Ada

Your editorial, "Making the Disabilities Act Work" (Nov. 24), was both misguided and misinformed.I am not referring to the specifics of the incident or the subsequent complaint filed by Roberta Stein or her relatives. What I object to is the editorial's stance that persons with disabilities should call "an unfamiliar restaurant in advance to alert the owner about her special need" just as "any parent who wanted to know if the place had high chairs" might do.It is quite clear that such advance notice is not required under ADA, as the editorial correctly notes.

WASHINGTON -- Hoping to energize liberals disaffected with the Clinton administration, the Americans for Democratic Action yesterday endorsed President Clinton as the Democratic nominee.Traditionally, the group has resisted backing incumbent Democratic presidents like Mr. Clinton, whom many of its members consider insufficiently liberal. But this year is different.For the first time since 1955, the Republicans could win control of both the executive and legislative branches. And the question of whether Bill Clinton is ideologically pure enough has been replaced by the "life and death issue" of stemming the Republican revolution, said the ADA's national director, Amy Isaacs.

The following chart lists the 15 richest Americans according to Forbes magazine...Rank .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Net worth'91 '90 Billionaire Residence .. (billions)1 1 John Kluge Charlottesville, Va. $5.902 16 William Gates III Seattle 4.803 11 Sam Walton Bentonville, Ark. 4.404 12 S. Robson Walton Bentonville, Ark. 4.4013 John Walton San Diego 4.406 14 Jim Walton Bentonville, Ark. 4.407 15 Alice Walton Rogers, Ark. 4.408 2 Warren Buffett Omaha, Neb. 4.209 4 Henry Hillman Pittsburgh 3.3010 50 Richard DeVos Ada, Mich.

The Ravens Stadium's North Club Level Lounge was filled with sweet talk at the 11th annual Sugar Ball, a black-tie fund-raiser for the American Diabetes Association, Maryland Area.Executive director Cinda Showalter and event chair Dr. David Miller made the rounds through a crowd of 400, sprinkled with the likes of Sonya and Bruce Goodman, national and regional ADA board member; Dr. Christopher Saudek, director of the Johns Hopkins Diabetes Center; Donna Vaughn, area business man-ager for Parke-Davis; Dr. Alan Shuldiner, director of the Joslin Center for Diabetes at the University of Maryland Medical Center; Dr. Elizabeth Streeten, a Joslin Center endocrinologist; and Edwin Hale, CEO of First Mariner Bank.

Mention the Americans with Disabilities Act to most small-business owners and watch them tremble. But the much-debated law, which covers all businesses employing more than 25, is nothing to be afraid of -- if you understand its basic intent.The ADA, as it is known, is aimed at giving the estimated 8.2 million disabled Americans who want to work a chance to work.It is not meant to put you out of business or cost you enormous amounts of money.Businesses are basically required to make "reasonable accommodations" for handicapped employees and customers.

Travelers with disabilities have never had it easy, and a flurry of recent cases provides further evidence of that. But these cases may well improve access to airplanes, buses, hotels and perhaps even foreign-flagged cruise ships. In the last five months, United Airlines and Greyhound Lines settled claims alleging that they mistreated passengers using wheelchairs. In December, after complaints prompted a federal probe, Days Inns of America agreed to improve access at its new hotels nationwide.

WASHINGTON -- In early January, a symbol of one of the most sweeping civil rights laws in American history appeared at a restaurant on the shores of Spa Creek in Annapolis: a simple wooden ramp.The $900 ramp, which replaced a pair of low steps that divided the split-level dining room at Carrol's Creek Cafe, made its debut three weeks before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect. Hailed as a "declaration of independence" for the nation's 43 million disabled citizens -- including some 390,000 in Maryland -- the law required that all businesses be made accessible by Jan. 26."

PEOPLE recognize my friend Thomas Sowell, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, as a scholar who has distinguished himself in the analysis of race and ethnicity both in the United States and internationally. But that's really an add-on skill, plus a diversion, for which I am partly to blame.Dr. Sowell's real forte lies in the history of economic thought, placing him among the world's top four or five economists in that area. Nowhere has his breadth of knowledge been so concisely put than in his recent Forbes article on the thought of the late Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek.

Residents said last night that Crofton leaders may be trying to pull a fast one -- and use the needs of the handicapped to justify building a $70,000 addition to Town Hall."

There is a movement under way to designate the Smith Island Cake as Maryland's state dessert. This confection that traditionally is made up of eight to 10 pencil-thin layers of yellow cake separated by sweet chocolate frosting has become an important part of Smith Island's culture. Historically, the cake was "made from the stump" or from scratch by Smith Islanders. Nobody is really sure who first developed the concept of the Smith Island Cake, though Frances Kitching, the great doyenne of Smith Island cookery, is credited with making the first one. These days, most of the island's cooks prefer to make their cakes using a boxed mix as the base.