Part Time

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 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.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. - Douglas Konecny loved everything about manufacturing. He loved the roar of the machines and the hum of the factory walls. The vibrations. The smells. Even the feel of the fans blowing against his damp skin on midsummer days when it was 10 degrees hotter inside the seven-story building than outside. He could tell when things were going right and when they were going wrong. Even when he wasn't there. "You actually feel it like your own blood pumping," Konecny, 49, says of the work that gave him satisfaction and a comfortable, middle-class life for nearly 30 years.

Maryland's highest court has upheld a Circuit Court ruling that four Baltimore County social services workers were properly classified as part-time despite their claims that they were essentially full-time employees. The workers argued in a November 2002 lawsuit that the county was circumventing its merit system -- and the county charter -- by labeling them part-time even though they worked just one hour less per week than their full-time counterparts. At the time of the suit, part-timers received fewer benefits than full-time employees.

In Howard County, traditional farms with their rolling fields of grain, rows of vegetables and herds of cattle are making room for smaller operations aiming for niche markets. More than 64 percent of farms in Howard County were 49 acres or smaller in 2002, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture census. Animal production -- including raising goats, rabbits, bison, llamas and horses -- has become the most prevalent type of farm, bumping beef cattle from the top spot. "One of the things we're learning to accept in agriculture is there are a lot of part-time people and being part time isn't bad," said Ginger S. Myers, agriculture economic development specialist with the Howard County Economic Development Authority.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. has proposed giving expanded vacation, sick leave and paid holidays to government employees who work between 30 and 39 hours a week. The county employs hundreds of such workers, mostly in social services jobs that are funded at least partly by grant money. But because these employees are not considered part of the county's merit system, they earn fewer benefits and enjoy less job security, which has led to complaints and lawsuits. One of those suits, brought by four part-time employees, was dismissed by a Baltimore County judge last summer but is scheduled for a hearing today at the Court of Appeals.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. has proposed giving expanded vacation, sick leave and paid holidays to government employees who work between 30 and 39 hours a week. The county employs hundreds of such workers, mostly in social services jobs that are funded at least partly by grant money. But because these employees are not considered part of the county's merit system, they have fewer benefits and enjoy less job security, which has led to complaints and lawsuits. One of those lawsuits, brought by four part-time employees, was dismissed by a Baltimore County judge last summer but is scheduled for a hearing today by the Court of Appeals.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The August night when three Maryland National Guard military police units arrived in Afghanistan, several rockets shrieked into the neighborhood near their Kabul base. The MPs raced through their mazelike compound, not far from the U.S. Embassy. They sealed the gates, conducted a hurried headcount and checked for damage. The missiles went wide, but the assault made a big impression on the Guardsmen. "That night was completely chaotic," recalled Spc. Michael Morehouse, 26, a Baltimore native who lives in Bowie, as he sat in the scraggly shade of a tree a few days ago. "We thought: `Oh, we're not in the States anymore.

WASHINGTON - When Capt. Harry S. Truman commanded a Missouri National Guard artillery battery in France during the summer of 1918, the unit's 75 mm shells were used to repel the German Army. Now part of Truman's old battery is reducing its firepower to target new foes. More than 100 artillerymen from the former president's unit - now nicknamed "Truman's Own" - are heading to Fort Leonard Wood, an Army base in Missouri that has developed a monthlong training regimen to turn artillerymen into military police.

WASHINGTON - With reports that hundreds of Army National Guard and Reserve soldiers mobilized for the war on terror are living in substandard military base housing and sometimes waiting months for medical care, the Army is sending more medical staff to the bases and moving the soldiers to better quarters. But Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and co-chairman of the National Guard Caucus, said he wonders whether the problems, which surfaced at Fort Stewart, Ga., are widespread. He wants an investigation of more than a dozen other bases where part-time soldiers stay before heading to duty overseas.

SAN FRANCISCO - Women's hourly pay nearly matches men's, fathers are spending more time with their children and employees report more family-friendly workplaces. To some, it sounds like a near-perfect world. But wait: Women's annual salaries still lag, couples are working longer hours, and more employees say it's now difficult to balance family and work, according to the latest National Study of the Changing Workforce. The survey is conducted every five years by the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit research group.