Inspectors

Freeze on hiring of inspectors lifted County Executive John R. Leopold has lifted a hiring freeze for inspectors in an effort to strengthen Anne Arundel's environmental enforcement capabilities. His decision clears the way for the filling of six vacant inspector positions, which Leopold said yesterday will help fulfill his goal "of cracking down on critical area law violations, grading violations and sediment violations, providing the necessary tools to accomplishing those goals." As part of a series of related announcements Monday, Leopold also created an incentive program for inspectors along with agreeing to reorganize the Department of Inspections and Permits to create a Compliance Division, which will investigate complaints regarding nonpermitted work, including that in the critical watershed area.

Restaurant inspections have changed over the past decade: Gone are gruff inspectors ticking off demerits based on a 100-point scale.Today's inspections are about cooperation. No longer thorns in the side of restaurant operators, inspectors are seen as partners looking out for the public welfare."We've gone from irritant to teammate," said Anne Arundel County registered sanitarian Charlie Stinchcomb.An inspector for 26 years, Stinchcomb thinks the newer approach the county has used for several years, a method developed by Pillsbury Corp.

WASHINGTON -- In March, in a last-ditch attempt to uncover Saddam Hussein's covert weapons and intelligence networks, the United States used the U.N. inspection team to send a U.S. spy into Baghdad to install a highly sophisticated electronic eavesdropping system.The spy entered Iraq in the guise of a U.N. weapons inspector and left the eavesdropping device behind.For 10 months, the device let the United States and a select elite within the U.N. inspection team monitor the cell phones, walkie-talkies and other communications instruments used by the military and intelligence officers who protect Saddam and conceal Iraq's weapons.

WASHINGTON -- Outlines are emerging of how Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime might return to the international community sooner than expected -- economically stronger and with greater influence in the gulf region and beyond.And possibly with some of its capacity to build weapons of mass destruction still intact.Bit by bit, the United Nations Security Council is loosening the tethers that have impoverished ordinary Iraqis for seven years, allowing Baghdad to import a rising number of goods and to refurbish its once-thriving oil industry.

KENNEDYVILLE -- Pat Langenfelder got a preview yesterday morning of the environmental scrutiny that all large Maryland livestock farms might face in the near future.About 25 inspector trainees with the Environmental Protection Agency and environmental offices of surrounding states converged on her Kent County farm.They were looking for evidence of harmful byproducts from the manure streaming from the 2,400-hog operation. Those byproducts could seep into the waters of nearby Morgan Creek and eventually flow into the Chesapeake Bay.The inspector trainees looked at the mustard-green slime produced from the flow of hog manure from a breeding barn into a 1 1/2 -acre storage lagoon.

WASHINGTON -- After a three-decade climb to the top of the turbulent, continually cash-starved United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan is nothing if not practical.Annan's relaxed style came as a relief to many who chafed at the often rigid, imperious manner of his predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whom Annan replaced early last year.But today, as he arrives in Iraq for the highest-stakes challenge of his career, Annan's noted pragmatism has raised the question of which goal is uppermost to him: getting Saddam Hussein to back down and allow U.N. inspectors to search at will for dangerous weapons, or avoiding U.S. airstrikes at almost any cost.

UNITED NATIONS -- Armed with spy-plane and satellite photographs never before shown to diplomats, U.N. arms inspectors yesterday gave the Security Council a daylong display of evidence that they have gathered in an attempt to counter Iraq's contentions that it has disarmed and deserves to have sanctions lifted.An unexpected second day of briefings will be held today.U.S. envoy encouragedBill Richardson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he was encouraged by the presentation, which began while a small group of American protesters marched outside the U.N. headquarters and called for an end to the embargo imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

UNITED NATIONS -- As Iraq and the United Nations position themselves for a critical test of the agreement that averted a U.S. military attack in February, the head of the commission monitoring Iraq disarmament says he plans rapid-fire inspections of previously off-limits presidential properties to determine what buildings will get spot inspections later -- with much less notice."

UNITED NATIONS -- The chief arms inspector for Iraq has told the Security Council in a letter that the Iraqis have been interfering with inspections at a number of sites. And yesterday, Baghdad toughened its stand against allowing entry to the ruling party's offices, in contravention of council resolutions.In his letter, the chief inspector also said the Iraqis had refused to explain why and where equipment and micro-organisms thought to be associated with a biological weapons program had been moved during a break in inspections last month.

