Phase

Confession: My son is in the gun phase. At least, I hope it's a phase. At 12, he has a collection of 20 or so. Most are Airsoft guns that shoot pea-sized plastic pellets; a few are BB guns. In addition, he has an arsenal of water-blasting guns. He also wants one that shoots little marshmallows. Another confession: I bought many of these guns, helped him buy others and let him use my credit card to buy yet more. So, I am enabling my son's gun habit. I protested the Vietnam War, and a sign in front of our house says, "Another Family for Peace."

Saddled with a 31-year-old project she inherited when she took office, Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens has promised residents living near the East-West Boulevard project that she will consider abandoning the third and final phase of the construction.Owens met with residents of the Lake Waterford, Brittingham and Pasadena neighborhoods Tuesday night in Pasadena to hear their opinions and concerns about the project, which would connect Veterans Highway to Route 2. Nearly two-thirds of the project has been completed.

Comsat Corp. shares climbed 27 percent yesterday after the Department of Justice said it would not oppose Lockheed Martin Corp.'s plans to acquire the satellite service company for $2.5 billion.The move clears the way for Lockheed to buy 49 percent of Comsat's shares by a deadline tomorrow, completing the first phase in a two-phase transaction. Lockheed's purchase of the rest of the company will require require congressional action, because law prevents one company from owning more than 50 percent of government-created Comsat.

Some numbers to ponder while waiting for the Orioles to pull out of this "slump":They have lost 24 of their last 30 games and 35 of their last 49 dating to last season.They're five games under .500 since sweeping the Braves 277 games ago in June 1997.Yes, that's a period that has included two front office regimes, numerous personnel moves and several blueprints, but still, the pattern is impossible to miss.You can keep calling their 4-13 start a slump or a phase or whatever, but the reality is the Orioles aren't a winning ballclub and haven't been for some time.

County and state officials will join Randallstown residents tomorrow to celebrate completion of the first phase of a $1.1 million Liberty Road streetscape project -- one of several efforts to improve the appearance of older Baltimore County communities.Ella White Campbell, executive director of the Liberty Road Community Council, said improvements to the facade of Liberty Court Shopping Center and the streets around it give a boost to the neighborhood."Liberty Road sets the tone for the community," Campbell said.

BOSTON -- Ever since it was discovered that Russell Weston Jr., the man charged with the Capitol murders, had a cabin in Rimini, Mont., we have been subject to yet another round of stories, titled loosely: There's something about Montana.What is it about the "last best place" that breeds, attracts or harbors the Freemen, the Kehoes, the Unabomber and the Westons? Psycho- and socio-babblers have all weighed in with theories about the isolation, the altitude, the power of myth.But I have come up with a much simpler and more logical explanation.

Shoppers at Maryland's newest factory outlet center, opening this August in Hagerstown, will find dozens of familiar, nationally known brands, among them Gap, Polo Ralph Lauren, Jones New York, Tommy Hilfiger, J. Crew and Nike.The developer, Baltimore-based Prime Retail Inc., plans to announce leases with about 45 merchants today during a preview tour of the village-style Prime Outlets at Hagerstown, which is under construction. The center, at the northwest corner of Interstate 70 and Route 65 in Washington County, will open Aug. 7.The 218,000-square-foot first phase will house about 60 stores, an enclosed food court, a playground and a customer-service center, all designed around landscaped pedestrian walkways and courtyards.

The judge in Ruthann Aron's murder-for-hire trial has reversed a decision and will allow the jury to hear at the same time evidence about the alleged crime and whether she was sane.In December, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Paul A. McGuckian granted prosecutors' request for a two-phase trial that would first determine Aron's guilt or innocence on murder-solicitation charges, then, if she was found guilty, determine whether she was responsible for her actions.Aron's lawyers said it would be nearly impossible to defend their client if they had to hold back evidence about her mental condition before her arrest in June.

"Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary," by Juan Williams. Times Books (Random House). 404 pages. $27.50.No one - not even Martin Luther King Jr. - is more a folk hero to African-Americans than Baltimore's own, Thurgood Marshall. And justly so: It was Marshall who fashioned the legal strategy that finally began the dismantling of racial segregation in American life.And it was Marshall, civil rights lawyer, federal judge, government advocate, and the first of his race to become a Supreme Court justice, who bequeathed a potential life of equality to even the poorest in the most neglected and pathetic ghetto.

LUTHERVILLE -- Two accidents that occurred at nearly the same time yesterday afternoon clogged southbound Interstate 83 and parts of Interstate 695 near Towson.The accidents -- a car fire and a separate, two-car crash -- took place within minutes of each other beginning at 1: 25 p.m., said State Highway Administration spokesman David Buck.No lanes were closed in the Beltway accident, while all lanes in I-83 were closed temporarily, said Maryland State Police Sgt. Robert Lipsky. There were no injuries in either accident, Lipsky said.

