Problem

There was a telling, though clearly unintentional moment during yesterday's kickoff news conference at Towson High for a splashy new awareness campaign to curb the presumably runaway scourge of performance-enhancing drug use in high schools. Just before a group of earnest young actors from Carroll County performed a brief skit about the ills of steroids, their teacher/adviser told the audience that the troupe would be performing an improvised routine, the kind where the actors know where they're going and where they'll end up, but not how they'll actually get there.

NEW YORK -- Watch out, America. Age diversity is the next business issue that's destined to grab headlines and become a major topic of discussion.Labor Department statistics confirm the obvious: The economy is booming. More than 300,000 jobs were created in February -- the fourth month in a row that's happened.Unemployment dropped to 4.6 percent, the lowest since the early 1970s, and it's far lower in places such as Nebraska, where only 1.6 percent of workers are without jobs. (In large urban areas, unemployment rates continue to be higher for a myriad of reasons.

A shortage of police officers is straining Baltimore's crime-fighting efforts, prompting at least one district commander to borrow from his burglary, traffic and foot squads to keep up with emergency calls.While top department commanders said public safety is not jeopardized, they acknowledge that the force -- with an authorized complement of 3,200 officers -- has about 200 openings and another 200 officers on long-term medical leave."Those are people who could be put to much better use if they could be put to work or retired," said Col. Elbert E. Shirey, chief of the patrol division.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Finance Committee's bipartisan approval of significant changes in the Medicare system is an extraordinary display of the kind of political courage that has been rare in this capital recently. The question now is whether it ++ will prove to be an aberration or the first step in a historic change.Everyone who understands the problem of financing the major entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare, has recognized for years that ultimately there would have to be changes in both eligibility requirements and benefit levels.

I WAS PAGING through a book telling you how to behave in domestic emergencies when I came across the section on "Snakes Inside the House."This problem caught my eye for several reasons. First, of all the 188 problems listed in "The Home Repair Emergency Handbook," by Gene Schnaser (Taylor Publishing Co. 1992, Dallas, $15), this snake-invasion situation was one of the few I had missed.I have battled problem No. 26, a defective electrical plug (turn off power, disconnect cord, cut off defective plug, take to hardware store for replacement)

THERE ARE people who think it, but would never say they see the poor performance of big-city schools such as Baltimore's as a ''black'' problem. Some believe the schools are simply confirming their long-held belief that African Americans are not the intellectual equals of whites.Then there are the ''liberals'' who think the consequences of living in poverty -- as a disproportionate number of black children do -- means any academic success has to be an exception.In either case, their prejudice blinds them.

SOME STUDENTS and parents have already proclaimed the new voluntary uniform policy at Shipley's Choice Elementary School a success. On the first day, nearly 100 students came in uniforms -- khaki or navy slacks with white or blue polo shirts for boys and a white blouse and plaid jumper or skirt for girls. But the majority of the Millersville school's 440 students gave the uniforms a thumbs down. It just might be too early to claim victory.While uniforms can reduce some students' misguided efforts to outdo each other with expensive designer-label clothes, they don't eliminate the problem.

I AM 44 YEARS OLD, not a young man anymore, but sometimes I feel much older, as if I should be pulling on a robin's-egg-blue polo shirt and yellow Sansabelt slacks at 4: 30 in the afternoon and lining up for the Early Bird special at a steak joint in Miami Beach.Tell me something: When did everyone under the age of 25 start using "No problem" as a substitute for "You're welcome"?Was this some cosmic change in the vernacular announced on MTV between a Red Hot Chili Peppers video and a commercial for Mountain Dew?

THE UNITED Nations food summit in Rome highlights differences of opinion over what the problem is. At the last conference in 1974, many experts thought that world population had overtaken world food production. That turned out not to have been true then, and it is not true yet.Great philosophical questions were raised that were not susceptible to agreement. One is whether population growth is the problem and needs to be curtailed. Another pits the U.S., committed to biotechnological advance, against those who believe that genetically altered grains reduce nutrition and increase Third World dependence.

WHAT'S THE worst part of a two-week vacation? Getting back to work, of course.As any worker knows, readjusting after two weeks away from the job is a lot harder than re-entry after a week. Maybe someone should remind the governor of that -- along with whoever advised the administration that a helpful way to deal with disruptive students is to double the amount of time they can be suspended without a hearing from five days to 10.With that kind of reasoning, schools might as well admit defeat and expel them altogether.

