Takoma

TAKOMA PARK -- Mary Feldman swore up and down before she moved into senior housing that she would never spend her time exclusively with older people. Stultifies one's thinking, Feldman, 87, said firmly on a recent evening before placing some tiles on a Scrabble board slowly filling up with the likes of retime and hover. So the motley crew of competitors joining her that night for Scrabble pleased her enormously. Around the table sat Evelyn Cameron, 63, Larry Ravitz, 56, and Julius Morgan, 12. On the surface, the foursome - a retired librarian, a semiretired real estate developer with three kids, a game enthusiast with a master's degree in medieval studies and a polite middle school student - don't have much in common.

BALTIMORE's "Tamir craze" was short-lived -- a little over a year, with crowds cramming gymnasiums to watch 17-year-old basketball sensation Tamir Goodman perform for the Talmudical Academy. Now he is off to the Washington suburbs and a much larger arena at the Takoma Academy.Tamir will be close to an even bigger arena at the University of Maryland, College Park, where a four-year scholarship awaits in the fall of 2000. His stopover in Takoma Park lets him him hone his talent against more skilled teams.

Baltimore resident Tamir Goodman of Takoma Academy, who recently accepted a full basketball scholarship to Towson University, suffered an ankle injury Tuesday night in a game against Bullis School and could be sidelined at least four to six weeks, his physician said yesterday.Goodman, who received national attention last season when he averaged 39 points for Pikesville's Talmudical Academy, suffered a severe sprain and partial torn ligament in his left ankle in the third period of a 65-62 loss to visiting Bullis of Montgomery County.

A Takoma Park youth was killed Saturday when he was hit by a pickup truck as he walked on Interstate 95 north of Route 32 in Savage, state police said.Henry Alvarez, 16, died after the driver of a 1994 Chevrolet pickup swerved into the slow lane where the victim and a friend were walking, Sgt. D. Austin of the Waterloo barracks said yesterday. The incident is being investigated.Man with knife robs driver at Jessup truck stopA man wielding a knife robbed a trucker of cash at a truck stop in Jessup Sunday night, Howard County police said.

When I am stuck in the maddening traffic that surrounds our nation's capital, I try to ease the tension by eating something wonderful.One afternoon, for instance, as I inched around the Capital Beltway, I went hunting for pies in Hyattsville. Turning off the Beltway, I headed down East University Boulevard, took a right at Riggs Road and another right at East-West Highway. There at 1812 East-West Highway was Takoma Kitchens, bakers of fresh fruit pies.Inside the bakery, my eyes went straight to the pies.

THE LAST week of March, two D.C. City Council members took an interesting, unannounced trip to El Salvador.Frank Smith and Harry Thomas flew to San Salvador on March 23, without notifying either the American Embassy there or the Salvadoran Embassy here, and traveled around for a week, largely to formerly Marxist rebel-held territory.Members of the curious 16-member delegation, which included immigration activists from D.C., made it clear when they returned home a week later where their sympathies lay. They spoke of observing naked children running around town squares and of an undetonated bomb on church steps with the words on it: "Made in the U.S.A."

Hopkins rolls, 83-59, stays unbeatenJay Gangemi scored 23 points, as Johns Hopkins remained undefeated with an 83-59 victory over St. Mary's at the Newton White Athletic Center last night.Hopkins, winning for the fourth time in eight days, and 10th overall, got 16 points from sophomore Luke Busby, and Frank Grzywacz, a 6-foot-4 sophomore front-liner, contributed nine points, 12 rebounds and four assists.Washington 81, Widener 68CHESTERTOWN -- Peter Basel came off the bench to score 17 points, as Washington College downed Widener in a Middle Atlantic Conference-Southeast game at the Cain Athletic Center.

A 13-year-old student at Severn River Junior High School was chargedwith assault Thursday after police say he threatened the principal and other school officials with a bayonet.A 14-year-old student atthe school also was arrested Thursday after school officials found him with a handgun, police said.The older student told police he got the gun from the 13-year-old, who asked him to hold it until the end of the day, when he planned to run away from home.Police were called to the Arnold school at11:30 a.m. and were told the 13-year-old had threatened Principal Don McClenahan with a bayonet and run into the woods behind the school.

A DAINTY, MOTTLED cat paws at the dining room window of Sarah Ban Breathnach's Takoma Park home, asking to be let in. Perhaps she is thinking about sampling the tea and scones set out on the lace-draped table; more likely, she wants a caress behind the ears from the mistress of the house and author of "Mrs. Sharp's Traditions," a nostalgic book of Victorian family traditions, crafts and games."Victorians had a rich family life because they had seasonal traditions," says Ban Breathnach over a cup of tea. "It's so much to look forward to every year, giving both adults and children a sense of comfort and joy."

