Hoge

CULVER CITY, Calif. - Theresa Harmon recently called a staff meeting and laid down the law. Lights off whenever anyone walks out of a room, she told her 12 employees. Lights off in the front lobby overnight. No light but skylight in the hallway. Harmon owns the Wellness Spa in Culver City, but these days she is anything but relaxed. Her monthly electric bill more than doubled in June, to $450, and she has yet to be placated by the slightly better $300 bill in July after "we turned off everything."

St. Margaret Church in Bel Air has 4,300 families on the parish rolls, but only 1,750 who put an envelope in the collection plate every week.Therein lies a puzzle for priests and scholars alike: Why do Catholics give less to their church than members of other U.S. religious denominations?"

The Historical Society of Carroll County will offer a series of "In the Garden" seminars in conjunction with the Designer Showhouse 2002. Programs will be held in a climate-controlled tent next to Atlee House on Water Street, New Windsor. Seminars are free with an Atlee House Tour Ticket, except for the vintage tea. Seminars are at 1 p.m. unless noted. Seminars are: Tuesday: Birds by Lynn Walter, Silver Fancy Garden Club; followed by Vegetable Gardening by Marilyn Potter, Mount Airy Garden Club.

Baseball Astros: Recalled P Tony McKnight from Triple-A New Orleans. Optioned P Jason Green to New Orleans. Braves: Named Dayton Moore director of international scouting. Devil Rays: Reinstated P Dave Eiland from 15-day DL. Optioned P Mike Duvall to Triple-A Durham. Reds: Assigned 1B-OF Brooks Kieschnick outright to Triple-A Louisville. Rockies: Promoted P David Moraga to Triple-A Colorado Springs. Tigers: Placed 1B Hal Morris on 15-day DL with fractured left index finger. Recalled 1B-OF Dusty Allen from Triple-A Toledo.

Q: Can you give me any information about the Kroller-Muller museum in the Netherlands?A: The museum, renowned for its sculpture park and a collection of 278 works by van Gogh, is situated in the Hoge Veluwa National Park, a 13,600-acre nature reserve in Otterlo, in the eastern part of the country.The reserve was once owned by Anton Kroller and his wife, the former Helene Muller, who gave the site and her art collection to the state in 1935. It was considered one of the first important collections of modern art in the world, and the Dutch built a museum to house it in 1938.

TAG Galleries 732 S Broadway, Fells Point 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday 443-759-7639 / www.taggalleries.com Brothers Cory and Ian Woods and friend Leif Romsaas opted for a life devoid of staplers and paperweights when they left their cubicles and opened TAG Galleries in Fells Point. The three had always had the desire to open their own business, and that dream became reality on June 14, after almost a year and a half of development and networking.

As a new chief executive at Clifton T. Perkins investigates what led to two recent slayings at the state's maximum security mental hospital, he will confront a facility full of patients who have become increasingly hardened and troubled. The system of caring for the nation's most mentally ill has changed over time, and those sent to places such as Perkins are now more likely to be veterans of the criminal justice system, substance abusers and hard to treat. Figuring out how to manage the group of patients, while maintaining security, falls to Dr. David S. Helsel, who just finished his first week on the job at the troubled hospital and has already asked for money for staff.

YOU KEEP coming up with horrible places to drive in Howard County. Here are some more of your picks. Jim Maguire of Pikesville picks U.S. 29, between U.S. 40 and Route 100. This stretch - southbound in the morning, northbound in the evening - is particularly bad. Why? "There is so much traffic merging in such a short stretch of highway," Maguire says. But he thinks there could be some simple solutions to the problem. He suggests slowing down the "upstream" traffic by activating flashing lights on the speed-limit signs on U.S. 29, approaching the congested area.

If Maryland transportation officials reduce commuter bus service from Columbia to Baltimore, Hal Sommers of Kings Contrivance said he will have to drive farther to board the bus, only to have his ride end before he reaches his destination -- the state government-office complex on West Preston Street. Mona Tsoukleris of Clarksville is legally blind from retinitis pigmentosa and can't drive, so her husband takes her to catch a commuter bus at the Broken Land Parkway park-and-ride lot where Sommers also boards.

LaVar Arrington was one of the nation's highest-rated linebackers in the nation during his high school and college career. He was named Parade National Player of the Year after his senior year at North Hills Senior High School in Pittsburgh, and he was drafted No. 2 overall in the 2000 NFL Draft after his junior season at Penn State. But the former Washington Redskins star said he never would have reached those heights if he didn't know the fundamentals. That's why he's teamed up with Heads Up Football to help teach youth football players the proper way to play the game.