HUG

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Gary Hug got a telescope for Christmas years ago, and now he and a friend are going down in astronomical history.Hug, 49, of Topeka, Kan., and Graham Bell, 64, of Maple Hill, Kan., have discovered a comet. The two amateur astronomers saw it early one morning two weeks ago while peering into a dark sky from the Far Point Observatory, 20 miles from Topeka."I've been looking for comets off and on for about 25 years," Hug said. "It was a terrific thrill."The find was announced by the International Astronomical Union, the world's leading astronomical organization, after professional astronomers confirmed it.The Hug-Bell comet, as it has been named, could well be the faintest comet ever discovered by an amateur, as Hug and Bell believe, said Brian Marsden, a member of the union and director of the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.

In Ellen R. Sauerbrey's quest to become governor of Maryland, Dick Hug is the $4 million man.That's how much he figures Sauerbrey needs to wage a winning campaign in her anticipated rematch with Gov. Parris N. Glendening next year. With $1 million raised already, Hug has $3 million to go by next fall -- which works out to roughly $300,000 a month.Or $10,000 a day for the next 300 days."It's a horrendous thought," says Sauerbrey."Surprisingly easy," insists Hug, a 62-year-old retired businessman who comes to politics with skills perfected in civic fund drives, many with higher dollar goals: for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the National Aquarium's Marine Mammal Pavilion and the University of Maryland Medical System, among others.

Jesselyn Johl had more than the Monday blues a week ago -- she also had a black eye.The 67-year-old Columbia woman got those distinctive bruises when she spent the day at St. Agnes Hospital having a cancerous tumor near her right eye removed. She was feeling down in the dumps.Her mood did an about face Wednesday when Lynn Spence, owner of Here's a Hug and a self-described "oBEARator," delivered a cuddly white teddy bear. The idea was to cheer Johl up. It worked."Oh my goodness," Johl said as she clutched the bear in her hands.

In a burst of bipartisan cooperation, the president and Congress have agreed not to reform campaign financing.The trick for congresspersons is to be seen favoring term limitation for themselves without actually enacting it.At the current rate of flight, Baltimore City will be empty of people in the year 2008, ideal for the Olympic Summer Games.Hug someone for Valentine's Day, if you get the green light.Pub Date: 2/14/97

WHENEVER I REACH for my son, in an attempt to administer a hug, he snakes out of my grasp and says sharply, "Off. Off."Whenever my daughter passes through the room, my husband reaches out to her, and, before he asks for yet another hug, she waves him away, saying, "Don't even think about it, Dad."Occasionally, my tender-hearted daughter will sigh and stand still for an embrace because she feels sorry for us, but my son will not endure a hug without a promise of cash."This isn't a petting zoo, you know," he says.

WHENEVER I REACH for my son, in an attempt to administer a hug, he snakes out of my grasp and says sharply, "Off. Off."Whenever my daughter passes through the room, my husband reaches out to her, and, before he asks for yet another hug, she waves him away, saying, "Don't even think about it, Dad."Occasionally, my tender-hearted daughter will sigh and stand still for an embrace because she feels sorry for us, but my son will not endure a hug without a promise of cash."This isn't a petting zoo, you know," he says.

Kurt L. Schmoke had a hard time keeping on task yesterday.He was supposed to be focusing on jobs. It was the campaign theme of the day."I've got to stay on my course," he said early on. "Talk about jobs."Yet, before the day was out he had learned how to make an assembly-line taco, leaped to the rescue of a fainting schoolgirl, gotten the lowdown on crab reproduction, promised to send the police in to the 800 block of W. Lexington St. to chase away drug dealers, chowed down on a heaping plateful of fried chicken and potato salad, and gotten an enormous hug from Grace Smithlin -- who later confided that she loved his hug and loved his kiss but couldn't say who she planned to vote for Tuesday.

Next spring, we will again be setting the clocks forward, but looking back in fashion. With a few exceptions, American designers who showed their 1995 collections in New York last week were caught up in the styles of the '30s, '40s and '50s with some '70s thrown in for laughs.Futurists predicted that, by the year 2000, our clothes will be climatically and ergonomically efficient, like Star Trek unitards, perhaps. However, as we approach the millennium, fashion is clutching its Kelly bags, digging in its high heels and refusing to cross over.

Bank insurance fund recoversRecord bank profits and plummeting failures have allowed the fund that insures deposits to build up to $6.8 billion and repay the last of the money it borrowed from taxpayers.The fund's balance, up from $1.2 billion three months ago and a $101 million deficit six months ago, is the best in three years, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said yesterday. A year and a half ago, the fund was $7 billion in the red.U.S. workers' productivity fallsAmerican worker productivity tumbled at the steepest rate in more than four years from April through June, but analysts predicted modest gains during the second half of 1993 as the economy improves.

