Cousin

Alex Rodriguez has been told by the New York Yankees to keep his cousin away from ballparks. The message was given to the star third baseman yesterday, a person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press. The message applied to spring training and the regular season, the person said. Speaking at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., general manager Brian Cashman said only that the matter of Rodriguez being picked up from his spring training opener Wednesday by his cousin "has been handled."

The family-friendly barbecue was supposed to be a showcase of Howard County's best produce, but it had some of the county's top officials nervous. It was the Howard County Fair's version of television's popular Iron Chef competition, but the head chefs were no professionals. Behind the grills were County Executive Ken Ulman, school Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin, Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the county heath officer, and Tim Dowd of Circle D Farms and the Farm Bureau. Each contestant was trying hard to outdo his competition in the third annual cook-off, which took place Thursday evening.

Top Howard County school officials say that there is a clear need for the $118 million capital budget unveiled by Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin, but many expect a tough fight to fund the entire wish list. "I'm always optimistic. But I know [the budget] will be dependent on funds," said Cousin, whose plan reflects an $18 million increase from the current capital budget. "We'll have difficult choices to make at the appropriate time," said school board Vice Chairman Frank Aquino. Cousin's proposed budget includes $27 million to partially fund a renovation project at Mount Hebron High School; $20 million for systemic renovations at three buildings; $13.75 million to add to and renovate the "Old" Cedar Lane School; $12 million to construct a maintenance-warehouse facility; and $6.28 million for the addition of a cafetorium at Elkridge Elementary School.

The school system's operating budget will be fully funded thanks to the unexpected success of a decision to self-insure employee health costs, Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin said. He said the $2.3 million gap between what the school board requested and what County Executive Ken Ulman proposed for the 2008 fiscal year budget will be closed by using some of the $3.27 million surplus in the system's health insurance fund. The board had requested $429.5 million in county funding. Using the money in the insurance fund will result in "the least impact as possible on operations," Cousin told the school board Thursday night.

On September 4, 2007 HANS MAIR, beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and cousin, colleague and friend, suddenly died after a short illness in Bonn, Germany. Dr. Hans taught in the Political Science Department for almost 50 years. he will be missed by his wife Ilse and his four sons, Han U. (Michelle), Robert C. (Janet), Martin P. (Karen) and Christopher N. (Elizabeth) and 15 grandchildren, nephews, nieces, cousins and his beloved sister Anneliese of Boon, Germany. A Funeral and Interment took place in his beloved Tirol, Austria with family and friends present.

Howard County school officials are intensifying their campaign for a new funding source for school construction projects as demand increases while state and county contributions decrease. School board members and Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin made a pitch for help to the county's General Assembly delegation and County Council members at a meeting Friday at board headquarters, but the legislators indicated that they had little enthusiasm for raising revenue. The largest and most contested issue in next year's capital budget is how much to spend on Mount Hebron High School.

Settling into my office one morning, scanning the e-mail, I found a message from one Colin Smith. Got my attention. My father's name was Colin. Mine is too, though to avoid confusion no one in the family had ever called me Colin. Of course, there are enough Smiths in the world that a few of them were probably Colins. But who was this one? My cousin, as it turns out. My Uncle Elmore named him after my father. I hadn't known. We'd been separated for so long that family connections, usually the strongest, had been frayed and torn loose.

He was a little boy with an old soul. A preschooler who liked to help family members cook. A kid who tooled around his block on his training wheel-less bike. Yesterday, 3-year-old Charles Murrell was killed when two cars collided in a West Baltimore intersection and careened onto a street corner, striking him and an unidentified female, police said. A cousin and a family friend were taking the boy to a pool, relatives said. Charles, called Chuck, died on impact about 3:30 p.m., a few blocks from his home in the 1900 block of W. Lanvale St. Baltimore police said a man in a silver Chrysler Sebring traveling west in the 1800 block of W. Lanvale St. ran a red light and collided with a black Chevrolet Malibu traveling south in the 800 block of Fulton Ave. The female victim was treated at University of Maryland Medical Center for nonlife-threatening injuries.

At times the mourners cheered, standing on their feet and clapping wildly as the pastor spoke of Jesus and the peace that would come in heaven. But at other moments, there were raw emotions -- the tears of a mother, the pounding fists and sobs of a sister, and the eloquent remembrance of a cousin -- at the funeral service yesterday for Deneen L. Thomas, a victim of the East Baltimore fire that killed eight people last month. Thomas, 43, died at the hospital Sunday, nearly two weeks after the fire at 1903 Cecil Ave. -- the rowhouse where she was the head of a household that included four generations of one family.

