Family Preservation

INTO the maelstrom of horse-trading that is the House/Senate conference committee on the budget will be thrown one of the most excruciating issues in American life.There, amid the honey-bee subsidies, fuel taxes and income tax hikes will lurk the Family Preservation Act, which could have a dramatic impact on the lives of America's most vulnerable children.Because Capitol Hill is dominated by liberal Democrats, it is an unquestioned axiom that the Children's Defense Fund and the Child Welfare League of America -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's colleagues and the authors of this bill -- know what's best for America's children.

Meetings on county plan are scheduled The county has scheduled community Grassroots Gatherings to get residents involved in the Carroll County Comprehensive Plan. All meetings are at 6:30 p.m. unless noted. The first Grassroots Gatherings meeting for Uniontown/Bark Hill is scheduled for Tuesday at Uniontown United Methodist Church, 3405 Uniontown Road. Second meetings are being held for the following communities: Manchester: tomorrow, Manchester Elementary School. Finksburg/Sandymount: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sandymount Elementary School Media Center.

Nine Howard County organizations and schools recently have been awarded a total of $81,500 from the United Way of Central Maryland.The recipients are:Careerscope Inc., which received $16,000.Children of Separation and Divorce Center Inc., $16,000.Mediation and Conflict Resolution Center, $16,000.Howard County Sexual Assault Center Inc., $10,000.Running Brook Elementary School, $7,500.Churches Concerned for the Homeless, $6,000.Elkridge Landing Middle School, $5,000.Longfellow Elementary School, $2,500.

Dad comes home and drinks, and mom is gone for days on drug binges while their disturbed, truant, teen-age son threatens himself and others. Throughout the daily chaos, the family's toddler watches and learns.But what might seem like a hopeless slide to ruin is the focus of a little-known, intensive Baltimore County social services program that is set to expand soon if the County Council, as expected, approves the transfer of new state money."This is it -- the last stop before foster care," says Debra Linsenmeyer, child placement services administrator in the Social Services Department.

Dinosaur Club keeps kids in touch with the beastsGot a dinosaur fan in your house? Well, now there's a club for youngsters who are enamored of those extinct beasts and want to keep up on the latest Dino news. The Dinosaur Club, sponsored by the non-profit Dinosaur Society, publishes the Dino Times monthly for children ages 5 to 12 and keeps them current on all dinosaur discoveries. The society says new dinosaur remains are discovered every seven weeks. Club membership includes a subscription to the Dino Times, a dinosaur poster and sticker.

Dad comes home and drinks, and mom is gone for days on drug binges while their disturbed, truant, teen-age son threatens himself and others. Throughout the daily chaos, the family's toddler watches and learns.But what might seem like a hopeless slide to ruin is the focus of a little-known, intensive Baltimore County social services program that is set to expand soon if the County Council, as expected, approves the transfer of new state money."This is it -- the last stop before foster care," says Debra Linsenmeyer, child placement services administrator in the Social Services Department.

Associated Black Charities hopes to boost donations this weekend with a radio-thon over two Baltimore gospel stations.The fund-raiser is the highlight of ABC's annual campaign, which aims to raise more than $100,000 when it sends its message of self-sufficiency to the black community over WGBR and WCAO (Heaven 600). The radio-thon runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and tomorrow, and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday."This gives us an opportunity to define issues important and relevant to African-Americans . . . and to get that message out," said Kirk D. Fancher, director of development and marketing at ABC.Donna Jones Stanley, executive director of ABC, said the radio-thon will replace major fund-raising concerts the group has held.

Television has no problem these days casting a friendly snicker at the depictions of family life in old series such as "Ozzie and Harriet" or "Leave It to Beaver." The traditional nuclear family in America has long been an endangered species. Adults have been known to recall growing up neurotic because life at home did not measure up to the warm togetherness shown on "Father Knows Best." Upbeat programming has its downside.The patronizing air toward old series, however, carries an implicit message: Television today is so much more gritty and attuned to reality.

THE CONGRESS of the United States has brought forth a crime bill. Now all of us can sleep better at night, right?Wrong. The federal government has undertaken to spend $30 billion of our dollars (what ever happened to deficit reduction?) to fight not crime but the appearance of political indifference to crime.That's what the bill was about. It was an opportunity for the therapeutic set (liberal Democrats) to portray themselves as Clint Eastwood. President Clinton went so far as to cast the struggle as one between the forces of the National Rifle Association and those of the police and "honest, law-abiding citizens."

Martin Miller and Ivan Leshinsky water, watch and worry over dozens of tree seedlings in their Brooklyn nursery -- not unlike their nurturing of troubled juveniles."

