Boulder

MIAMI -- Eric Bieniemy was born and spent most of his early years in a New Orleans slum. His family moved to West Covina, outside Los Angeles, when he was a teen-ager. The social climate wasn't much better. So when Bieniemy moved to the more affluent community of Boulder to play halfback for Colorado, he had problems.Big problems."In New Orleans, there were drugs and prostitution all over the streets," said Bieniemy. "Then, we moved to West Covina, a rough neighborhood with a lot of blacks and Latins."

Buy a shirt, save the world. OK, it might not be that easy. But at Boulder, an eco-conscious clothing store for men, customers can do their part to make a difference in the environment. "Everything we do is centered around the environment, animal welfare and community," says general manager Evan Saulsbury. "We want you to feel good about how you look and know where your clothes come from. " Boulder, which opened this summer, is the latest addition to Conscious Corner in Clarksville -- a collection of businesses on Route 108 near River Hill that are focused on healthy and mindful living.

A newspaper described it as "the little town nestled between the mountains and reality," so it's hardly a surprise that folks here have a pretty offbeat definition of what's normal and what isn't. Take Amy Ash, a 30-something entrepreneur originally from Baltimore who for the past four years has run Crazy Amy's, a funky secondhand store on Pearl Street. One of the many Boulderites who have come here from someplace else, she was calling her business "Boulder Consignment" until one creative staffer drew a caricature of her on a signboard out front.

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BOULDER, Colo. - Each night at 7:45, the birds come back. Four thousand starlings screech, caw and snap their way into a stand of cottonwood trees, landing high above Mapleton Mobile Home Park. As the birds settle in, there's another sound, reminiscent of the patter of a summer rainstorm. Only it's not rain. It's the steady "plop-plop" of thousands of bird droppings - splattering people, plants and property from eight stories up. Walkways accumulate an inch and a half of droppings in a day. Car paint corrodes under the near-constant fusillade from the birds.

BOULDER, Colo. -- Everyone, it seemed, was outside yesterday, drawn by the Indian summer sunshine and the golden glow of the city's aspen trees in full autumnal glory -- the college students and the alfresco lunchers, the mommies and the sidewalk masseuses, the hippies and the high-tech millionaires (harder to tell apart than you might think).It was easy to imagine that the only people indoors were the eight women and four men who met in secrecy at the Justice Center here. They are the grand jury that is expected -- at any moment, or so the buzz has been for nearly a week -- to conclude their investigation of the nearly 3-year-old murder of the child beauty queen, JonBenet Ramsey.

Grace Ellinghause, who retired 30 years ago as a loan manager for Commercial Credit Corp. in Baltimore, died Wednesday in Boulder, Colo., after suffering a stroke. She was 94.A native of Baltimore, Mrs. Ellinghause had been living in Boulder for the past 12 years.The former Grace Bateman attended public schools in Baltimore and Jacksonville, Fla., and was a 1913 graduate of Polytechnic High School in Marysville, Tenn.After the death of her father, Rev. Robert J. Bateman, in the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, the family moved back to Baltimore.

Bethany T. Grob and J. Timothy Winder were married May 30 at the Red Lion Restaurant in Boulder, CO. Michael Woods performed the double ring ceremony. The bride was given in marriage by her father. Jennifer Horwitz was matron of honor. Bridesmaids were Tracey Maceias and Heidi Tribelhorn. Brian Winder was best man and Shawn Morrison was groomsman. The ceremonial canopy was held by Kenneth Grob, Haviland Staggers, Zeke and Kina Kellogg. The bride, daughter of Laurie and Pamela Grob, of Henniker, NH, graduated from Marymount College and is a Labor and Delivery Nurse in Boulder, CO. The groom, son of Linda and George Wareheim, Jr., of Phoenix, MD, and Mr. & Mrs. A.T. Winder, of Chesterfield, VA, graduated from Dulaney Senior High School, Timonium, MD, in 1987.

BOULDER, Colo., boasts some of the nation's most enviable crime statistics. The city of 91,000 records only one or two homicides a year. That scarcity of cases means police and prosecutors lack the experience that was sorely needed in the investigation of JonBenet Ramsey's death.The police commander who oversaw the investigation had never led a homicide case. Neither had the city's police chief.Foolishly, Boulder refused help from experts, including members of the Denver Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Catch and Release is the term for catching a fish and throwing it back. In her directorial debut, Erin Brockovich screenwriter Susannah Grant uses it as a metaphor for the way her romantic heroine (Jennifer Garner) and a small circle of friends face their feelings and let go of the dead-end ones. But the movie is less about catch and release than about giving in to confusion, moaning and collapse, with brief interludes of idyllic play and even briefer ecstasy. It's not a comedy-drama, really.

It's easy for internationally renowned musician Shodekeh to journey with just carry-on luggage; his instrument travels in his soul. The Baltimore-based beatboxer and vocal percussionist performs in a multitude of genres and music domains, including dance and the visual arts. By channeling the concepts of musical instruments and soundscapes, he vocalizes dynamic emulations of everything; drum sets, turntables, ocean waves, sleigh bells. Shodekeh is the founding director of "Embody, A Music Series of The Vocal Arts," which strives for artistic and cultural unity through the vocal traditions of the world, ranging from opera to beatboxing.

EL PASO, Texas - In bouldering lingo, a climbing route is called a "problem." Some problems here in Hueco Tanks State Historic Site are tougher than others. Mine was a gentle overhang pocked with shallow depressions, among the easiest routes in the park. No need for a 5-inch-thick pad to soften my landing, I thought. After all, I'm only a few feet off the ground. I clung to the gritty granite, struggling against gravity until my grip on a thin ledge failed and I fell to a flat, slanting rock below, landing on my keister on the desert floor.

