Enlisted

Baltimore has brought in a new weapon in the battle against the towering mounds of gray snow lining city streets - a Canadian snow melter. The device, which resembles a large trash bin with a panel of knobs and gauges, can melt up to 10 truckloads of snow an hour, said Scott Brillman, deputy director of the city's emergency management office. The melter was chewing through snow in the parking of Polytechnic Institute yesterday morning and is slated to travel to neighborhoods, including Poplar Hills, Federal Hill and the Harford Road corridor, throughout the week to tackle drifts there, said Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake.

Like most people, Phyllis Friello watched in horror the events unfolding in Haiti after the devastating earthquake. She donated to UNICEF, the United Nations organization that's distributing water, food and medicine and registering children separated from their families by the disaster. But Friello, a competitive figure skater who lives in Baltimore, wanted to do more. So she put on her skates. And she sent a Facebook message to former world and national figure skating champion Kimmie Meissner.

My wife is 66 and suffers from severe osteoporosis. Could you tell me if there are any new treatments for her disorder?Osteoporosis results from an imbalance between the continuing processes of calcium removal from bone (bone resorption) and calcium entry into the bone (mineralization or bone formation). When resorption overtakes formation, the result is a decrease in bone density and strength.A diagnosis of osteoporosis is made in postmenopausal women when bone mineral density is at least two standard deviations below the average level found in premenopausal women.

President Theodore Roosevelt said, "The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired in value." We have not behaved well as a nation with respect to some of our most treasured resources - our national parks. Decades of neglect have taken a heavy toll on them. However, thanks to the leadership of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and the Bush administration's recently announced National Parks Centennial Initiative - and with the faithful support of park champions in Congress, including Maryland's congressional delegation and thousands of national park visitors and advocates - we have an opportunity to remedy the situation.

With summer just around the corner, now is the time to make plans to keep your children busy during their vacation. The county Department of Recreation and Parks has many summer programs for preschoolers, school-age children, teens and children with special needs.Programs include day camp at Downs Park, Quiet Waters Park and Mayo Beach Park; summer playgrounds at Brooklyn Park Elementary School and the Lloyd Keaser Center in Pumphrey; theme camps, including science and history; adventure (wilderness)

Albert Hall, a professional opera singer and choirmaster who began his singing career during his student days at City College, died May 13 from colon cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The Towson resident was 89. The son of a plumber and a homemaker, Albert Hall was born in Baltimore and raised on Rose Street. It was while he was attending City College in the late 1930s that he came to the attention of Blanche F. Bowlsbey, the legendary music teacher whom her students fondly called "Mrs.

The effort by the Democratic Party, the UAW, Michael Moore and - disgracefully - Rick Santorum himself to orchestrate Democratic crossover votes against Mitt Romney in the Michigan Republican primary fell well short of its goal ("Santorum and Romney fight their own class war in Michigan," Feb. 27). Mr. Santorum's unholy alliance with big government, big labor and extremists underscores his shortcomings as an economic lightweight and an all-too-frequent shill for the unions during his years in Congress.

Terri Stafford used to take Lulu, her border collie mix, to medical facilities as part of a Baltimore-based volunteer program that enabled her to share her beloved pet's affection with others in need of it. "We did that for several years until Lulu got too sick" with cancer, said Stafford, a retired registered nurse who lives in Baltimore County. "Toward the end, when Lulu wasn't feeling well, she spent a lot of time hiding in the closet. But I'd say, 'Lulu, let's go visiting.' And she'd come running out and jump in the car. She loved it. "I also used to enjoy the way people would light up when I would bring Lulu to visit them," Stafford said.

When Alissa Harrington was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 38, she did what she's accustomed to doing when she needs answers. She reached for her smartphone. The Stevenson University technology professional says mobile apps helped her overcome one of the biggest burdens for anyone confronting a life-threatening illness: Managing the deluge of medical records and appointments and communicating what comes out of those to friends and family. "Mobile apps have really eliminated that," said Harrington, who as an instructional designer builds online courses and trains faculty how to apply technology to learning.

WASHINGTON - The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity. Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cyber experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google - and its users - from future attack.