Pager

Businesses can donate used equipment to any suitable Baltimore-area charity more easily because of Bill Ewing's $48.12 pager.Three Maryland nonprofit groups are working together to make it simpler for companies that might not know where to give used desks, chairs, computers and other office machines that low-budget groups often need but might not be able to afford, said Ewing, executive director of the Maryland Food Bank.Together, the Food Bank, the Community ResourceBank of the United Way of Central Maryland and The Loading Dock Inc. serve about 1,000 nonprofit groups.

The county school board will begin wrestling tonight with a new version of its policy banning portable pagers in school.Current policy includes the pagers, often used by drug dealers, in a blanket ban on alcohol and firearms. But the school staff is expected to recommenda separate statement for the pagers during the meeting at 7:30 p.m. in the board headquarters on Riva Road.A state law passed last year makes it illegal to possess pagers on school property.The staff also is recommending that individual school principals be given some flexibility in deciding who may be allowed to have pagers on school grounds.

An Essex woman was robbed of $450, a pager and cellular phone yesterday by two men who said they were police officers when she went to a Charlesmont apartment to be a dancer at a party, Baltimore County police said.The woman was not injured in the incident.Police said the woman, who works for AAA Adorable Escort services in Towson, went to the apartment in the 7800 block of W. Collingham Drive shortly after 7 a.m. for a party that was scheduled there.A man let her in the apartment, and he and another man immediately handcuffed the woman behind her back, pushed her to the ground and told her she was under arrest for prostitution, police said.

At the Countryside Mall in Clearwater, Fla., parents cruise the stores as their children nap or play games at the Jabbawokki child-care center. What happens if one child bites another, complains of a stomach ache or begins to sob inconsolably?Scott Kaufman, who heads the center (yes, its name differs from the "Jabberwocky" of Lewis Carroll), can instantly dial the number of the hand-held pager that the parents are given as part of the child-care service. Hearing the beep, mom or dad knows to scurry back.

Jewel and John Verde have gotten used to bright lights flashing behind their Gambrills home and buzzing sounds coming from the bathroom. It's only their son, John Jr., perfecting one of his inventions.The 16-year-old Arundel High School junior's knack for fiddling has paid off.John won third place and a $1,000 savings bond in a contest sponsored by Duracell, the battery company, and the National Science Teachers Association for an invention that pages people to let them know someone is at the door.

The voices that ring out across Baltimore's airport terminals, paging lost travelers and steering foreigners to a meeting spot, will be a service of the past starting next month. And if you want to get a live person on the line when calling the airport's toll-free number for general inquiries, forget about it. The Maryland Aviation Administration is closing the communications center at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, a move prompted by state budget woes that will save $450,000 a year.

Twelve years ago, the General Assembly banned students from carrying pagers onto school grounds, believing the devices were primarily tools for drug dealers. Yesterday, the House of Delegates decided times have changed. The House voted 110-26 to lift the ban -- which in practice has been construed to cover cell phones and pocket-size computers as well -- on grounds that such equipment is now widely used for legitimate purposes. The bill now goes to the state Senate. Sponsors said repealing the 1989 law will ensure that parents can reach their kids during school hours, and that students won't be restricted from using Palm Pilots or laptop computers in class.

Restaurant coaster pagers - those clunky hunks of plastic that flash, vibrate and/or beep when your table is ready - are getting some new bells and whistles. After changing the technology little since the mid-1990s, makers are now hawking souped-up models that can do everything from tell time to play electronic games. And some firms are trying to expand their use beyond restaurant lobbies to stores, health care facilities and other places where patrons cool their heels. "For years ... the only thing there was in the industry was a coaster pager with lights," said Lisa Roberts, chief financial officer of North Carolina-based EPD Inc., which this year began selling a pager called the InfoCube with games, famous quotes and other information.

When a masked robber shot a McDonald's restaurant manager in Baltimore County last January, he left in such a hurry that a pager fell in the snow. That pager led to the arrest of Ardale D. Tickles, 19, of the 1600 block of E. Northern Parkway in Baltimore.Yesterday, Tickles -- who is charged in Howard County in an unrelated murder-for-hire scheme -- went on trial in Baltimore County Circuit Court, charged with robbery and attempted murder in the McDonald's incident.Assistant State's Attorney James O'C. Gentry Jr. told a jury that the pager found outside the McDonald's on Joppa Road near Loch Raven Boulevard was rented to a man calling himself, "Knowledge Supreme" -- a nickname used by Tickles.

Steven Fink was having lunch one day with a kindred spirit -- another aficionado of the Palm Pilot digital organizer -- when the two men lined up their Palm Pilots side by side. With a click, one Palm Pilot sent an infrared beam to the other, transferring a computer program that would allow Fink to "draw" and save pictures in his Palm Pilot. Now, when people ask about the new sanctuary and auditorium being planned for Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, where Fink is a rabbi, he doesn't have to draw a sketch on a napkin.