WASHINGTON -- Long before The Handshake, there was The Hug.Long before Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn and ushered in a new era of peace, he hugged and kissed Jesse Jackson and ushered in years of controversy.It became the hug that would not die. Nine years after it took place, Jackson's political enemies were still using it against him:"I am dismayed by his embrace of Arafat!" presidential candidate Al Gore said of Jackson during the New York primary in 1988. "I categorically deny [Jackson's]

Severn senior forward Leanne Hug, expected back early this week after missing two weeks with an ankle injury, will be a welcome sight as the Admirals prepare for the stretch run in defending their Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference crown. The Admirals (13-3, 6-2 in the league before Friday's game against Mount de Sales) have held their own in Hug's absence with different players taking turns stepping up. In Tuesday's 54-38 victory over St. Vincent Pallotti, the team got 14 points from junior guard Leah Cranmer and 10 rebounds and three blocks from senior center Caitlin Sheehan.

Sen. John McCain is scheduled to arrive in Baltimore this evening for his first high-profile fundraising visit to Maryland since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, the latest foray by a presidential candidate mining the state's steady supply of campaign cash. Tonight's reception at the Center Club downtown will be hosted by former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and marks perhaps his most visible effort in McCain's behalf to date. Political analysts don't expect McCain to fare well against Democrat Barack Obama in Maryland, where Democrats outnumber Republicans roughly 2-to-1.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.-- His face completely flush, sweating adrenaline and crying euphoria, Rick Dutrow moved through the crowd like a child on the monkey bars, swinging from hug to hug. There was no break, no time to think and no cause to reflect. "We did good, babe," he cried, his arms wrapped around another dark-suited well-wisher. His colt, Big Brown, did everything Dutrow thought he would, staging such an impressive win in the 134th Kentucky Derby that all the Triple Crown buzz these next two weeks will be more than justified.

Severn junior Leanne Hug's talent and leadership are two of the main reasons why the No. 14 Severn basketball team is undefeated in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference and 17-3 overall. A 6-foot forward and team captain, Hug averages nearly 10 points and seven rebounds per game for the Admirals. Hug, who takes six classes, five of them honors courses, has a 3.7 grade point average, belongs to several clubs, is on the prom committee, plays the piano and plays basketball year-round.

Sometimes a stuffy proclamation isn't enough. If you're the sunshine of the mayor's life, she'll get up and dance. Sheila Dixon declared Sunday "Stevie Wonder Day," gave him a hug -- and then really paid tribute to the Motown great by getting on her feet while he played at the Pier Six Pavilion. That's the biggest display of mayoral affection since Martin O'Malley allegedly played air guitar at the February 2006 Rolling Stones concert. Bigger, really, since O'Malley later denied playing air guitar.

President Bush shares a hug with a soldier at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. He made a surprise visit to troops yesterday. [Article, Page 7a]

At least Maryland's governor is reliable: When he's caught in controversy, you can count on him to dance around the topic - and then blame the media. The case of the NAACP tax audit is a perfect example. Republicans are steamed about the nonprofit civil rights organization's Democratic sympathies. In 2000, Maryland's top GOP fundraiser, Richard E. Hug, was among those asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the NAACP's tax-exempt status. In early 2001, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., then a congressman, wrote a follow-up letter to the IRS urging them to respond.

Amid mounting criticism for playing a role in an audit of the NAACP, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. defended yesterday his decision to ask the IRS to reply to a complaint that the civil rights organization had become too political, saying the action was appropriate for any elected official. The governor made his first public comments about the issue two days after The Sun reported on documents released by the NAACP revealing that Ehrlich and his current fundraising chief, Richard E. Hug, were among several Republicans who asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate if the civil rights group had violated its tax-exempt status.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s Democratic rivals accused him yesterday of using his influence as a member of Congress to urge the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether the NAACP engaged in political activism and violated its tax-exempt status. The charges come a day after the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People released hundreds of documents turned over to the group by the IRS. NAACP officials charge that the documents help show that partisan politicians sparked an October 2004 IRS audit as an attempt to silence the nation's oldest civil rights group.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s chief fundraiser asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the NAACP's tax-exempt status shortly after the 2000 presidential campaign, questioning whether the civil rights organization had inappropriately sought to influence the election. Two months later, Ehrlich - then a Baltimore County congressman - wrote to the agency urging a response to Richard E. Hug's complaint and directing that the answer also be sent to his "special projects coordinator," Joseph F. Steffen Jr. Attorneys for the NAACP said the letters were among 523 pages of documents the IRS accumulated to begin its October 2004 inquiry into the Baltimore-based civil rights organization's tax-exempt status.