Letter

It used to be that a fat envelope in the mail meant you'd gotten into the college of your choice. Thin meant you were out. That was how high school students learned the result of their big college search. The news still comes this time of year, and it sometimes arrives by letter. But seniors might just as easily learn through an e-mail they open at midnight or from a Web site that a fellow student tells them to check - right now. What hasn't changed is that anxious teens are waiting for an answer from colleges that they believe will change their lives.

At Liberty High School, Principal Randy Clark sees steady jumps in enrollment and wonders whether he will have to delay replacing desks to purchase needed textbooks.At newly renovated Francis Scott Key High School, George Phillips also worries about textbooks, and whether he will have enough money to buy state-of-the-art equipment, such as computer software for graphic arts students."We're always scratching around, trying to find ways to fund things," said Phillips, who is in his 10th year as principal at Key.Carroll County's seven high school principals were concerned enough about rising costs and budget constraints this year to write a letter to a top school administrator complaining about funding problems, teacher shortages and low staff morale.

ATLANTA -- After bludgeoning his wife and two children to death with a hammer, and just eight hours before slaughtering nine people in the brokerage houses where he traded, Mark O. Barton typed a chilling confession on his computer and warned that he planned to live just long enough to kill "the people that greedily sought my destruction."The letter, which Barton apparently wrote near sunrise Thursday and then left in the Stockbridge, Ga., apartment where he had killed his family, suggested that he was tortured by his estrangement from his wife, by his losses in the stock market and by unexplained fears that he said had been "transferred from my father to me and from me to my son."

It is a "sacred task" and a religious obligation for Jews to work to alleviate poverty in their communities and in the world, according to a rabbinical letter on the poor approved yesterday by the world's Conservative rabbis.The rabbis, who wrap up the five-day meeting of the Rabbinical Assembly at the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel today, approved "You Shall Strengthen Them: A Rabbinic Letter on the Poor," which urges their congregations to participate in local action programs, to give to charity and to study what Judaism teaches about their religious obligation to those less fortunate.

State Sen. Alex X. Mooney says "militant homosexuals" are out to get him, and he's asking conservative Republicans to pony up "at least $500" each to help him defend his Frederick County seat.In a strongly worded fund-raising letter, the 28-year-old freshman GOP senator asserts that he led the successful charge this year against Gov. Parris N. Glendening's bill that sought to grant civil rights protections to gays and lesbians.Term used repeatedlyThe result, Mooney said, is that "the militant homosexual lobby is targeting me for defeat."

David Krause was scared, but this 11-year-old wasn't dead yet: He slathered insect repellent on his arms and legs and, with his bunkmates' help, shut tight the cabin's doors and windows.Just minutes earlier, a counselor had rushed to the campfire: A giant bug called a "needle-finch" is coming this way! Run! If it bites you twice, you'll die!The boys and girls sprinted to their bunks.Although 4-H summer camp had unexpectedly put his life in mortal danger, Krause did what any level-headed camper does when suddenly confronted with free time: He wrote a letter to his parents.

An anonymous letter criticizing two of Carroll County's top three school administrators and complaining of low employee morale will be taken up by the school board at a scheduled meeting Tuesday.The letter -- dated Aug. 3 and signed only "building administrators, secretaries and central office" -- states that many in the school system feel alienated by the leadership style of Superintendent William H. Hyde and Dottie Mangle, the assistant superintendent of instruction."We love this system and it's children but it is no longer a system where we are willing to give 110%," the letter states.

An anonymous letter criticizing two of Carroll County's top three school administrators and complaining of low employee morale will be taken up by the school board at a scheduled meeting Tuesday.The letter -- dated Aug. 3 and signed only "building administrators, secretaries and central office" -- states that many in the school system feel alienated by the leadership style of Superintendent William H. Hyde and Dottie Mangle, the assistant superintendent of instruction."We love this system and it's children but it is no longer a system where we are willing to give 110%," the letter states.

In a pleading letter to a top school administrator, Carroll County's seven high-school principals complain of low staff morale and echo teachers' fears that classrooms are being shortchanged.The unusual letter, which calls for hiring more teachers, has raised concern among school board members and has sparked an examination of the relationship between administrators and school staffers."I've never seen a letter like it before," Board President Gary W. Bauer said. He was surprised that the authors -- who sent the board a copy of the letter -- decided to involve board members instead of dealing with their concerns internally.

A white Baltimore police lieutenant was suspended yesterday as the department investigated charges that he made comments troubling to black officers and repeatedly undermined the commissioner's strategies.Police commanders ordered a swift inquiry based on an anonymous letter sent to Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier on Monday. By Wednesday, 15 detectives had descended on the Southwestern District and interviewed dozens of officers.Lt. Ernie D. Meadows, a 27-year veteran, was ordered to a desk job Wednesday night.

