Callers

Six or more people eluded Carroll County sheriff's deputies who broke up a field party involving about 20 mostly juvenile suspects near Frizzellburg early Wednesday, authorities said.After receiving a complaint about the party on a farm in the 1800 block of Old Taneytown Road at 1: 30 a.m., deputies arrived and arrested three boys on charges of possessing suspected marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and being minors in possession of alcohol. The boys were not named because of their age.Eight others -- four girls, two boys and two men -- were identified as suspected participants in the alcohol-involved party, and at least six others fled before being identified.

If you want to catch TV's most captivating series this summer, don't look to HBO. Don't look to MTV. Look to C-SPAN.The weekly "American Presidents: Life Portraits," three-hour treatments of each of the nation's 41 chief executives, may be television's most ambitious documentary project ever.But aside from its obvious value to history buffs, what makes "American Presidents" so compelling are the unexpected, often contentious debates that take place between the program's featured historians and its viewers who call in and offer very different takes on the American presidents.

ASK AND ye shall receive.Some 113 callers responded to Wednesday's column with the questions about the name Costello and comedian Lou Costello. To refresh memories, I will go through the questions one by one.Is the name Costello Irish or Italian?Readers were divided on this one."My good friend Bernie Costello is 100 percent Irish," said Pat Murphy. Mary Ellen Johnson called in her opinion that the Costello name is Irish."[Rock singer] Elvis Costello is Irish," she said. "I think." Ed Stetka said his wife is Irish, and her branch of the family is %J named Costello.

Baltimore's two-year experiment with a nonemergency number has reduced 911 police calls by more than one-third, easing a strained system that sometimes kept callers waiting for help.Officials want to expand the system to tie other city agencies into the 311 line so citizens can dial one number and get help for a variety of problems, from downed tree limbs to plugged storm drains."This 311 system has reversed a disturbing trend in law enforcement," said Maj. John F. Reintzell, who runs the department's communications division.

The Los Angeles Times said in an editorial Sunday:PAY PHONE charges in today's deregulated market can vary all too widely, especially when it comes to interstate calls made from airports, hospitals, schools, etc. The same problem applies to operator-assisted calls from hotel rooms. Consumers rightly have cried foul.One bewildered customer complained to the Federal Communications Commission of being charged $9.58 for a two-minute call. Another had to pay $63 for a 40-minute call. More than 5,000 complaints have prompted the FCC to require (( that callers be told how much their call will cost.

Baltimore's two-year experiment with a nonemergency number has reduced 911 police calls by more than one-third, easing a strained system that sometimes kept callers waiting for help.Officials want to expand the system to tie other city agencies into the 311 line so citizens can dial one number and get help for a variety of problems, from downed tree limbs to plugged storm drains."This 311 system has reversed a disturbing trend in law enforcement," said Maj. John F. Reintzell, who runs the department's communications division.

Before we move on to other business, I'd like to propose something that might give the Larry Young episode some socially redeeming value - so that it doesn't go on the books as another racially divisive controversy, a squall of news and debate that just left everyone feeling bad. We might even learn something from the LY episode. (Wouldn't that be something?) It might even make us better people. (That's a grandiose thought, but I think even cynics are allowed them on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.)

WASHINGTON -- If the calls and e-mails streaming into the offices of the state's congressional delegation are a reliable guide, Marylanders have become more sympathetic to President Clinton since seeing his taped grand jury testimony about his relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky."

Tierra Knight, 14, read a poem she wrote about being paralyzed to four teary callers -- all Baltimore Ravens football players -- in her West Baltimore rowhouse living room yesterday.Tierra penned "If I Be Strong" to console herself as she lay in her hospital bed after being shot by accident in her best friend's house two doors away from hers on West Mulberry Street on May 3."It helped her face what happened," explained her brother, 18-year-old Myron Knight, the first family member to reach his sister after she felt something like "an electric shot" ripple through her body as her legs folded and she fell to the floor.

A young man, despondent and in tears, called the United Way's First Call for Help line, and told Doris D. Green he was thinking of suicide."C'mon now, it's too nice a day for that," Green said. "You don't want to do that. Let's talk about it."The caller said he was out of work, had no friends and was a disappointment to his family. He talked, she listened, she talked, he listened."I calmed him down," Green said. Eventually, he said he was feeling better and thanked her. He said he wasn't going to end his life.

