Inconvenience

SEEING THE large, yellow vehicles seems to bring out the worst in drivers. School buses are slow, they make a lot of stops, and it is horribly inconvenient to be behind one, especially when you're in a rush. But you have to obey the law: If a school bus has its red lights flashing, stop at least 25 feet away, until the lights go off and the bus starts moving. Seems simple enough. Yet I've seen even a school bus zoom by another unloading with its red lights flashing. I helped get that bus driver fired.

Jerry Longoria is a $12-an-hour security guard in San Francisco who lives in a rooming house, has $30 in his pocket to last him the four days until payday and fears being homeless. Jean Reynolds is a certified nursing assistant and single mother in Trenton, N.J., whose housing costs equal her take-home pay. She worries that the next phone call she gets is going to be from the electric company telling her that her power is going to be cut off because she is behind in her bills. Barbara Brooks is a supervisor at a juvenile group home in Freeport, N.Y., who takes home $569 and faces a $195 bill for prescription antihistamines and a decongestant that one of her five children needs for a breathing problem.

DOMINICK DUNNE is the thinking person's Jackie Collins. H invites you along on a scandal-tinged, sex-laced romp with the lowlifes that make up our upper classes but proves to be such an insightful and witty tour guide that you don't feel at all guilty about making the trip.He skewered New York in "People Like Us." Now it's Los Angeles in "An Inconvenient Woman," a four-hour ABC production that runs Sunday and Monday nights at 9 o'clock on Channel 13 (WJZ).Your narrator is none other than a successful author who is in Hollywood to help turn his book into a movie.

ClarificationYesterday's coverage of the power outage at Saturday's Preakness inadvertently left the impression that officials at Pimlico offered no apologies for inconvenience to fans.In fact, the front-page story about the outage should have included quotes from Joseph A. De Francis, president and CEO of the Maryland Jockey Club, praising the "patience and sportsmanship of our fans the greatest fans in the country." De Francis also apologized in remarks to other news organizations.In addition, a sports column criticizing De Francis for failing to apologize referred only to De Francis' remarks on the victory stand.

The University of Maryland's planned departure from the Atlantic Coast Conference has raised questions about the league's long-term survival, a sobering prospect for fans that grew up on games between the Terps and their Tobacco Road rivals. The first notes of panic emerged Monday, after Maryland announced plans to leave for the Big Ten and its far greater television riches in 2014. "I think the ACC is vulnerable right now," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski in taping his show Basketball and Beyond for Sirius XM Radio.

Nothing, besides the approach of a snowstorm or a rush-hour fender-bender on the Beltway, elicits more groans from Baltimoreans than the summons to jury duty, and I'm not sure why, except that we like to bellyache about stuff. When you think about it, we're not asked to do that much as citizens - separate trash from recyclables and set them on the curb, vote every couple of years, pay our taxes on time, sit on a jury once in a great while (more frequently if you live in the city)

Drug money made Mumin Sahib Abdullah rich.The loft of his Owings Mills townhouse was filled with silk suits, fur coats and $600 shoes. He had four foreign cars, including a $50,000 Range Rover. His wife ran up monthly bills as high as $16,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue and spent thousands more at other chic stores. Abdullah threw champagne parties at a private club.The couple's high-flying lifestyle was financed on the streets of Baltimore. Abdullah's heroin operation, begun in 1990, was an entrepreneur's dream.

After a heavy snow this winter, residents of Baltimore County might be snowed in longer. A favorite new book might not be available at the county library. Over time, the county police might have fewer officers in uniform, said County Executive Roger B. Hayden about the new realities of public finance.And "it might take a bit longer to get answers to questions" about county government activities, said Hayden, meeting with reporters and county employees in a question-and-answer session after his "State of the County" speech yesterday.

The River Hill High School Ecology Club will sponsor a free showing of former Vice President Al Gore's film about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, at 7 p.m. Jan. 11 at the school auditorium, 12101 Route 108, Clarksville. The screening, which is open to everyone, will include a "What Can We Do?" follow-up presentation and a bake sale. Proceeds from the sale will help support the Ecology Club. The club is working to promote energy efficiency through the increased use of compact fluorescent lighting and has set a goal to collect 100 pledges to substitute a compact fluorescent light bulb for one incandescent bulb.

If you're planning a new subdivision in Howard County's suburbs, you have to meet the neighbors early on. Six months into this requirement, residents are giving the concept high marks - but they have found flaws in the notification and scheduling of meetings, which developers must hold before asking permission to build in eastern Howard. A common complaint is that builders can hold community meetings whenever they feel like it - often in the midmorning on a weekday. Fewer than 40 percent of the meetings have been scheduled at 5 p.m. or later, and only one has been held on a weekend.