Backpack

Tracy Ann Foley loves to travel, and she does it the old-fashioned way -- backpacking. But her travel style -- like those of other college-age youths today -- is definitely cutting-edge. Unlike the backpacking travelers of earlier generations, who stuck mostly to Western Europe, Foley ranges far afield. She has trekked through Eastern Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand -- and so have many of her peers. Visiting such nontraditional destinations is a growing phenomenon among today's young travelers.

NEW YORK -- In New York City, air pollution levels have typically been monitored by inanimate objects, at more than a dozen locations around town. But in the South Bronx, from 2002 to 2005, air pollution monitors went mobile. They went to the playground, to the gritty sidewalks, even to the movies. A group of schoolchildren carried the monitors everywhere they went. The instruments, attached to the backpacks of children with asthma, enabled researchers at New York University to measure the pollution the children were exposed to, morning to night.

Courtney Watson worries about the load her youngest daughter, Elizabeth, is carrying at Marriotts Ridge High School. "I swear, she carries at least a third of her body weight in her backpack," Watson complained. "I see her struggle to the bus with that load ... and her back hurts." It's a familiar concern for parents and children alike. But Watson, a member of the Howard County Board of Education, did something about it. She commissioned a study of heavy backpacks that's due this month.

MIAMI -- A troubled passenger who claimed to have a bomb in his backpack was fatally shot by federal air marshals yesterday as he charged off an American Airlines jet at Miami International Airport, federal officials said. It was the first time air marshals had shot at a passenger since the government stepped up the federal program after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, officials said. The passenger was identified as Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, of Maitland, Fla. Federal officials said no bomb was found, and there was no apparent link to terrorism.

There is much hue and cry over the heavy backpacks schoolchildren are required to carry, but frankly I am worried about my husband. The poor man leaves the house each day loaded down like a Sherpa guide leaving for Mount Everest. He tells me that when he arrives at work, he stands beside his trunk and hoists his bags onto his shoulders in a way meant to balance their weight on each side of him. He then makes the long walk to his desk in Frankenstein fashion, sliding first one foot and then the other.

Baltimore County police are searching for a backpack that they hope will help them determine how a city woman who worked in Cockeysville ended up dead in the Woodmoor area of the county. Tiona Katrice Smith, 23, of the 3900 block of Mountwood Road in Southwest Baltimore, worked at a McDonald's in Cockeysville and regularly took mass transit home, police said. She left work Sunday wearing her blue McDonald's uniform and carrying a gray backpack with dark patches, police said. Smith's body was discovered Sunday in the backyard of a home on the 6800 block of Fox Meadow Road, which is near Liberty Road, by children who told their parents that they had found a woman sleeping nearby, police said.

Baltimore County police are seeking the public's help in locating a backpack belonging to Tiona Katrice Smith, who was discovered dead Sunday in the back yard of a home in the 6800 block of Fox Meadow Road in the Woodmoor area. The medical examiner has determined the death to be a homicide, caused by multiple sharp force injuries. The backpack is described as gray with dark patches and may contain clothing belonging to the victim. Detectives know that Smith, 23, worked at the McDonald's in the Cockeysville area and that she typically traveled by public transit to her home in the 3900 block of Mountwood Road in Southwest Baltimore.

Travelon's Wine Backpack/Shoulder Bag is a nice hands-free way to tote all the makings for a romantic picnic outdoors, or even in your hotel room. The padded black nylon pack has cradles for two bottles of wine and elastic bands for four wine glasses (not included), with plenty of extra space for napkins, cheese, crackers, a little cutting board and perhaps a crusty baguette. An internal mesh pocket can hold your corkscrew and other utensils, and there's a roomy external pocket. All that's missing is the ants.

The 36 children participating in the Head Start program at the Harriet Tubman Center in Columbia receive two meals a day, Monday through Friday, during the school year. But the Howard County chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women felt something more could be done. "No one looks after the children over the weekend," said Marcia Frezza. "A lot of parents work or they go to school. We want to make sure that the children are getting something nutritional over the weekend." So Frezza and the NCJW, along with the Maryland Food Bank, are providing healthy foods on the weekend for the 36 children and their siblings through a program called Backpack Buddies.

To lots of kids, "back to school" evokes fear, panic and a resounding shudder. The piles of homework, the pop quizzes, the impossible new locker combination -- it's a dreaded time of year for many. But, in fact, it's also about new friends, new experiences and, of course, cool new stuff. For this new school year, parents will find an array of smart, helpful and fun supplies, gear and games for their kids. Here are a few suggestions. No more excuses for being late to school with the Emerson Research SmartSet Dual Alarm Clock Radio ($29.