PAL

D'Antoine Webb dreams of one day joining the CIA. Or maybe the FBI.But first the 14-year-old North Baltimore boy is going to ride on a dog sled, in Alaska, for the start of next month's 1,100-mile Iditarod race from Anchorage to Nome. And that's no dream.D'Antoine, a student at Pimlico Middle School, was the winner last night of the Baltimore Police Athletic League's "I Did It for PAL" essay contest.At a crowded and stifling, but very happy ceremony last night at Baltimore Police Headquarters, he was chosen from among 121 contestants for a free trip to Anchorage and a place on a dog sled to be driven by musher and PAL board member Dan Dent.

The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (Nasdaq) made an investment in the futures of Baltimore's youth yesterday by donating leftover computer equipment to the Baltimore Police Athletic League.Fifty personal computers, retired when the stock marketupdated its operations in greater Washington, were delivered yesterday for distribution to youth centers used by the PAL. The PAL has a 3-year-old program designed to reduce juvenile crime by allowing young people to work with police officers in recreational and educational activities.

With 57 years of living behind him, a home, family and two friendly dogs in Baltimore, investment adviser Dan Dent should have been home by the fire with his feet up in January.Instead, his breath frozen on his face, he was alone in the wilderness, mushing teams of huskies across 600 miles of icy rivers and snowy forests in Alaska.He returned to Baltimore qualified to compete in the 1999 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, at 1,150 miles the longest and most grueling in Alaska.But he also came back with an idea that he hopes will give inner-city youths a taste of the adventure and romance he's found among Alaska's hardy dogs and frigid beauty.

Nine-year-old Jonathan Thomas spent part of yesterday making a stomp rocket at the Baltimore Police Athletic League's second Summerfest, a police-sponsored fair that attracted about people to eat, dance, and play in sweltering Gwynns Falls Park.Thomas, who lives in Randallstown, rolled a blue square of paper around an 8-inch wooden dowel, taped it closed, added orange triangles to make wings, then closed off one end. He attached his hand-fashioned rocket to a rubber hose, then connected it to a rubber pump called an air bladder.

The city Police Department is reaching out to local businesses, hoping to forge partnerships that will enrich its growing Police Athletic League centers with corporate volunteers.The goal is to pair each of the 27 PAL centers with a business that will offer children teachers, mentors and supplies. Fifteen businesses have signed on to the program.It is similar to a partnership established between the Greater Baltimore Committee -- a group of top business leaders -- and city schools, which brings volunteers into the learning institutions daily.

A Baltimore police major who was removed as head of the Police Athletic League program amid an internal investigation into his conduct has retired from the force, ending a 26-year career with the department.Maj. Frank Melcavage, 49, retired Monday. Details of the investigation, the subject of numerous rumors at the downtown police headquarters building, will not be made public."I'm not going to get in it," said spokesman Sam Ringgold. "It was an allegation that wasn't proved one way or another because the retirement stopped the investigation."

The summer months offer 13-year-old Darryl Parker a stark choice: He can pocket $200 a week selling cocaine for his cousin or play soccer with Baltimore police officers."

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Running with screws and and an acrylic patch holding together a crack in his left rear hoof, Best Pal still outclassed the field in yesterday's $1 million Santa Anita Handicap.Best Pal, ridden by Kent Desmormeaux, overtook the front-runners in the final turn and pulled away down the stretch to become the richest horse currently running in North America.A California-bred son of Habitony, Best Pal beat Twilight Agenda by 5 1/2 lengths, with Defensive Play another 2 1/4 lengths back in third.

Trainers have said all week that they are running against Best Pal, the heavy favorite in today's Pimlico Special, just in case "he stubs his toe."Instead, the horse just might get stuck in the mud.The complexion of the $700,000 race changed considerably yesterday after heavy rains soaked the course.More sporadic showers are forecast for today, but even a drying-out course brings back memories of the same sort of track Best Pal caught last year in the Preakness. He finished fifth."What's the thing you dislike most about training horses that you have no control over?"

One of Maryland racing's longtime favorites, Baldski's Choice, will make his final public appearance at Pimlico Race Course today.The 8-year-old gelding, owned by Arnold Heft and trained by Jerry Robb, is being retired after seven years, 96 starts and $568,818 in career earnings."

