Takoma

A body found in a large trash can in Clarksville was identified yesterday by Howard County police as that of Rolando Andrade of Takoma Park. The body of Andrade, 29, of the 6800 block of 10th Ave. was found about 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the 7300 block of Guilford Road near Route 32. An autopsy found that he died as a result of a head injury, police said. Police declined to describe the wound but said they are investigating the death as a homicide. Police ask anyone with additional information to call investigators at 410-313-3200.

TAKOMA PARK -- By a 5-to-1 margin, voters in a mock election called on the City Council to enact a ban on handguns.The petition question on Tuesday's ballot lost its authority when a Montgomery County Circuit judge ruled that state law prohibits local jurisdictions from passing gun control laws in all but a few circumstances.However, at least two City Council members say they will attempt to draft an ordinance that complies with state law but allows Takoma Park to ban handguns within 100 yards of public places.

LODGED between the mean streets of Washington, D.C., and the stuffed shirts of the Washington suburbs, is Takoma Park, Md., a last, lonely outpost of the '60s.Geographically, it is inside the beltway, but spiritually, it is outside; far out.Prade included marchers from "The Nuclear-free Soccer Club," the "Bikes Not Bombs" group and a bunch that identified itself only as "Bowling for Nicaragua."It is also a place where one can buy a Christmas wreath advertised as "organically grown," obtain both "regular and holistic" medical care for one's pet and where not merely the open burning of leaves is prohibited, but their disposal in plasticbags as well.

Editor and free-lance writer Rose Solari of Takoma Park has won an Artscape literary award for her collection of poetry "The Stolen World." Other winning entries in the annual competition are Carol Hoover's short story "Being Towards Death" and "Tides of Time," a one-act play by Jeanne Frank and William Evan Fetterolf.Ms. Hoover, a resident of Rockville, is president of Ariadne Press and editor of "How to Write an Uncommonly Good Novel." A former dancer, Ms. Frank lives in the town of Princess Anne and has spent the past 10 years working on an oral history project of Somerset County.

For years, Maryland has been giving generous rebates to families to install solar photovoltaic panels, geothermal systems and wind turbines. That's great, as far as it goes, but the rebates typically go to Maryland's wealthiest residents. Finally, Maryland has included the little guy of the renewable-energy world: wood and pellet stoves. The Maryland Energy Administration has just started the Clean Burning Wood Stove Grant Program, which could ultimately help thousands of rural Marylanders get a new stove or upgrade from their older, polluting stoves.

As a cyclist and pedestrian, I thought the article "For pedestrians, Md. is one of the most dangerous" (Jan. 24) was particularly appropriate. Recently, I was out bicycling in Columbia and was waiting on the sidewalk to cross at one of the marked pedestrian crosswalks on Great Star Road in the River Hill community. As a driver blew through the intersection, I pointed up at the sign for pedestrian crossing, to direct his attention to it. He actually did a U-turn and came back to yell at me. He claimed that Maryland law didn't require him to stop and that and I had no business pointing to the sign; he then did another U-turn to return to westbound Great Star and, as he passed me, he rolled down his window to yell some invective.

Oprah Winfrey is one great storyteller. So let her set the stage for the story of her years in Baltimore - seven and a half years starting in 1976 that would profoundly shape not only the life of the young anchorwoman, but also give birth to the media phenomenon known as Oprah. "I came to Baltimore when I was 22 years old. Drove my red Cutlass up from Nashville, Tenn., arrived and was as close to 'The Beverly Hillbillies' as I could be," Winfrey says in that rich, inviting voice that millions have tuned in to for decades.

During the summer, Tamir Goodman gave the odometer a workout in regular trips to College Park for pickup basketball games at the University of Maryland, the school that offered him a scholarship earlier this year.Those trips to the Washington area apparently won't end anytime soon. The 17-year-old has transferred from Talmudical Academy to Takoma Academy, a Seventh-Day Adventist institution, and will commute daily to the Takoma Park school.Chava Goodman, his mother, and Takoma Academy coach Joe Perrone both confirmed the move yesterday, though neither would comment further.

A part-time disc jockey at Baltimore radio station WWIN-FM and a female friend have been charged in the shooting deaths of a couple whose bodies were found Nov. 23 in a motel room in Takoma Park, police there said yesterday.Lance William Hayes, 40, of the 11000 block of Old Columbia Pike in Silver Spring was arrested Tuesday outside his home on warrants charging him with two counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of Currie Richardson, 39, and Lameke Ladson, 19, both of New York City, police said.

TAKOMA PARK -- The most closely watched vote in this city tomorrow might be the one taken on the sidewalk outside the polling place on a simple paper ballot supervised by unofficials.Citizens Against Hand Guns says it will hold a mock election on a referendum to ban pistols and revolvers that was removed from the ballot last week by a Montgomery Circuit Court judge.Almost 2,500 of Takoma Park's 7,411 registered voters signed petitions this summer to put the handgun question on the ballot.