Kaiser

Kate Kaiser remembers the moment vividly. Rolling around the crease. Reaching to catch a wide pass. Planting her right foot. Feeling her knee hyperextend. "I thought it was like when you roll your ankle and you need to walk it off," said the Duke All-America midfielder, who moved on to the next drill that first day of women's lacrosse preseason in January 2002. "We started working on positioning and when I shuffled laterally, my knee buckled. I thought, `That can't be good.' " The Blue Devils' trainer asked whether her leg felt like a "wobbly kitchen table leg."

Continuing a purge of Glendening-era officials, the Ehrlich administration has fired Teresa L. Kaiser, the child-support director who challenged the practices of the private company that runs the program in Baltimore. Kaiser, who headed the child-support office for three years, said yesterday that she was told Wednesday to pack up and leave by noon. "It was already after noon," she said. "I didn't have a chance to say an orderly goodbye." A former state child-support director in Idaho and Missouri, Kaiser has been credited with increasing collections each year she worked in Maryland.

Maryland's child support collections rose by 4 percent last year, thanks largely to the state's new authority to withhold court-ordered payments directly from parents' paychecks, a top Department of Human Resources official told legislators yesterday. Teresa Kaiser, executive director of the Child Support Enforcement Administration, also told the House Judiciary Committee that the department is recommending a continuation of a child support privatization project in Baltimore. However, Kaiser said the department is preparing a contract proposal that will bring significant changes in the way the current contractor, Maximus Inc., does business.

Faced with ballooning costs, Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States said yesterday that it will move members covered by its Medicare HMO to a new plan in 2003 that will tinker with benefits and cost more. Kaiser, unlike some other health maintenance organizations, decided to alter its coverage instead of dropping its members - about 24,000 in Maryland, Virginia and Washington. But the company said it could no longer provide coverage that was not more fully reimbursed by the federal government health program for seniors.

In an unusual move that bypassed her supervisors, an agency head in the state's Department of Human Resources has asked lawmakers to order an audit of the private company that administers child support enforcement in Baltimore, noting "grave concerns about the integrity" of the firm's work. Teresa L. Kaiser, executive director of the Child Support Enforcement Administration, said she believes an independent third party would find that Maximus Inc. had manipulated data on cases "in a manner that suggests wrongdoing."

HOUSTON - Kaiser Aluminum Corp., a major aluminum maker, sought bankruptcy court protection yesterday, blaming asbestos-related lawsuits and falling profit in an industry dominated by rivals Alcoa Inc. and Alcan Inc. Kaiser's spending on plant expansion and the expense of defending against asbestos complaints put the company behind on about $700 million in bond debt, analysts said. Kaiser said last week that it wouldn't make debt payments of about $200 million this month. The company is facing costs of about $132 million and more than 122,000 lawsuits related to asbestos while it copes with declining aluminum demand from automakers and plane manufacturers.

Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States opened its Columbia medical office this month, returning the health maintenance organization-style of health care to Howard County, but offering more choices in local physicians. The 17,500-square-foot health center in the Gateway office park is the first in the county for the HMO, filling a dead zone in the company's coverage area between Baltimore and Washington. The office will have full-time and part-time physicians. But new to the program is a range of choices for patients, including more than 30 community physicians.

Duke senior Kate Kaiser, a three-time All-America lacrosse player and Lacrosse Magazine's Preseason Player of the Year, will miss the entire 2002 season after tearing her right anterior cruciate ligament on the first day of practice. The Notre Dame Prep graduate will be redshirted this season and plans to return to the lineup next year. She plans to have surgery to repair the ligament within two weeks. "Obviously, we are devastated for Kate, but she has handled all of this incredibly well," said Duke coach Kerstin Kimel.

Constance Carol Kaiser, who devoted her life to preserving the memory of her late husband, a Baltimore police officer who died 41 years ago, died Wednesday from a stroke at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. She was 87. Known as Minnie, Constance Carol Fertitta was born to Italian immigrant parents and grew up in the 300 block of N. Paca St. She had wanted to study engineering at then all-male Polytechnic Institute, but attended Western High School and graduated with honors in 1933. About 1940, she met and then married Carroll Becker "Fritz" Kaiser, a Baltimore police officer and musician.

Kaiser Permanente announced yesterday that it will open a medical center in Columbia Gateway Park next year. The 17,500-square-foot center, scheduled to open in January, will be the health maintenance organization's first foray into Howard County. "We already had 6,000 members who live in Howard County or work for employer groups that have offices there," said Susan W. Simon, a company spokeswoman. "We felt that now is the time to open new centers in areas that are growing and are likely to keep growing."