Metro

With a new and more powerful owner, Metro Food Markets will become an even more formidable competitor in the region's grocery wars.Grocery retailing experts agreed that the 18-store Metro chain can only benefit from the deal that would allow Supervalu Inc., the largest supermarket distributor in the United States, to acquire Richfood Holdings Inc., a Richmond, Va.-based wholesaler and Metro's owner, for $1.5 billion in cash, stock and assumed debt.Supervalu...

I've heard it's now possible to get around Paris by a sort of boat shuttle. Is this true?Yes, it is. The so-called Batobus (as in Bateau Bus, or boat bus), is a relatively new way to get around central Paris. The service, advertised by large red and blue signs along the banks of the Seine River, became well-known in 1995 during the huge strike that froze local transportation, including subway service, stranding Parisians and tourists alike.Batobus, a private company, stepped in, and, despite the necessary walk to various departure points along the Seine, proved to be both a convenient and enjoyable transportation alternative.

The Rev. Rick Bauer thinks the vows might go something like this: "To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part or the food coupons run out."Bauer will officiate at a 14-couple wedding on a red carpeted stage in front of Metro Food Market Nov. 5 at 8: 45 a.m. as part of the Middlesex store's grand opening -- an unusual promotional gimmick that lured the couples down the aisles with $1,000 in groceries and a free honeymoon.

A man jumped in front of a Metro train as it was arriving at the Mondawmin station last night, apparently the first suicide in the rail system's 14-year history.The man, whose name had not been released late last night, apparently jumped from the platform of the underground station into the path of the westbound train shortly after 10 p.m., said Fire Department Battalion Chief Frank Giotis.The man died about 10: 45 p.m., after being trapped for about 40 minutes under the middle car of the five-car train, Giotis said.

Not even the 18-point rule, designed to help reduce the possibility of a blowout, could save the Metro All-Stars from being routed in yesterday's second All-Star Football Game at Morgan State.The Baltimore All-Stars, a team comprising the most promising seniors from city schools and the MIAA, were simply better -- and certainly quicker -- than the best the schools from Anne Arundel and Howard counties had to offer.Baltimore took advantage of four Metro turnovers and broke the game open with two long and electrifying returns before settling for a 34-7 victory.

If you've got a computer, you'll have a grocer.Metro Food Markets, a chain with 12 stores in the Baltimore area, plans to introduce on-line grocery shopping this fall. It will become the first grocery chain to use a sophisticated multimedia program that lets shoppers cruise a "virtual" store, filling a "virtual" grocery cart with real products that they can either pick up or have delivered.John Ryder, Metro's president, disclosed the company's plans in an interview yesterday at the company's Catonsville headquarters.

Clipless coupons, free turkeys, credit cards with rebates, coupon books that fit in your back pocket.It's the 1996 version of the grocery store come on.In the 1950s, '60s and even '70s, women were rewarded for their loyalty with a greeting at the door and a little special attention from the grocer they probably knew by name.Today, grocery store chains are searching for any way they can to bring new customers into their stores and make them come back -- every week.Both Giant Food Inc. and Metro Food Market started offering deals to bring in the consumer in the past month, and Valu Foods is mulling over the introduction of its own program soon.

WASHINGTON -- The frustration of federal employees over being away from work so long was replaced yesterday by the equally maddening experience of needing so much time to get back to it."First day back on the job -- and it was hell getting back," said Adrienne Des Etages, an administrator with the Justice Department who ended her three-week budget-related furlough and three-day snow absence with a drive to work from her Washington home that took five times its usual 15 minutes.On the 7 a.m. one-stop Metro ride from her parking lot to the department, there was standing-room-only on a train that usually has few passengers.

Towson State's men's cross-country team placed four runners among the top 10 finishers yesterday to win the Baltimore Metro Invitational at Patapsco State Park, McKeldin Area.The championship was the Tigers' second in the past three years.Loyola's Geoff Karabin claimed individual honors with a time of 29 minutes, 56 seconds over the eight-kilometer course.In the women's race, Loyola's Betsy Allen led her team to its second straight Metro crown, finishing in 21 minutes, just ahead of teammates Sarah MacSherry (21: 14)

Most of the fans -- and college recruiters -- at yesterday's inaugural Baltimore-Metro All-Star football game were focused on Baltimore's halfback duo of Ali Culpepper and Aaron Thompson.Enter Sam Scott. The defensive back from Edmondson High stole the show, sparking his team to a 20-6 win at Johns Hopkins' Homewood Field."I'm just out here trying to win a scholarship," said Scott. "I felt really fast on this turf today, and I was able to read the plays quickly."Scott recorded 12 tackles and intercepted a pass, with another interception being negated by a penalty.

