Concentration

Bracing for the loss of a steady paycheck is becoming something of a routine for Frank Silberstein. A statistician for the U.S. Census Bureau and a union steward for the American Federation of Government Employees, Silberstein said the pitched battle in Washington over whether to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling has — for the second time this year — put federal workers in Maryland on edge about whether they'll still have a...

The Maryland Department of the Environment has issued a Code Orange air quality alert Tuesday for the Baltimore metropolitan area. A Code Orange alert means that air pollution concentrations within the region may become unhealthy for certain groups, including children, people suffering from asthma and lung diseases, and the elderly. In Howard County, health officer Peter Beilenson issued an Extreme Heat Alert for Tuesday, noting that high temperatures and humidity levels will make the heat outside feel 100 degrees or hotter.

Lauren Frenz , of Mount Airy, traveled to Honduras as part of a service learning program at Malone University, in Anton, Ohio. She is a senior majoring innursing. Afton Vechery , of Woodbine, earned a Bachelor of Science in business enterprise management, with a dual concentration in new science development and new business development, and a double minor in neuroscience and entrepreneurship and social enterprise, from Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, N.C. She also received the Spirit of Wayne Calloway Award, the Hobbs Award for Entrepreneurial Achievement and was named to the dean's list for the spring 2010 semester.

Six years ago, at Catholic University in Washington, there was an unusual presentation of Giuseppe Verdi's monumental Requiem for soloists, chorus and orchestra. The last notes of the score gave way to very different music, coming softly from the choristers. As they filed off the stage and left the hall, they softly intoned a chant from the Kaddish of the Jewish liturgy. When those sounds, too, faded away, there was no applause from the audience. Only some muffled sobs could be heard in the darkened room.

Anthony Steven "Tony" Zyna, a retired National Brewing Co. mechanic and member of the merchant marine who was sent to a Soviet concentration camp during World War II, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease June 18 at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 88 and lived in Cockeysville. Born Anthony Zinowski in New Britain, Conn., and raised in New Haven, he left his home at 14 and later joined the Navy. A medical disability — a punctured eardrum — forced him to leave the service and he then joined the merchant marine during World War II. He served aboard the Liberty Ship Barbara Frietchie, as well as the Glenpool and the Paoli.

Dyann Shaver from Madras, Ore., was looking for a recipe she has lost for making a nontraditional type of barbecue chicken that used concentrated lemonade in the sauce. She said that she found the recipe in an article about barbequing in Better Homes and Garden magazine in the 1970s. Steve Newman from Santa Rosa, Calif., shared his recipe for making barbequed chicken with lemonade concentrate. He said that while concentrated lemonade may seem like a surprising ingredient this chicken never fails to please.

The Revs. Tracy Bruce and Stephen Davenport travel to Haiti every January to visit the music school in Port-au-Prince, the church in St. Etienne and the other development projects they support in the poorest nation in the Americas. But with the school and the church now destroyed, and no word yet from many of the friends with whom the husband-and-wife Episcopal clergy members have worked over the decades, they expect this month's trip to be different. "There's nothing that's coming out of Haiti at all in terms of communication right now from anybody on the ground," Bruce, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Glyndon, said Friday.

Y ou spent three hours last Sunday screaming at the TV, watching penalty flags flutter to the turf like dead canaries and cripple the Ravens in that ugly 23-20 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. And you don't want to go through that again this weekend when they face the Oakland Raiders with a playoff berth on the line, because you'll end up pulling your hair out. Well, guess what? The Ravens don't want to go through it again, either. Eleven penalties for 113 yards, including two calls that negated touchdowns - you don't think that drives them nuts, too?

I n the grand tradition of the NFL, the Ravens spent their session with the media Wednesday making the Chicago Bears sound like the greatest team in history. John Harbaugh called the Bears "very talented" and "very well coached." Ray Lewis said Bears quarterback Jay Cutler "can make every throw" and the Bears have "very good tight ends." Ray Rice called the Bears defense "relentless to the ball." Hoo, boy. You'd have thought the Ravens were going up against the '85 Bears this Sunday instead of a reeling 5-8 team with a coach ( Lovie Smith)