Cave

Who hasn't this happened to? You're in a snake cave on an Indonesian island and up to your belly in liquefied bat guano (don't ask). A 7-foot reticulated python - the object of your smelly search - coils around your legs and you are sinking in this quicksand, and the python, not caring about your well being at all, bites you rather high on your right leg with his flesh-ripping teeth. "Ahhhhhh! He's on me! He's bitten me! Where is his head??? Grab his head!!!!!" Now that's reality TV. And those are the words of Severna Park's Brady Barr, herpetologist and host of National Geographic Channel's Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr nature series.

A Howard County Circuit Court judge found a 35-year-old Baltimore man guilty yesterday in three robberies last year.Judge Dennis M. Sweeney found Donald P. Stokes guilty on two counts of robbery stemming from the holdups of Tower Federal Credit Union in Columbia on Oct. 20 and Nov. 30. Sweeney also convicted Stokes on a count of armed robbery in a Nov. 21 robbery of an Ellicott City Fashion Bug.Stokes did not plead guilty but agreed to a statement of...

While growing up in the District of Columbia, Keith Cave had few professional role models, with the exception of an idealistic defense attorney on the television show "Perry Mason."That hero and his courtroom theatrics turned Cave on to law -- but not as a defense attorney.Instead, he became a prosecutor, the nemesis of Mason, and was promoted this month to head the juvenile unit for the Howard County state's attorney's office."Some people said that would sound corny, about Perry Mason," said Cave, 31. "But I didn't have any role models who were lawyers.

At Smith Farm, our oft-maligned system workedCarping at our elected officials is always good sport. Sometimes, it may even become a podium-thumping exercise where the rules of engagement are foggy and private agendas veer wildly off the topic, but mostly it is hung on the sincere complaint of a single gored ox or the perceived slight.The seasoned administrator deftly handles this stuff in a manner that seeks to calm and placate the speaker showing respect for the opinion and discomfort of the aggrieved and moving the laborious proceedings along after taking notes for further study.

Two-term Howard County Sheriff Michael Chiuchiolo has decided not to run for re-election this year and is hoping to turn over the job to his chief deputy, Charles M. "Chuck" Cave.Chiuchiolo, 57, a Republican, said he will retire and move to South Carolina."I felt it was time," said Chiuchiolo, who is widely credited for a variety of programs initiated in the sheriff's office in recent years. "I had given over 33 years to Howard County, and I felt it was time to move on."Ten months before the election to fill Chiuchiolo's spot, the local Republican Party has signed up Cave to run as a candidate, while the Democrats are considering their options.

For nine years, Chuck Cave has been acting as sheriff of Howard County -- at least when the elected one isn't there.So it only made sense to the 61-year-old chief deputy sheriff, who helped Sheriff Michael A. Chiuchiolo clean up the department eight years ago, to run for the sheriff's seat."

POLLY CAVE WILL say her final goodbyes to students and staff at Winfield Elementary School later this month. The school secretary is retiring after 25 years with Carroll County public schools.Since Cave begin working at Winfield Elementary in 1971, thousands of children have passed through its front doors and enrollment has tripled to nearly 700 students. The children have benefited from Cave's presence as a "soft-spoken, compassionate friend," says parent Deena Cook.Echoing those thoughts, co-worker Judy Edelmann says, "Polly has a gentle way about her with the children and parents.

POLLY CAVE, retiring as secretary at Winfield Elementary School, received an unusual but thoughtful honor Monday afternoon.About 700 children gathered outside the school and presented Cave with a tree to be planted in her honor. The star magnolia will be planted outside the school office and will have room to grow, just as Cave did in her role as secretary for 25 years.A plaque will be placed next to the tree to let students and parents know of her years of commitment to the school.Cave, who will finish her duties this month, is looking forward to retirement with "mixed feelings."

GIBSONBURG, Ohio -- They (my eighth-graders) say, ''It don't make no difference how we talk.'' I say, ''Oh yes it do.'' They say, ''You just used bad grammar!'' I say, ''How's come ya' notice it when I use it but you don't never hear it when you do it?''They say, ''Whatta' we need to talk so perfect for, anyway?'' I say, ''Because you will be forever judged by the way you speak and if you use poor grammar you will be branded ignorant.''They say, ''So what? Everybody at my house talks the same way I do. Are you calling my family ignorant?

Edward E. Suarez Jr.'s scuba diving buddies called him "The Dive Monster" because his gusto for underwater exploration seemed insatiable."When there was water around, he'd be in the water," said Harvey Storck, a diving partner from Potomac. "Even after a day of diving when we'd all be exhausted, he'd be ready to go again."Mr. Suarez, 48, of Columbia, died pursuing his passion Sunday in an accident during a cave dive in Bakerton, W.Va., near Harpers Ferry.Dr. James Frost, West Virginia's deputy chief medical examiner, said yesterday that Mr. Suarez apparently developed the bends, an acute condition in which nitrogen bubbles form in the vascular system.

