Occupants

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Five people were injured yesterday when a man dropped a grenade on U.S. soldiers delivering mattresses to a university dormitory in Baghdad, and two Arab television networks broadcast videos of masked fighters calling for continued armed uprisings against occupation forces. None of the injuries in the grenade attack was serious, but it illustrated that even goodwill missions here are fraught with danger. In Basra, demonstrators angry over electricity blackouts and long lines for expensive fuel pelted British soldiers with rocks yesterday in a second day of protests, a confrontation that seemed to mark a drastic change in the relatively tranquil city.

Over-building in Liberty Rd. corridorReporter Larry Carson's story on July 3 about school overcrowding and development in Baltimore County refers to the Hebbville School in my community.It is asserted that the Hebbville School is 40 percent over-crowded and that only 12 housing units have been proposed nearby.There are two developments that Baltimore County has authorized near the school that will contain more than 200 units. I believe that less than 10 units have been built and sold to date.

Wayne Simonsen doesn't have season tickets to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, but he may have the next best thing.As a waiter in the posh Camden Club restaurant on the seventh and eighth floors of the warehouse behind right field, he has a clear view of the action whenever he looks out the window."

I watched shaking my head as Vice President Joe Biden pleaded with Republicans to pass the bill funding police, firefighters and teachers' jobs. But it was only last week that the administration had $20 billion on hand left over from the first stimulus, and it was rushing to find green companies worthy of investing in. Are these the best political minds this country has to offer? This is the same administration that encourages and embraces the Wall Street occupiers who have cost cities across the country millions of dollars in police overtime pay. One moment they are telling liberal demonstrators to keep doing what they're doing, hoping their protests will blossom into a left-wing backlash against the tea party.

ISRAEL IS THE key to understanding President Bush's strategy in Iraq. Not because it had any influence over the decision-making process leading to the Iraq war, but because the Bush administration has adopted the democratic occupation model that Israel introduced in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. After the eruption of the first Palestinian intifada in December 1987, Israel had to deploy a relatively large number of troops aided by tanks and armored vehicles to sustain the occupation - exactly as the United States is now doing in Iraq.

The multifaceted issue of race continues to cling to this country. Every sign of progress in relations seems to come with an opposite move, so that it often seems as if little has ever really, fundamentally changed since the age of Jim Crow, or even Reconstruction. There is much in this black-and-white vortex for playwrights to mine. I'm not sure if anyone will ever demonstrate that more movingly than Lorraine Hansberry did in 1957 with her incisive drama “A Raisin in the Sun,” but it sure is interesting to see what happens when others try. Two writers have taken “Raisin” as a starting point.

When a child died after falling from a town house bedroom window in 1982, the County Council enacted a law requiring "child-proof" screens on windows more than 3 feet above ground level.Under a proposedrevision to the county's building code, David M. Hammerman, the chief of the county's inspections and permits department, is requesting elimination of the "child-proof" screen provision, citing fire safety reasons.Hammerman said the law requiring residential window screens to besecurely fastened is unique nationally and conflicts with the national model building code, which "requires windows be easily opened without a special tool by an occupant in event of escape, rescue and ventilation in case of a fire."

Police reports in Baltimore city and county Southeastern Baltimore Arrests City police and Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive federal agents raided a house in the 1100 block of Bonsal St. Wednesday and arrested two men on warrants and seized an 8mm rifle and several ounces of suspected cocaine. Arrested and charged with weapon and drug violations were Jimmie Newell, 47, whose address was not available, and Randy Carver, 52, of the Bonsal Street address. Theft Someone broke into Hertz Equipment Rentals in the 5500 block of O'Donnell St. between Tuesday night and early Wednesday and pumped out 1,742 gallons of diesel fuel from an underground storage tank.

The scene was more or less what I'd expected: lots of tents, lots of animated conversations among bohemian types who hadn't had enough sleep. But something was missing. "I didn't hear any drumming," I remarked as Robert Brune and I made the drive back to Columbia from Washington, where he'd just given me the nickel tour of the Occupy D.C. encampment on McPherson Square. "Yeah, I think some people had their fill of the drumming," he replied. After all, he explained, when you're only getting three or four hours sleep a night because you're in a tent alongside a busy city street, it's important to grab a few winks during any daylight down time.

"It was gone in 15 minutes. That's all it took to knock down Miss Hawks' house," Lester Watson, a cashier at Graul's Market in Ruxton, told a shopper last week. What Watson, who keeps an eye on what goes on in the community, was talking about was a large shingled house ringed by porches on a double lot. It was a lovely example of early 20th-century cottage architecture that had sat on a breezy LaBelle Avenue hilltop for more than a century. Its sudden demolition this month left an architectural gap in the Ruxton Heights neighborhood and caused widespread sadness among neighbors.