The tartiest dish at a Baltimore Thanksgiving this year was not the sauerkraut, but the Vegas cocktail waitress Michael Phelps took to dinner at mom's. Caroline "Caz" Pal is a buxom brunette who shows up on Web sites like Beverly Hills Pimps and Hos covered in tattoos and not much else. She's also the girlfriend and holiday dining companion of Phelps, according to a People magazine report that quotes "a source close to Pal." Credit People for breaking the story, but give the New York Post props for playing up the angle of Phelps' "school-marm mother" meeting "a tattooed strip-club waitress who has bared her chest for photographers almost as many times as the Olympic swimming star."

Baltimore police are taking over the day-to-day operations of 18 Police Athletic League recreation centers from a nonprofit organization that no longer can handle running the program, city officials said yesterday. Mayor Martin O'Malley and Police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark said residents will notice no changes in the centers, which are scattered throughout the city. "It's about the kids, and we're not going to close any centers," O'Malley said. The takeover from the nonprofit Police Athletic League Inc. is expected to begin soon.

Mayor Martin O'Malley unveiled yesterday the city's plans for the Police Athletic League, an after-school program that has become tangled in the debate over how Baltimore should combat the scourge of street crime. Police officers will remain at 18 of the 26 PAL centers citywide. At the other eight locations, PAL and its police representatives will be replaced by private community-service organizations after the school year ends in June. "Recreation should not be the exclusive [domain]

PAL Centers must stay open to protect the city's children During the recent snowstorm, Mayor Martin O'Malley gained kudos for his concern for senior citizens, which suggested a commitment to the needs of the community, especially those of its most vulnerable members. The mayor's support for the planned closing of nine Police Athletic League (PAL) centers raises serious questions about that commitment ("Daniel says 9 PAL sites will be shut," Feb. 9). Unprotected, unsupervised and idle, children in many neighborhoods are at risk of being victimized or of finding companionship and an illusory sense of security in street gangs.

Walk into the Farring Baybrook Police Athletic League after school and ask the children playing basketball what they'd do if the center were to close. "Stand on the corner and do nothing," says D'andre Smith, 13. "Hang out at the playground with the crackheads," says Carlos Moody, 11. "Stay home and probably get beat up," says a 9-year-old. Farring Baybrook, just up the road from Brooklyn Homes public housing, has become a haven for children to study, play and get a little personal attention after school.

D'Antoine Webb dreams of one day joining the CIA. Or maybe the FBI.But first the 14-year-old North Baltimore boy is going to ride on a dog sled, in Alaska, for the start of next month's 1,100-mile Iditarod race from Anchorage to Nome. And that's no dream.D'Antoine, a student at Pimlico Middle School, was the winner last night of the Baltimore Police Athletic League's "I Did It for PAL" essay contest.At a crowded and stifling, but very happy ceremony last night at Baltimore Police Headquarters, he was chosen from among 121 contestants for a free trip to Anchorage and a place on a dog sled to be driven by musher and PAL board member Dan Dent.

With 57 years of living behind him, a home, family and two friendly dogs in Baltimore, investment adviser Dan Dent should have been home by the fire with his feet up in January.Instead, his breath frozen on his face, he was alone in the wilderness, mushing teams of huskies across 600 miles of icy rivers and snowy forests in Alaska.He returned to Baltimore qualified to compete in the 1999 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, at 1,150 miles the longest and most grueling in Alaska.But he also came back with an idea that he hopes will give inner-city youths a taste of the adventure and romance he's found among Alaska's hardy dogs and frigid beauty.

The National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (Nasdaq) made an investment in the futures of Baltimore's youth yesterday by donating leftover computer equipment to the Baltimore Police Athletic League.Fifty personal computers, retired when the stock marketupdated its operations in greater Washington, were delivered yesterday for distribution to youth centers used by the PAL. The PAL has a 3-year-old program designed to reduce juvenile crime by allowing young people to work with police officers in recreational and educational activities.

The city Police Department is reaching out to local businesses, hoping to forge partnerships that will enrich its growing Police Athletic League centers with corporate volunteers.The goal is to pair each of the 27 PAL centers with a business that will offer children teachers, mentors and supplies. Fifteen businesses have signed on to the program.It is similar to a partnership established between the Greater Baltimore Committee -- a group of top business leaders -- and city schools, which brings volunteers into the learning institutions daily.

Nine-year-old Jonathan Thomas spent part of yesterday making a stomp rocket at the Baltimore Police Athletic League's second Summerfest, a police-sponsored fair that attracted about people to eat, dance, and play in sweltering Gwynns Falls Park.Thomas, who lives in Randallstown, rolled a blue square of paper around an 8-inch wooden dowel, taped it closed, added orange triangles to make wings, then closed off one end. He attached his hand-fashioned rocket to a rubber hose, then connected it to a rubber pump called an air bladder.