Ash

One of the most intriguing things about John Harbaugh's first season with the Ravens is that he never had to find his way. It was there, in front of him, all along, mapped out with the wisdom of a seasoned coach. He may be a rookie head coach in the NFL, but he never lacked confidence. He may be a private, humble man, but he doesn't shrink at taking a stand. He may have coached special teams for nine years in Philadelphia, but he knows how to command the respect of an entire locker room.

Wong Kar Wai's beautiful but demanding 1994 martial arts epic Ashes of Time has been impeccably restored, with "Redux" added to its title, and has excellent subtitles that help the viewer understand that it is set in the parallel universe of its genre and unfolds in five parts according to Chinese seasons. Visually superb, its score enhanced by added music, Ashes of Time Redux is an elegiac, contemplative work with an elliptical narrative that is hard to follow. Its key figure is Ouyang Feng (the late Leslie Cheung)

New regulations covering the disposal of coal ash and related byproducts of coal combustion that went into effect this week in Maryland are a helpful start but only part of a solution to a serious waste disposal problem. Much more needs to be done on both the state and federal level. The problem was brought to light by the experience in Anne Arundel County where scores of residential wells were found to be polluted by potentially cancer-causing chemicals leaching from a former sand and gravel pit in Gambrills where power plant coal ash was dumped.

The state announced long-awaited rules yesterday to keep toxic substances from leaking from coal-ash dumps. The regulations require liners and runoff collection systems at all new dump sites accepting coal ash. The purpose is to prevent harmful metals and chemicals from leaching into ground water or nearby streams. Dump operators must also take steps to prevent ash from being blown onto neighboring properties. The state Department of the Environment proposed regulating coal-ash dumps after it was discovered that toxic chemicals had contaminated the wells of 23 homes near two sand-and-gravel pits in Gambrills.

For years, Harry Jennings and his neighbors on Summerfield Road put up with bad-tasting, corrosive water that ate through plumbing and ruined appliances. They also endured a dark, gritty dust wafting in the wind that would coat their cars and clothes and even stain the outside of their homes. "When the leaves weren't on the trees in winter, it would blow right through the woods," recalls Jennings, a truck driver who has lived all his 60 years in the wooded enclave off Route 3 in Gambrills.

A group of Anne Arundel County residents whose drinking water was contaminated with coal ash reached a multimillion-dollar settlement yesterday of its class action lawsuit against Constellation Energy Group. The deal, estimated at $45 million, gives about 600 residents living near a former Gambrills sand and gravel mine financial compensation and environmental remediation. For 12 years until last fall, Constellation worked with a contractor to dump billions of tons of waste ash from its Brandon Shores coal-fired power plant into an unlined former gravel mine pit. County tests found that 23 wells in the area tested positive for metals such as arsenic, cadmium and thallium, all components of waste ash from smokestacks, also called "fly ash."

The Maryland Department of Agriculture has confirmed the spread of a voracious ash tree-killing beetle to a wooded region of northern Charles County. Previously, the pest, commonly called the emerald ash borer, had been limited to a site south of Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County. In recent years, the beetle has been blamed for the destruction of 25 million ash trees, including about 25,000 in Maryland. The latest detection is in a wooded area of Charles County just over the border from Prince George's.

FREDERICK - Six weeks after Bruce E. Ivins killed himself, the cremated remains of Ivins, the Army scientist and anthrax suspect, are stored at a funeral home here, awaiting the outcome of an unusual probate court proceeding. In a will he wrote last year, a few months before the FBI focused the anthrax letters investigation on him, Ivins wrote of his wish to be cremated and have his ashes scattered. But fearing that his wife, Diane, and their two children might not honor the request, he came up with a novel way to enforce his demand: threatening to make a bequest to an organization he knew his wife opposed, Planned Parenthood.

Macduff "Mac" Symington, a retired banker and tennis enthusiast, died Sunday of complications from a broken hip at Easton Memorial Hospital. The Worton resident was 80. Mr. Symington was born in Baltimore and raised in the Greenspring Valley. He was a 1944 graduate of the Woodberry Forest School in Woodberry Forest, Va. In 1949, he earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Yale University. Mr. Symington enlisted in the Air Force in 1950, and spent four years in the Office of Special Investigations, where he was assistant chief and then counterintelligence chief.