Near the intersection of East Chase and McDonogh streets in East Baltimore, most rowhouses have shattered windows, boarded-up doors and weedy lots. The sign on the vacant corner grocery has faded. These are among the 150 or so homes that are left after hundreds more were razed and residents displaced in the first phase of a huge urban renewal project just north of Johns Hopkins Hospital. East Baltimore Development Inc., the private nonprofit group transforming more than 100 acres of the Middle East neighborhood into a biotechnology park, housing, shops and offices, is now taking on its first big housing rehab project.

In days to come, Columbia residents will have several chances to see more details of plans for a redesigned downtown after the release of the General Growth Properties Inc. proposal this week. "The plan would be over a 30-year period -- it's a fairly long horizon," Gregory F. Hamm, GGP's regional vice president and Columbia general manager, told the audience of about 500 people Monday night at the developer's headquarters, where many stood to hear the plan. "Tonight is really the first page of the last chapter of this process."

I am happy to report the "brutal honesty" phase of Andy MacPhail's rebuilding project is apparently over. If I'm reading this right, we're now in the "stay-in-the-moment" phase, where the team is playing well above expectations and some fans are starting to filter back into the ballpark. Welcome to my semantic world, where subtle changes in vocabulary often mean more than you might think. MacPhail looked at me strangely when I asked him the other day if his "brutally honest" comments of last year were still in effect.

Funds approved for trail, park The state awarded $2 million this week to help fund two major parks projects in Anne Arundel County. The Board of Public Works approved $1.47 million to complete the second phase of the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Trail and $525,000 to complete another phase at Kinder Farm Park in Millersville. The money, which reimburses the county for work already done or near completion, came from Program Open Space funds. The trail, which will run on the abandoned roadbed of the old WB&A Railroad between Odenton and the Patuxent River, is for walking, jogging, cycling, rollerblading and equestrian uses.

Confession: My son is in the gun phase. At least, I hope it's a phase. At 12, he has a collection of 20 or so. Most are Airsoft guns that shoot pea-sized plastic pellets; a few are BB guns. In addition, he has an arsenal of water-blasting guns. He also wants one that shoots little marshmallows. Another confession: I bought many of these guns, helped him buy others and let him use my credit card to buy yet more. So, I am enabling my son's gun habit. I protested the Vietnam War, and a sign in front of our house says, "Another Family for Peace."

You may easily survive 30 years after retirement. Will your money? With life expectancies climbing, so are fears about outliving savings. And as traditional defined-benefit pension plans wane, insurers are rushing new longevity-based products to the market. Of course, no one should buy any of these products without first mapping out a strategy that identifies what you will need so you don't end up with policies ill-suited to your situation. "You basically want to try to replicate a defined-benefit pension" in a 401(k)

BGE is working out details on how its customers can sign up to phase in the 72 percent electric rate increase approved by the Public Service Commission of Maryland, a spokesman for the utility company said yesterday. The new rate is to take effect July 1, but customers have the option of phasing it in over the next two years, starting with a 19.4 percent rate increase. Robert L. Gould, a spokesman for BGE's parent company, Constellation Energy Group, said the utility company plans a direct-mail and media campaign to advise customers of their options.

NEW YORK - In the days after the December earthquake and tsunami in South Asia, industrialized nations engaged in a bout of international one-upmanship, outdoing each other in their pledges of aid for the devastated region. Six months later, has that "competitive compassion" been converted into dollars and yen and euros? Or, as has happened after other natural disasters, has interest waned now that the world's attention has turned to other issues? The verdict, at least so far, is that the money is materializing.

Carroll Hospital Center has opened its 8,000-square-foot, $1.7 million outpatient center, which hospital officials say will give residents more in-county treatment options for chronic ailments. The opening of the center ushers in the last phase of the Westminster hospital's $80 million renovation project, which broke ground in June 2002. The first phase, finished during the summer, includes a larger emergency department, a four-story tower with 72 private rooms, a new front entrance and lobby, and a gift shop.

Police release name of Pasadena girl, 2, who drowned in pool Anne Arundel County police have released the name of the 2-year-old Pasadena girl who drowned in her family's pool Monday afternoon. Kaycee Theresa Gilliss of the 200 block of Hillcrest Road was pronounced dead after being rushed to North Arundel Hospital. Police said the toddler entered the family pool without her parents' knowledge. Her mother then saw her floating on the surface of the pool from an upstairs window. Police and paramedics responded to the scene about 5:30 p.m. but could not revive the girl.