Thomas Jefferson

Most Thomas Jefferson Elementary School pupils may not grow up to be famous musicians, but officials at VH1 music television and TCI Communications of Baltimore want them to at least have a chance.In an hourlong program yesterday that featured a local jazz artist, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and a fifth-grader who played "Hot Cross Buns," VH1 and TCI officials donated equipment worth $25,000 to the western Baltimore school and announced a total of $75,000 in contributions to three other city schools.

It was judgment day at the University of Virginia. Michele Cooley, preparing to defend her dissertation before a panel of professors, glanced at the bust of Thomas Jefferson in the school's historic Rotunda. From his image, she drew strength -- for reasons someone looking at her might never have imagined.As a successful African-American earning her third degree at U.Va., Cooley had made a natural choice for her Ph.D. thesis: She had probed the factors responsible for black students' success.

DAYTON, Ohio -- For generations, descendents of Thomas Woodson, a presumed slave of Thomas Jefferson, have claimed they are the flesh and blood of the nation's third president.While genetic tests administered last year failed to link the family with Jefferson, the scientist who did the research is trying again -- this time with the help of a Trotwood, Ohio, man.Thomas Woodson, a former Jefferson Township police chief and the great-great-great-grandson of the man whose name he shares, gave a blood sample to Eugene Foster.

One was a reclusive farmer, son of a freed slave, grandson of an African prince, a self-taught man of extraordinary scientific talent at a time when intellectual pursuits were neither expected nor often tolerated in African-Americans.The other was secretary of state of the young American republic, author of the Declaration of Independence and other profound writings on human liberty -- and at the same time a Virginia planter and owner of slaves.As Benjamin Banneker sat down one day in August 1791 on his farm at Oella, Baltimore County, to write to Thomas Jefferson, it would have been hard to imagine two men more distant from one another in status and power.

ROCKVILLE -- Teams from Severna Park, River Hill, Calvert Hall and Spalding and standout runners Lee McDuff, Tenke Zoltani, Kate Frande and Dusty Lieb had big days at the huge Georgetown Prep Cross Country Classic yesterday in front of 3,000 fans.In the girls' seeded section, Dulaney's Zoltani showed no ill effects from leg injuries suffered three weeks ago at Hereford; unfortunately, she was in against one of the region's top runners, Erin Swain of Lake Braddock (Va.)Swain's time of 18 minutes, 13 seconds for the 3.1-mile course was easily the best turned in by a girl on the 11-event program and Zoltani's second-place finish in 18: 57 was the only other clocking under 19 minutes.

THE ANNUAL meeting of the Monticello Association is this weekend in Charlottesville, Va. Thanks to a distant cousin, Lucian K. Truscott IV, a best-selling author and an association member, my family was formally invited by the association -- for the first time -- to attend the annual reunion of descendants of the nation's third president, Thomas Jefferson. As guests, not as members.I am an eighth-generation descendant of Jefferson, a fact I have known since I was 12 years old.The clarity and certainty with which I know my progenitor is easy to understand.

WASHINGTON - A renowned letter by Thomas Jefferson, which is the highlight of a traveling Library of Congress exhibition intended as a historical survey of religion and the founding of the nation, has been seized upon by conservative Christian leaders as support for their campaign for classroom prayer, taxpayer-financed vouchers for religious schools and posting the Ten Commandments in courtrooms.Some conservative groups and scholars say the library's analysis of Jefferson's letter is authoritative evidence that could be used in the courts to knock down the barrier between religion and government.

Dear Camille Cosby:Please come to Baltimore. You need, desperately, to talk to a man named Kenneth Lee.According to the July 8 USA Today, you believe "America taught our son's killer to hate African-Americans." You then launched into a litany of America's "institutional" white racism sins: the images of holy people as white, the definition of black as evil, the inclusion of the movie "Birth of a Nation" in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 American films.In what must have been a real stretch, you even criticized U.S. currency as part of the problem.

Jefferson's behavior with slave far worse than Clinton's affairAfter reading Pamela Prenger's letter , I didn't know whether to laugh or cry ("Jefferson-Hemings liaison nothing like president's affair," Nov. 8).Ms. Prenger basically wanted to make the point that President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky was a far greater sin than Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings because Jefferson "truly loved her," according to all the biographies she had read about Jefferson.I have no doubt that those biographies claimed that Jefferson loved Hemings.

I was feeling pretty smug Monday after the Maryland Senate passed Sen. Perry Sfikas' bill to mandate study of the Irish potato famine in the public schools -- until I realized I didn't actually know anything about said famine. Couldn't name the decade, although I knew the century. Wasn't sure if the potato was in short supply, or if it was the only thing available when everything else was scarce.(I could spell potato, which put me one up on a former vice president.)So I decided to make a list of every bit of history I remember studying in Maryland's public schools.

