Copper

PHOENIX -- Phelps Dodge Corp., moving to create the world's No. 1 copper producer, yesterday raised its offer to buy Cyprus Amax Minerals Co. and Asarco Inc. to $2.66 billion in stock the day after the companies rejected a bid valued at $2.56 billion.Cyprus Amax and Asarco agreed last month to their own $2.2 billion merger to form the No. 2 producer. Phelps said it is now willing to pay a 29 percent premium for Cyprus and a 30 percent premium for Asarco.If the companies don't agree to negotiations, Phelps said, it is "determined to take all necessary steps" to acquire them.

FiresTaneytown: Firefighters assisted Adams County, Pa., with a building fire at 10: 40 a.m. Saturday. Units were out three minutes.Union Bridge: Firefighters responded to a house fire in the 13000 block of Copper Mine Road in Frederick County at 5: 22 p.m. Friday. Units were out 15 minutes.Pub Date: 8/10/99

"In 'The Fox and the Hound' by Walt Disney, Widow Tweed found a little fox. She named him Tod. Tod had a friend named Copper, who was a hound dog. Copper and Tod liked to play hide and seek in the forest. They decided to be best friends forever."-- Tyler RieckeOur Lady of Hope/St. Luke School" 'Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Case' by Donald J. Sobol is about a boy named Encyclopedia Brown who is really smart and solves mysteries with his eyes closed. He has a sidekick named Sally and the boys in the Tigers' gang are scared of her because she can punch really well.

FireGamber: Firefighters responded at 7: 34 p.m. Sunday to a house fire in the 100 block of Sunny King Drive. Units were out one hour.Gamber: Firefighters responded at 6: 02 p.m. Sunday to a fire alarm in the 4000 block of Robin Hood Way. Units were out 22 minutes.Sykesville: Firefighters from Sykesville, Gamber and Liberty Road in Baltimore County responded at 2: 01 a.m. Saturday to a house fire on Copper Beach Court. Units were out a half hour.

Sculptor Brent Crothers uses trees (but only already dead trees) to make works about environmental concerns. In the past, his sculptures were often obvious but forceful. A shovel with a dead tree as a handle, titled "Digging Our Own Graves," made the point that if humans kill enough trees they'll destroy the planet.His current show at Galerie Francoise reveals a significant change, for this group of wood and copper sculptures makes positive rather than negative points about the interconnectedness of man and nature.

Right after Christmas, when the Orioles raised ticket prices by 15 percent - they had raised them 19 percent the year before - the men in the front office rationalized that shameless exploitation of fan loyalty by declaring it the cost of fielding "a championship-quality team."Well, gee, Beave'. Does that mean we'll be getting a little rebate soon? A little rollback? A damaged-freight sale? Slashing those prices! Just like they do at Bill's Carpet Warehouse?Look what's going on in Florida.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Howard County.Elkridge: 6100 block of U.S. 1: Someone broke into a store Tuesday or Wednesday and stole cash and cigarettes.Owen Brown: 7100 block of Nature's Road: Someone broke into two homes under construction Tuesday or Wednesday. Copper pipes and two heat pumps were stolen.Pub Date: 9/05/97

EASTON -- Sheila Copper threw her hands over her eyes."All I'm thinking is, he's going to cut him and blood is going to fly," she testified.Thus did Anthony Tyrone Mills and Tyrone Kane engage in their life-and-death struggle at the corner of this tiny and otherwise peaceful Eastern Shore town on Nov. 25, 1996: Mills slashing at Tyrone with the knife, my youngest brother dodging, dancing, backing away. They're cursing each other as they do so, trash-talking, hurling invective that Copper can't repeat in court.

FOREBODINGS of a wider war arise from the Zaire rebels' success in the south and from Zaire's response. Yet what distinguishes this episode from attempts to dismember Zaire in times of Cold War and high copper prices is the reluctance now of outside powers to intervene.The new alarm comes from the rebel advance into the town of Kalemie on the eastern edge of Zaire and the western shore of Lake Tanganyika. It is inside the border of Shaba province, which was the copper-rich secessionist province of Katanga in the 1960s.

Are you tearing your hair out looking for something "creative" to give someone for Christmas? If that someone is a gardener, it may be easier than you think.While most of the gifts I'm going to suggest are inexpensive, they will all be appreciated far in excess of their monetary worth. Gardeners are frequently a strange lot (being one myself, I can say this with impunity), and can often be delighted with relatively simple things that may not appeal to the great mass of gift receivers. I mean, who else would likely be impressed with a bale of peat moss?

