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BILL STRAUSS, 60 Capitol Steps founder Bill Strauss, who founded the political satire group Capitol Steps, died Tuesday at his home in McLean, Va., the musical troupe announced. He had been battling pancreatic cancer since 1999. Mr. Strauss, a Harvard-trained lawyer and Senate subcommittee staff member, got the idea of forming Capitol Steps in 1981 after hosting a party that ended with a jam session around the piano in which partygoers did parodies of Reagan-era newsmakers. Months later, the group made its debut at the office Christmas party of Mr. Strauss' employer, Sen. Charles H. Percy, an Illinois Republican.

In a city where African-American women represent the largest bloc of primary voters, the prospect of keeping Baltimore's top four elected offices filled by black women never strays far from the campaign conversation. So, on a stage in Druid Hill Park one recent Saturday afternoon, a group of elected officials - all women, all but one of them African-American - stood side by side and celebrated their joint success. "There is a feeling all over this city that it is definitely ... the women's time to take over," said City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake.

The morning Don Imus uttered the phrase that appears to have ended his career, Ryan Chiachiere was watching. The veteran shock jock's comment was so incendiary that the 26-year-old researcher for Media Matters in America, a liberal media watchdog group, took the rare step of removing his headphones and repeating the slur to his co-workers in the room, who were also glued to various forms of programming. But the rest of what happened April 4 at the group's Washington office was fairly routine.

To hear Lance Bass tell it, he and the other members of 'N Sync are five of the hardest-working guys in show business.It isn't just that the quintet puts on a show with enough singing, dancing and eye-popping razzle-dazzle to rival the attractions at Universal Studios amusement park. As much work as the show may be, it's only part of the job of being in a teen sensation like 'N Sync."We never knew how difficult it would be," Bass says, over the phone from a tour stop in Albany, N.Y. "You just never imagine that it would really be a 24/7 job, that you would be on [24 hours a day, 7 days a week]

It's doubtful that the Mayor's Task Force on Community Collaboration to Overcome Violence has saved many lives in Baltimore, if any.Chairwoman Yvonne Perret, a social worker from Govans, admits as much about the group, which held its fourth annual forum to create safer neighborhoods last night at City Hall.Still, asserts Perret, the work the volunteer group performs -- bringing people together from across the city to share what works on the street and what doesn't -- is important."We try to catch things we can do in communities before the violence happens," said Perret.

A state task force wrestled yesterday with the challenge of trying to decide what, if anything, should be done to protect Maryland college students from cultlike organizations that use campuses as recruiting grounds.The legislature created the panel last year after complaints from two families whose children had become involved with the International Church of Christ at the University of Maryland, College Park, a group known for its aggressive recruitment efforts on college campuses.The 17-member task force, which began meeting in May, includes representatives from the University System of Maryland, St. Mary's College and Morgan State University, as well as parents, students and four legislators.

AS SUMMER winds down, local community groups, churches and organizations are filling their fall calendars with events.Community United Methodist Church, 8680 Fort Smallwood Road, will sponsor a crafts fair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow on the church grounds.Information: 410-255-1506.Fishing groupThe Pasadena Sportfishing Group will meet at 7: 30 p.m. Monday at the Orchard Beach Fire Hall, 7549 Solley Road.Sonney Forrest of Fin Finders Charters will share tips and techniques for catching migrating striped bass, trout and flounder.

On a bitterly cold January weekend three years ago, a small group of environmental activists huddled at the United Methodist Church Camp on Chalk Point in Shady Side. The agenda was as bleak as the setting.The fledgling organization -- South Arundel Citizens for Responsible Development, or SACReD, campaigning to stop a developer from building 152 luxury houses on a 477-acre parcel known as Franklin Point, had been dealt two bad blows. The developer had lodged a $50 million libel lawsuit against them, and the state Board of Public Works had approved the project despite the nearly certain environmental damage it would cause.

PARIS -- Doctors Without Borders, which sends medical personnel to some of the most destitute and dangerous parts of the world -- and encourages them not only to save lives, but also to condemn the injustices they see -- was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday.Founded in Paris in 1971 by French doctors disillusioned with the neutrality of the Red Cross, Medecins Sans Frontieres has more than 2,000 volunteer personnel who are treating the wounded, the sick and the starving in 80 countries, including 20 war zones.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The second day of Vice President Al Gore's presidential announcement tour was marred here yesterday by four protesters who suddenly crowded in on him and disrupted his speech while local police and the Secret Service initially decided not to intervene.Network television tapes reviewed after the incident showed the protesters taunting Gore from close range for 40 seconds before the first Secret Service agent moved toward them. Almost 20 seconds after that, local police escorted the group from the stage.

