Hurricane Frances

NATIONAL Debates may seal election Strategists say the coming presidential debates offer each candidate a rare chance to tilt the campaign one way or the other. Uncommitted voters, whose choices will decide the election, are expected to begin picking their candidate Thursday night. [Page 1a] Jeanne threatens Florida A stronger, bigger and faster Hurricane Jeanne battered the Bahamas and headed toward Florida yesterday, prompting hundreds of thousands to shutter homes and evacuate just weeks after Hurricane Frances ravaged the area.

Remnants of Hurricane Frances moved north overnight, lugging a lot of rain and other baggage into Maryland and other states where residents thought they'd dodged the menace that ravaged Florida over the weekend. Forecasters warned that Frances - now a tropical depression - could dump up to a month's worth of rain on the Baltimore-Washington area through tomorrow. The storm could also bring unusually high tides to the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, flooding in other low-lying sections of Maryland, and a threat of flooding and mudslides to the Appalachians.

Several retailers missed the first bus for the back-to-school shopping season, posting weak August numbers as everything from higher gasoline prices to Hurricane Charley prompted consumers to stay away. Even brawny Wal-Mart Stores Inc. registered its most lackluster numbers in more than three years. The world's biggest retailer, which already had toned down expectations for August, squeezed out a 0.5 percent rise in sales in stores open at least a year. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call expected a 1.5 percent increase.

Same party, but different parties They may be partners in politics, but Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele part ways when it comes to partying. The contrasts between two parties that were held for Marylanders here this week - one for the governor, the other for his lieutenant - could not have been sharper. Ehrlich's bash was held Tuesday night in a ballroom overlooking the Hudson River, with the lights of New Jersey twinkling from across the river. Golf cart-style vehicles ferried guests from their cabs to the front door.

PUNTA GORDA, Fla. - Don't say the "I" word around here. These folks don't want to hear it. They are too weary and devastated to think and talk about Hurricane Ivan, but as they rebuild their city, that's exactly what they're doing. "If Ivan comes, I'll be through," said Tim Humphrey, whose home and boat were damaged by Hurricane Charley. "I'll pack my stuff in that little blue car. I ain't coming back." For more than a decade, this precariously located peninsular state had avoided a direct hit from a hugely destructive hurricane.

Wanna make sure your event is a sure-fire whooper-dooper? Then, throw it around Halloween. Case in point: Last week's Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake fund-raiser, the Gridiron Halloween Party. OK, so maybe having party chairs like Baltimore Ravens Todd Heap and Edwin Mulitalo doesn't exactly hurt, especially when Todd is dressed as Zorro and Edwin as a '70s tennis player. A '70s era female tennis player. Of course, having other Ravens players arrive in costume pretty much guarantees a great bash.

COCOA BEACH, Fla. -- Kathy Kneuer ducked under a mass of hanging cables and aimed her camera at a chunk of roof sitting on the living room floor of the beachfront rental unit she owns on this barrier island. Hurricane Frances had peeled the roof off the apartment, broken a railing that faces the Atlantic Ocean and carried an air conditioning unit clear to the other side of the parking lot. She was documenting the damage for insurance purposes. "You want to say you're prepared, and you tell yourself the worst could happen," Kneuer said.

Islands, hearts and pineapple-shaped vases: All these came out of 12 young hands caked with clay over two weeks of morning classes at Baltimore Clayworks, a pottery center in Mount Washington.They were the creations of inner-city children who have little exposure to the arts. They had never seen or touched clay before taking the classes.Opening up the world of ceramics to such children is the point of a new program run by Clayworks and the Woodbourne Center, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping children at risk.

Sue Taylor's family of five was supposed be flying to the Bahamas today, but she didn't see the point -- what with Hurricane Frances whirling in from the other direction. So the Taylors are staying put in Harford County for the Labor Day weekend. No swimming with the dolphins. No tanning on resort lounge chairs. No Caribbean celebration for 16-year-old Whitney, who had turned down a big birthday party in July in favor of a big vacation now. "Who wants to go to a tropical island with rough conditions and high winds?"