Foster care stays in Maryland have been growing longer in the past few years, exacting a high personal cost from children forced to grow up in limbo and running up expenses for taxpayers, according to a searching nine-month study being published today.And standards differ dramatically around the state, so that abuse reports that are quickly investigated in one county may be ignored in another, according to the study, which was commissioned by the Maryland Department of Human Resources to determine how well it was succeeding in its mission of protecting Maryland children in danger of abuse or neglect.

Martin Miller and Ivan Leshinsky water, watch and worry over dozens of tree seedlings in their Brooklyn nursery -- not unlike their nurturing of troubled juveniles."

Nine Howard County organizations and schools recently have been awarded a total of $81,500 from the United Way of Central Maryland.The recipients are:Careerscope Inc., which received $16,000.Children of Separation and Divorce Center Inc., $16,000.Mediation and Conflict Resolution Center, $16,000.Howard County Sexual Assault Center Inc., $10,000.Running Brook Elementary School, $7,500.Churches Concerned for the Homeless, $6,000.Elkridge Landing Middle School, $5,000.Longfellow Elementary School, $2,500.

THE CONGRESS of the United States has brought forth a crime bill. Now all of us can sleep better at night, right?Wrong. The federal government has undertaken to spend $30 billion of our dollars (what ever happened to deficit reduction?) to fight not crime but the appearance of political indifference to crime.That's what the bill was about. It was an opportunity for the therapeutic set (liberal Democrats) to portray themselves as Clint Eastwood. President Clinton went so far as to cast the struggle as one between the forces of the National Rifle Association and those of the police and "honest, law-abiding citizens."

Associated Black Charities hopes to boost donations this weekend with a radio-thon over two Baltimore gospel stations.The fund-raiser is the highlight of ABC's annual campaign, which aims to raise more than $100,000 when it sends its message of self-sufficiency to the black community over WGBR and WCAO (Heaven 600). The radio-thon runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and tomorrow, and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday."This gives us an opportunity to define issues important and relevant to African-Americans . . . and to get that message out," said Kirk D. Fancher, director of development and marketing at ABC.Donna Jones Stanley, executive director of ABC, said the radio-thon will replace major fund-raising concerts the group has held.

It's Sunday morning and the electric chime on the roof of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in East Baltimore is calling parishioners to the Divine Liturgy.Grandparents, parents and their children walk to the South Ponca Street church, the center of this Highlandtown community's religious life.The parishioners live on Lehigh, Mason, Newkirk, Oldham, Ponca, Quail, Rappola, Savage, Tolna and Umbra streets, south and west of the old Baltimore City Hospitals campus. Many call this section Greektown.

Meetings on county plan are scheduled The county has scheduled community Grassroots Gatherings to get residents involved in the Carroll County Comprehensive Plan. All meetings are at 6:30 p.m. unless noted. The first Grassroots Gatherings meeting for Uniontown/Bark Hill is scheduled for Tuesday at Uniontown United Methodist Church, 3405 Uniontown Road. Second meetings are being held for the following communities: Manchester: tomorrow, Manchester Elementary School. Finksburg/Sandymount: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sandymount Elementary School Media Center.

Foster care stays in Maryland have been growing longer in the past few years, exacting a high personal cost from children forced to grow up in limbo and running up expenses for taxpayers, according to a searching nine-month study being published today.And standards differ dramatically around the state, so that abuse reports that are quickly investigated in one county may be ignored in another, according to the study, which was commissioned by the Maryland Department of Human Resources to determine how well it was succeeding in its mission of protecting Maryland children in danger of abuse or neglect.

INTO the maelstrom of horse-trading that is the House/Senate conference committee on the budget will be thrown one of the most excruciating issues in American life.There, amid the honey-bee subsidies, fuel taxes and income tax hikes will lurk the Family Preservation Act, which could have a dramatic impact on the lives of America's most vulnerable children.Because Capitol Hill is dominated by liberal Democrats, it is an unquestioned axiom that the Children's Defense Fund and the Child Welfare League of America -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's colleagues and the authors of this bill -- know what's best for America's children.

Television has no problem these days casting a friendly snicker at the depictions of family life in old series such as "Ozzie and Harriet" or "Leave It to Beaver." The traditional nuclear family in America has long been an endangered species. Adults have been known to recall growing up neurotic because life at home did not measure up to the warm togetherness shown on "Father Knows Best." Upbeat programming has its downside.The patronizing air toward old series, however, carries an implicit message: Television today is so much more gritty and attuned to reality.