Part Time

DETROIT -- Kevin Millar was not in the Orioles' starting lineup for the fifth time in the past eight games last night, and he acknowledged that the frustration is starting to build. "It's getting there," said Millar, clearly measuring his words. "I am just going to be patient at this time and let things play out. It always works out. But it's been frustrating. We've been losing a lot. We were playing good as a group and then we got in a tough spell as a team. Personally, you just wait your turn now. "It is what it is right now. I am an employee here.

Maryland first lady Kendel S. Ehrlich disclosed yesterday that she receives a $55,000-a-year salary from Comcast, but said her part-time job producing anti-drug programs for the cable giant creates no conflict of interest with her husband's duties. Comcast holds millions of dollars in contracts with state agencies and is regulated by the Public Service Commission, whose members are appointed by the governor. Appearing with Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. on WCBM radio yesterday morning, Kendel Ehrlich criticized a newspaper report about her outside employment, saying that her job with Comcast, which has most of the cable subscribers in Maryland, predated her husband's election as governor.

Peg Barton prepared for retirement, but that doesn't mean she's necessarily ready for it. Barton retired in 2004 - well short of age 65 - after 30 years as a social worker helping troubled youths and mentally challenged adults. "I really needed a break after being a social worker for most of my career," Barton wrote in a letter requesting a Money Makeover. Over her career, Barton managed to stash away about a quarter-million dollars in retirement and savings accounts. Invested and spent wisely, that money should be enough to outlive her, said Dan Danford, a Kansas City, Mo., financial adviser.

Q. Can a company require a part-time person to work full-time as needed? I signed on to work 25 hours per week, but lately my employer has required me to work full-time. Yet I still earn the 75 percent part-time rate for vacations and holidays. The company isn't sympathetic. Do I have any legal recourse? A. Unless an employment agreement says otherwise, your company generally can require you to work any number of hours, said Jeffrey M. Schlossberg, a lawyer at Ruskin Moscou Faltischek PC in Uniondale, N.Y. But the good thing is that if you're an hourly employee, you have to be paid for all the hours you work and paid overtime when you work more than 40 hours in a week.

When Deion Sanders re-signed with the Ravens two months ago, the loquacious nickel back talked about settling "unfinished business." Sanders spoke about his desire to win another Super Bowl and end his stellar career with a memorable season. Funny, he never mentioned anything about re-inventing himself as a pass rusher. After two weeks of training camp, the biggest surprise is how Sanders has changed from a cornerback that quarterbacks used to throw away from to a defender that quarterbacks have to run from.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - At a dusty encampment filled with canvas tents and loblolly pines, Linda Schmidt finally spotted her elusive employee. Michael Kristian, a 38-year-old lieutenant colonel in the Maryland Army National Guard, had temporarily left his job as security director for the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services in Woodlawn for combat training here. His next stop could be Iraq. Schmidt couldn't have been more supportive as she trailed Kristian under a hot Carolina sun, through ear-shattering rifle ranges and into mock assaults on enemy-held towns.

FORT IRWIN, Calif. -- Dusty and sunburned like his troops, Brig. Gen. Stewart Rodeheaver came to this sprawling desert training base to prepare for a year's duty in Iraq -- and finally put to rest a 15-year-old slight. In the fall of 1990, Rodeheaver and fellow soldiers of the 48th Infantry Brigade, a Georgia-based National Guard unit, arrived at the Mojave Desert proving ground to gear up for war with Saddam Hussein's forces. But after weeks of exercises, the Army said the unit had poor leadership, could not maintain its vehicles and was unable to mount large-scale offensives.

Several weeks ago, Mark LaRose changed from his mechanic's work shirt to a soldier's desert fatigues, though he was determined that his Vermont service station remain open while he patrolled in Iraq. LaRose Texaco will be staffed by two mechanics and a bookkeeper who pumps gas in her spare time until LaRose's expected return to Enosburg Falls in the summer of 2006. "What we're hoping is that with the business we can get enough to pay the bills and stay afloat," said LaRose's wife, Elise, a third-grade teacher who is caring for the couple's two children.

I manage a small company with five full-time employees and four part-timers. My boss holds the part-timers' hours to no more than 15 a week because he believes more time would require him to pay benefits. But I don't agree. When I was a corporate manager, the minimum for benefits was 20 hours a week. I think my boss doesn't want to pay for more hours, though we need the help. As your example shows, companies define what part time looks like. That's because federal labor laws don't address the issue.

Carroll County authorities charged a convicted child molester yesterday with sexually abusing two 3-year-olds and raping one of them at a now-defunct Westminster day care center where he once worked as a part-time computer technician. James Allen Gregory, 59, whose last known address was in the 400 block of W. 24th St. in Baltimore, was charged with one count of second-degree rape, four counts of sexual abuse, two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and one count of third-degree sexual offense, according to county prosecutor Amy Blank Ocampo.