district includes western Howard County, Ellicott City and a small portion of west Columbia, said last week he will reintroduce a bill to force the federal government to use "Washington's Birthday" instead of "Presidents Day."

Co-sponsor Rep. Jay LaHood _ with help from a fellow Illinois Republican, House Speaker Dennis Hastert _ killed the bill in the last Congress.

Opponents feared that, by honoring Washington, they could be endagnering the memory of Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday also comes in February.

But Bartlett's new bill will ask for a presidential proclamation recognizing Lincoln's birthday and "calling upon the people of the United States to observe such anniversary with appropriate ceremonies and activities."

"The use of the term 'Presidents Day' insults the memory and denigrates the contributions of both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and we think it's important to change this," Bartlett said.

Washington's birthday has been a holiday since 1885. In 1968, Congress moved most federal holidays to the nearest Monday, and in 1971, then-President Nixon issued a proclamation honoring all presidents.

Bartlett said Lincoln is his favorite president, followed by Washington and Reagan, and that he sees the bill "as a move to enhance [Lincoln's] image."

He stressed that the law would not affect the private sector or state government, and added that car dealers can have all the Presidents Day sales they want.

Bartlett, a former research scientist and engineer, was named chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy of the House Committee on Science last week.

_ Capital News Service

Commuter bus routes change on March 5

Changes to commuter bus routes from Columbia to Baltimore will take effect March 5, the Mass Transit Administration has announced.

The MTA also scheduled a March 15 hearing on proposed changes to routes to Washington, D.C.

Changes to the Baltimore routes, proposed at a Jan. 11 hearing, include two additional trips in each direction, stops at Snowden River Park and Ride, Columbia mall and along Harpers Farm Road on every route, and a stop at Johns Hopkins Hospital on the 310 line.

Both the 310 and 311 lines will operate on St. Paul Street, rather than Liberty Street and Hopkins Place, downtown, and six new stops in Columbia will be added.

At the hearing on Washington service, which starts at 7:30 p.m. March 15 at the East Columbia library, MTA officials will describe a new 915 line from Ellicott City through the villages of Harper's Choice and Hickory Ridge in Columbia; a revised 929 line with two express trips daily to and from Silver Spring, and a rerouted 995 line, with service to Ellicott City, Clarksville and the village of Long Reach.

People who cannot attend the hearing may send comments to Judith Sikorski in the MTA's community planning office, 6 St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD 21202.

_ Michael Cody

Mom tells Congress about Medicaid bind

For the second year in a row, Melissa Arnold may be forced to choose between her family and the possibility of a sizable raise at her job.

And for the second year in a row, the single mother of two from Ellicott City said she will choose her family, unless Congress steps in.

That's why Arnold was back on Capitol Hill Feb. 8, speaking in support of a bill that would allow families to receive Medicaid benefits on a sliding scale based on their income, instead of cutting them off entirely if they earn more than the poverty level.

"Passing this bill is the right thing to do," said Arnold, 40, who is forced to keep her income below $25,000 in order to get the Medicaid coverage she needs for her son. Adam, 11, needs repeated orthopedic surgeries that cost more than $75,000 each.

Adam walks with a cane as a result of a rare birth defect known as proximal femoral focal deficiency, in which one of his thigh bones is shorter than the other.

With continued surgery, doctors say, he should be able to walk without a cane as an adult. The boy has had 10 operations in the last four years to lengthen his thigh bone, among other procedures. He is expected to need another operation in about two years.

Arnold said that her current income is "not even close to being enough" to support herself, Adam and her son, Daniel, 18, but she cannot afford to accept a raise.

"Just last month I had to let [our] church pay for my electricity bill," she said. "We've had to give up a lot of pride and dignity ... but I'll do what I have to for my son."

Sponsors of the bill, which failed in the last Congress, said families should not have to make that choice. They said last year's bill simply ran out of time.

Arnold also came to Washington to speak in favor of that bill. At the time, she had just turned down a 20 percent raise at her job with the Howard County Tourism Council.

Council President Margaret Spurlock said it is "very frustrating" that she cannot give Arnold more money.

"If the government would let us pay her more money, we would," Spurlock said. "A lot of mothers give up a lot for their children but this is beyond the call of duty."

_ Capital News Service

Elkridge office rezoning draws a thumbs-down

The county Planning Board has recommended denial of a request to rezone 22 acres in Elkridge from residential to office use, despite a tentative agreement between the would-be developer and some residents.

Planning Department staff had recommended approval of the request.

Ahsan Kahn, who owns 17.6 acres on the north side of Route 100 at Meadowridge Road and 4.4 acres on the south side of the highway, and developer Don Reuwer had contemplated 200,000 square feet of offices on the northern parcel, and about 40,000 square feet on the south, at Meadowridge Road and Wesley Lane.

Prior to a Feb. 8 Planning Board hearing, however, they promised residents that they would develop housing for seniors on the north end of the northern parcel, leaving room for only 100,000 square feet of offices next to Route 100.

Kahn and Reuwer also pledged to restrict the height of the offices to no more than five stories, and to exclude pornography shops and other uses from the site.

They did not meet with residents on the southern side of Route 100, however. Those residents spoke most strongly against the rezoning request, which lawyer Richard Talkin, representing Kahn and Reuwer, said was justified by a mistake by the county Zoning Board in 1993. He also cited a change in the area's character since then.

Route 100, an expressway opened between Interstate 95 and Route 104 in 1998, passes by Kahn's site. Pointing to other office projects along Route 100, Talkin described the site as optimal for employment use.

"We think the comparison is irrelevant," responded resident Howard Weinstein. Other projects are on larger sites, apart from residential development, and on better roads, he said.

_ Michael Cody