Inadequate

WASHINGTON -- Bad decisions, bad luck and bad equipment caused December's fatal runway collision at Detroit's Metro Airport, and the airport apparently has failed to correct many of its problems, federal safety officials said yesterday.The National Transportation Safety Board said the principal blame rested with pilots of the Northwest Airlines DC-9, who got lost in fog Dec. 3 and strayed onto a fog-shrouded runway, where their plane collided with a Northwest 727 that was preparing to take off."

50 Years Ago:* Everybody's extra automobile tires over five must be turned in to a Railway Express Office by Nov. 22. The federal government will place a value on the tires and make payment either in war stamps or cash as the individual prefers. The Sun, Nov. 2, 1942.* Because of the shortage of men, women are being given the opportunity to drive buses by the Arundel Bus Company. They wear slacks and are minus the usual bus driver's cap and they must be over 21. The Sun, Nov. 4, 1942.* The war and a rapidly increasing population in Anne Arundel County is creating serious problems especially in the Curtis Bay section and at Camp Meade.

WASHINGTON -- The nation's top trade official yesterday dismissed the Japanese government's latest proposed trade concessions as inadequate and half-finished, and said the United States would not reopen bilateral trade talks until Tokyo went further.The strong criticism by Mickey Kantor, the U.S. trade representative, showed that the Clinton administration had no intention of easing its pressure on Japan despite the weakening of its government and the growing possibility of fresh elections there later in the spring.

Puppets or Sound Planning?The Sept. 7 Sun editorial "Puppet Show in Hampstead" was full of inaccuracies. Hampstead is not "beset with an inadequate supply of water," as stated. Hampstead has an adequate water supply because it has required, by ordinance, that all new developments provide a supply of water to meet the requirements of that development. This has been the law for six years or longer.Art Moler, planning and zoning commission chairman, did not put the council request not to approve additional development for 90 days on the agenda.

Five changes; for a better quality of lifeThe Adequate Facilities Ordinance, or AFO, should stand for the public is All Fouled Out of the process. When you read the document, you find the truth.The director of Planning and Code Enforcement (PACE), which should be renamed Policy Authorized by the County Executive, has the final say on growth. If he or she decides that growth is in the best interests of the county, it takes place -- no matter how inadequate any facility might be.The county has done poor planning for 20 years on roads, sidewalks and storm water management.

In an otherwise distressing account from the Abell Foundation of life inside Baltimore's once seniors-only public housing high-rises, there is a bright note: When residents work together to build a sense of community - even in the face of declining services and inadequate funding - they are better off. More than a third of the 3,440 housing units in 20 of the city's public high-rises are occupied by non-elderly low-income Baltimoreans with disabilities....

They came. They saw. They admired. But when it came to believing the 1994 World Cup would have any impact on the American soccer scene, they drew the line.A group of international sports journalists who will cover the 1994 World Cup here recently toured the venues on the East and West coasts. The group had only good things to say about the stadiums in the United States."This is a soccer stadium!" said Patrick Barclay of the London Observer, as he walked onto the field at RFK Stadium.But the idea of the premier event in the world's favorite sport being held in the United States left Keith Fisher, the London Daily Mail's sports editor, skeptical.

Much of the football knowledge and human civility that Baltimore once demonstrated has vanished to the winds. Regrettable. Why else would such an unwarranted display of resentment be directed toward a highly professional coach who stands as the epitome of a gentleman? A model for us all.An exemplary leader, teacher and citizen. The name is Ted Marchibroda.Yes, times change and, in this case, not for the better. It must be admitted, and with some embarrassment, that Marchibroda has been battered beyond what's measured as fair criticism.

IN SAXIS, VA., RESIDENTS say they knew something big was up when the call went out this spring for anyone with a pickup truck that could haul fish.Big catches of fish and crabs are nothing new in Saxis. The Eastern Shore village, on Pocomoke Sound about six miles southeast of Crisfield, is as dedicated to harvesting bay seafood as Iowa is to growing corn.Still, people had to search back decades for a catch of "hardhead," or Atlantic croaker, to exceed what two watermen reportedly landed that day.Their haul of this popular sport and commercial species was too big to empty from the net all at once.

WASHINGTON -- In a burst of patriotic fervor, thousands of top-notch accountants, lawyers, linguists and computer specialists applied to join the FBI in the year after the attacks of September 2001, competing to fill some 900 positions created to combat terrorism. But dozens of those new hires -- perhaps as many as 100 -- have left the bureau or are about to, complaining of low pay and what they view as inadequate benefits. "It's a nightmare," said Nancy Savage, a special agent and president of the FBI Agents Association.