Hand Grenade

TWO MORE OF your own above-average children are on their way to university this fall, so of course you are on your way to parent orientation. The school is looking for allies. The wise parent is looking for ways to be helpful without being intrusive - to forestall transformation of the campus into a school of hard knocks. At Boston University, you are urged to anticipate homesickness. A young man from Oregon, one of the student teachers, says this disability arrives early. For him, it started at the airport.

Thomas J. Kennedy Jr., who while fighting with the Marines in the South Pacific during World War II was blinded by enemy fire and after his return to Baltimore established Dawn's Office Supply, died Friday of cancer at his Mount Washington home. He was 86. Mr. Kennedy was born and raised on his family's Kingsville farm. Growing up, he developed a lifelong love of horses while helping his father on his horse-drawn milk wagon. In his youth, he worked as a Western Union messenger boy, exercised racehorses on a Monkton farm and was a Pep Boys stock clerk.

Hundreds of airline passengers were delayed yesterday afternoon at Baltimore-Washington International Airport when a female passenger put what turned out to be a novelty hand grenade through a luggage X-ray machine. Passengers were cleared from Concourse B about 5:35 p.m. and a bomb squad investigated, declaring the grenade harmless about an hour later, an airport spokesman said. Southwest Airlines held its flights for the delayed passengers. Officials ask that travelers carrying such devices tell security officers before they send the devices through the X-ray machine.

Joe Flacco was positively chatty at the Castle the other day, and it was something to see. Maybe he'd just knocked back a couple of Red Bulls. Or maybe he'd been locked in a closet and hadn't talked to anyone in days. But asked whether he appreciated making the playoffs every year and about his desire to go deeper in the postseason this time, the Ravens quarterback dropped his usual monotone and grew animated. "I do [appreciate it]," he said. "I don't know if everybody else does - just because it's a tough thing to do in the NFL. But we're a good organization and a good football team, and we're getting everybody used to the fact that we're going to be in the playoffs every year.

Three men, one armed with what appeared to be a hand grenade, robbed a store of an undetermined amount of money Sunday, county police said.Three men entered the Dollar Bills store in the 6700 block of Ritchie Highway about 6 p.m. and one asked the manager for a job application. When the manager turned away from the counter, another man, wearing a ski mask, displayed what appeared to be a hand grenade and ordered the employees and two customers to the back of the store and told them to sit on the floor.

A Waverly man doing some gardening last night found a World War II-era hand grenade in the ground, police said.Shortly before 7:30 p.m., Hoke Witherspoon, of the 600 block of E. 34th St., struck a metal object and removed it from the ground, police said. The object was a hand grenade known as a "pineapple" because of its similarity to the tropical fruit, police said.Police said Witherspoon carried the grenade away from his house and asked a neighbor to call authorities.Responding police sealed off the immediate area of Witherspoon's house and kept curious bystanders at a safe distance.

Twenty-nine gun owners traded their revolvers, shotguns and rifles to Baltimore County police yesterday for tickets to country western star Reba McEntire's concert in Baltimore next month.Ms. McEntire offered the tickets to the concert, scheduled April 10 at the Baltimore Arena, to the first 100 people who turned in guns to Baltimore County police through her "tickets for guns" program.The 29 firearms -- plus a hand grenade -- were dropped off at the annex of county police headquarters on Kenilworth Avenue in Towson, said police Capt.

The former owner of a Pikesville jewelry store was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with robbing four banks, three of which the robber had threatened to blow up with a hand grenade.Bruce David Schein, 35, allegedly told police "that he was not a criminal person, but that he had fallen on hard times, and had lost his business and was about to lose his house," according to District Court charging documents.Detective Philip R. Wood also wrote in the charging documents that Mr. Schein, of the first block of Jones Falls Terrace, said the robberies were "an act of desperation."

A 12-year-old Glen Burnie boy went home after playing outside Monday night and told his father: "I found a hand grenade in the woods."It was a live hand grenade.Richard James Lowicki III, who will be entering the seventh grade at Old Mill Middle School in the fall, was playing ball in the woods near his home on Summer Wind Way about 8 p.m. when he found the grenade."I thought it was fake, like the ones you would buy at Sunny's Surplus, so I threw it in the Dumpster," said the youth, known as James.

Police arrested a suspect in a Pikesville home invasion robbery Monday, according to Baltimore County police. Lavar Maurice Rich, 32, of the 7200 block of Park Heights Ave. in Baltimore was arrested Monday afternoon in the 4500 block of Fairfax Road, said Lt. Robert McCullough, a Baltimore County police spokesman. Rich was sought by police after they said two men, accompanied by two women, forced their way into a home in the 6800 block of Westridge Road on Aug. 19, assaulted a man, and subsequently stole guns and jewelry.

