Frederick County

Ian Yarmus can spot them when he goes down to his favorite indoor climbing gym in Rockville or when he travels to Seneca Rocks in West Virginia, the place after which he named his now 3--year-old daughter. "I remember being 100 feet up [at Seneca], and there was a guy up there who was freaking out, he was completely paralyzed with fear," Yarmus recalled. "He was in over his head. He didn't have the skills or the training to be in the situation he was in. I had to tell him everything to do, tell him where to put every piece of equipment and what part of his body to use and where to put it in the rock.

New Howard County schools Superintendent Renee Foose recently inked a four-year, $250,000 deal that includes a provision that allows her to be reimbursed for up to $25,000 in relocation costs. Foose will be moving from the neighboring Frederick County to Howard, where she must reside as superintendent. According to the state's Department of Assessments and Taxation website, she currently lives in a 1,531-square-foot, single-family home on .27 acres in New Market . The house is two stories and has a basement, according to the site.

Farmers may be leery of anyone from the federal government promising help, but here's one offer that sounds too good to refuse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service announced this week that it is making up to $315,000 available to "farmers, ranchers and forest landowners" in the Catoctin Creek watershed in western Frederick County. The offer is part of a new water quality initiative by the NRCS directing technical and financial help to 157 watersheds nationwide.

A jury in Frederick County has awarded a family $620,000 after sheriff's deputies shot a pet dog in January 2010. The officers had been trying to serve a civil warrant on the dog owner's son, who no longer lived at the house. Deputy Timothy Brooks and his boss, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, decried the verdict in a story published in the Frederick Post, saying their full story was not heard. Jenkins said the deputies "were doing their job. " But the attorney for the family, Cary J. Hansel, said that "from now on, police officers are on notice that they should think twice before using deadly force against a family pet. " The deputies said the dog, Brandi, a chocolate Labrador retriever, lunged at them as they entered the home.

There is a certain reliable pattern to each Maryland General Assembly session: The House and Senate will be at odds, 90 days worth of legislating will be condensed to about three weeks, and most bills of substance will be deferred or delayed. It's also predictable that at some point, local governments will groan and moan about how state government is usurping their authority. Well, with less than a week left in the session, it's that time of year again. Local leaders from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore see Annapolis trampling local decision-making rights from land planning to government ethics, and they don't much like it. At some level, it's understandable that county executives, commissioners and council members want to make their choices unencumbered by state and federal mandates.

Some 25 feet in the air, standing on the top of a wooden pole looking down at a few of his Archbishop Spalding rugby teammates, Zach McCloskey is ready to take what Clive Felgate calls "The Leap of Faith. " It has nothing to do with matrimony, or some far-flung business opportunity similar to the one Felgate took when he bought Upward Enterprises from its original owner a little more than five years ago after working as the operations manager since May of 2001. McCloskey, an 18-year-old senior from Annapolis, seems confident despite an admitted fear of heights.

Recently, Frederick County Board of Commissioners President Blaine Young announced an exploratory committee for a run as Maryland's governor. Many in our county could not be more pleased. Mr. Young has a long history in politics, and his accomplishments in Frederick County are manifold. For instance, Frederick, like most counties, had a tremendous deficit. Much of our deficit was due to an overabundance of government positions and unnecessary or duplicate services. Salaries, benefits and retirement health care benefits constituted a tremendous amount of the shortfall.

Once upon a time, the New York Times, of all publications, declared Blaine R. Young's political career over. It was more than a decade ago, Frederick washing its hands over and over after an escort service scandal and the young alderman's name had been one of those discovered in the madam's black book. Wouldn't that prognosticator be surprised to hear that less than a decade later not only is Young back in politics, he's pondering a run to be Maryland's next governor. It was back in 2001 when Young's name was one of those uncovered in the so-called black book of Madam Angelika Potter's Corporate Affair escort service, a sex scandal that provided Frederick and the rest of the state with salacious gossip for much of the early 2000s.

Jose Soto doesn't pay attention to politics in Frederick County. He's new to town and spends much of his time working at an apple-processing plant in Pennsylvania. But he heard something a few weeks ago about the county making English its official language. "I think it's a little racist," Soto said as he stopped by a Latino grocery store in Frederick before heading to work one afternoon last week. The 32-year-old was born in Guatemala and emigrated to Los Angeles as a child. Last month, the county became the first in Maryland to declare English its official language, though supporters of the measure acknowledge the move was largely symbolic because county business is done in English now. Anne Arundel and Queen Anne's counties are considering similar laws as well — part of a nationwide movement that supporters tout as a way to help immigrants assimilate.

When Jamie Krantz was invited to join a band made up of musicians of different faiths, she was tempted to say no. She worried she wouldn't have anything in common with the other players. But she agreed to join the group as a vocalist, and she's glad she did. "We all care about the music, we're all teenagers," said 16-year-old Jamie, who is Jewish and a junior at Thomas Johnson High School in Frederick. "It's a really nice connection. " The band, called Interfaith Rock, was formed in January and includes musicians who are Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist and Jewish.