On a Wednesday morning in August, Sangjin Lee, an immigrant from South Korea, left his $8-an-hour job as a bakery deliveryman, went through the turnstile at the West Falls Church Metro station and headed to the eastbound platform. He told his co-workers at Vie de France Yamazaki in Vienna that he had some things he needed to do. A six-car train bound for New Carrollton entered the station. Suddenly, there was a loud thud on the tracks, followed by an awful scream. Lee, 46, had thrown himself onto the tracks in front of the approaching train.

Officials for Washington's Metro system are preparing to install video cameras on an unspecified number of rail cars, the first step in what could become a systemwide surveillance network that officials say will help them better manage crowds and investigate criminal activity. The agency's board voted Thursday to accept $27.8 million in grants from the Department of Homeland Security to pay for cameras. Most of the money will put more cameras on buses, in ventilation shafts, at station entrances and near the ends of platforms over the next few years.

The Maryland Board of Public Works approved on Wednesday a transfer to the federal government of state-owned land in Northwest Baltimore where U.S. officials plan to build an office building to house some Social Security Administration operations. The new structure, which federal and state officials say is needed by 2012, is planned near the Reisterstown Road Plaza Metro station. It would be one of the largest and most expensive federal office buildings in Baltimore in years. About 1,600 federal workers now at the federal agency's Metro West complex on Greene Street would move there.

Metrorail passengers frustrated with jerkier rides and longer waits for trains after June's Red Line crash can expect those irritations to continue indefinitely as operators run every train in the system manually. Metro does not have precise data on how much slower the system is moving, but spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said trains controlled by operators tend to spend more time at station platforms and take extra time to accelerate than do trains run by computers. "You could lose a couple of minutes from one end [of a line]

WASHINGTON -- Before June's deadly subway crash, no federal agency stepped in to ensure that the Metro commuter rail system found and fixed the electrical circuits now suspected of contributing to the worst accident in the system's history. That's because none is authorized to. Although the federal government regulates the safe operation of buses, Amtrak, airplanes and even ferries, it cedes primary oversight of subway safety to local panels - in the case of Metro, the little-known Tri-State Oversight Committee.

WASHINGTON - - First came the crash and the rescue efforts. Then the news conferences, the memorial services and the official investigations. Now come the lawsuits. It took just two days after last month's deadly Metro crash for the first personal injury lawsuit to be filed in federal court. Five others have followed, one seeking as much as $25 million in damages. Legal experts said the number of liability claims for the crash, which killed nine and injured 80, can be expected to rise for months and, perhaps, years.

WASHINGTON - -Five days before last week's deadly Red Line accident, a Metro crew replaced a key piece of equipment designed to prevent rail crashes, but the circuitry malfunctioned and no one in the subway system detected the problem, investigators and transit officials said yesterday. The findings raise new questions about whether Metro officials should have discovered the hazard before one train rammed into another June 22, killing nine and injuring 80. It also puts a spotlight on the Metro's maintenance crews and the design of a highly automated subway system that is supposed to be fail-safe.

Who will be the next to die because our cities spend money on sports stadiums instead of basic infrastructure? Two years ago, my former college town, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, was the site of thirteen needless fatalities when the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed. The tragedy occurred the same month that ground was broken on a $500 million stadium. Now, a mere 10-minute walk from my home, two Washington, D.C., Metro trains collided, killing nine and sending more than 75 to the hospital.

The Metro train operator who died trying to stop her train from crashing into another was remembered as a hero yesterday during an emotional memorial service at her church in Southeast Washington. Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. brought the Temple of Praise congregation to its feet when he said Jeanice McMillan, 42, "saved lives" in trying to apply the emergency brakes on her Red Line train before it slammed into another during Monday evening's rush hour. She would be honored "as the Metro hero," he said.

The deaths of nine people in the crash involving two Washington Metro subway trains Monday evening was, as more than one person on the scene described it, a horror. It seems all the more so because such an event is so uncommon on commuter rail systems, particularly compared to the automobile-related carnage that takes place on our nation's highways each day. While it will take some time for investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board to determine the exact cause of this tragedy, myriad troubling questions have already arisen.