Cellular

It's a fact Adam LaRoche of the Braves was a bat boy for the White Sox when his father, Dave, was the pitching coach. Milestone Pedro Martinez reached 1,500 strikeouts with the Red Sox, second in team history to Roger Clemens (2,590). The number 32: doubleheaders at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago since 1991, when it opened as new Comiskey Park.

Now at your Baltimore-area 7-Eleven: cell phones. The Dallas-based convenience-store chain today introduced a prepaid wireless telephone under its own brand name. Under the "Speak Out" program, customers can buy a Nokia phone for as little as $50 that operates on the Cingular Wireless network. The telephones are preprogrammed and the batteries pre-charged. Airtime charges are 20 cents per minute for local or long-distance calling. The phones are being sold at 7-Eleven stores in 14 cities, including the 128 outlets in the Baltimore area.

Cell phone service would be taxed under a bill to be submitted to the City Council today. The proposal comes at a time when the city is facing a $21 million deficit in its current budget and anticipates having to reduce services, increase fees and cut more than 500 jobs in the next fiscal year. The administration of Mayor Martin O'Malley is working on a set of revenue measures, but they are not expected to be ready for introduction at today's meeting. The cell phone tax bill is being proposed by Councilwoman Catherine E. Pugh, a West Baltimore Democrat.

Consumers have come to expect a certain degree of confidentiality when it comes to their mobile phone numbers. Until now, the privacy of wireless subscribers has long been safeguarded. All that might change this year. The cellular phone industry is expected to launch a wireless directory-assistance service that seeks to include more than 70 percent of the nation's 156 million cellular numbers in a database. While wireless numbers will not be published in a book, anyone dialing 411 directory assistance on any phone will be able to get almost any wireless number.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens began selling her proposed cellular-phone tax to reluctant state legislators yesterday, telling them the proceeds would bolster her shorthanded police and fire departments. "We have to build a solid public safety system and we need your support," Owens said. She is seeking authority to levy, with County Council approval, a 5 percent tax on county residents' cellular phone bills. Such a tax would allow the county to raise between $6 million and $10 million annually, county officials have said.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- Teachers thought they had seen it all when it comes to cheating. A tiny cheat sheet tucked up a sleeve. A math formula saved on a calculator. An essay pulled off the Internet. But now sneaky students have found a new high-tech way to ask friends covertly for help on tests. Students can send silent questions and answers to one another right under teachers' noses on cell phones with built-in cameras and text messaging. Jan Bunten, a math teacher at College Park High in Pleasant Hill, Calif.

The crime report is a sampling of crimes in Howard County compiled from police. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 410-313-3700. East Columbia Stevens Forest Road: 5700 block, Oakland Mills. A man reported that he was at the end of the Grand Point footpath about 5:30 p.m. Feb. 15 when three teen-age boys hit him in the head with a stick and robbed him of his wallet. Saddlebag Row: 9500 block, Oakland Mills. Someone smashed a rear sliding-glass door and entered a home in the morning or early afternoon of Feb. 18, but it was unknown if anything was taken.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens asked local legislators yesterday for permission to levy a cellular phone tax, saying the county needs help in offsetting another round of state budget cuts. The county executive wants an 8 percent tax on cellular phone bills, which officials said would raise $10 million in revenue next fiscal year. Owens said the money would be used to hire more police officers and firefighters, and to buy new equipment. The county is facing a shortfall of at least $7 million, Owens has said.

BEIJING - With the return of SARS to China, the ruling Communist Party is fine-tuning its system for parceling out information, safeguarding public health and muting public criticism of its actions. State-run television has broadcast images of the one confirmed SARS patient, health officials have enacted quarantines and close monitoring of the patient's contacts, and the government is killing thousands of civet cats and countless rodents in an effort to prevent further spread of the disease.

Cornell Anderson Jr. shuffled down a dark, tree-lined alley on a warm spring night in North Baltimore when he spotted light seeping from a rowhouse's rear screen door. No longer high, he felt groggy as he stared at his next target. Slipping a small knife from his pocket, Anderson slashed through the screen, popped the latch and stepped inside. His eyes adjusted to the light as he grabbed a cellular phone and a black leather purse from a kitchen countertop. He hustled down a narrow hallway, swiping a leather bag dangling from the handle of the front door.