Panel Of Experts

My mother calls her "Marcia," and talks about her with the same familiarity she uses to catch me up on the doings of the daughter of an old neighbor.As in: "Did you see Marcia's hair is different?"Like many immersed in the spectacle of the O. J. Simpson trial, my mother is talking about prosecutor Marcia Clark. It is "F. Lee Bailey" and "Johnnie Cochran" and "Robert Shapiro." But for the state's lead lawyer, it is "Marcia."Like everyone else, my mother comments on her style and her suits, and wonders how she's managing her two little kids during the trial.

One of the most worrisome things for parents are signs their child is having difficulty learning to read, because they know reading is the key to the child's education.The Sun has assembled a panel of experts to address your concerns about reading and your child -- from a psychologist and a pediatrician to an ophthalmologist and a reading teacher. We also will ask other parents what has worked for them.Your questions and the responses of our experts will appear in our special "Reading by 9" pages on Sundays and Wednesdays, beginning soon in the Today section of The Sun.L If you have a question, send it in and we'll get the answer.

Home Business Network to meet at agricultural centerThe Home Business Network will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Carroll County Agricultural Center in Westminster.The topic will be billing and collections -- how to get paid for the work you do -- discussed by a panel of experts on credit and collections.The meeting is open to the public. The group is a resource for home-based businesses in Carroll County. The Agricultural Center is on Smith Avenue extended.Information: 410-239-2255.Carroll chamber schedules membership luncheonCarroll County Chamber of Commerce will have its general membership luncheon at noon Nov. 12 at Wakefield Valley Golf and Conference Center.

An excerpt from a Chicago Tribune editorial published on FridayON Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board, took the Federal Aviation Administration and the Boeing Co. to task for laxity in responding to indications that the world's most popular aircraft, Boeing's 737, has a fundamental flaw that has caused two fatal crashes.The key words in the NTSB report were "reliably redundant," i.e., there is no mechanical or procedural safety net in the event the 737's rudder fails.Boeing says it has begun correcting the flaw.

WEATHER Today's forecast calls for mostly sunny skies, breezy conditions and a high temperature near 69 degrees. Tonight is expected to be partly cloudy, with a low temperature around 51 degrees. TRAFFIC Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM LAST NIGHT... Md.'s economic mobility is among the best in U.S. : The state is one of the best in the country for moving on up, what the study calls positive economic mobility, a new study by the Pew Charitable Trusts concludes.

WASHINGTON -- An independent panel of experts yesterday rebutted Republican charges that the nation's intelligence agencies deliberately played down the nuclear threat to the United States.The panel said a 1995 intelligence study -- which concluded that dTC no hostile nation capable of building a nuclear weapon would pose a nuclear threat to the continental United States in the next 15 years -- was not politically skewed in order to subvert efforts to build a "star wars" missile defense system now.The charge that the nation's intelligence services tailored the report to please the Clinton administration, which wants to study missile defenses more closely before building them, infuriated senior intelligence analysts.

WASHINGTON -- Concluding that drug rehabilitation programs are "a neglected front line in the war against drug abuse," a panel of experts is proposing a shift in federal resources to improve and expand the nation's drug treatment system.In a study undertaken by the prestigious Institute of Medicine, researchers found that rehabilitation is an important and cost-effective means of fighting the war on drugs."The treatment methods available today can yield benefits . . . that well exceed the costs of delivering these services," Lawrence S. Lewin, chairman of the research panel, said yesterday.

The Carroll County Sheriff's Office has begun a search to fill the new position of director of support services.The director will handle daily operations involving personnel and budgets, training, development, risk management and bookkeeping.Applicants with a bachelor's degree and four years of experience in personnel-related employment, or an equivalent combination of education and experience, should submit a county job application to Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning, 100 N. Court St., Westminster 21157.

The Feb. 3 Baltimore Sun once again reported unsettling and saddening news: "Six shootings, two dead in spate of city violence. " One must ask, why does such violence continue when the mayor, police chief, elected officials, religious leaders and concerned citizens have each taken diligent steps to address the violence? What else needs to be done or what has been overlooked that the violence cannot be minimized or stopped? It's disheartening that so many noble deeds by so many people haven't quelled the violence.

Scientists do not yet know enough about the long-term effects of weightlessness, radiation and other health issues to allow NASA to send astronauts on a three-year voyage to Mars, according to a panel of experts affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences. A report released yesterday warned that space travelers could lose 50 percent of their bone density during a journey to Earth's nearest planetary neighbor, meaning that they could be disabled by the collapse of their limbs, said the 14-member committee of the academy's Institute of Medicine.