Mining

Citizens will have an opportunity to give input into a county miningplan at two public hearings next week.The county Mineral Mining Committee will sponsor the hearings to hear residents' concerns aboutestablished and planned mining operations in the county.The hearings are:* Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the cafeteria at Francis Scott Key High School on Bark Hill Road in Union Town.* Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Eldersburg branch of the Carroll County Public Library, 6400 W. Hemlock Drive.The mining committee is madeup of 10 citizens who are working with county planning department staff to write a comprehensive plan for handling the county's mineral resources.

The U.S. government is trying "to create a database of every [phone] call ever made. " That's how one informed person described the National Security Agency's effort to USA Today. That newspaper also confirmed that not only is the government collecting every phone record from Verizon -- as first reported by the British newspaper The Guardian -- but it's also collecting similar data from other phone companies. It's important to emphasize that the NSA isn't listening to the content of these calls.

The County Commissioners continued negotiations with attorneys for acitizens environmental coalition and Lehigh Portland Cement Co. on abond agreement establishing conditions for mining near New Windsor.The discussion centered on a provision in the document, called an indenture, advising Lehigh that the county is reviewing its master plan for development, which could result in zoning changes that restrict or prohibit mining on property owned by Lehigh.Lehigh's attorney, William Dulany, argued that the clause was unfair because it applies only to Lehigh even though there are other mining companies either doing business in the county or considering opening a quarry here.

As the end of my son's first year in middle school approaches, I look back in amazement at how much he has changed. Physically he is much taller and slimmer. Emotionally, his moods swing from silly to serious. One moment he wants a hug and the next he wants to be left alone. Over these last few months, I've seen him trying to figure out who he is and where he fits in with his peers. The most dramatic example of this is his wardrobe. This year he has vacillated from preppy, with button down polo shirts, to gangsta, with his hat turned sideways and his pants falling down, to skater dude, with graphic tees and hat worn backwards.

A Carroll delegate and a New Windsor citizen activist who fought to gain legal protections for residents against mining damages say they are disappointed in a court ruling temporarily suspending the law.The president of the Maryland Aggregates Association Inc., representing about 30 mining companies -- including two that operate quarries in Carroll -- said he was "very pleased" with the decision.An Anne Arundel County circuit judge on Monday suspended enforcement of the state law that presumes quarry companies liable for water supply damages within a "zone of influence" around their operations.

Residents near a proposed quarry pit here told members of the county's Mineral Mining Committee their concerns and problems Monday.The committee and county planners toured the area surrounding a pit proposed by Lehigh Portland Cement Co.Carol Collins, who lives on Hallowell Lane, let the group stand in her backyard and look out to the farm field that Lehigh has plans to mine.Collins said her family moved to the home 1 1/2 years ago to get away from congestion in Olney, Montgomery County. She said shewasn't told the fields in her view were owned by Lehigh.

An Anne Arundel Circuit Court judge has turned down the state's effort to dismiss a legal challenge from mining companies to a 1991 Maryland law intended to protect residents from damages.Two mining companies operating in Carroll, Lehigh Portland Cement Co. and Genstar Stone Products Co., are among nine plaintiffs included in the MarylandAggregates Association's lawsuit. A third, the Arundel Corp., has plans to locate a quarry in Carroll. Lehigh and Genstar both plan to expand.Carroll Del. Richard N. Dixon, a Democrat, carried the law through the legislature.

ANNAPOLIS -- The path has been cleared for a mining association to pursue its lawsuit against the governor and state to overturn a 1991 statute intended to protect residents from property damages.Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Warren B. Duckett Jr. has denied the state's request to dismiss the case brought by the Maryland Aggregates Association Inc. (MAA), which represents 30 mining companies.The ruling Wednesday means the mining association will be able to pursue its constitutional challenge of the law to a resolution in Circuit Court.

ANNAPOLIS -- Carroll Del. Richard N. Dixon said yesterday he couldn't explain how two groups that had fought so hard in the past several years had reached an agreement."

The Maryland Aggregates Association Inc. will appeal last week's decision by an Anne Arundel Circuit judge to uphold a 1991 law intended to protect residents in four counties from property damage caused by mining operations.Association president Samuel W. Christine said his board of directors met yesterday and decided to file an appeal.The judge's ruling was a victory for the state and for property owners in Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick and Washington counties, who battled for about four years to get the bill passed.

Talk about tumbling down the rabbit hole. Jessica Anya Blau is the Baltimore author who memorably mined her experience growing up in a freewheeling bohemian family in her first two novels, "The Year of Naked Swim Parties" and "Drinking Closer to Home. " "Swim Party," in particular, made a splash, ending up on a couple of national "best of" lists. In her third novel, "The Wonder Bread Summer," which is being released Tuesday, Blau explores the Southern California counterculture of the 1980s through the eyes of 20-year-old Allie Dodgson.

