Garrett County

Carole Caines of Pasadena heard of an old saying about the "dog day" cicadas, the annual variety that start singing in the hottest days of July or August. When they pipe up, she says, "count (X) days, and that will be your first frost." But she forgot how long to count. I've heard 45 days, or six weeks, which might work for the Midwest, or Garrett County. Not here. Six weeks gets us to mid-September. East of the mountains, average first frosts are in October.

It's been said that there are Ocean City people and there are Deep Creek Lake people. We have no idea who said this or what it even means. This much we know: Both these classic Maryland destinations lure visitors with sun, sand and water. So, decide for yourself where your vacation loyalties lie. Are you a lake person or an ocean person? Memorial Day weekend launches the summer vacation season with travelers packing cars, trailers and suitcases with sunscreen, bathing suits and towels, and scrambling out the door with neither map nor Mapquest directions in hand.

Arrests afflict job hunters More than 21,000 people were arrested in Maryland last year and released without charges, most of them in Baltimore. After they were freed, though, the records of their arrests lived on. But momentum in the General Assembly is building behind a bill to automatically wipe out those arrest records. Taser use is scrutinized The death of a mentally ill Baltimore County man as police attempted to subdue him with a Taser has revived a debate about the safety of the high-voltage stun guns and whether police might be too quick to use them.

CUMBERLAND -- The unemployed store clerk charged in the death of a Carroll County teen-ager who agreed to baby-sit for him acknowledged being in possession of the victim's personal belongings after the girl was killed.John Albert Miller IV, 27, charged with sexually assaulting and strangling 17-year-old Shen Dullea Poehlman of Eldersburg, was a surprise witness in a pretrial motions hearing here as defense attorneys sought to suppress his statement to police after the young tennis star's death in July of last year.

OAKLAND -- The falling yellow leaves say autumn is here. The calendar disagrees. Blame the drought.Those conjuring up soothing visions of splendid fall foliage as an escape from this blast-furnace summer had better have a Plan B. Trees from Western Maryland to the Washington suburbs are losing leaves more than a month ahead of schedule as they attempt to survive the worst drought in 70 years.When stressed, trees lose leaves like some people lose their hair. "It's a defense mechanism to ease the burden," explains Jim Simms, Garrett County agricultural agent.

In Baltimore CityBoy, 11, struck by train escapes serious injuriesAn 11-year-old boy escaped serious injury yesterday when he was hit by a light rail car, dragged several feet and briefly trapped under the train's front end, Mass Transit Administration officials said.Wendell Bost of the 500 block of Cathedral St. was crossing North Howard Street north of West Mulberry Street about 3: 10 p.m. when he was struck by the southbound 106,000-pound train. The train's wheels stopped inches from the boy's body, police said.

For the fifth consecutive year, Howard County residents boast the highest household median income in the state.Estimates for last year released Thursday by the Maryland Office of Planning (MOP) show that the county's mark of $68,800 is $3,400 more than the second-most affluent, Montgomery County. Rounding out the top five are Anne Arundel with a household median income of $57,200, Calvert with $55,200 and Carroll and Charles with $54,900.Baltimore City has a household median income of $31,600.

1962: Jousting is named Maryland's state sport1962: Baltimore Civic Center opens1963: B-52 crashes in Garrett County

Gov. Parris N. Glendening's senior legal adviser, Andrea Leahy-Fuchek, will leave her post to become an assistant U.S. attorney in Baltimore, the governor's office announced.Leahy-Fuchek, whose work with Glendening goes back more than a decade to his time as Prince George's County executive, will begin work in the civil division of the U.S. attorney's office June 1.Glendening credited the 37-year-old attorney with a leading role in his gun-control efforts and the state's purchase of Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County and Chapman's Landing in Charles County.

FRIENDSVILLE -- Roger Zbel battled deadly walls of whitewater in Tibet, but that did not prepare him for wrestling with what's left of the Upper Youghiogheny River.Zbel, owner of Precision Rafting in Garrett County, has been stymied by the drought of 1999.Business is off because Zbel can't guarantee that the Youghiogheny will look anything like the 8-by-10 color photos dotting the walls of his shop, showing helmeted customers shooting the rapids.In fact, those days are getting harder and harder to remember for Zbel and the eight other Garrett County rafting companies licensed to run the Upper Yough, as it is called.