Catch and Release is the term for catching a fish and throwing it back. In her directorial debut, Erin Brockovich screenwriter Susannah Grant uses it as a metaphor for the way her romantic heroine (Jennifer Garner) and a small circle of friends face their feelings and let go of the dead-end ones. But the movie is less about catch and release than about giving in to confusion, moaning and collapse, with brief interludes of idyllic play and even briefer ecstasy. It's not a comedy-drama, really.

BOULDER, Colo. -- Prosecutors abruptly dropped their case yesterday against John Mark Karr, the itinerant schoolteacher arrested in the decade-old murder of JonBenet Ramsey, saying that his DNA did not match blood recovered from the crime scene. Less than two weeks after flying him from Thailand to face charges - an event that set off an international media circus - Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy closed the case, acknowledging that she could find no evidence that he was in Boulder on the night of the killing.

BOULDER, Colo. -- John Mark Karr sparked an international news media spectacle yesterday by admitting that he was with child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey when she was killed in 1996, but the televised confession by the American in Thailand raised more questions than it answered in the decade-old mystery. "I was with JonBenet when she died," the 41-year-old schoolteacher told reporters in Bangkok, touching off a frenzy of new interest in the case. Asked whether he was innocent, Karr answered, "No," without making eye contact.

On April 8, 2006, at Cedarwood Villa Health Care facility in Red Lodge, MT surrounded by family, GLADYS M. SMITH. Born February 16, 1918 in Baltimore to the late Frank D. Robertson and Marie W. Robertson (nee Uzzell), she resided in Baltimore 87 years before moving to Montana. Besides her parents, she is preceded in death by her beloved husband, Capt. Walter A. Smith BCFD, her brother W. Frank Robertson, her sister Clara "Sue" Snowden, and her nephew John Brach. She is survived by her son, Rev. W. James Smith and daughter-in-law, Valentine Frankos Smith of Red Lodge, MT; grandchildren, Sarah K. Smith of Billings, MT, James C. Smith and wife Dona of Boulder, CO, Carin Kyrikos and husband Spilios of Baltimore, and Dana Duell and husband Sam of San Jose, CA. Also surviving are two great-grandchildren, Julietta and Nicolai V. Laurita-Smith of Boulder, CO, as well as many nieces, nephews and their children, many friends and their families who were very dear to her. Friends may call at the HUBBARD FUNERAL HOME, INC., 4107 Wilkens Avenue on Sunday, April 16, from 3-5 and 7-9 p.m. Services will be held on Monday, April 17, at 1:30 p.m. Interment Loudon Park Cemetery.

On April 8, 2006, at Cedarwood Villa Health Care facility in Red Lodge, MT surrounded by family, GLADYS M. SMITH. Born February 16, 1918 in Baltimore to the late Frank D. Robertson and Marie W. Robertson (nee Uzzell), she resided in Baltimore 87 years before moving to Montana. Besides her parents, she is preceded in death by her beloved husband, Capt. Walter A. Smith BCFD, her brother W. Frank Robertson, her sister Clara "Sue" Snowden, and her nephew John Brach. She is survived by her son, Rev. W. James Smith and daughter-in-law, Valentine Frankos Smith of Red Lodge, MT; grandchildren, Sarah K. Smith of Billings, MT, James C. Smith and wife Dona of Boulder, CO, Carin Kyrikos and husband Spilios of Baltimore, and Dana Duell and husband Sam of San Jose, CA. Also surviving are two great-grandchildren, Julietta and Nicolai V. Laurita-Smith of Boulder, CO, as well as many nieces, nephews and their children, many friends and their families who were very dear to her. Friends may call at the HUBBARD FUNERAL HOME, INC., 4107 Wilkens Avenue on Sunday, April 16, from 3-5 and 7-9 p.m. Services will be held on Monday, April 17, at 1:30 p.m. Interment Loudon Park Cemetery.

Runners, swimmers and jumpers may be flocking to Athens this summer, but Barcelona is holding a different kind of Olympics - a five-month cultural and intellectual forum on solving the world's problems. Organizers say they expect more than five million visitors starting this month for the 2004 Forum of Cultures - part festival, part meeting-of-minds on broad themes like peace, cultural diversity and sustainable development. For Barcelona, it's a chance to recover the international limelight it basked in back in 1992 when it sponsored the Olympics - not to mention rake in tourist dollars and give itself a long-overdue facelift.

A newspaper described it as "the little town nestled between the mountains and reality," so it's hardly a surprise that folks here have a pretty offbeat definition of what's normal and what isn't. Take Amy Ash, a 30-something entrepreneur originally from Baltimore who for the past four years has run Crazy Amy's, a funky secondhand store on Pearl Street. One of the many Boulderites who have come here from someplace else, she was calling her business "Boulder Consignment" until one creative staffer drew a caricature of her on a signboard out front.

A passenger was killed, and the driver and a second passenger were seriously injured early yesterday when a car ran off the Inner Loop of the Baltimore Beltway and crashed, state police said. The Chevrolet Cavalier was eastbound on the Beltway near Providence Road at 2:17 a.m. when the driver lost control. It traveled down an embankment off the right shoulder and struck a boulder before going airborne backwards and crashing into a light pole and a guardrail, said Tfc. David Johnson of the Golden Ring Barracks.