Beaver

A rabid beaver may have attacked two people at Loch Raven Reservoir last weekend, but area public health officials say there has been no increase in rabies infection rates among humans or animals. "We're not seeing anything noticeable," said Gary Thompson, rabies coordinator for the Baltimore County Health Department. Cases of human infection are extremely rare, with only a few reported each year nationwide, according to federal health experts. The last human death in Maryland was in 1976 when a bat bit someone, state health officials say. Physicians and hospitals are required to report animal bites to county and state health departments.

There's nothing like winning to instill confidence in a good player.Dirk Schultz, head professional at Beaver Creek Country Club in Hagerstown, showed that yesterday when he blistered Hillendale Country Club's 6,750-yard, par-72 course with 32-3365 to take a one-shot lead in the 78th Maryland Open championship.In two earlier showings at the Phoenix site, Schultz had won the 27-hole Middle Atlantic PGA Northern Chapter championship with a 4-under-par total, and had been 4-under par on his own ball as Beaver Creek won the Maryland State team title.

Who is taking down the precious Japanese cherry trees in the Tidal Basin, during Cherry Blossom Festival? Not extremists. In the city named for the Father of Our Country, the National Park Service cannot tell a lie: A beaver is doing it.Like buzzard hawks circling the Jones Falls Expressway, deer chewing up parts of Roland Park or the coyote that invaded New York's Central Park, beaver have reacted to loss of habitat by reinvading what humans took away...

Although Dennis Winters had laser eye surgery last month, it was his amateur partner, Dan DeRisio, who zeroed in from 40 feet for a winning birdie putt on the second extra hole to give the Columbia Country Club pair a second successive Maryland State Pro-Am championship at Maryland Golf and Country Club yesterday.The winners posted 32-3264, a mark later equaled by the CC at Woodmore team of Larry Ringer-Joe Hoffman, 34-3064. In each instance, the pro made six birdies and the amateur three; there was nary a bogey on either card.

What's brought the beaver back? Simple: war, ecological engineering and a shaky global economy.Dennis Whighan says he tried everything before he was forced to get rough. An ecologist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Southern Anne Arundel County, he had been recording and studying plant life in a mature, nearly virgin forest in Edgewater for 20 years when he had his first run-in with an enemy who would soon begin killing his trees.Beavers.About a decade ago, they built a dam that clogged up a nearby stream and flooded the forest.

WASHINGTON -- The United States is at war in Kosovo. President Clinton is playing host to Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji at the White House.And this city, which considers itself the center of the political universe, is awash in beaver fever."

Glenelg starter Jeff Starcher's eyes lit up yesterday when he saw the unusual height of Atholton's pitching mound, one of the highest in the county.Starcher's best pitch is the curveball, and a high mound adds snap to that pitch.So it was no surprise that Starcher (3-0), last season's Baltimore Sun Howard County Player of the Year, threw his best game of the season, a five-hit, 4-0 victory over the No. 14-ranked Raiders (4-3 overall, 3-3 league). He struck out eight and walked three.Starcher's pitching opponent, Adam Beaver, also hurled a fine game, holding No. 9 Glenelg (6-2, 4-2)

As Michael Cotter darted like a squirrel across the high branches of a 90-foot white oak, the crowd in Druid Hill Park gasped with his every move."Look at that little rascal go," said Thomas D. Mayer, his neck craned and his hand held above his eyes to block the glare. "He makes it look so natural."What Cotter was doing in those trees, seven stories above the ground, was competing in an annual event called the tree climbing championships, a test of skill that's something like childhood mischief turned organized sport.

In Baltimore CityCommunity group backs Stokes in mayor's raceA 500-member community group concerned about vacant houses and slumlords in Baltimore endorsed mayoral candidate Carl F. Stokes yesterday for the city's top political job.Members of the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) said they believe Stokes is committed to helping the city eliminate vacant housing and to enforcing housing laws on landlords who fail to maintain their properties.The group also endorsed Nathan C. Irby for City Council president; Stephanie Rawlings, Helen Holton, Rochelle "Rikki" Spector for 5th District council seats; and Catherine Pugh and Roscoe Herring for the 4th District council seats.

THOSE PLUCKY Republicans keep campaigning on, refusing to knuckle under to the prevailing wisdom that says Democrats are a lock to win all citywide and councilmanic offices come Election Day, Nov. 2.Tony Campbell, the Republican running for City Council president against Sheila "Shoe of Vengeance" Dixon, believes he has a legitimate shot at winning the race."