Wondering what's been happening with some of the problems recently highlighted in Watchdog? Update:: The water has stopped running on Millers Island. Last week, Baltimore public works employees fixed a water leak at Cuckold Point Road and Bay Drive in eastern Baltimore County that had continued since September, and county workers repaired the street. "Everybody on this end of town is happy," said Edgar Bartlett, one of several neighbors who contacted Watchdog about the problem. They had called Baltimore County's number for the city's 311 service several times, since Baltimore's public works department maintains the city and county water systems.

I sold my home in Vermont this past June (I now live in New Jersey), and since the closing, that area has received tremendous amounts of rain. As a result, the new owners have had water in the finished basement. They claim we knew about the leaking in the basement because they discovered "staining" from where it had occurred before. We never had water in the basement in the eight years we lived there, other than condensation on the pipes, which would weep onto the floor. After wrapping the pipes in foam insulation and having air conditioning installed in the home, we never had that problem again.

THE PROBLEM -- A Brooklyn soccer pavilion lacked running water. THE BACKSTORY -- A tipster reported to Watchdog that the William J. Myers Soccer Pavilion in Brooklyn had had no running water for three weeks. After a call to the Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks, Watchdog discovered that the facility actually had been without water since Feb. 11. When she was reached Thursday, Malkia McLeod, a recreation and parks spokeswoman, wasn't sure what had caused the problem. She said that staff from the city's Department of Public Works had come out to investigate Wednesday.

THE PROBLEM -- A park located just north of the city line has not had running water for at least two years. THE BACKSTORY -- Robert E. Lee Memorial Park off Falls Road in Baltimore County boasts 450 acres of wilderness, with dozens of hiking and jogging trails. An Internet site devoted to dog owners rated it the best park in the Baltimore area to walk your canine. Prime spots are around Lake Roland, a former city reservoir. But don't try to use the bathrooms. Or take a drink of water from the fountain.

As it attempts to erase a $1.5 billion difference between spending commitments and income, the O'Malley administration faces a classic test of political leadership. During the recent General Assembly session, Gov. Martin O'Malley and the legislative leaders agreed to lead - next year. They put off the $1.5 billion problem for another day. But that day is near. By late fall, the O'Malley administration must have clear outlines of a solution in hand. It will have to assume that additional revenue will be available to balance the books.

There was a telling, though clearly unintentional moment during yesterday's kickoff news conference at Towson High for a splashy new awareness campaign to curb the presumably runaway scourge of performance-enhancing drug use in high schools. Just before a group of earnest young actors from Carroll County performed a brief skit about the ills of steroids, their teacher/adviser told the audience that the troupe would be performing an improvised routine, the kind where the actors know where they're going and where they'll end up, but not how they'll actually get there.

THE PROBLEM -- Alisa D. Bralove-Scherr, a state employee who commutes downtown from Owings Mills, reported that there is inadequate lighting in the courtyard leading to the Charles Center Metro stop, in the block bound by Fayette, Baltimore, Calvert and St. Paul streets. THE BACKSTORY -- Bralove-Scherr wrote that, to enter the subway station from Fayette Street, "commuters must first make their way through a very dark section that is popular among panhandlers." She said she feels uncomfortable walking alone to the subway when she gets out of work after dark.

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. -- Faulty software and a balky computer on a simulator in New Mexico delayed the launch of two satellites from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore yesterday. Officials weren't sure when they would know enough about the problems to reschedule. "At the very best, we would launch Thursday morning. But that's optimistic," said Col. Samuel McCraw, mission director for the U.S. Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center. "There's a lot of analysis that's going on."

Good morning --Bill Cowher -- No Big Ben, but chin up, Coach. Actually, that's never a problem for you, is it?

THE ISSUE: Anne Arundel County residents and officials who attended a panel discussion last week on perceived failures of the county's criminal justice system agree that there's a serious problem but don't agree on where the problems are. Some call for judges to impose tougher sentences, others for better treatment and rehabilitation programs. YOUR VIEW: Where does the problem lie? Tell us what you think at arundel.speakout@baltsun.com by tomorrow. Please keep your response short and include your name, address and daytime phone number.