You have probably seen Rashard Mendenhall's controversial Tweets about Osama bin Laden and chances are you have bashed the Steelers running back while discussing the hot topic with friends, coworkers or your fellow commenters on this site. If you have no idea what I'm referring to, you can read about Mendenhall's Tweets here . It's easy to criticize a rival player for saying something idiotic. But if Mendenhall was a member of the Ravens, some fans would feel conflicted about whether they should root for him, especially if he started piling up touchdowns once the season started.

Police arrested a suspect in a Pikesville home invasion robbery Monday, according to Baltimore County police. Lavar Maurice Rich, 32, of the 7200 block of Park Heights Ave. in Baltimore was arrested Monday afternoon in the 4500 block of Fairfax Road, said Lt. Robert McCullough, a Baltimore County police spokesman. Rich was sought by police after they said two men, accompanied by two women, forced their way into a home in the 6800 block of Westridge Road on Aug. 19, assaulted a man, and subsequently stole guns and jewelry.

TWO MORE OF your own above-average children are on their way to university this fall, so of course you are on your way to parent orientation. The school is looking for allies. The wise parent is looking for ways to be helpful without being intrusive - to forestall transformation of the campus into a school of hard knocks. At Boston University, you are urged to anticipate homesickness. A young man from Oregon, one of the student teachers, says this disability arrives early. For him, it started at the airport.

WASHINGTON - The FBI said yesterday that a hand grenade that was hurled toward President Bush as he addressed a vast crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, on May 10 was a live explosive device. The Soviet-made fragmentation grenade, which landed within 100 feet of the president, failed to detonate only because the blasting cap malfunctioned, authorities said. Georgia's security chief had initially described the grenade as inactive and said there had been "no danger whatsoever" to the president, though Georgian authorities later characterized the grenade in various other ways.

A Hyattsville man pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to possession of improvised hand grenades and ricin, listed as a possible biological weapon under federal law. Myron Tereshchuk, 43, could receive a maximum of 15 years in prison, said the U.S. attorney's office. Sentencing is scheduled Aug. 18. He had pleaded guilty in June to extortion for attempting to force a business competitor to pay him $17 million. FBI agents searching his home in the case found weapons and chemicals.

MOSUL, Iraq - On a last-minute vote drive yesterday in northwest Mosul, Lt. Brock Hershberger approached a man wearing an olive-colored suit and brown leather shoes. "Have you voted yet?" Hershberger asked through a translator. The man responded that he'd heard the lines were long. Of the problems that U.S. and Iraqi forces anticipated in the run-up to elections in this breeding ground for the insurgency, long waits to cast votes were not at the top of the list. "He won't have to wait more than 15 minutes," Hershberger said.

Thomas J. Kennedy Jr., who while fighting with the Marines in the South Pacific during World War II was blinded by enemy fire and after his return to Baltimore established Dawn's Office Supply, died Friday of cancer at his Mount Washington home. He was 86. Mr. Kennedy was born and raised on his family's Kingsville farm. Growing up, he developed a lifelong love of horses while helping his father on his horse-drawn milk wagon. In his youth, he worked as a Western Union messenger boy, exercised racehorses on a Monkton farm and was a Pep Boys stock clerk.

A 19-year-old Columbia man who menaced a mechanic with a hand grenade led police on a chase from Parkton through Baltimore and into Anne Arundel County yesterday morning, police said. The pursuit ended in Riviera Beach with a car crash, a helicopter pursuit and a canine search -- but no injury or explosion.The three-hour incident began when a car broke down shortly before midnight on Interstate 83 near Parkton, said Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey.The driver called AAA for assistance, and a wrecker towed his 1997 Oldsmobile Bravada to the Parkton Exxon in the 19000 block of York Road, Toohey said.

Richard E. Bush, 79, who received the Medal of Honor for leading a charge up a mountain in the World War II Battle of Okinawa and then shielding his comrades from a hand grenade with his body, died of heart disease June 7 at his home in Waukegan, Ill. On April 16, 1945, serving with the 4th Marines, 6th Marine Division, Mr. Bush, a native of Glasgow, Ky., was involved in the fight for Okinawa, some of the fiercest combat of the Pacific campaign....

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security cabinet ordered an all-out seizure of the West Bank yesterday, scrapping a tactic of intermittent raids in favor of a permanent armed presence. Tense Israeli soldiers in armored columns carried out that mission, pouring into Palestinian cities, towns and refugee camps, military officials said. By noon, six of eight West Bank towns designated for self-rule in the Oslo accords were filled with Israeli military vehicles, equipment and troops.