Kensington

As the drummer for a band called the Kensington Jazz Commission, Steven B. Larsen is used to the spotlight. But now, in his day job as Maryland's insurance commissioner, Larsen has never had the spotlight shine on him more brightly. Larsen must decide whether it's in the public interest to allow the state's largest nonprofit health insurer, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, to be sold. The deal involves hundreds of millions of dollars and the health coverage of about 2 million Marylanders.

KENSINGTON - Democratic congressional candidate Christopher Van Hollen Jr. asked his Republican opponent, eight-term Rep. Constance A. Morella, yesterday to agree to a mutual ban on negative campaigning in their hotly contested 8th District race. In a letter to Morella, he proposed that each avoid mentioning the other in campaign advertising and literature. "I hope that you will reconsider your current course and join me in pledging to run a positive, attack-free campaign," Van Hollen's letter said.

Stanley R. Greenberg, a television screenwriter who shaped the docudrama format with his meticulously researched scripts for Pueblo, The Missiles of October and other shows, died Aug. 25 of a brain tumor at his home in Kensington, Calif. He was 74. He also wrote the screenplays for the films Skyjacked in 1972 and Soylent Green in 1973, an adaptation of Harry Harrison's novel about overpopulation, both starring Charlton Heston. Glenn E. Watts, 82, a former president of the Communications Workers of America who led the union through the breakup of the AT&T Bell telephone monopoly, died Friday of complications from surgery.

KENSINGTON - The jagged angle of the train cars, the fallen tree limbs, an ominous drop of the embankment surrounding sections of the track - all seemed to foreshadow tragedy aboard the Amtrak passenger train that derailed yesterday. But when bystanders and rescue teams reached the muddy ravine surrounding the track, they found dazed passengers who, for the most part, were able to crawl out of the cars relatively unharmed. Some cried from fear, shock or injury, but many of the passengers broke down because they were glad to be alive.

KENSINGTON - An Amtrak passenger train derailed in Montgomery County yesterday afternoon, injuring 101 people - at least six seriously - just 15 minutes before it was to reach its destination in Washington. The eastbound Capitol Limited was carrying 164 passengers and 12 crew members from Chicago when the accident occurred at 1:55 p.m. along a tree-lined stretch of track. Rail officials and the National Transportation Safety Board said investigators would be looking closely at whether the day's sustained temperatures in the mid-90s might have caused the rails to weaken.

PocketHub adds peripheral ports for laptop users The Kensington PocketHub ($40) appears to be no more than a small plastic box with a cord, but it couldn't be more helpful to laptop computer users. That's because Kensington's tiny Universal Serial Bus hub easily plugs into notebook computers to provide four extra ports. Moreover, it features a mini- AC adapter to make it one of the smallest powered hubs you'll see on the market. The hub is 2-by-2 inches and less than half an inch thick.

IN KENSINGTON, in the Montgomery County suburbs, this will not have to go down as The Year the Jews Stole Christmas. Hallelujah, and mazel tov. My Jews have enough problems without getting blamed for kidnapping Santa Claus and calling it an act of self-defense. You read about this, didn't you? In Kensington, population 1,700, the annual December tree-lighting ceremony, a traditionally sweet little affair, became the stuff of national ridicule. The town's four-person council voted to make the ceremony a patriotic salute this year, honoring the victims and heroes of the Sept.

KENSINGTON - Santa Claus wasn't on the official guest list. But about 50 of his impersonators showed up as this Washington suburb - whose officials did not invite the bearded guy to its festivities - held its annual holiday tree-lighting yesterday. Hundreds of people, and a few apparent grinches basking in an accompanying media frenzy, turned it all into a raucous and at times un-Christmaslike affair for the 1,700 residents of the Montgomery County town. Santa wasn't invited, thanks to a unanimous vote Oct. 29 by the four-member Town council to exclude him because some residents - two families, said Mayor Lynn Raufaste - found the symbolism offensive and the town wanted to focus more on patriotism and the uniformed "heroes" who responded to the Sept.

A smart comedy about a smart blonde - that would be a sensation. But a dumb comedy about a smart blonde turns out to be not bad. The name of the film is Legally Blonde, and from the title on it attempts to integrate Clueless and The Paper Chase. More important, the star - and the film's redemption - is Reese Witherspoon. She imbues Bel Air princess Elle Woods with the luster of an actor who knows this could be her ticket to the big time. She's so game and winning, you can't help cheering her on. Woods may be the sorority belle of her Southern California party college, but she's also a fashion-merchandising major with courses such as "The History of Polka Dots."

Marjorie E. Swearman, 75, Hopkins lab secretary Marjorie Elizabeth Swearman, a retired executive secretary, died Thursday of pulmonary fibrosis at Fallston General Hospital. She was 75 and lived in Forest Hill. The former Elkridge resident began her career at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory's Laurel facility in 1963 as a group secretary and was later promoted to executive secretary. She retired in 1984 and moved to Queenstown. She lived in Forest Hill for a year.