When Thomas Jefferson left the U.S. presidency 200 years ago this spring, no one needed to build a library or memorial to commemorate him. Jefferson already had a memorial in the form of Monticello, the mountaintop estate he created near Charlottesville, Va., long before he became the nation's third president in 1801. Jefferson felt so completely at home at Monticello that he almost never left the grounds from the spring of 1809 to the day he died in 1826. "I am as happy nowhere else and in no other society," he wrote in 1787, "and all my wishes end where I hope my days will end, at Monticello."

Series Ghost Whisperer: : Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) tells Sam (Kenneth Mitchell) about her gift and is surprised by his reaction. (8 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) Everybody Hates Chris: : Rochelle (Tichina Arnold) orders a copy of her birth certificate and discovers she is a year younger than she thought. (8 p.m., WNUV-Channel 54) Friday Night Lights: : The skills of the new star quarterback (Jeremy Sumpter) are put to the test against a major rival. (9 p.m., WBAL-Channel 11) Bill Moyers Journal: : Economist Robert Johnson helps decode the bank bailout, with a hard look at the international ramifications of the plan and a discussion about why nationalization has become a flash point.

Catonsville's Shamika Williams is as adept at heaving a full-court pass to a teammate who has gotten behind the opponent's defense as she is at driving through a crowded lane for a layup. Williams' versatility was the difference in the ninth-ranked Comets' 53-28 victory over Dunbar yesterday in the 22nd annual Holly & Hoops Holiday Tournament at Mount de Sales. Williams scored a game-high 15 points with 10 rebounds and five steals to help the surging Comets improve to 6-0. "We stepped it up and calmed down a little bit," said Williams, who has committed to UMBC.

We have built no national temple but the Capitol," U.S. Rep. Rufus Choate of Massachusetts said in 1833. "We consult no common oracle but the Constitution."

Pasadena Theatre Company, showing a good sense of timing or a little bit of luck, scheduled in the middle of an election season a musical chronicling the vote for independence by the Continental Congress in the summer of 1776. The theater group knew about the historical parallels between the 1969 Broadway opening when Americans were divided over the Vietnam War and the present political divisions over Iraq, but it is unlikely to have anticipated the wrangling in Congress over the financial crisis during this musical's opening week.

Under state law that dates to Prohibition, it's illegal for a boutique winery in Napa to send a bottle of its finest to a connoisseur living in Maryland. Why is this still on the books? Chiefly because allowing direct sales to consumers threatens the long-standing monopoly held by wholesalers. Oh, the middlemen may claim that letting wineries ship to consumers would encourage underage drinking, but that's just not true. More than two-thirds of states allow direct shipments, and it's easy enough to make sure the deliveries are signed by someone age 21 and older.

In campaign literature and speeches, each of the three leading presidential candidates has trumpeted the experience that makes him or her best suited for the job. A biography on Sen. John McCain's campaign Web site proclaims his "remarkable record of leadership and service." Sen. Barack Obama's Web site describes the "rich and varied experiences" of his life. Sen. Hillary Clinton has spoken of her "35 years of change" and told supporters, "We need a president who understands the magnitude and complexity of the challenges we face and has the strength and experience to address them from day one."

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. -- John Grisham bought a plantation on the outskirts of town once his best-selling books became blockbusters. Howie Long relocated his family to the area after retiring from an all-pro football career in California. And Dave Mat-thews formed his band in this laid-back college town. It seems writers, actors and celebrities have flocked to Charlottesville for its tranquil yet urbane existence. Visitors will find its Colonial history, Piedmont wine country and preppy university atmosphere equally alluring.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, joined by former President Bill Clinton, civil rights leaders and members of Congress, broke ground yesterday for a memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the first such honor for an African-American leader on the National Mall. The weather was raw, as were the emotions of people who had waited decades for such a tribute to the slain civil rights leader. At one point, Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador, spoke about King's determination to proceed with the civil rights agenda despite being emotionally drained and facing continual threats and attacks.

Winifred Bennett, the amateur historian who suggested that DNA tests might determine whether Thomas Jefferson fathered children by his slave Sally Hemings, died of kidney failure Oct. 7 at her home in Arlington, Va. Ms. Bennett's suggestion, made casually over dinner at the home of a retired pathologist, led a team of scientists to begin a genetic study of Jefferson's and Hemings' descendants. Their findings, published in 1998, indicated that a male in the Jefferson family, most likely Thomas Jefferson, fathered at least one of Hemings' children.