Quarterback B- Joe Flacco didn't bring his "A" game, and he struggled in the first half. Flacco took a beating in the first two quarters but showed a lot of resolve and almost pulled out the victory. He showed a lot of poise in tough times. Running backs B This group was totally underused. How can these three running backs carry the ball only 17 times? The Ravens still had 116 rushing yards, and the backs could have controlled the pace of the game if they had been used more. Receivers C Derrick Mason was unstoppable, and Kelley Washington and tight end Todd Heap scrambled off broken plays to make third-down catches.

'Hannah Montana' scores at the box office Miley Cyrus and alter ego Hannah Montana have double-teamed their way to another No. 1 box-office debut. Walt Disney's Hannah Montana: The Movie opened with $34 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. That followed Cyrus' first-place premiere last year with her 3-D concert film. The movie is a big-screen installment of the Disney Channel series about an ordinary teen living a double life as a pop star. Hannah Montana drew $17.3 million on Friday for the biggest opening day ever for a G-rated live-action movie.

An undercover Maryland State Police trooper attended a September 2005 meeting of a Frederick peace activist group, newly released documents show - further evidence that police surveillance of civilians under former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration was not limited to death penalty protesters, as officials had claimed. Barry Kissin, an attorney and member of the Frederick Progressive Activist Coalition, said yesterday that state surveillance records and his group's e-mail rolls suggest that the same undercover trooper who infiltrated Baltimore's activist community also spied on his Frederick group.

BRAMPTON, Ontario - A Toronto man was found guilty yesterday of taking part in the activities of a terrorist group whose bold, if ill-formed, plans included the goal of decapitating Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The defendant was the first of 11 suspects to be tried in the case. The man, who was the test case for Canada's first anti-terrorism law, introduced in 2001, cannot be named because he was a juvenile when charged. He was among 18 people, now known as the Toronto 18, who were arrested after a series of police raids in June 2006.

Tiffany Smith, unemployed and seeking help, said she joined 1 Mind Ministries on promises of free food and lodging. She became a caretaker - cooking and cleaning for the group, which at its peak numbered 12, including five children, packed inside an East Baltimore rowhouse. She said members adhered to what they believed was a strict reading of the Old Testament - using honorifics such as "Queen" and "King," "Prince" and "Princess." Outside the house, she said, they were required to move in pairs, even to the corner store.

Barbara Keith joined the Mount Airy Jaycees six years ago, and in only a year she became president of the group. She threw herself into planning social events to go along with the organization's traditional activities: the spring and fall yard sales, the Thanksgiving baskets, the Christmas party for underprivileged children, the Easter egg hunt. But a dwindling membership is prompting the chapter - Carroll County's last - to disband. "We wanted to close ourselves down," Keith said, explaining the decision earlier this summer.

Dru Hill is free. Now an independent act, the Baltimore R&B quartet, whose biggest commercial success came in the late '90s, makes its own decisions about image, touring and, most importantly, the music. Six years have passed since Dru Hill's last album, the platinum-selling Dru World Order. Since then, the group went through a contentious break with its former label, Def Soul Records, and contractually was unable to release new music for two years. The guys also took time to refocus their business affairs and management.

Nine-year-old Lyta Gallant puts her knitting before her chocolate brownie. And she loves chocolate brownies. Lyta, a student at Hammond Elementary School, learned to knit at the 100th meeting of Columbia Sip and Knit, an open-invitation knitting club for beginners and pros alike. But surrounding her weren't the usual suspects. There's Dorothy, the library science teacher, Maura, the engineer, and Adrienne, the construction project engineer who comes to the meetings so she can talk to women.

Like millions of women across the country, I rushed out to the theater for the premiere of the movie Sex and the City. Sarah Jessica Parker and her pals can thank me for their $55.7 million opening weekend. Apparently, Warner Bros. had aimed for a modest $30 million and was surprised that women showed up in droves, making up 85 percent of audiences. I'm not surprised at all. Do you know how long it's been since my friends and I had a girls' night out? Back in our single days, a group of us met weekly to eat, drink, gossip and watch Sex and the City.

LONDON -- After a seven-year legal battle, Britain's Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that the British government was wrong to put an Iranian resistance group, the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, on its list of banned terrorist groups. Spokesmen for the group, which means People's Holy Warriors, said the ruling appeared to leave Britain's interior minister, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, with no further legal recourse but to lay an order before parliament striking the group from a list of more than 20 proscribed terror organizations under Britain's Terrorism Act. The court's ruling denied the government's bid to carry the appeal further, seemingly closing off recourse to Britain's supreme appellate body, the so-called Law Lords.