New Group

Sylvia Kaplan resisted when her daughter first encouraged her in 1989 to attend a meeting of the Insighters, a support group for the visually impaired."

County public school athletic directors are expected to vote tomorrow in Annapolis on whether to employ a new boys lacrosse officials organization or to continue with the Chesapeake Lacrosse Officials Association.They can endorse the wishes of their respective coaches, who voted 11-0 (Severna Park did not vote) last week to retain Harry Dobson as commissioner but with a new group, the Anne Arundel Lacrosse Officials (AALO).Or they can retain the CLOA, which after 35 years replaced Dobson with Ray Henderson in December.

France's Havas Advertising SA announced the purchase of Bethesda-based Snyder Communications Inc. yesterday in a stock deal worth $2.07 billion, making Havas the world's fourth-largest advertising group. Snyder Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Snyder, who led a group of investors that bought the Washington Redskins last year, will leave the company after the transition is completed. "It's a very exciting event for us," Snyder said. "We feel this is a tremendous opportunity.

The first frazzled week of school is history and, I must admit, this year's opening has been remarkably smooth.No missed buses so far. My eldest has assumed the chauffeuring duties for her freshman sibling. Coordinating time in the bathroom at 6:45 a.m. has not presented a problem. Yet.Most of the classroom supplies have been bought, but there is that running tab of extras -- lab fees, workbooks, notebooks and calculators -- required to get them through the first semester.I grumbled to an old friend with children in college about the costs, but she scoffed at my whining over a piddling $30 tab and offered to swap it for hers, which seems to be rising as fast as the national debt.

A partial solution to the problem of sheltering the homeless may be floating off the gloomy docks of Fairfield in South Baltimore.The Sanctuary, an old Navy hospital ship rusting away at the end of Childs Street, has been taken over by a new board of directors that envisions it as a shelter where addicts and alcoholics would have access to detoxification and job training.The old board of Life International, a nonprofit group that bought the 49-year-old ship from Congress for $15 in 1990 with plans for Third World medical missions, resigned on Tuesday.

Racing champion Michael Andretti is working on a last-minute effort to organize the Baltimore Grand Prix, teaming with two local businessmen to put together the Labor Day street racing festival, the mayor's office announced Thursday. The new racing group, Race On LLC, will be headed by J.P. Grant , a Columbia-based financier with close ties to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and Curtis Bay concrete contractor Greg O'Neill. They will provide the financial muscle behind the group, which must speed through preparations in 31/2 months.

The NFL will make another run at selecting its second expansion city on Nov. 30, but this time there will be no 11th-hour substitutions.When the league scheduled its expansion meeting for Chicago yesterday, it set a deadline of Nov. 15 for any ownership changes.That means Baltimore has less than 10 days to establish a third ownership group if city organizers decide to take that route.On Oct. 26, when Charlotte, N.C., was awarded the NFL's 29th franchise, St. Louis' ownership group had been in place just two days.

Two top legislators got an earful yesterday about the problem of counterfeit checks from law enforcement officials, the banking industry and retailers who urged, among other things, stiffer penalties for forgers. "Take it right toward the kingpin by making it such a high risk to them that it's not worth it," said Al Banthem, an official with Mars Supermarkets. One fraud investigator compared the forgers' network to that of organized crime. In response, state Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, a Charles County Democrat and chairman of the Finance Committee, organized a group to develop ways to fight bogus checks.

MOSCOW -- The last time Russia put a group of international volunteers in a capsule to simulate the conditions of far-flung space travel, the mission nearly fell apart. As they were confined together for months, tensions between two Russian scientists erupted in a bloody fistfight during a millennium New Year's Eve celebration in the cramped quarters. One of them later allegedly tried to force a kiss on a Canadian researcher, triggering a furor on the ship and off. Members of one team eventually locked a hatch to separate themselves from the Russians.

City officials have terminated the contract of the troubled company that organized the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix and are seeking a new group to run the racing festival in the coming year, the mayor's office announced Friday. The city ended Baltimore Racing Development's five-year contract after the company failed to meet the terms of the agreement, officials said. The racing group owes the city more than $1.5 million in taxes and fees — a fraction of the company's $12 million in debts.