Police reports in Baltimore city and county: Southwestern Baltimore Victim identified: Police identified Marvin Hawkins, 38, of the 1300 block of Taylor Ave. as the man fatally shot Nov. 12 while seated in a car parked in the 3500 block of Gelston Drive. No arrest had been made. Robbery: Four men, one with a handgun and another a shotgun, robbed Irvington Cut Rate Liquors in the 4100 block of Frederick Ave. of an undisclosed sum of money, a laptop computer and cigarettes about 10 p.m. Saturday.

In Baltimore County, violent crime is down, but incidents of theft are up. What's driven the increase is the lucrative market for scrap metal that has thieves yanking copper pipes out of the walls of vacant apartments and swiping catalytic converters from parked cars with the help of nothing more exotic than a cordless saw. Between 2005 and last year, theft of valuable metal has increased 500 percent in the county, police report. It now represents nearly 2 percent of all the burglary and theft cases investigated by the county police.

Baltimore State's Attorney Pat Jessamy urged her counterparts from around the country to soak up the city's charms while in town last week for a meeting of the National District Attorneys Association. Good thing DAs aren't fainthearted conventioneers. During a lovely waterfront reception at McCormick & Schmick's on Thursday night, Jessamy encouraged the prosecutors to stroll back to their hotels along the Inner Harbor's brick promenade. Some of them took her up on the idea - and came across a body floating in the water.

At the New Arts Foundry in Hampden, workers still follow the centuries-old process of casting bronze sculptures from molds of wax, rubber and ceramic. But owner Gary Siegel fears the business has irrevocably changed in a matter of months. Last year at this time, Siegel said, he was paying $1.60 a pound for the bronze alloy he uses, which is 95 percent copper. By May, it was $4.50 a pound - nearly triple what he had been paying. Metals prices have soared in the past year, and it's not only affecting foundries that make bronze sculptures, but manufacturers of products from power tools to tap shoes.

Once upon a time, a birdbath was a birdbath: a white cast-iron or concrete pedestal with a basic basin on top. But these days, birders and backyarders can choose from an array of watery oases. Nurseries and garden catalogs carry birdbaths as varied as the feathered friends who splash around in them. "There's no one set style anymore," says Noelle Smith, publicist for Smith & Hawken, which has a store in Glastonbury, Conn., a catalog and a Web site. "People are choosing styles and materials that work well with their outdoor areas so the outdoor look reflects their interiors."

Man fatally wounded on lot near nightclub A 25-year-old man was fatally shot in the head and another man wounded on a downtown parking lot early yesterday as a crowd was leaving a nearby nightclub. Wayne Matthews Jr. of the 2800 block of Carver Road in Cherry Hill was found lying between two parked cars near Club One in the 300 block of Guilford Ave. about 1:50 a.m., police said. It is not known whether Matthews had been in the club before he was shot. He was pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Hospital at 2:27 a.m., police said.

NEW YORK -- Led by gold's biggest decline since 1993, metal prices plunged yesterday over concern that a speculative rally that sent commodities to record highs might be overdone. Gold for immediate delivery declined $35.10, or 4.9 percent, to $679.10 an ounce in London, its biggest drop since August 1993. Silver for immediate delivery in London lost $1.15, or 8 percent, to $13.22 an ounce, the biggest decline since April 24. Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange fell $270, or 3.2 percent, to $8,190 a metric ton, the biggest drop since April 27. The metal is up 86 percent this year, more than double the price of a year ago. As many as 6,733 lots of 25 tons were traded, topping the daily average of 5,455 lots.

What happens if a penny is worth more than 1 cent? That's an issue the U.S. Mint could soon face if the price of metals keeps rising. Already, it costs the mint well more than a cent to make a penny. This week, the cost of the metals in a penny rose above 0.8 cents, more than twice their value last fall. Because the government spends at least another six-tenths of a cent - above and beyond the cost of the metal - to make each penny, it will lose nearly half a cent on each new one it mints.

It is the essential winter conversation, and one that will dominate the next few months: How much snow did you get? There is a reliable way to answer that question: a device called a snow gauge. Gardener's Supply Co. offers a snow gauge that looks more like a lawn sculpture than a measuring device, but its stylish copper numerals are large, readable and measure up to 2 feet of snow. (The Vermont-based company also markets a 4-foot snow gauge, but we won't go there.) The numerals over time will acquire the classic greenish patina of aging copper.

Ihope you can help me get satisfaction from the builder of my new home I purchased in June for $700,000. Some of the unresolved issues are: 1. In correcting a building error, the builder damaged some of the copper flashing around the bay windows. The builder replaced only small sections and, as a result, the copper is different in color and looks ridiculous. The builder says the new copper will weather, but there is still a variation in color. 2. Condensation in the gas hot water heater vent results in loud, constant dripping.