The cousin of an Annapolis man killed in January told an Anne Arundel County jury yesterday that he saw John Thomas Logan approach a taxicab and shoot Wayne Dwight Addison while Addison sat in the front passenger seat.Terry Johnson, who was also in the cab, said the two men briefly exchanged words before Logan pointed a .38-caliber gun at Addison while the cab was parked in front of Sanky's Groceries in Annapolis' Eastport neighborhood."He shot two times, but ain't nothing come out. He shot three more times," said Johnson, adding that the mortally wounded Addison then flopped into the empty driver's seat.

It didn't happen often, but sometimes a student - usually a boy - would poke fun at Jason Mattison Jr. About his skin-tight jeans and funky sweaters. About his boisterous voice that seemed to run nonstop. About his exuberance in recounting the most mundane of events. About his flamboyant mannerisms. He was 15, a sophomore in high school, and he was gay. When someone harassed him in the halls of West Baltimore's Vivian T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy, he had a sharp, witty comeback at the ready, and he walked away smiling.

A number of top-ranking Howard County school system officials say that they like the way the showing of President Barack Obama's speech to the nation's students was handled, despite having little time to adequately prepare for it. The school system was given a couple of days' notice about the speech, which made it difficult to coordinate a better plan to share it, according to Sydney L. Cousin, superintendent of Howard County Public Schools. Most Baltimore-area districts let individual schools determine whether they showed the speech.

Chances are, students and parents caught a glimpse of a high-ranking school system employee or elected official Monday in a tradition that aims to have every one of Howard County's 72 schools visited on the first day. "We really like to take out the elected officials and let them be a part of the excitement that we feel on the first day," said schools spokeswoman Patti Caplan. "It is a wonderful, inspiring time to visit the schools." Howard County Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin and school board Chairman Frank Aquino were among the officials visiting schools, including Hammond Elementary in Laurel.

Christinia Armstrong, a music teacher and PTA president at Hammond Elementary School in Laurel, stood amid a cluster of African drums looking for the proper one to play for Howard County Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin and school board chairman Frank Aquino. She grabbed an hourglass-shaped drum, positioned it under her arm and rhythmically gave it a series of bops with her right hand. "Good morning," she said as she matched each syllable to each hand tap. "This is why they call it the African talking drum."

A 19-month-old boy left unattended in a Charles County home Tuesday wandered into the backyard and apparently drowned in a pool, police said. Jason Daniel Burke Jr. was discovered by his mother just after 8:30 p.m. Tuesday lying unconscious in an above-ground pool in the 4300 block of Middletown Road in White Plains, said Diane Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Charles County Sheriff's Office. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said. Richardson said the mother had left her house to run an errand, telling the toddler's 15-year-old cousin, who lives in the house, to watch over the boy while she was gone.

School officials praised an effort to protect teacher and classroom programs after the approval of the system's capital and operating budgets totaling $727.45 million. "This year finds us in fairly good shape," said board member Patricia Gordon. "This has been a tough year, but we've come through it as usual." Board member Larry Cohen added that the budget process "was real smooth." The $656.69 million operating budget includes money that will provide each teacher with a 1.2 percent cost-of-living increase, which will take effect in the coming school year.

The head of the Howard County teachers union wants the school system to explore the option of transferring principals from schools where employee morale is low. The stance from Ann DeLacy, president of the Howard County Education Association, follows results from the association's annual job satisfaction survey that show that eight of the school system's 73 schools fall below 50 percent when it comes to teacher morale. But Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin says the practice of using a survey, which was done in the school system about 15 years ago, is outdated and does not reflect the current needs of the school system.

The Howard County Board of Education is hoping that the County Council will approve an adjusted 2010 fiscal operating budget that trims $7.3 million from its original $664 million budget. In addition, the board wants council members to add $4.7 million to the $68.8 million capital budget approved by County Executive Ken Ulman. The board originally sought to add $10.7 million of the $26.2 million that Ulman had cut. Board members unanimously approved both budgets during Tuesday's board meeting.

A school board request for $4.7 million more county funding for new computers and building renovations appears unlikely to win approval from a Howard County Council beset by recession-driven cuts and employee furloughs. "I don't know where we'd find it," said council chairwoman Mary Kay Sigaty, a West Columbia Democrat, after a two-hour work session on the budget Friday in the county's temporary office quarters in Columbia. "Personally, I think they need to look at their own projects," commented Courtney Watson, an Ellicott City Democrat.

Elizabeth Large, The Baltimore Sun's restaurant critic, signed onto her computer at dawn Wednesday, as she typically does, to post comments sent to her overnight from fans of her blog, Dining@Large. But on this particular morning, one post stopped her in her tracks. "Hi Elizabeth," it began. "My cousin, Robert (the single one), told me of the fun he had with your blog and fellow bloggers. I am sorry to inform you that he passed away yesterday. His health was not great and we think it was heart failure.