Posting this week's sports media notes while wondering whether I should be concerned how the cactuses in the background of the Accenture Match Play golf telecasts make me think of Quick Draw McGraw: * I was having a discussion this week with a colleague about radio sports talk shows, and he was of the opinion the best shows were the ones that had the most guests and took the fewest calls. In fact, he said it was optimal for a show to take no calls from listeners at all. I wouldn't go that far, but I would agree some shows lean too heavily on callers.

Beware of an extortion scheme by callers who falsely identify themselves as "FDA special agents" or other FDA officials, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Several cases have been reported of callers enticing consumers to purchase discounted prescription drugs by wiring funds to one of several locations in the Dominican Republic. No medications are ever delivered. A subsequent call is received from a fraudulent "FDA special agent" who orders the consumer to pay a fine of several thousand dollars to an address in the Dominican Republic to prevent incarceration or other legal action.

Bruce Cunningham was quite polite about it, but I was glad to hear his response to one of many callers on local sports talk yesterday sounding the theme about how the Ravens just aren't getting their due despite their record. Cunningham pointed out how, when he has traveled to other NFL cities, he has heard fans in those towns say much the same thing about their teams. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/mediumwell)

One woman was using the wrong type of insulin, causing the 65-year-old to faint one to three times a week. A 47-year-old homeless man drank a liter of vodka a day, and concerned citizens frequently called 911 after seeing him unconscious on the street. And another woman, 88, was just lonely and liked when the emergency responders showed up at her home. They are among a group identified as some of Baltimore's most frequent ambulance callers, 10 men and women representing more than 500 emergency responses in a year.

Several of the repeat callers to Baltimore's emergency 911 system haven't called in months. That's because a city health advocacy unit has figured out what ails them and connected them to services that would help them. Why didn't someone think of that before? The chronic problem of repeat callers has taxed the city's 911 response system for years and likely contributed to higher health care costs in Maryland. This year, the Fire Department finally decided to investigate. Of 150,000 annual calls to 911, the department found that 2,000 were made by the same 91 people.

It has been 60 years since Jack Wells, a Baltimore native and radio personality, broadcast live from the Copa, a nightclub in the 100 block of W. Baltimore St. He would sit at a table in the nightclub and whisper into a microphone: "Hey, I'm at the Copa. Where are you? Please call me." "It was an early talk show and we did it six nights a week from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. I got the idea from the Copacabana nightclub in New York, who broadcast a similar show," Wells said the other day in a telephone interview from his Los Angeles home.

The phone survey begins like this: "Good evening, my name is ____ and I am calling on behalf of the Baltimore Police Department." "I am calling to follow up in reference to your [insert crime] that recently occurred." The callers are not detectives trying to solve a crime, but officers and neighborhood leaders trying to regain the trust of city residents and determine for themselves whether the people they protect have received the service they expect. "We're trying to get a measure and get a feel for the quality of police service," said Col. John P. Skinner, who came up with the idea for the survey and ran the effort, which he plans to expand.

The repeat callers to Baltimore's 911 ambulance dispatch system are a chronic problem in search of a solution. And the city's health commissioner may have come up with one. As far as pilot projects go, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein's proposal to enlist a health care advocacy group to assess the medical needs of these repeat callers and get them help through traditional means falls into the category of, "Why didn't anyone think of this sooner?" It offers the possibility of resolving the problem to the benefit of both the system and individuals in need of care.

Baltimore's busy public ambulance service went out on more than 150,000 calls last year, responding to everything from car accidents to heart attacks. About 2,000 of those calls were from the same 91 people. The breakdown: 38 people called between 15 and 20 times each, 37 called between 21 and 40 times, 13 rang up between 41 and 60 times, and two connected over 60 times. The high scorer called 107 times. Officials fear the high frequency of calls from a small number of people means this group is using 911 because they lack transportation or insurance - and the result is worse care for them and higher costs for the city.

A three-hour appearance yesterday by former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and his wife, Kendel, as talk-show hosts on a Baltimore radio station became a nostalgic walk through the Ehrlich administration's accomplishments and a chance for the Ehrlichs' supporters to thank them for their service to Maryland. "It's the Ehrlich edition of the Tom Marr Show!" the former governor said after every commercial break, naming the host who normally takes the 9 a.m.-to-noon slot on WCBM-AM. "You're doing a good job," Kendel Ehrlich told her husband, who was elected Maryland's governor in 2002, the first Republican governor in 36 years.