Owning a perfect record can be a double-edged sword. There's the excitement and attention that results from staying unblemished, but there's also the knowledge that opponents are eager to end the run. Both Stevenson and Cornell fell from the ranks of the unbeaten Tuesday. The No. 2 Mustangs dropped a 7-6 decision to No. 9 Tufts and the No. 2 Big Red were nipped, 9-8, by No. 20 Bucknell. Those setbacks are reminders of what awaits 6-0 Washington College as it prepares to dive into the Centennial Conference portion of its regular-season schedule.

An article in the Feb. 15, 1913, edition of The Argus reported on the culmination of a long-distance romance sparked by a meeting during a tour of Canadian gold mines. Three thousand miles across the continent to Tacoma, Wash., Miss Ethel Patterson, of Ingleside avenue, will travel to wed Donald McCallun, of Keremeos, B.C., and the Patterson home is now in the throes of preparation for her westward trip. Miss Patterson will leave Baltimore next Thursday, and will be accompanied on her long trip by her brother, Frederick V. Patterson , who will act as best man at the wedding.

"Claudie Hukill," on stage at Venus Theatre on C Street through Dec. 23, is a play about a poor family, struggling to survive hard economic times and personal tragedies in a West Virginia mining town. Set in 1972, the play is filled with generational, environmental, social, moral and class conflicts, centered around the main character and the play's namesake, Claudie Hukill. Although Claudie, a coal miner and town hero, is never seen, his presence is felt throughout the play as the drama surrounding his disappearance unfolds and escalates to a powerful ending.

There's hardly a square inch of the 1,900-acre Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area that Johnny Johnsson hasn't walked, mapped or studied. That includes the scant remnants of several 19th-century chromium mines at Soldiers Delight in Owings Mills. Some of these mines once reached as deep as 200 feet beneath this chromium-bearing geological anomaly, known as a "serpentine barren. " Johnsson, a Finksburg resident who is an environmental engineer by profession - and a mining historian by avocation - has been a volunteer ranger and tour guide at Soldiers Delight, which is part of the Patapsco Valley State Park system, since 1990.

U.S. counterterrorism efforts monitor and sort vast databases of information for clues on potential plots. Now a team of University of Maryland researchers have used data-mining techniques employed by online giants like Google and Amazon.com to aid in the fight against terror. In the same way corporate America uses algorithms to predict what consumers are most likely to buy or what ads they might click, the researchers analyzed two decades of data on Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Carroll commissioners are considering a change to the county mining ordinance that would increase the distance mining operations must be from homes in the agriculture zone.Yesterday, the commissioners heard from a Westminster resident who proposed the change and from representatives of two mining companies that would be affected.No decision was made on the proposal.Richard H. Offutt Jr., who lives in Wakefield Valley and is a member of the New Windsor Community Action Project, said the ordinance allows mining companies to build pits too close to homes in the agriculture zone.

County Planning and Zoning Commission members hashed out revisions Friday to a proposed mining plan that has brought an outcry from many Wakefield Valley residents.The commission, which must approve theplan before it is sent to the Board of County Commissioners, met fora work session with planning staff and members of the citizens committee who helped write the plan.The plan will dictate where mining may occur in the county. Residents are worried about decreased property values, noise, and truck traffic.

Nora Ephron's collection of essays, "I Remember Nothing," was a memoir about aging, written while it was happening because, she explained, you never know which meal will actually be your last meal. In it, the wry and witty author and filmmaker included a list of the things she would not miss when she died - dry skin, bras, bad dinners "like the one we went to last night," Clarence Thomas and panels on "Women in Film. " And the things she would miss: among them waffles, the concept of waffles, a walk in the park, the concept of a walk in the park, fireworks, Paris, taking a bath and pie. We didn't know it at the time, but Nora Ephron was doing what she always did best - mining her own life and its mundanity to amuse the rest of us. She was battling a form of leukemia at the time, but she kept her illness to herself.

Locked in a metal filing cabinet in The Sun 's library is a sheaf of manila folders packed with typed pages, copies of paste-up sheets and loops of pink, punched tapes - artifacts of H. L. Mencken's coverage of what he dubbed "the Scopes monkey trial. " Mencken was in poor health by the time The Sun 's offices moved to this brick building on Calvert Street. But more than a half-century after his death, his presence remains strongly felt here. His face, waggish and clutching a cigar between his lips, gazes down on those who pass through The Sun 's lobby.