Kutztown Folk Festival Where:: Kutztown Fairgrounds, 225 N. White Oak St., Kutztown, Pa. When: : Saturday through July 5, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. What: : The 60-year-old festival celebrates the rich Dutch heritage of Pennsylvania with events including a roof-thatching demonstration, barn-raising for kids, folk entertainment and the largest collection of antique electric cars in America. The festival also features more than 2,500 traditional quilts, handmade by local quilters, along with a quilt auction.

The Nativity display inside Immaculate Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church in Parkville is not set in the traditional stable. Instead, every year parishioners build a grotto, fashioning realistic-looking boulders from hundreds of brown paper grocery bags. "People come from all over to take pictures," said parishioner Bob Mrozinski. "They don't believe it is made out of bags." While the birth of Christ is traditionally said to have occurred in a stable, the church's 15-foot-high shopping-bag cave might be a more authentic depiction, some say. "Two thousand years ago, they didn't have mangers like we see on postcards today," said the display's creator, Elias Shomali, who was born near Bethlehem and has lived in the United States for 40 years.

On April 10, 2008, DONALD CARLESS CAVE, devoted father of Diana C. Poole and the late Donald Cave. Dear brother of Barbara Carter, Mary Sies, Dolores Johnson and the late Jean Skipper and Kenneth R. Cave. Also survived by 3 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. Friends may call at the family owned Kirkley-Ruddick Funeral Home, P.A. 421 Crain Hwy. S.E. Glen Burnie on Monday from 3-5 and 7-9 P.M. where Funeral Services will be held on Tuesday at 11:00 A.M. Interment Wesley United Methodist Church Cemetery.

Who hasn't this happened to? You're in a snake cave on an Indonesian island and up to your belly in liquefied bat guano (don't ask). A 7-foot reticulated python - the object of your smelly search - coils around your legs and you are sinking in this quicksand, and the python, not caring about your well being at all, bites you rather high on your right leg with his flesh-ripping teeth. "Ahhhhhh! He's on me! He's bitten me! Where is his head??? Grab his head!!!!!" Now that's reality TV. And those are the words of Severna Park's Brady Barr, herpetologist and host of National Geographic Channel's Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr nature series.

A whole nation following the tragedy of a mine cave-in in Utah was struck by the further tragedy of another cave-in at the same mine, killing men who had gone underground to try to rescue the miners trapped there. The second tragedy was avoidable - but only if we were willing to talk about human life in terms of trade-offs. But our society has become too squeamish to do that. As day after day went by, with no sign whatever that the trapped miners were still alive and with dwindling chances each day of their remaining alive, at some point it makes no sense to risk more lives to try to save them.

Outgoing Howard County Sheriff Charles M. Cave has been ordered to reinstate a deputy he fired last year for what Cave said was poor performance. Carroll County Circuit Judge J. Barry Hughes ruled Wednesday that Cave violated the Law Enforcement Officer's Bill of Rights when he terminated Deputy 1st Class Calvin Elliott in October 2005. Cave ordered Elliott fired because of security breaches at the Ellicott City District Court lockup, improper use of a radio, not wearing a gun and gun belt, and improper use of a vehicle, according to a sheriff's department internal memo filed in the court case.

Howard County Sheriff Charles "Chuck" Cave is not leaving office quietly. After losing the Democratic Party primary in September to James F. Fitzgerald, the county police union president, by 1,037 votes, Cave, the 69-year-old incumbent, switched to the Republican Party and registered as a write-in candidate for Tuesday's general election. "This is a tough way to go, but I truly believe I have the better qualifications than those two guys, and I know I can do a better job," Cave said. Since his write-in candidacy began, Cave has added "write-in" to his signs and is relying on mailings and word of mouth.

Howard County Sheriff - and one-time Republican - Charles "Chuck" Cave, who lost in the Democratic party primary to county police union president James F. Fitzgerald, has switched party affiliations back to the GOP and filed to run as a write-in candidate Nov. 7. Cave's unusual moves are among several developments in the past few weeks of the election season that threaten to complicate the picture on Election Day, local officials say. County election administrator...

The president of the Howard County sheriff's union criticized Sheriff Chuck Cave yesterday for not taking action against employees who improperly circulated a petition on county time supporting his re-election bid. After learning from a reporter of the petition, Cave said that he distributed an e-mail to staff members the week of Aug. 21 ordering them "to cease and desist" its circulation. He followed up with a letter to his staff, restating the order. Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 131 President Andrew Mackert confirmed those notices, but he called the petition a "flagrant violation" of the county rules.

After speaking with voters in his effort to unseat incumbent Howard County Sheriff Chuck Cave, county police union President Jim Fitzgerald is convinced that about the only people who know what sheriff's deputies do in this county are the prisoners whom deputies ferry to court from the county jail. Fitzgerald's message is that residents need a more aggressive sheriff, one who will secure more personnel, resources and media attention for the 69-person agency and "get red in face" if there's resistance.