The letter starts off ordinarily enough, with a typical salutation in the form of "Dear Mr. Gilbert." But its next sentence is set off in boldface type as its own paragraph: "Congratulations, you are pre-approved for a Home Equity Line of Credit." It's not jarring to you, I suppose. You don't see a thing appalling or outrageous about this letter. Perhaps you, like the officer of the bank who signed the letter, believe that Mr. Gilbert is qualified for a home equity line of credit. Let me let you in on a little secret.

Officials are investigating a complaint from a former City Hall worker who says she was forced to resign last year after she refused to fire a staff member to make way for a "patronage appointment," according to documents obtained by The Baltimore Sun. The former employee, Jennifer L. Coates, who was director of council services, said that City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake and her chief of staff, Kim Washington, repeatedly asked her...

Sometimes, a judge's act of leniency reaps rewards. The person who did wrong takes advantage of the break. Gets off drugs. Gives up alcohol. Completes counseling. Goes back to school. Emily Elizabeth Wessel did all those things. Her reckless driving caused an accident in 2001 that killed a man from Anne Arundel County just hours after he had started a new job driving a truck hauling industrial-size batteries. She pleaded guilty to negligent homicide but had to spend only six months in jail.

It's natural to want more for our children I found the column in which Diane Cameron advises us to expect less and want less to be rather naive and even somewhat offensive ("Our wealth is relative to our desire," Commentary, Nov. 25). Like Ms. Cameron and many other adults, I made much less money in my 20s than I do three decades later, but I never felt "poor" living in my small apartment and driving an inexpensive car decades ago. However, my desire to have more wealth as I grew older stemmed not from a desire for a fancier car or a better wardrobe but from an increased sense of responsibility after I got married and had children, and my desire to make sure that my children had the tools necessary to succeed in a highly competitive world.

It used to be that a fat envelope in the mail meant you'd gotten into the college of your choice. Thin meant you were out. That was how high school students learned the result of their big college search. The news still comes this time of year, and it sometimes arrives by letter. But seniors might just as easily learn through an e-mail they open at midnight or from a Web site that a fellow student tells them to check - right now. What hasn't changed is that anxious teens are waiting for an answer from colleges that they believe will change their lives.

City officials and police are warning Southeast Baltimore residents and business owners that a widely distributed letter announcing an impending neighborhood curfew is a hoax. The letter, dated March 1, is addressed "Dear Resident" and written on city letterhead with Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's signature at the bottom. It states that because of surging crime in the area, a curfew will take effect between 2:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. beginning April 1. Anyone found outside during those hours would be required to carry identification or a "valid work permit," indicating that they either live or work in Southeast Baltimore, the letter states.

This story began in August, when I responded to a "one weekend only" sale of a laptop computer with "free wireless router, Internet security suite and all-in-one printer, scanner and copier" after a $300 mail-in rebate. The story finally ended last month after a lengthy and frustrating but ultimately successful effort to get my $300. Along the way I learned a few tricks of the mail-in rebate game, including the importance of keeping records, not taking no for an answer and complaining directly to the store that advertised the rebate if you are having problems with the product's manufacturer.

I love reading Christmas newsletters in which the writer bursts the bonds of modesty and comes forth with one gilt-edged paragraph after another: "Tara was top scorer on the Lady Cougars soccer team and won the lead role in the college production of Antigone, which by the way they are performing in the original Greek. Her essay on chaos theory as an investment strategy will be in the next issue of Fortune magazine, the same week she'll appear as a model in Vogue. How she does what she does and still makes Phi Beta Kappa is a wonderment to us all. And, yes, she is still volunteering at the homeless shelter."

Thanks for letter that only helps me Mr. John Culleton has a habit of making things up about me in his columns and his letters to various papers. A prime example would be his letter to The Sun, printed on 10/1/06. His main line of attack is to attempt to turn me into some sort of caricature of something I'm not. He has tried several times before the primary to hang certain labels upon me. Thankfully, our GOP primary voters rejected his negative and misleading attacks. Ironically, the more he tries to bash me, the better I seem to do with the voters.

The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that NAACP Chairman Julian Bond did not jeopardize the civil rights group's tax- exempt status when he criticized President Bush during a speech in 2004. In a letter dated Aug. 9, the IRS told the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that it "continues to qualify" as a tax-exempt organization, which means its donors can make tax- deductible contributions. The agency said it had reviewed a videotape of Bond's speech at the NAACP's annual convention two years ago and determined that it did not violate rules prohibiting political activity by tax-exempt groups.