Participation

•Laurel Regional Hospital and the Metropolitan Washington Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation are offering an exercise program called People With Arthritis Can Exercise (PACE) on Mondays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. beginning Thursday and ending March 8 at the hospital, 7300 Van Dusen Road, Laurel. The program uses group participation to improve endurance, joint mobility and body mechanics. The exercises are designed to be within the capability of most people with arthritis. Participants must be able to walk independently, with a device, or to transfer to a straight chair from their wheelchair.

Families in general and children in particular are the focus of a new program at Wakefield Valley Golf Club in Westminster.Under the plan to start April 1, a child (10-17 years of age) accompanied by a parent paying the regular rate will be admitted free of charge during weekday twilight golf."With this plan, we hope to address these two areas that are of critical concern," said Hank Majewski, director of golf at Wakefield Valley."Overall, there is genuine concern for the family structure, and there is no doubt parents should spend more time with their children.

Cast your luck at fishingThe second annual bluefish tournament sponsored by the Ocean City Fishing Center will take place Thursday to next Sunday. The center is home to Ocean City's largest charter fishing fleet, with more than 25 professional charter boats. Participation in the tournament costs $350, and 60 percent of the take goes into the prize pot. For more information, call Marci Seidel at 289-8121.Visit Life Saving MuseumThe Ocean City Life Saving Station Museum is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Displays in this quaint white building and lighthouse at the inlet capture the town's history through miniatures of historic buildings, authentic bathing costumes, maps of shipwrecks and five saltwater aquariums filled with sea life native to Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Government surplus food will be available at 23 different churches, community associations and housing authority buildings between 8 a.m.and 6 p.m. next Thursday for eligible county families.Rice, potatoes, butter, flour, vegetarian beans, applesauce, honey and canned pork will be available to anyone now receiving welfare, Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Food Stamps Assistance, Medicaid, Maryland Energy Assistance Program (MEAP), or people earning less than150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines.

Despite a slight drop in their SAT scores, Carroll County students continued to outperform other test-takers statewide and nationally, earning a combined average of 1,037 points out of a possible 1,600 on the college-entrance exam. Statewide, the 2004 class of high school seniors posted slightly better SAT scores than last year's seniors and Maryland students also showed a modestly higher rate of improvement than the rest of the nation. Scores in the Baltimore region were a mixed bag. They increased in the city and in Anne Arundel and Howard counties, but dropped in Harford, Carroll and Baltimore counties, according to local school officials who hastened yesterday to analyze data as it was being made public by the College Board, which administers the SAT. Montgomery County led all counties in Maryland by earning the highest combined score of 1,102.

THE horror of American bodies being dragged through the streets of Somalia and the shock of Army Rangers being ambushed have left Americans furious and numb.The disaster has brought an understandable instant response Get our troops out now. However, as President Clinton said yesterday, before a hurried pullout, we must think hard about the meaning of what we're doing in Somalia.Nobody argues we should stay in Somalia any longer than minimally necessary. But the way we leave is crucial. We will not leave Mogadishu until we get our hostages back and every American serviceman is accounted for. Beyond that, the Somalis don't have anything we want.

Community service award Anne Arundel Community College was named for a fifth consecutive year to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service for its support of volunteering, service and civic engagement. AACC is one of two Maryland community colleges to receive the honor. Launched in 2006, the Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service and civic engagement. Selection factors include percentage of student participation in service activities, scope and innovation of service projects, incentives for service and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses. Last year, AACC students, faculty and staff devoted 12,282 hours to projects or organizations in the community.

Association for Quality, Participation to meetA spring conference for the Chesapeake Chapter of the Association for Quality and Participation will take place from 9 a.m. to 3: 30 p.m. June 12 at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel.Featured speaker is Rick Mauer, consultant and author of "Beyond the Wall of Resistance into Support for Change." Mauer will offer ways to increase support for change in organizations.Conference participants will be able to attend two workshops of the four offered.

WASHINGTON -- Based strictly on the Commission on Presidential Debates' principal yardstick for participation, it's hard to argue against its exclusion of Reform Party candidate Ross Perot. He clearly does not have a ''realistic'' as opposed to a ''theoretical'' chance of being elected, as the commission stipulated to qualify.There is also merit in deciding that there will be one-on-one debates between the two major-party nominees, Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, so that voters can evaluate their differences without the distraction of Mr. Perot.

Landlords in Howard and Montgomery counties cannot turn away low-income renters who pay for their housing with federal vouchers, Maryland's highest court ruled yesterday. The unanimous ruling upholds fair-housing laws in those counties and, housing advocates say, provides momentum for a drive to pass a statewide law requiring landlords to accept rental vouchers. Such a law, advocates say, would make it easier for poor people to live in affluent communities with better jobs and better schools.