Bounty

PARRIS N. GLENDENING, who said he wanted to be the "education governor," can at least lay claim to being the "education infrastructure governor."In awarding $257 million for school construction in the coming year, Mr. Glendening is funding projects at a level that affirms his own description: "Golden age for school construction."He provided $634 million for school construction in his first term, almost twice the total of the prior four years. Benefiting from economic good times, he is on pace to provide $1 billion to build and renovate schools through his second term.

You will know that Iran's rulers are moderates when they cancel the bounty for murdering a British citizen in Britain, not before.Clinton and Blair found common principle: Brash is good.Fossils in a Spanish cave suggest that a breed of human evolved there 800,000 years ago, in case you were wondering where flamenco came from.Hideki Irabu is a damn Yankee!Pub Date: 6/02/97

If you have not read Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses," you probably should. It is at least a near-great novel - great in my judgment. It is also today's most exemplary evidence of the cost and the burdens of free expression in a civilized society.It is, as all great work is, both playful and intense. A major element of its metaphor mocks -quite respectfully, almost fondly, to my eye and ear - some of the miraculous material of the Muslim faith. It is about as rude about Islam as, say, H.L. Mencken was on Presbyterianism - but not nearly so tough as Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" was on Massachusetts Puritanism.

That I have known the springmay I anticipate the harvestof a bounty ripened everywhere...and revel in the comfortof a warming woolen wrap aroundme. Or pluck the sweetest berryfrom a thicket,just before the winter season,fated seasonof tomorrows yet to come.As life's departure gaily echoespeaceful harvest mourning,will the fated season hoverin a corner of the sky.Great bounty!Such a treasurenow commanded by a fadingsun... Our host: a horde of nurturingwith center molten fortitudewhich crust will dry and fall awayfrom new and greener life within;a full and fervent futurein the cooling swirl of autumnwind.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to consider putting a strict limit on private individuals' right to sue to collect a "bounty" when the federal government has been defrauded by a company.At the same time, the court refused to hear a constitutional challenge that could have wiped out that right to sue altogether.The new case turns on the so-called "citizen bounty" law, dating to 1863. It allows people who learn about fraud against the government to sue on the government's behalf, against the company involved, and to receive a share of any winnings awarded in court.

NEWARK, N.J. -- They were on "the hunt" in the Prince Street projects in Newark on an 8-degree night. The black four-wheel-drive vehicle stripped of identifying symbols prowled, lights off, over a thick sheet of ice, past snow-covered garbage piles. It rolled into a parking lot between grim high-rises.Joshua Armstrong and his partner, Max, scanned the lot for a blue BMW. Mr. Armstrong wore camouflage pants, boots, leather jacket and gold wire-rim glasses. Max wore a black mask across his nose and mouth, sunglasses and a large pistol in a holster strapped to his thigh.

Political extremism camouflaged as religious fundamentalism has claimed another victim, the author Taslima Nasrin, who is on the run in her native Bangladesh while thousands of demonstrators attack her supporters and a $5,000 bounty is offered to anyone murdering her.Dr. Nasrin, a physician, is a modern young woman in a largely backward and impoverished society of 120 million. Her writings have criticized religious practice and denounced male supremacy in the traditional Muslim marriage.But the mobs in the streets of Dhaka and provincial cities, the bounty offered by a cleric and the arrest ordered by a Bangladeshi court are based on an untruth.

The text of President Clinton's Thanksgiving Day proclamation:As the end of another year draws closer, we are again filled with thankfulness for the blessings of a fruitful land. For more than 200 years, Americans have welcomed autumn's harvest with gratitude and goodwill. On Thanksgiving Day, we set aside our daily routines to acknowledge the bounty and mercy of Divine Providence. With full hearts, we bask in the warmth of family and community gatherings, and we reflect on the challenge, responsibility and privilege that are ours as citizens of these United States.

MOSCOW -- Any foreigner trying to comprehend the intense emotional suffering and psychological pain inflicted on the Russian people over the last few years need only visit the Exhibition of Economic Achievements of the U.S.S.R.Here, the triumphs of Soviet man were celebrated as nowhere else in dazzling exhibits encased in 80 grandiose World's Fair-style pavilions.Now political events have rewritten that singular vision of the Communist past -- with cold-hearted vengeance. The proudest of the pavilions, once filled with the sputniks and space paraphernalia that sent the United States scrambling in panic to catch up more than three decades ago, has been cleaned out.The rocket ships and spacesuits have been thrown out to make room for an enormous Western car showroom.

