Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Headline Article Date: Wed, 4 Nov 92 16:16:30 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN;LOCAL ROUNDUP;MARYLAND S=NEW STORY Man sentenced for killing son A Baltimore man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for murdering his teen-age son after the youth accused his father of abusing his sister. Lawrence Banks, 39, was sentenced Monday in Baltimore Circuit Court in the Nov. 19 shooting death of his son, 17-year-old Lawrence Foster. Mr. Foster was killed after he and his sister lodged allegations of abuse against their father. Banks' 16-year-old daughter said her father had sexually and physically abused her. Banks was sentenced in 1976 to a 15-year prison term for throwing his daughter, then an infant, through a window, court records showed. After serving eight years and being paroled, he was arrested in December and charged with his son's murder. In September, Banks entered an Alford plea, in which he admitted that prosecutors probably had enough evidence to convict him but maintained his innocence. S=NEW STORY Fort assists families that have tainted water Fort Detrick is supplying drinking water to homes near the fort after cancer-causing chemicals showed up in their well water. The chemicals were found in the wells of two homes, and trace amounts of chemicals were discovered at three others, said Michael Sullivan, spokesman for the state Department of the Environment. The wells were tested last month after elevated levels of the chemicals turned up in wells on the post, Mr. Sullivan said. At the state's request, the Army supplied bottled water to five homes over the weekend and parked a 400-gallon water-tanker truck in the Frederick County neighborhood for public use, said Norman Covert, the fort's spokesman. One home's water contained 19 parts per billion of trichloroethylene. Another residential well had 18 parts per billion of the same chemical, as well as 17 parts per billion of perchloroethylene, Mr. Sullivan said. S=NEW STORY Severing of school ties by EMS urged Several medical organizations are recommending the state's emergency medical system sever organizational ties with the University of Maryland to erase the possibility of a conflict of interest. The groups are calling for an independent board without direct links to any hospital to oversee the system. The groups told a gubernatorial panel last week they were troubled that Emergency Medical Services was affiliated with the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, both of which fall under the broad umbrella of the University of Maryland. An agency known as the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems oversees the private Shock Trauma Center and the Emergency Medical Services. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM