Programs

It's a problem most government agencies wouldn't mind having: millions of tax dollars to spend, and not enough places to spend them. But for the Maryland Higher Education Commission - the agency that administers state-funded college scholarship programs - the looming threat of getting stuck this year with millions of dollars in undistributed student grants could threaten future financial aid funding, officials say. That's why the commission is anxious...

Volunteer Carroll to set up fundraiser Volunteer Carroll will hold a meeting to establish a new fundraiser at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Nonprofit Center, 255 Clifton Blvd., Westminster. The fundraiser will feature a karaoke/American Idol approach, with auditions over three evenings and a final event showcasing Carroll residents' talents at the Westminster Fallfest. Anyone interested in supporting Volunteer Carroll by serving on a committee for this fundraiser is asked to send an e-mail to volunteercarroll@ aol.com.

Spanking-new sneakers squeak against the clean floor of the Stanton Community Center's basketball court, as panting boys in black and white uniforms run up and down the court. Parents and community teenagers crowd together in the stands to watch the games. Later on this weeknight, more teenagers arrive just to hang out. "This is one tough neighborhood, with drugs, alcohol and shootings," said George "Lassie" Belt, who has worked at the center for more than 25 years. "If [the kids] could stay here all night, they would."

Reading program includes visitors Readers of all ages can sign up for Carroll County Public Library's summer reading programs that started Friday and continue to Aug. 11. This year's theme, Reading Road Trip, is filled with activities, programs and prizes. Visitors will include Uncle Pete, Magician Roger Lindsay, Poe the Ravens Mascot, Tacky the Penguin and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Activities include Harry Potter book release parties, the Three Billy Goats Reading Road Trip Puppet Show, author visits, and Jamming Jungle with guests from Theatre on the Hill.

SPOKANE, Wash. -- In any endeavor, there can be only one top dog, and both Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek want to be the alpha male of men's figure skating. Weir is the three-time national champion who wants to add a fourth consecutive title this week, which would tie him with Brian Boitano, the 1988 Olympic gold medalist. "Welcome to my world," said Weir playfully to open his news conference yesterday. Lysacek is the reigning world bronze medalist, who has bested Weir not only at the Olympics, but also at the past two world championships.

Melissa Calleri Recreation coordinator Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks Salary --$37,500 Age --27 Years on the job --Two How she got started --"It was a fluke," said Calleri, who attended Green Mountain College in Vermont. "I was there for graphic design." But after working with a friend at a nearby summer camp for children and adults with special needs, she knew she would pursue recreation as a career. Calleri graduated with a degree in therapeutic recreation. From there, she moved back to Maryland and completed her internship working with the City of Greenbelt's therapeutic recreation program.

Talk shows began to fascinate me when I was a teenager, many years ago. The first was the old radio program, The University of Chicago Roundtable. Over the years I also began to listen to Meet the Press and to watch David Susskind's television roundtable program, Open End, and many others. In more recent years, I can't bear to watch most of the talk shows on television, and on radio I listen only to Rush Limbaugh and a couple of others. What has happened? Is it just my becoming ornery in my old age, or have the programs changed?

. The availability and popularity of drugs and alcohol are a reality for many teenagers, including 18-year-old Lauren Barr. "I think there's a ton of pressure," said the Mount Hebron graduate. "Unfortunately, a lot of the adults do not understand or know how to deal with it." HC DrugFree, a nonprofit based in Howard County, aims to change that by educating parents about teenage smoking, drinking and drug use. "HC DrugFree's mission is to empower the Howard County community to raise drug-free teens," said executive director Laura Smit.

School officials couldn't quite fill all the seats when Meade High School launched a specialized pre-engineering curriculum four years ago. Now, overwhelmed by student demand, they plan to add a biomedical program to accompany the engineering courses. That will be in addition to scores of students - 50 percent to 60 percent of them minorities - expecting to take International Baccalaureate classes at Meade in 2008. "We've got academic momentum," Acting Principal Daryl Kennedy said. "And there's no stopping us."

As with so many issues, what it will take is Congress having enough guts to cut nonessential defense spending and reallocate that money toward other pressing needs. The problem is that defense spending is the ultimate example of corporate welfare. Virtually every congressional district in the country ... gets funding for defense-related programs. And virtually every member of Congress fights to get more of this money. When the talk turns to saving domestic programs and members of Congress start criticizing the president's budget, two questions should be asked: Will you vote to repeal the president's tax cuts, and which defense program in your district would you eliminate to save the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Head Start or other domestic priorities?

Literary journal The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Howard County is accepting submissions for its new literary webzine, Inkwell: NAMI Howard County's Creative Journal. Submissions should focus on issues related to mental illness such as recovery, stigma, acceptance and relationships. NAMI Howard County will accept work in the form of poetry, essays and visual art. The deadline for the first edition is Sept. 24. For guidelines, go to nami.org/sites/namihowardcounty. In recognition of Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW)

WASHINGTON - -With the recession easing, the Federal Reserve reached a new milestone Wednesday after two years of unprecedented intervention in the economy: It began the pullback. The central bank said that in October it will wind down a program to purchase U.S. government bonds, a first step in what could be a multiyear high-wire act. The Fed wants to remove its supports for the economy soon enough to prevent inflation but not so soon that the fragile recovery is quashed. After a two-day meeting, Fed policymakers pointed Wednesday to evidence that "economic activity is leveling out."

Summer can be a young mind's enemy. Not only are kids discouraged from tackling new concepts during lazy days of pool time and backyard play, but the long break from school, if not reinforced with summer learning, erodes knowledge gained from the previous school year. The Boston-based Family Education Network says that summer can be a "brain drain." It points to a University of Missouri study suggesting that when kids return to school after summer vacation, they've lost one month to three months of learning.

Recycle old TVs The Howard County Bureau of Environmental Services is asking residents who have decided not to continue using their analog TVs to recycle instead of throwing them away. Options available: * The Alpha Ridge Landfill Resident's Convenience Area, 2350 Marriottsville Road is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Saturday and accepts TVs, computers, keyboards, printers, scanners, laptops, VCRs, radios and other electronics. * Best Buy's Customer Take-Back Program allows customers to bring in their old TVs (32 inches or smaller)

Choose Civility Award Nominations are being accepted for this award to honor those who have displayed exemplary acts of civility in the community. For guidelines, criteria and nomination form, go to choosecivility.org and click on New Choose Civility Awards under What's New. Nominations are due by June 15. Awards will be presented at the Choose Civility Symposium on Oct. 8. Community service awards The Columbia Association has announced the winners of its Spirit of Columbia Scholarship Award for Columbia high school seniors who have shown extraordinary dedication to performing community service.

Some say Baltimore's $13 million surplus should be kept on hand for the city's next, inevitable, crisis. I disagree. Instead of saving the money, let's invest it - in a way that will both benefit the youth of Baltimore and save the city money in the long run. The city is already investing funds in its "Opportunity Budget" to direct resources toward programs that produce results, such as the BOOST and A-Team after-school programs, the healthy birth program...

We all want Baltimore to be a safer place. But in a world of limited resources, what is the best way? One constituent who wrote to City Hall last week was pretty sure he knew. He had read an article in this newspaper and expressed great alarm that city leaders would spend money on anything else when the Police Department was, evidently, not properly staffed. So: Are we to simply spend whatever money we can find on more police, at the expense of other programs and services? A review of the history is in order.

The very real need to address the nation's immediate economic crisis has drowned out meaningful debate on how to address the much more serious long-term fiscal challenges the nation faced before the collapse of housing, credit and stock markets. Because of the economic crisis and the splurge in federal spending during the last year, the terms of discussion from just a year ago have changed drastically. The Obama administration has claimed the right to use extraordinary measures - spending a lot of money, and spending it now - to "get the economy back on track."

The Anne Arundel County Department of Health's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Educational Services Program is seeking community organizations to apply for fiscal 2010 grants to implement the Strengthening Families and Second Step model programs. The programs are approved by the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Strengthening Families is a weekly three-hour, 14-session program for parents and children ages 6-11. The programs focuses on improving family relationships, parenting skills and children's social and life skills.

Protect the poor as budget is cut The state announced last week that its revenues will come in $1.1 billion below previous estimates over the next two years, and legislators must now find an additional $500 million in cuts to the state budget to restore balance, even after accounting for federal stimulus aid ("As revenues slip, O'Malley warns of fresh budget cuts," March 11). This means that devastating cuts could be in store for the programs and state workers that serve low-income Marylanders - the very programs and workers that are called on more and more as our economy declines.