Family Day

TODAY VETERANS ISSUES -- A town hall meeting on veterans issues will be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the MCVET Center, 301 N. High St. The meeting, organized by Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, will include information on how veterans can obtain job training. TRAFFIC MEETING -- The Task Force on Traffic Capacity Across the Chesapeake Bay will hold its final meeting at 7 p.m. at Tidewater Inn, 101 E. Dover St., Easton. Topics will include steps to decide on a new crossing. 410-537-1016. WEDNESDAY SCHOOL FACILITIES FORUM -- A citywide public forum to discuss construction, renovation and consolidation of Baltimore public schools over the next five years will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Edmondson High School, 501 Athol Ave. 410-396-8670.

For the third time in 50 years, the National Security Agency played host to "family day" yesterday, an event that for many decades-long employees signaled the first time their relatives were allowed to see where they work. But far from the average bring-your-child-to-work day, the event attracted more than 16,000 curious relatives who lined up early in the morning for a chance to look behind the gates of the nation's most secret spy agency. After being asked to leave all cameras, phones, pagers, electronic equipment and "incendiary devices" at the gate, many family members had their first peeks at a relative's desk and cubicle, and took their first small tours of the facility at Fort Meade in Odenton.

LED stoplights may save city $1 million a year Baltimore's City Hall is giving the green light to a new breed of traffic signals that officials said yesterday will save taxpayers nearly $1 million a year once they are installed at the city's 1,300 lighted intersections. Baltimore will spend $6.5 million to replace the city's incandescent traffic signals with LED - or light emitting diode - signals, which last up to 10 times longer, require less maintenance, use less electricity and are brighter.

The new producers of the Chesapeake Bay Boat Show, opening today for a nine-day stay at the Convention Center/Festival Hall, want visitors to dream a little dream in these recessionary times."

Hundreds turned out at West Baltimore's sun-splashed Cloverdale Courts yesterday as NBA star Carmelo Anthony returned to host a youth tournament and family day in the park where he played growing up. The Denver Nuggets forward cheered participants in his three-on-three basketball tournament from a folding chair under the backboard and cut up with old friends after arriving on a tour bus. Later, he softly answered questions from the dozen or so local and...

Spare rib bones, stripped clean and stacked like cordwood. A pile of paper napkins, crumpled, greasy and red with barbecue sauce. That's what Lauren Groveman, mother, wife, cook and author, sees when she conjures the perfect family dinner. Her husband and teenage children adore her poached spare ribs and each has his or her own bowl of her homemade barbecue sauce for dipping. And the mess they make tells her that she has, once again, pleased her favorite people with food. "That mess in the middle of the table - it is just such a satisfying feeling," said Groveman, 46. Groveman loves to cook.

IT'S ANOTHER spring-fling outdoor weekend in Pasadena this weekend.The Riviera Community Improvement Association will have its second Family Day tomorrow at the community park at Dale and Greenway roads. A day of activities starts with a flea market at 8 a.m. Kids' games and exhibits from local community groups begin at 10 a.m.Riviera Beach Volunteer Fire Company will demonstrate a car rescue, and the Sheriff's Department, the local Power Squadron, Meals on Wheels and Pets on Wheels, 4-H and Adopt-a-Greyhound will have exhibits, association President Lee Archibald said.

Work and leisure activities of the 19th century will be the focus of Family Day at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington next Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is the sixth annual event and one of the museum's most popular. The entire 240-acre estate, formerly the site of the original du Pont black powder mills, will be open for tour. Demonstrations will show how black powder was made, and you can tour the 1803 du Pont family home and its restored French garden.Hands-on activities allow visitors an opportunity to learn the arts of papermaking, quilting and punch paper sewing, write with a quill pen, or make hand-cranked ice cream and sample the results.

A traditional fall harvest will be celebrated this weekend in Mount Vernon, Va. Visitors to George Washington's estate and gardens can enjoy Fall Harvest Family Days. The two-day event features performances by 18th-century musicians, wheat-treading demonstrations in Washington's 16-sided barn, candlemaking and blacksmithing demonstrations and more. Children can enjoy playing early-American games, such as hoops and graces, and they can make their own cornhusk dolls, take wagon rides, venture through a straw bale maze and roast their own apple slices.