Police said Young, 48, of no fixed address, abducted Hardy at gunpoint from her home in the 2600 block of Stanton Road SE about 1 p.m. yesterday.
MARYLAND
Official Apologizes for Brouhaha Over Hat
The vice president of the Frederick Board of County Commissioners said yesterday that he overreacted last week when a county parks groundskeeper refused to remove a knit ski hat during the Pledge of Allegiance.
Michael L. Cady (R), who is the board's vice president, moved Thursday to fire the employee for insubordination and then led the board in a vote to strip $35,000 from the Parks and Recreation Department -- equivalent to the groundskeeper's salary -- because the new employee refused to doff his hat.
Yesterday, Cady led the voting to restore the funding and apologized to the public but not to the employee, Westley B. Etters. In an interview afterward, Cady, a former Marine and Boy Scout, said he saw the employee's behavior as defiant, discourteous to the commissioners and disrespectful of the flag.
"It was like a knife that ran through me," Cady said. But he also said he realized 10 minutes after the confrontation that he should have acted differently and perhaps waited until the meeting was over to speak with the employee's supervisor.
A telephone call to Etters's department was not returned.
1980 Sex Assault Case May Start Over
A prosecutor is fighting to keep a man locked up despite a court's decision overturning his conviction for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old nearly 25 years ago.
Allegany County State's Attorney Michael O. Twigg has asked a judge to vacate the 1980 plea agreement that resulted in John Leroy Kroll's conviction and to reactivate all previous charges against Kroll, including some that were dropped in the bargain.
Circuit Judge W. Timothy Finan said he would hold a hearing by April 15 on the motion. Meanwhile, he ordered Kroll moved from the Western Correctional Institution to the Allegany County Detention Center and held without bond.
VIRGINIA
Flag Bought on EBay Donated to School
An American flag that was allegedly flying over the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, and was sold Friday on eBay for $25,000 has been donated to a new Ashburn elementary school named after two local men who died in the attack.
The flag was purchased Friday by Loudoun County School Board Chairman John A. Andrews II. Yesterday, he donated the flag to Newton-Lee Elementary School, which is scheduled to open this fall. The school was named for Christopher C. Newton of Ashburn and Dong Lee of Leesburg. Both were passengers on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon.
Although questions still linger about whether the flag flew over the Pentagon the day of the attack, Andrews said the banner remains symbolic of the sacrifices people made.
"If it's going to be put anywhere, a school is one of the most appropriate places," Andrews said.
The auction was the second attempt to sell the flag. An initial eBay auction drew a $371,300 offer, but the winning bidder would not honor the bid after questions arose about the authenticity of the story behind the flag.
QUOTE Of THE DAY
"The landscaping business is in a double-digit growth period right now. Green is good these days."
-- John Keeler, national training manager for STIHL, a Virginia Beach-based company that sponsored the 29th annual National College Landscaping Competition. -- B3
Compiled from reports by staff writers Allan Lengel, Karlyn Barker, Theola S. Labbe, Fredrick Kunkle and Leef Smith and the Associated Press.