A Takoma Park man was arrested Wednesday and charged with robbing two men at gunpoint at a Nov. 3 party in Columbia, county police said.Victor Adonay Villatoro, 18, of the 7700 block of Garland Avenue, was arrested after investigators received a tip that he was involved in the robbery, police said.The incident occurred at 2 a.m. as the two victims, both 20-year-olds from Silver Spring, left a party in the 6600 block of Corina Court, police said. Two men approached them, threatened them with a gun and took two gold chains they were wearing, police said.

NICHOLAS MAW, 73 Composer taught at the Peabody British composer Nicholas Maw, who taught music composition at the Peabody Conservatory from 1998 until last year and who was known for his opera based on the novel Sophie's Choice, died Tuesday of heart failure in his Takoma Park home. Mr. Maw's neo-Romantic, post-modernist compositions were praised for their rich textures. His creations "forged a musical language which is truly vibrant and sensuous, and which borrows both from the old and the new," wrote David Cooper in the International Dictionary of Opera.

With a guilty plea Wednesday by a 52-year-old Takoma Park man, federal prosecutors brought to a close their case against four defendants accused of orchestrating a large-scale mortgage scheme that cost dozens of people their homes. Acknowledgment by Earnest Lewis that he had committed wire fraud came a day after a similar admission in U.S. District Court by his 57-year-old brother, Michael K. Lewis, also of Takoma Park, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bankruptcy fraud arising from a scheme in which, prosecutors said, he and his co-conspirators targeted financially vulnerable individuals who were trying to save their homes from foreclosure.

TOM WARDELL BRADEN, 92 Commentator, ex-CIA agent Tom Braden, a former CIA operative who became a syndicated newspaper columnist, liberal co-host of the CNN talk show Crossfire and author of Eight Is Enough, a 1975 memoir that inspired a popular television series, died of natural causes Friday at his Denver home, his family said. He was 92. Mr. Braden was the father of eight children whose misadventures provided amusing grist for many of his newspaper columns and led to the ABC comedy-drama Eight Is Enough, which aired from 1977 to 1981 and starred Dick Van Patten.

James Phillips Memorial service will be Saturday, October 11 at 2P.M. in Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, at the corner of Larch and New Hampshire Ave. in Takoma Park MD. Remembrances can be donated to CHADD- 301-306-7070

Maryland motorists could hardly believe their eyes the other day when a few gas stations around the state advertised fuel at $1.85 a gallon. Prices haven't been at that level since January of 2005, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. But the fuel selling at $1.85 a gallon at five stations was different from that offered by the vast majority of other stations in the state. It contained only a small amount of imported oil. The primary ingredient was corn, grown by farmers throughout the state.

Eric Hutchinson's real big break came after he thought he had already gotten it. About three years ago, the pop singer-songwriter-musician was signed to Maverick Records, the Warner Bros.-distributed label partly founded by Madonna, whose roster included the likes of Alanis Morrissette and Michelle Branch. But just as Hutchinson was about to begin work on his major-label debut, Maverick shut down. The Takoma Park native was back where he started - making music on his own. It took nearly two years to receive a buyout from the company.

TAKOMA PARK -- Mary Feldman swore up and down before she moved into senior housing that she would never spend her time exclusively with older people. Stultifies one's thinking, Feldman, 87, said firmly on a recent evening before placing some tiles on a Scrabble board slowly filling up with the likes of retime and hover. So the motley crew of competitors joining her that night for Scrabble pleased her enormously. Around the table sat Evelyn Cameron, 63, Larry Ravitz, 56, and Julius Morgan, 12. On the surface, the foursome - a retired librarian, a semiretired real estate developer with three kids, a game enthusiast with a master's degree in medieval studies and a polite middle school student - don't have much in common.

The first time Jim Palmer had the chance to watch Steve Barber pitch in person, during an exhibition game in Aberdeen, S.D., in 1964, the future Hall of Famer held one recurring thought in his head. Toiling at the Single-A level, which seemed worlds away from where Barber made his living with the Orioles, Palmer said he kept thinking, "Gee, how am I ever going to get to the big leagues?" Palmer made it a few years later, won three Cy Young Awards and became the only pitcher to earn a World Series victory in three different decades.

First District: Voters of the sprawling district that embraces the Eastern Shore as well as parts of Harford and Anne Arundel counties have been well served by eight-term Republican Wayne T. Gilchrest. He is a stalwart in the shrinking moderate wing of his party, which reflects the libertarian bent of his constituents. He supports embryonic stem cell research and was among the first House Republicans to call for an orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. More important than party affiliation for Mr. Gilchrest, though, is his commitment to the environment - a cause that has often pitted him against GOP leaders.

When Thomas E. Perez sought a seat on the Montgomery County Council four years ago, he mobilized Hispanic voters and engaged a burgeoning network of liberal activists to win a victory that surprised many. "Nobody saw it coming," said Sally Sternbach, the head of a county economic development group who lost to Perez in the contest. "Those are things that are not going to show up on campaign reports." Perez, a son of Dominican Republic immigrants, became president of the Montgomery County Council in 2004, which made him the highest-ranking Latino holding an elected office in Maryland for the year he was in the position.