Meeks

The drought of 1999 is officially over, but the damage continues for Maryland farmers in the middle of harvesting a meager field corn crop for which the rains of August and September came too late.In some cases, the rain has brought more headaches, such as flattened crops and fields too wet to withstand heavy harvesting equipment."In plain words, it's a real mess," said Joe Mullhausen, a northern Harford County farmer near Whiteford.Mullhausen found parts of his cornfields flattened by Hurricane Floyd.

NEW YORK -- The Texas Rangers stepped out of character and tried to do it with pitching last night, but the New York Yankees seem destined for an American League Championship Series showdown with the Cleveland Indians.Despite a superb performance by Rangers starter Rick Helling, the Yankees stretched their Division Series winning streak against Texas to a record eight games with a 3-1 victory in Game 2 at Yankee Stadium.Promising left fielder Ricky Ledee's seventh-inning double brought home the go-ahead run, propelling left-hander Andy Pettitte to his fifth career postseason victory and pushing the punchless Rangers to the threshold of another quick October exit.

The sound of snapping fresh green beans broke through the din of the television, turned up high enough for the hardest of hearing at Lookabout Manor senior home.At a table behind the couches that face the television, a half-dozen residents of the home worked through a bushel of beans that Jeanie Meeks brought in from her husband's farm, and asked for more. It sure beat watching reruns on the large-screen TV."They kept asking me, `When are you going to bring some more beans?' It brings back all the things they used to do," said Meeks, a former nanny who one year ago was a daily visitor to the home, where her mother was living.

The sound of snapping fresh green beans broke through the din of the television, turned up high enough for the hardest of hearing at Lookabout Manor senior home.At a table behind the couches that face the television, a half-dozen residents of the home worked through a bushel of beans that Jeanie Meeks brought in from her husband's farm, and asked for more. It sure beat watching reruns on the large-screen TV."They kept asking me, `When are you going to bring some more beans?' It brings back all the things they used to do," said Meeks, a former nanny who one year ago was a daily visitor to the home, where her mother was living.

NEW YORK -- Kate Morgenroth insists she has a sinister side. Still, the freckled-faced 27-year-old seems more likely to break into a medley of show tunes than embark on a murder spree.At the moment, that gruesome alter-ego must be hidden behind her charming chipmunk voice, blindingly sunny smile and cartoonish expressions. But it surfaced plain and clear in her debut novel, "Kill Me First."Heavy on dialogue, skeletal in description, the psychological thriller features a mass murder in a retirement home, among other random grisly acts.

MOSCOW -- Afraid of the public, afraid of the president, afraid of chaos and afraid of losing their jobs, the members of Russia's lower house of parliament meekly confirmed Sergei V. Stepashin as Russia's new prime minister yesterday."

As a young singer, Helen Meeks Weyer teamed with Arthur Godfrey on WFBR Radio in 1929.At that time, the red-haired Mr. Godfrey, who became one of America's foremost radio and television personalities, was a singer and banjo player stationed at the Coast Guard station in Curtis Bay.Mrs. Weyer, who was Mr. Godfrey's first female singing partner, later sang with Will Osborne's 20-piece orchestra in New Orleans and performed in the Empire Room at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.Mrs. Weyer, who was 94, died Sunday of a stroke at Union Memorial Hospital.

The state Senate and House of Delegates have recommended a $300,000 appropriation toward the expansion of the Carroll County Agricultural Center, one-third the amount requested by the center's board and Carroll legislators."

More than 150 county farmers gathered for their annual midwinter meeting at the Maryland Cooperative Extension yesterday to hear dismal news about grain prices and frustratingly little information on new state nutrient-management regulations still being written."