You've sliced, diced, steamed and baked. You've made salads and muffins and casseroles and more salads. You've canned enough to last through the winter . . . of 1996. Face it: You're a gardener gone amok.But this summer, your back-yard bounty need not go to waste, even after you've run through all 101 things to do with zucchini. Every Monday and Wednesday morning for the next three weeks, you can drop off your extra produce at five locations in the area, and the Maryland Food Bank will make sure it gets to the homeless and the hungry.

When members of the Bloods gang step out of line, authorities say, the Bounty Hunters step in. Two Baltimore members of the group - an enforcement arm of the Bloods gang - were convicted last year of shooting a fellow member in the back of the head for "false-flagging," or misrepresenting his status in the gang. In 2006, a California Bloods member, who was sent across the country to Baltimore to separate real Bloods from wannabes, slashed Terrance Randolph, 19, with a boxcutter, smashed him with a sledgehammer, stabbed him with a samurai sword and set his body on fire.

As the Ravens began preparation for their heated rematch with the Pittsburgh Steelers, defensive end-linebacker Terrell Suggs said he hasn't received another warning from the NFL office this week about bounties. "But I have a good feeling Roger will be somewhere nearby watching," said Suggs, referring to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Two months ago, Suggs told an Atlanta radio station the Ravens had a "bounty" on Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward. In the same radio interview, he called Ward "a cheap-shot artist" before saying the Ravens "got something in store for him."

To a man, the Ravens stood before the microphones yesterday, displayed great professionalism and poise, and suppressed their deeply held, collective belief that Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward is the spawn of Satan. They might not literally believe that, of course - and even if they did, they were certainly under a Hines-inspired gag order anyway. But it is safe to say there aren't a lot of warm, fuzzy feelings toward the man who is one of the NFL's best receivers and one of its most potent instigators.

Even before she puts her own turkey on the table today, Loretta Warfield will have served 50 Thanksgiving dinners. For more than two decades, through donations and fundraisers at the W.R. Grace & Co. chemical plant where she works as a janitor, Warfield has collected fresh turkeys, white potatoes, bread, pies and countless canned goods for Curtis Bay-area families who might not otherwise be able to celebrate the holiday. She has fed well over 1,000 families this way. "I've been doing this for so long, it's just a part of me," Warfield said.

Busy week Not since the Eagles' Buddy Ryan wanted payback against the Cowboys has a bounty been big news in the NFL. Terrell Suggs had the NFL scrambling to defuse the issue when he said there was a bounty on Hines Ward. On top of his awkward Troy Smith observation, Suggs was a roaring (mindless?) cannon last week. A fine mess Meanwhile, Ward and the Steelers protested they have been targeted by the league for discipline after four Steelers were fined a total of $50,000 in two weeks for actions on the field.

Terrell Suggs was told by the NFL that any further comments or on-field activity indicating his participation in bounty activity could result in "significant disciplinary action," a league spokesman said. The Ravens' linebacker-defensive end was notified yesterday in a letter from Ray Anderson, the NFL executive vice president of football operations. The trouble for Suggs started two weeks ago on an Atlanta sports radio talk show when he was asked whether there was a bounty on Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall (who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury against the Ravens)

It was about three weeks ago when Terrell Suggs said NFL officials look at the Ravens more closely than other teams. Well, if the officials didn't do this before, Suggs has certainly given them reason to do so. The NFL is "aggressively" investigating Suggs' recent comments on an Atlanta sports talk show that the Ravens had a "bounty" on Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward and running back Rashard Mendenhall (who suffered a season-ending shoulder...

A series to help you cook with the bounty of the season Kelby Brick enjoys tending his Catonsville garden with his two sons. He shared a very simple recipe that uses dill and oregano to perk up potatoes for a side dish. For the recipe, go to baltimoresun.com/backyardharvest

WASHINGTON - John McCain offered plans yesterday to develop more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, drawing a warm welcome from energy analysts. Environmentalists were more cautious, warning that new vehicles might trade one problem for another if they just plug into coal-burning power plants. The Republican presidential candidate's proposals to increase energy efficiency, rolled out in Fresno, Calif., came atop his proposal last week to boost supply by opening off-shore sites to oil drilling and sought to match environmental concerns to energy anxiety.

If Mayor Sheila Dixon's goal is to get guns off the streets of Baltimore, she should look to the past and reintroduce a gun bounty program similar to the one initiated by Police Commissioner Donald D. Pomerleau in 1974. During its brief existence, the program, called Operation PASS (People Against Senseless Shootings), had two components: a $50 bounty for every weapon voluntarily turned in to the Police Department, and a $100 bounty for an anonymous tip that resulted in a handgun being confiscated and the person arrested.