Random Drug Testing

Here they come, folks! They've saddled up, mounted their white horses and sallied forth to do battle with the unrighteous, unbelieving horde of infidels now running amok through society.Who are "they"? Why, the Defend the Poor Cavalry, of course. Mind you, most cavalry members are not poor and have never been poor, but they're sure they can tell the rest of us exactly what the poor need.What poor welfare recipients don't need, the cavalry assures us, is drug testing. In early December, members of the state legislature's Joint Committee on Welfare Reform announced they will try to pass a law requiring mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients.

To Michael Matz, Barbaro's legacy includes a recurring image. It is of the horse with all four feet off the ground. It is as if Barbaro is flying. It has been five years since Barbaro shattered a hind leg at the Preakness, beginning a poignant struggle to save the life of the runaway 2006 Kentucky Derby winner. He eventually suffered from laminitis and was euthanized the following January. At Churchill Downs, where the horse's ashes are buried, there is a bronze statue of Barbaro suspended by a rail so the horse is off the ground — just the way Matz sees him in full sprint in his mind's eye. But the trainer and others believe Barbaro's legacy is more extensive — and more complicated — than the 1,500-pound statue celebrating his breathtaking speed.

Twenty-six employees at the Baltimore City Detention Center failed a drug test and were fired by the state when it took over the jail July 1, according to a prison spokesman.In addition, an unknown number of the 36 people who failed to complete the hiring process declined to take the drug test and were not offered jobs, said Gregory M. Shipley, spokesman for the state prison system.About 850 employees at the jail, including correctional officers and others in sensitive positions, were required to take the drug tests as part of the state takeover.

Aberdeen hopes to entertain the mayor of its Scottish namesake next year when the town celebrates 100 years of self-government granted bythe General Assembly.The Aberdeen Centennial Committee said lastweek that it will invite Robert Robertson, Lord Provost of Aberdeen,Scotland, and his wife as honorees for the special birthday, June 3-6, 1992.Aberdeen was named after the Scottish birthplace of "a Mr. Winston," the first stationmaster of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, who "settled in lower Harford and built his home alongthe railroad right of way" in 1835, according to C. Milton Wright's "Our Harford Heritage."

A Westminster mother and daughter were flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center after they were overcome by carbon monoxide fumes in their sleep early yesterday,fire officials said.Francisca Clarke, 22, and her daughter, Bethany Wilcox, 3, were in good condition at the Baltimore hospital yesterday, a spokeswoman said.Firefighters found the victims about 5: 30 a.m. after responding to an alarm at an apartment in the first block of W. Main St., said Lt. Jay Wallace, a spokesman for Westminster Fire Engine & Hose Co. No. 1.Firefighters detected abnormally high levels of carbon monoxide.

Baltimore police arrested two city workers on drug charges yesterday after a supervisor caught them as they were about to inject suspected heroin while working, police and city officials said.The arrests come two days after a top Baltimore police commander met with city department heads to teach them how to notice employees high on drugs and encourage them to report their suspicions.Yesterday morning, as Col. Ronald L. Daniel got into his office about 8:15 a.m., his phone rang with a tip from someone at the Department of Recreation and Parks.

His legacy clouded by the fallout from baseball's steroid era, Major League Baseball Players Association head Donald Fehr is leaving his position. After adding to the success that Marvin Miller had in negotiating one-sided labor contracts with the fractious group of MLB owners, Fehr more notably has been dragged alongside commissioner Bud Selig to a string of congressional hearings into steroids throughout much of the past two decades. Fehr did not give a specific reason for his decision to resign Monday, saying only it was time to move on. "I don't know if it's fair to say I've lost my taste for it," Fehr said in a conference call with reporters.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Though John McEnroe and Steffi Graf are no longer the best men's and women's tennis players in the world, they still wield an extraordinary amount of power.Because of statements by McEnroe and Graf earlier this year, Wimbledon officials announced late Wednesday that they will begin random drug testing next year.The decision follows a similar move made two years ago by the French Tennis Federation, which runs the French Open. It was in Paris last month that McEnroe had suggested a number of men's players were using steroids.

Two Westminster men and a Reisterstown woman were sentenced yesterday in Carroll County Circuit Court on drug charges .Michael A. Watson, 38, of East Green Street pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and was sentenced to one year in the Carroll County Detention Center.According to court records, Watson gave crack cocaine in October to a state police informant, telling the informant to sell it and bring him $200.Another police informant met Watson the next day at a Pennsylvania Avenue residence in Westminster and left with more crack to sell, court records showed.

The layout of train tracks and signals in the vicinity of today's Chase train wreck is a standard one throughout the industry and required no changes in the wake of a fatal passenger train crash near that same spot in 1987, a federal safety official said."