He's out there all right. More than twice the size of New York Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia and just as intimidating. Big. Hairy. Nails as big as shot glasses with breath bad enough to knock a buzzard off a honey wagon. Seven-hundred pounds of berry-eating bulk able to move with the grace of a woodland ballet dancer, a regular Bear-yshnikov. Some hunters in Garrett County swear they've seen him, or at least something massive moving in the mountain laurel below the mountain ridge that runs from Pennsylvania through Maryland and into West Virginia.

Jacqueline Evelyn Williams, a retired Garrett County mathematics teacher and librarian, died of a heart attack July 28 at St. Joseph Medical Center. She was 66. A Glen Arm resident, she had lived in Grantsville in Garrett County. Born in Baltimore and raised in Northwood, she was a 1960 Eastern High School graduate. She earned a bachelor's degree at what was then Frostburg State Teachers College. Miss Williams was a math teacher and high school librarian for 25 years in Garrett County before retiring in 1989.

Horse racing 'Rachel,' Summer Bird entered in Haskell Aug. 2 Preakness-winning filly Rachel Alexandra will take on Belmont Stakes victor Summer Bird in the $1 million, Grade I Haskell Invitational on Aug. 2 at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. Trainer Steve Asmussen said Wednesday that the 1 1/8-mile race would be perfect for the filly, who has won twice at nine furlongs this year. Tim Ice, trainer of Summer Bird, said he's pleased about the showdown. "The good horses should meet each other," he said.

The first time Pansye Atkinson drove past the road sign on U.S. Alternate 40 in Garrett County, she did a double take. Does that really say Negro Mountain? It sure does, and the name has stuck - with occasional objection - for more than 200 years. "It's a head-turner," said Atkinson, a former Frostburg State minority affairs administrator, about the name of a ridge that extends 30 miles from Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County to the Casselman River in Pennsylvania. The Garrett County portion of the ridge is the highest along U.S. Alternate Route 40, (3,075 feet at its peak)

There will be a corn crop next year and farmers will continue plowing their fields, milking their cows, feeding their chickens and selling their goods at market. But I won't be around to report on it. The newspaper is ending this weekly farm column. As I look back over a long career, I think about the respect I developed for farmers. They work hard and work smart or they don't survive. They are part of the largest industry in the state. They feed us at a fraction of the cost of food in other nations while constantly battling the uncontrollable threats of Mother Nature.

A storm packing heavy winds and rain struck two Western Maryland communities yesterday evening, causing an undetermined number of power outages and downed trees, state police in Garrett County said. At least 15 houses in Accident and Friendsville, in the northwestern part of the county, were damaged, but no injuries were reported, police said. The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh said officials would survey the area today to determine whether a tornado touched down. Meteorologist Rich Cain said he had received reports of funnel cloud sightings in Preston County, W.Va.

When Camilla and David Rawe bought their five-bedroom, two-story brick home in Garrett County's Grantsville in 1986, they had five of their six children and were in the market for a spacious house, convenient to David Rawe's veterinary practice, schools and parks. Years later, the family discovered they owned a vintage classic built by Harvey Gortner in 1940, using plans from one of 15 showcase homes at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Designed by architect Perry M. Duncan, the World's Fair house was dubbed a "fire-safe home" for its solid construction and use of materials such as glass-block panels and metal insulation.

MCHENRY -- An overflow crowd of about 500 people packed a public hearing in Western Maryland last night, most of them strongly opposed to a proposal to allow wind turbines in state forests. "It's the very character of the mountains and the state forests that define who we are," said state Del. Wendell R. Beitzel, a Republican from Garrett County. "I beseech you to relay to the governor and other people that we don't want wind turbines on our land." Pennsylvania-based U.S. Wind Force is proposing to build about 100 turbines in the Savage River and Potomac state forests in Garrett County.

When Garrett County Chamber of Commerce President Charlie Ross sees the spike in sales taxes the county has sent to the state over the last five years, he does not see money going out of the county. He sees money coming in. "You're seeing the money [that] people from outside Garrett County spent here," Ross said. "By and large, the figures on tourism have grown generally between 5 and 10 percent every year for the last five years." Garrett County saw some of the highest growth in sales taxes per person between 2001 and 2006, while having some of the lowest population growth during the same period.

Carole Caines of Pasadena heard of an old saying about the "dog day" cicadas, the annual variety that start singing in the hottest days of July or August. When they pipe up, she says, "count (X) days, and that will be your first frost." But she forgot how long to count. I've heard 45 days, or six weeks, which might work for the Midwest, or Garrett County. Not here. Six weeks gets us to mid-September. East of the mountains, average first frosts are in October.