Moose Lodge

A man called the Pasadena Moose lodge with a bomb threat that turned out to be false Wednesday, saying he'd placed a bomb in a truck outside, county police said.Police said the man called the lodge, in the 600 block of Hilltop Road, about 8: 23 p.m. and said, "There's a bomb under the hood of Charlie Sanders' truck."Police said a Charles J. Sanders was in the lodge at the time.Arundel EMS/Fire/Rescue workers evacuated the area around the lodge while police used dogs to search the car.They found nothing, police said.

WHEN DANNY Williams discovered $800 missing from his Franklin Avenue home, in Brooklyn, he had a pretty good idea who'd stolen it: a fellow named William Hunter, who was standing in the Glen Burnie Moose Lodge a few nights later and spending money with both hands while Williams watched him in anger and disbelief."

HAGERSTOWN -- Members of the Hagerstown Moose Lodge, the organization's largest in North America, stunned the national leadership last night by overwhelmingly rejecting a black man's membership application.On a 52-19 vote, members voted against accepting James Yates, 43, an auto-preparation technician, into the social and public service organization. The lodge has 7,500 members, none of them black."It was not a favorable vote from our point of view," said Kurt Wehrmeister, a national spokesman for the 105-year-old organization based near Chicago.

The Deale Moose Lodge in Anne Arundel County has begun turning a 70-year-old schoolhouse in Shady Side into its new home even though the county liquor board turned down its request for a license.Members are bringing their own bottles while they await the outcome of an appeal of that decision.Neighbors, who say they haven't had any problems yet, are uncomfortable with the lodge in their midst."It's nothing we have personally against the Moose," said Carol Crandell, who lives across Snug Harbor Road from the former Shady Side Elementary School.

HAGERSTOWN -- Civil rights leaders, politicians and residents here condemned as racist yesterday the Hagerstown Moose lodge's controversial decision to refuse membership to a black man.Lodge members voted 52-19 Wednesday night to reject an application for membership by James Yates, 43, an auto-preparation technician. National leaders of the 105-year-old social and public service organization based near Chicago said they were shocked."I believe color was most definitely the reason," Mr. Yates said yesterday, adding that he was considering legal action against the lodge.

Members of the Westminster Moose Lodge have raised $4,500 for one of their own -- longtime member Virginia Mitten, who lost her John Street home in a fire late last year."

The Sykesville Moose Lodge is helping the town Department of Recreation and Parks recoup money lost when summer concerts were rained out.Darrell Shaffer, governor of the lodge, gave the town a $700 check at the council meeting Monday."

Community opposition has thwarted an attempt by the South County Deale Moose Lodge to move into the 70-year-old Shady Side Elementary School.An attorney for the Moose Lodge notified the liquor board that it would withdraw its application for the license on the same day that the board voted 3-0 to deny it.Because a liquor board vote does not become official until it is issued as a written decision, the lodge's withdrawal effectively kills the application, said...

Longing to see Elvis gyrate to "Jailhouse Rock" or hear Roy Orbison cry for a "Pretty Woman?"Impersonators of the rock-and-roll icons are coming to the Westminster Moose Lodge on Sunday in a benefit for a fire victim.The imitators -- authentic right down to the blue suede shoes -- will sing golden oldies from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Those who want can take the mike and sing a tune or two.Proceeds from the show will benefit Virginia Mitten, 71, whose John Street home and nearly all her possessions were destroyed in a fire Nov. 7, 1993.

HAGERSTOWN -- Members of the Hagerstown Moose Lodge, the organization's largest in North America, stunned the national leadership last night by overwhelmingly rejecting a black man's membership application.On a 52-19 vote, members voted against accepting James Yates, a 43-year-old auto-preparation technician, into the social and public service organization. The lodge has 7,500 members, none of them black and few of whom attended last night's meeting to vote on the issue."It was not a favorable vote from our point of view," said Kurt Wehrmeister, a national spokesman for the 105-year-old organization based near Chicago.

Vandals gained access to two construction loaders that were parked behind a Glen Burnie fraternal lodge Friday night or yesterday morning, then flipped over vehicles, destroyed equipment, mangled a fence surrounding a baseball field and smashed open a back wall of the lodge. The owners of two businesses that stored equipment and vehicles in the back parking lot of the Glen Burnie Moose Lodge No. 1456 said they suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses as a result of the vandalism.

