Gap

WASHINGTON -- A robust economy and years of government pressure have helped move minority groups closer to the mainstream. But when it comes to health, studies show a stubborn, daunting and in some respects growing disparity between black and white Americans.For decades, blacks have suffered higher death rates from nearly all major causes. Although life expectancy has increased for all groups, differences persist. And government and academic research shows a widening gap between blacks and others in the incidences of asthma, diabetes, major infectious diseases and several forms of cancer.

Whites still live longer than blacks, but the gap is shrinking, mainly because death rates are dropping for causes that have historically hit African-American communities particularly hard, HIV and homicide, researchers announced yesterday. Average life expectancy among blacks rose from 69.2 in 1993 to 72.7 in 2003, while for whites it rose from 76.3 to 78 years, according to a study of mortality statistics released yesterday by The Journal of the American Medical Association. That reduced the difference to 5.3 years, a historic low that is almost two years less than the gap recorded 10 years earlier, researchers at McGill University in Montreal determined.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. exports are growing so rapidly that America's trade deficit narrowed a bit in July, the Commerce Department said yesterday, although the gap with China widened again. U.S. manufacturers are increasing overseas sales of everything from high-value aircraft and telecommunications equipment to smaller items like artwork, pharmaceuticals, household goods, foods, beverages and animal feed. As a result, growth in U.S. exports in July jumped 2.7 percent to $137.7 billion, up from the 1.3 percent growth in June.

Though there are bright spots, most minority students in Anne Arundel County schools continue to lag behind their white peers on high-stakes state exams, despite new efforts to train teachers and administrators to focus on closing the achievement gap. Overall, the county posted modest gains on the annual Maryland School Assessments, exceeding state averages by 3 to 13 percentage points on the reading and math tests, according to scores released this...

IF YOU want wide-open spaces, move to Montana, I always say. I drive by these words as well - at least when it comes to "snugging" up to cars at intersections. Which brings me to last week's question by Ann Henry, who wondered why drivers leave a gap of four or five car-lengths at traffic lights. She clearly favors drivers squeezing some of those wide-open spaces, especially when vehicles are stacked in a limited turn lane. Some of you agree with Ms. Henry, such as Joan Lancos, who draws upon her observations of drivers stopped at intersections.

Since graduating from North County High School in 1994, Jaime Tond has worked at Home Depot and at a sub shop.She's also had to make several trips to the unemployment line.With no real marketable skills, Tond figured that $5.25-per-hour jobs like the one at the sub shop were about the best she was going to do. Then a counselor at the Business & Work Force Development Center suggested she enroll at a new computer-skills training center in Woodlawn, run by Towson University in partnership with a private company.

"I could see dimly through the dense sulphurous battle smoke, and a line from Shakespeare's Tempest filtered through my brain: `Hell is empty and all the devils are here.'" Such was the scene, as described by Pvt. Frederick Foard, of the 20th North Carolina Infantry, at Turner's Gap, on South Mountain that Sept. 14, 1862. From the early morning until long after sunset, the fighting there involved skirmishes and repeated attacks, through which neither side could gain a true advantage. The struggle at Turner's Gap, within the larger Battle of South Mountain, resulted in a victory for the Union army, which suffered far fewer casualties than its enemy.

The University System of Maryland is joining schools in 17 other states in pledging to reduce by at least half the gap in college success that separates minority and low-income students from the rest of the postsecondary population. Yesterday, Maryland's college system took its first formal step in the national initiative with a summit at the University of Baltimore, at which data were presented highlighting the wide and persistent disparity in graduation rates among Maryland's black and needy college students.

Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said last night that he and his staff have finished work on the next state budget, and will need two years to eliminate what he said was a "structural" gap between spending and revenues. Ehrlich's first spending plan has been sent to the printer and will be publicly released Friday, he said. The incoming administration's budget officials have been meeting with legislative leaders to tell them of the plan's contents. "We have not given anybody a piece of paper," said James C. "Chip" DiPaula Jr. , Ehrlich's budget secretary nominee.

A reform-minded citizens group urged the Columbia Association last night to bridge an ever-widening gap between the town's upper- and lower-income residents and create more opportunities for youths.Columbians for Howard County, formed earlier this year to oppose a drive to incorporate Columbia as a city, told association officials that bridging the gap might help ameliorate the underlying causes of the increase in crime in the community.The group also recommended that the nonprofit Columbia Association (CA)