FREDERICK -- Frederick's Board of Aldermen will consider removing from City Hall a bronze bust of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, author of the 1857 Dred Scott decision affirming slavery.
The statue of Taney, who lived about 20 years in Frederick, "does not belong in front of the city center," Democratic Alderwoman Donna Kuzemchak said Thursday. Four of the five aldermen agreed to start the discussion by asking the city staff to investigate the possible removal of the bust from the spot it has occupied in front of City Hall for 75 years.
Democratic Alderwoman Marcia Hall said Thursday that she has asked the city attorney to find out whether Frederick County, the building's previous owner, included the bust in the sale of the property to the city in the 1980s.
Taney wrote the Supreme Court's opinion in the case of Dred Scott, a black man suing for his freedom in Missouri. Taney declared that black people had no rights of citizenship and called them "beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race."
Frederick County
Four teens arrested, marijuana seized
FREDERICK --A 19-year-old woman and three teenage girls were caught with 33 pounds of marijuana in a car that was weaving down Interstate 70 early yesterday, police said.
Maryland State Trooper Chris Plumadore estimated the pot's value at $100,000.
Sgt. Robert Calo, noting that an investigation was continuing, wouldn't say where the Ford Probe had come from or where it was going when police stopped it about 1:30 a.m. in the westbound lanes of I-70 near New Market.
Driver Summer R. Rockenbaugh, 19, of Thurmont, was charged with possession and intent to distribute, and with three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child.
The unidentified passengers were a 16-year-old from Thurmont, a 17-year-old from Hagerstown and a 14-year-old from Hagerstown. They were charged as juveniles with possession and intent to distribute marijuana and released to their parents.
Rockenbaugh was being held in the Frederick County jail with bail set at $100,000.
Teen's death ruled accidental drowning
KNOXVILLE, Md. --Investigators have determined that an 18-year-old Knoxville woman whose body was pulled from the Potomac River near her home this month drowned while swimming, the Frederick County Sheriff's Office said yesterday.
Jessica Rene Wilson was swimming in the river with friends early in the morning of July 13, Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said. One of her friends reported her missing about 5:30 a.m. after the others got out of the water and couldn't find her, Bailey said. The chief medical examiner's office in Baltimore ruled the cause of death an accidental drowning, she said.
Washington
Kerwin confirmed as president of AU
WASHINGTON --American University interim President Cornelius Kerwin was named to the position permanently yesterday after leading the school in the aftermath of a spending scandal that forced his predecessor to resign.
Benjamin Ladner was dismissed in October 2005 after a months-long investigation in which auditors questioned spending that included at least $500,000 in travel costs, as well as the use of chauffeurs to run personal errands.
Associated Press