Family Friend

Monday night, the Ocean City Town Council voted to ban smoking in certain municipal playgrounds as well as the town's skate park and tennis center. It was considered a bold move, at least for Ocean City, which remains light years behind neighboring Atlantic Ocean resorts when it comes to family-friendly public health policies. In nearby Bethany Beach, Del., on the other hand, town officials have gotten a bit bolder. Three days earlier, the Bethany Beach Town Council voted 4-3 to extend the resort's seasonal ban on smoking at the boardwalk to a year-round prohibition.

It's been eight years now since Thomas Rudis moved his Golden West Cafe from its original storefront operation into its current home on The Avenue in Hampden. It continues to flourish, and if Hampden is a town, Golden West is its town hall. Along with its neighbors, Holy Frijoles and Cafe Hon , Golden West deserves credit for helping to establish Hampden as a dining and drinking destination. All three restaurants, and many of their successors, have been accused of trafficking in kitsch and whimsy, but from the start Rudis seemed serious about its menu, the core of which is inspired by the cuisines of New Mexico.

Rosalea Della, a retired Baltimore Gas and Electric worker who was recognized by President George H.W. Bush for her many hours of volunteer service, died of a pulmonary embolism Tuesday at St. Agnes Hospital. She was 93 and had lived in Pasadena. She was born Rosalea Muriel Streckfus in Baltimore and lived her early years in Canton. Several years ago she wrote a memoir of her life in which she recalled her family's basement kitchen: "The black iron range was always kept burning hot in the winter.

More than 23,000 Anne Arundel County residents concerned about a casino at Arundel Mills mall have petitioned to place a slots zoning ordinance on the November ballot. In less than 75 days, county residents galvanized to oppose the establishment of one of the largest slots facilities on the East Coast from being placed at a family-friendly mall. Their efforts were historic and there is ample reason for their opposition. They, like us, dread the thought of scores of gamblers leaving the casino and descending on the mall, our communities and our roads every day and night.

Sarah V. Moralis, a homemaker who was active in the affairs of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, died Friday of Alzheimer's disease at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The Hunt Valley resident was 80. The former Sarah Vrachalus, the daughter of Greek immigrant parents who owned and operated a restaurant, was born and raised in Mobile, Ala. After graduating in 1947 from Murphy High School in Mobile, she worked in the late 1940s for the Georgia Insurance Co. and Sears Roebuck & Co. Mrs. Moralis met her future husband, Peter J. Moralis, who was an Air Force radar technician assigned to Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss.

A 23-year-old former River Hill High School football star was sent to jail for 18 months Thursday for the November death of a 17-year-old friend in a drunk-driving accident that has torn two Howard County families apart. Described as a "gentle giant," a 6-foot-4-inch, 320-pound David Erdman of Ellicott City bowed his head and cried along with the mother of his victim. He had pleaded guilty in May to negligent homicide while driving under the influence of alcohol. Steven Dankos died early in the morning of Nov. 30 when the pickup truck Erdman was driving after a round of post-football-game parties ran off Folly Quarter Road and hit several stone pillars.

As Emily Kerstetter and her fellow church mission members enjoyed a meal at an Ethiopian restaurant in Uganda, the 16-year-old Ellicott City resident told her new friends that she wanted to stay and work through the rest of the summer. She had already extended her trip once, opting out of her original flight that departed five days earlier. She was ready for more. Minutes later, a suicide bomber struck outside the restaurant, one of two attacks in the Ugandan capital of Kampala that killed at least 74 people and wounded 85 others, including Emily, her grandmother and three other members of her group.

As Emily Kerstetter and her fellow church mission members enjoyed a meal at an Ethiopian restaurant in Uganda, the 16-year-old Ellicott City resident told her new friends that she wanted to stay and work through the rest of the summer. She had already extended her trip once, opting out of her original flight that departed five days earlier. She was ready for more. Minutes later, a suicide bomber struck outside the restaurant, one of two attacks in the Ugandan capital of Kampala that killed at least 74 people and wounded 85 others, including Emily, her grandmother and three other members of her group.