WASHINGTON -- The United Nations Security Council branded Iraq's latest act of defiance of its weapons inspectors "totally unacceptable" yesterday.But the generally low-key response reflected an effort by American officials to play down the urgency of the dispute.The council's president, Slovenian Ambassador Danilo Turk, said Iraq was flouting not only past resolutions but the agreement Saddam Hussein reached in February with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which averted American military action in the last crisis.

One man's stroll Tuesday morning along a downtown Baltimore sidewalk turned into a harrowing ordeal when he plunged about 15 feet underground after the metal grate he was walking over collapsed. The man was walking in the 200 block of N. Calvert St. just south of Saratoga Street about 8:16 a.m. when he fell through the opening, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a city fire spokesman. The man, identified as Baltimore resident Thomas Harrison, 29, was extricated within half an hour and taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, according to Cartwright.

Some of Maryland's most important, and vulnerable, transportation choke points are the toll bridges and tunnels run by the Maryland Transportation Authority. From the Bay Bridge to the Fort McHenry Tunnel, these are heavily traveled links in the transportation grid, and should any of them fail, the consequences would be disastrous. That's why last week's recommendations by an independent panel of engineering experts to significantly upgrade the authority's bridge and tunnel inspection program - and the agency's apparent willingness to do so - are clearly a step in the right direction.

WASHINGTON -- Three veteran Federal Aviation Administration inspectors told lawmakers yesterday that their agency supervisors looked the other way while Southwest Airlines neglected to inspect planes as required and continued to fly them even after discovering cracks in some of them. The inspectors said their FAA supervisors knew of the problems but had discouraged them from pursuing the safety problems or addressing problems within the agency, even threatening to relieve them of their duties.

WASHINGTON -- The Agriculture Department suspended with pay yesterday an inspector and a supervisor who monitored the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. plant responsible for 143 million pounds of beef being recalled, a union official said. Stan Painter, chairman of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, said the department told him it "had obtained information warranting placing" the two employees on administrative leave. The suspensions are the USDA's latest response to rules violations at the Chino, Calif.

The record recall last weekend of 143 million pounds of ground beef illustrates a key gap that remains despite recent federal efforts to bolster food safety: The quality of government inspections continues to vary sharply around the country, food safety experts say. "You go to one plant, and they do an excellent job," said Temple Grandin, an animal-handling expert at Colorado State University who regularly visits plants and helped develop industry guidelines...

A Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant in eastern Baltimore County, where members of a family say they dined before becoming ill last weekend, will remain closed until it has hired a certified food handler and completed decontamination, county inspectors said yesterday. "They're now in a position where they're having to go through a complete cleaning process and sanitize everything from chairs to play equipment," said David A.C. Carroll, head of the county's Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management.

Freeze on hiring of inspectors lifted County Executive John R. Leopold has lifted a hiring freeze for inspectors in an effort to strengthen Anne Arundel's environmental enforcement capabilities. His decision clears the way for the filling of six vacant inspector positions, which Leopold said yesterday will help fulfill his goal "of cracking down on critical area law violations, grading violations and sediment violations, providing the necessary tools to accomplishing those goals." As part of a series of related announcements Monday, Leopold also created an incentive program for inspectors along with agreeing to reorganize the Department of Inspections and Permits to create a Compliance Division, which will investigate complaints regarding nonpermitted work, including that in the critical watershed area.

Maryland has about 300 earthen dams monitored by state inspectors. Like the 65-foot-high Need-ville Dam in Rockville, where torrential rain forced the evacuation of local residents this week - some of them are pretty large. They include the 99-foot-high Little Seneca Lake Dam in Montgomery County and 118-foot-high Druid Hill Lake Dam, according to state and federal Web sites. But an earthen dam can be just as safe as a concrete structure, experts say. "If you've got a good site with a good foundation, earthen dams are a good way to go," said Larry Roth, a civil engineer who has designed dams and is deputy executive director of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

A week after the Baltimore liquor board imposed a mandatory eight-hour workday for liquor inspectors, five members of the inspection staff have filed for leave from their jobs because of stress or illness. Chief liquor inspector Samuel T. Daniels Jr. confirmed yesterday that several inspectors had requested leave, but he would not identify them. He said the requests started coming in several days after he imposed the new eight-hour workday policy, which went into effect Sept. 12. The new policy was introduced in an effort to ensure that inspectors were putting in 40 hours a week.

The Baltimore liquor board imposed a new policy yesterday requiring all inspectors to work eight-hour days and to file regular reports showing that they have visited bars. Board Chairman Mark S. Fosler issued a memo yesterday outlining the change, which requires inspectors to clock in and out at certain times and to report to supervisors daily. In the past, inspectors were required to sign in only when they were at liquor board offices. The rest of the day they were mostly out of pocket.