March roared in like a laughing lion at Bowie Playhouse with 2nd Star Productions' opening of Ken Ludwig's comedy Leading Ladies. I laughed so often and so loudly on Saturday that I nearly lost my critic's anonymity, along with my dignity. It was comic relief for everyone tired of grappling with tax forms and hearing political campaign rhetoric. Ludwig's 2004 show is in the farcical tradition of his earlier hits, Lend Me a Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo, filled with colorful characters, coincidences, mistaken identities, an improbable plot and familiar one-liners to provide easy laughs appropriate to its nostalgic 1958 small-town setting.

James Richard Boone, a retired merchant mariner and stationary engineer, died of lung cancer Saturday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Parkville resident was 78. Mr. Boone was born in Baltimore and raised on his family's farm in Fork. He attended Baltimore County public schools until he was 16, when he quit to join the U.S. merchant marine in 1945. During his early days, he sailed on both Liberty and Victory ships, and concluded his first voyage to France in 1946. During the Korean War, he served on vessels supplying ammunition and other war materiel to American forces.

Stephen P. Black, an air-conditioning, heating and refrigeration technician, died March 21 at Carroll Hospital Center after being injured in an automobile accident on Route 140 near the Carroll-Baltimore County line. He was 41. Mr. Black was born in Waynesboro, Pa., and raised in Woodlawn. After graduating from Woodlawn High School in 1982, he studied air-conditioning, heating and refrigeration installation and maintenance at several area technical schools. Mr. Black, a longtime Reisterstown resident, started his career with Catonsville Plumbing Co. and for the last three years had been a technician with L.H. Cranston & Sons.

Jazz at the Lyric NBA player turned musician Wayman Tisdale brings his smooth jazz sound to Baltimore for a performance tomorrow at the Lyric Opera House. His latest album, Hang Time, was released last summer and spent time on the R&B and contemporary jazz charts. The Lyric Opera House is at 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. Call 410-727-6000 or visit www.lyric operahouse.com. Essex rocks Eight regional bands play Sunday at the Moose Lodge in Essex. The all-ages show, called FearFest 2004, goes from noon to 8 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door.

In Baltimore County Ceremonies to honor police, fire officers who died on duty TOWSON - The Baltimore County police and fire departments will honor officers who died in the line of duty in ceremonies today and Sunday at Courthouse Plaza, 401 Bosley Ave. Members of the Police Department, county officials and family members will gather at 10 a.m. today. During the ceremony, Sgt. Mark Parry will be honored with the unveiling of his name on the granite memorial to fallen police officers.

The old Moose lodge in Catonsville was one of those background buildings that people often drive or walk by, without paying much attention. Now it's much more of an asset to the community, after an $850,000 conversion to a day care center for up to 60 adults with mental illnesses. ReVisions Inc., a nonprofit organization, bought the building at 7 Bloomsbury Ave. last year and began renovations in February. It moved in Aug. 1 and will dedicate the building Sept. 20. Not many groups would have seen the potential for salvaging the brick-faced building, which dates from 1925.

A man called the Pasadena Moose lodge with a bomb threat that turned out to be false Wednesday, saying he'd placed a bomb in a truck outside, county police said.Police said the man called the lodge, in the 600 block of Hilltop Road, about 8: 23 p.m. and said, "There's a bomb under the hood of Charlie Sanders' truck."Police said a Charles J. Sanders was in the lodge at the time.Arundel EMS/Fire/Rescue workers evacuated the area around the lodge while police used dogs to search the car.They found nothing, police said.

WHEN DANNY Williams discovered $800 missing from his Franklin Avenue home, in Brooklyn, he had a pretty good idea who'd stolen it: a fellow named William Hunter, who was standing in the Glen Burnie Moose Lodge a few nights later and spending money with both hands while Williams watched him in anger and disbelief."

The Sykesville Moose Lodge is helping the town Department of Recreation and Parks recoup money lost when summer concerts were rained out.Darrell Shaffer, governor of the lodge, gave the town a $700 check at the council meeting Monday."