Omitted

Tom Peterson stretched comfortably across an examining table at the Centre for Traditional Acupuncture in Columbia, thin needles sticking out like quills from his forehead, feet, hands and bare chest.It was just a "checkup," said the 62-year-old Baltimore resident, who started acupuncture years ago to treat chronic hay fever. "I still have it, but it is much milder."Although tens of millions of Americans like Mr. Peterson have turned to acupuncturists, chiropractors, massage therapists and other practitioners of alternative medicine, they would not get any encouragement from President Clinton's health reform legislation.

Less than a month after Baltimore's school system reported )) declining standardized test scores at elementary schools run by Education Alternatives Inc. (EAI), the company presented a much rosier view yesterday and questioned the "integrity" of the city results.In a move some viewed with suspicion, a panel of eight educators commissioned by the for-profit Minneapolis company disclosed an analysis of EAI-run schools, as well as those in the entire school system, that eliminated the scores of the lowest-scoring students over the past two years.

BLACK people who think that Steven Spielberg's latest movie ''Amistad'' is about black heroes taking their freedom by any means necessary are doomed to disappointment upon seeing the movie.While the film is loosely based on the true story of a group of Mende people from Sierra Leone, who in 1839 overpowered their Spanish captors aboard the slave ship La Amistad, it is largely a tale of white hero worship.The movie gives little time to the bloody slave mutiny led by Sengbe Pieh (called Joseph Cinque in the United States)

Sitting in the studio of WEAA radio, Diane McKinney-Whetstone probably doesn't realize what she's done.She's telling me about the book deal, the one with William Morrow and Co. that got her a healthy advance for her novel "Tumbling." She's telling me how the novel was her first stab at writing fiction, about the writing course she took at the University of Pennsylvania and the classmate who put her in touch with an agent, who contacted William Morrow's editors, who fell in love with the manuscript.

For the third year in a row, Anne Arundel County teachers will have to forgo cost-of-living raises.The school board adopted late Wednesday an operating budget of $383.4 million for fiscal 1994, which begins July 1, that includes no cost-of-living raises for school employees."At this time, the only thing we could include in this year's budget is money for step increases," said board President Vincent O. Leggett. "We remain committed, steadfast and unmovable in our support of our employees."

A new epilepsy drug, the first approved in 15 years, promises to control seizures without the harsh side effects common with more traditional treatment.Felbatol was approved last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to prevent epileptic seizures in people 14 and older, or in the 10 percent of children with epilepsy who have seizures from a condition called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which are difficult to treat.But the drug is likely to be used, as many drugs are, for other patients, including younger children or people with mild seizures.

This weekend, when you are planting your tulip bulbs and your daffodil bulbs and your crocus bulbs, think about planting a few garlic bulbs. Yep. Garlic. The planting season for garlic starts now in our Mid-Atlantic zone, just when you might be putting the rest of your garden to bed for the winter, and it extends until Thanksgiving. The bulbs will send down roots now and use winter's dormancy to develop. Then they send up shoots in the spring, so that mixing them in your perennial bed is a good idea.

Martin O'Malley mentioned Baltimore one time in his sleepy little State of the State speech yesterday in Annapolis. Geezy-peezy. For a guy who thinks the state of Maryland is strong (the second-wealthiest state in the nation) but "not as strong as we should be," he might have mentioned one of the main reasons why -- the city he just served as mayor for seven years. OK, six. He really spent the last year campaigning for governor, with his adopted hometown clearly in the rearview mirror for much of that time.

It's a spat between true believers, a feud over index funds. You wouldn't think kindred spirits would have such a beef with each other. But to a group of financial planners known as the Zero Alpha Group, mutual fund researcher Morningstar Inc. simply isn't committed quite enough to their index fund cause. It doesn't matter that Morningstar has long acknowledged that plain old index funds, over time, tend to wallop most funds that strut their stuff and employ high-priced stock-pickers to attract investors.

Baltimore County's Landmarks Preservation Commission is asking the County Council to reconsider its decision not to protect from demolition three buildings the commission considers historic. In a "position paper" to be presented at the council work session tomorrow, the commission criticizes the council for removing the three buildings -- two in the Catonsville area, one in Essex-- from a landmarks-preservation bill. The move to omit the buildings from the bill "seriously degrades the integrity and purpose of the Baltimore County Landmarks Preservation Commission in carrying out its lawful duties," states the paper, which was unanimously approved by the 12 commission members present at a meeting Thursday night.