Pro football Marks will be reporter for Versus on UFL games The United Football League announced Tuesday that local broadcaster Anita Marks will be part of a four-person team covering the new league on Versus. Marks will serve as a reporter along with play-by-play announcer Dave Sims, analyst Doug Flutie and reporter Kordell Stewart, a former Ravens quarterback. Marks, who co-hosts an afternoon talk show on 105.7 and hosts Ravens pre- and post-game shows, was a quarterback for the Miami Fury, a women's professional football team, for four years and the Florida Stingrays for one year.

Allan Bancroft Heaver, a property manager who was active numerous civic and professional organizations, died July 2 of complications from renal failure at Indigo Farms, his Clarksville farm. He was 57. Born in Baltimore and raised in Roland Park, Mr. Heaver was a 1969 graduate of McDonogh School. He attended Lehigh University. For the past 40 years, he had been a managing member of Heaver Properties in Lutherville. His professional memberships included the Building Owners and Managers Association, the Baltimore Integrated Environmental Management Project Task Force for the Environmental Protection Agency, and the American Lung Association's Task Force For Indoor Air Quality Control.

Joseph H. Beaver Jr., a former teacher in the Carroll County public schools and later a banker, died Friday at home after a long illness, his family said. He was 75 and lived in Westminster. Born in Baltimore, Mr. Beaver attended Westminster High School and went on to earn degrees from what is now Towson University and Wittenberg University near Dayton, Ohio. Mr. Beaver taught English and coached soccer in the Carroll County school system from 1956 to 1962. He then joined Union National Bank as a branch manager and later became a vice president and board member.

Oregon State@Utah 9 p.m. [Versus] Sure, you were part of Beaver Nation last week when Oregon State (right) was upsetting top-ranked Southern California, but are you still on the bandwagon for a road game against the No. 15 Utes? However, if they spring another upset, the Beavers might not want to play games on any day other than Thursday.

ANDY SCHIFF AND HIS girlfriend, Melanie Ufema, and two of their friends were mere feet away from emptying their pockets of loose change in the security line at Denver International Airport when Schiff suddenly stopped. He dropped to one knee, and instead of loose change, pulled a diamond ring out of his pocket. "Melanie, will you marry me?" he asked. Schiff's buddy had a video camera rolling -- he was in on it, and everyone had agreed they should "document the trip" -- so it was pointed at a stunned but grinning Ufema when she said, "Yes."

The YWCA of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County will receive a $60,000 grant to supplement their after-school programming and $50 gift cards in recognition for its after-school program, Turning Point. The United Way of Central Maryland is awarding the grant after getting $94,000 from the J.C. Penney Afterschool Fund and matching that amount to fund three after-school programs. Also, J.C. Penney Co. Inc. is donating $50 gift cards to each child participating in the Anne Arundel program to help young people buy clothing and school supplies.

November's full moon, rising in the east this evening, was called the Hunter's Moon, for the illumination it provided deer hunters. Others call it the Frost Moon, or the Beaver Moon, a night to set traps before the ponds froze. If it looks unusually large, it's no illusion. The moon was at perigee last night, one of its closest approaches to Earth this year, a mere 221,950 miles. Expect high tides as the alignment of sun and moon, and the moon's proximity, work their gravitational magic

A rabid beaver may have attacked two people at Loch Raven Reservoir last weekend, but area public health officials say there has been no increase in rabies infection rates among humans or animals. "We're not seeing anything noticeable," said Gary Thompson, rabies coordinator for the Baltimore County Health Department. Cases of human infection are extremely rare, with only a few reported each year nationwide, according to federal health experts. The last human death in Maryland was in 1976 when a bat bit someone, state health officials say. Physicians and hospitals are required to report animal bites to county and state health departments.

THE PROBLEM -- A light rail crossing in Hunt Valley lacks a gate, meaning motorists can cross the tracks even when a train is coming. THE BACKSTORY -- The light rail winds through the Metropolitan Industrial Park in Hunt Valley, criss-crossing roads in what can be a dangerous dance between train and car. Many driveways to businesses are unguarded, except for flashing red lights to warn of oncoming trains. On Feb. 9, six people were injured when a truck driver crossed the tracks and was hit by a train at Gilroy Road and Schilling Circle.

NEW YORK -- L. Dennis Kozlowski, the imprisoned former chief executive officer of Tyco International Ltd., is selling his Colorado mountain mansion for $10 million to raise money for fines and restitution, court documents show. An unidentified Texan agreed to buy the 8,627-square-foot house near Beaver Creek, Colo., and to pay another $750,000 for the furnishings, in a deal to close Nov. 9, according to a real estate broker and a sales contract filed in New York state court in Manhattan.