Time Limit

The Carroll County commissioners are considering whether to use county dollars to retain a site manager at South Carroll Senior Activities Center. Betty J. Merenda of Sykesville has been working at the center, which serves 40 to 45 seniors a day, for two years through the federally funded senior aide program. She runs the facility's nutrition program, which includes food preparation and meals. The federal initiative limits employment to two years, which means the county must step in and fund the position as a permanent job, or use federal money and continuously train new employees.

NEW YORK - The letter from New York City to welfare veterans is blunt. "Your time limits for cash assistance will be expiring this year," referring to the five-year lifetime limit on federal cash aid. "We have scheduled an appointment for you to be seen so you can discuss how you plan to manage your household expenses." The notice went to Angel Martinez, one of two working parents in a family of five who were getting by on low wages and their small cash aid supplement. It went to Florence Dawson, sole parent in a family of six, who is still not working for pay, but stretches benefits with dried beans and homemade bread.

WASHINGTON - Amid small hopes and large odds, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resumed yesterday, this time in Taba, Egypt, without U.S. sponsorship. President Clinton's high-profile midwifery to the peace process expired with his term in office, and President Bush is still formulating his administration's Middle East policy. That leaves Israel's Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to try to clinch a peace deal by themselves before Barak stands for election Feb. 6. Arafat has said the talks could last up to 10 days.

WASHINGTON- In response to last month's terrorist attacks, Congress is nearing a vote granting the government police powers so sweeping that many lawmakers might agree to their enforcement for a limited period of time, perhaps two years. Separate versions of the counterterrorism legislation have emerged in the House and Senate that would provide Attorney General John Ashcroft with many of the new surveillance tools he has requested. The new police powers include making it easier for federal investigators to obtain nationwide court orders and allowing them to do "roving" wiretaps on cell phones as callers switch numbers.

What's the best way to handle a birthday party for young children? I'm seeing parents leaving kids at birthday parties for three and four hours at a time. What is the host parent supposed to do when children are having fits and throwing tantrums when their parents aren't there?Lisa, ScottsdaleAriz.One of the best ways to head off all these problems, particularly with preschoolers, is to invite the parents to come enjoy the birthday party along with their children.Readers who called Child Life also suggest limiting the number of party guests and keeping the party short.

NOTHING COULD better illustrate the wisdom of having in place a National Bioethics Advisory Commission than the potential, however remote, of cloning a human being.Cloning is the first major controversy to face the commission, and its central recommendation -- that cloning "for the purposes of creating a child" be banned pending further deliberation -- has been met with criticism from ethicists and others who expected a clear-cut declaration on the subject.But the recommendation of a five-year ban on the most troubling aspect of cloning is a prudent one.Some cloning research not aimed at creating a baby may prove to have great medical benefit, and under this recommendation that work can continue.

A Charles County man whose speeding car crossed the center line and slammed into another vehicle May 9, killing him and five other people, had a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal limit prohibiting driving while intoxicated, police said yesterday.Tests done on the body of Ernest Lee Knight, 27, of Nanjemoy showed that his blood alcohol level was .33, said Capt. Gary Draheim of the Charles County Sheriff's Department. Under Maryland law, a motorist can be charged with driving while intoxicated if tests indicate a blood alcohol level of .10 or above.

The Baltimore City Board of Liquor License Commissioners has allowed a handful of people, many of them vendors who lease poker machines and pool tables to bars, to hold onto and sell valuable liquor licenses long after the licenses should have expired. State law dictates that inactive licenses die after 180 days without an extension by the liquor board, or 360 days maximum. But a review of inactive licenses by The Sun shows that a number of people have gotten around the law, including Gilbert Sapperstein, owner of All-State Boiler Service Inc., who in May pleaded guilty to conspiracy, bribery and theft in connection with a scheme to defraud the city school system.

YOU KNOW IT'S TIME to tighten Maryland's handgun laws when new federal statistics show this state is now the gun-running capital of the Washington region. Criminals can buy all the guns they need in Maryland -- legally.It used to be that Virginia was the place to go if you wanted to buy dozens of handguns at a time. But in 1993, Virginia curbed "straw purchases" of guns by individuals with clean criminal records who were fronting for drug gangs and others. There is now a one-gun-a-month purchase limit in Virginia.

Charles County police say a Nanjemoy man had a blood-alcohol content nearly five times the legal limit on May 9 when his speeding car crashed head-on into another car on Md. 6, killing himself and five other people, three of them children.Investigators also said the man, Ernest Lee Knight, 27, had argued with his wife by telephone just minutes before the accident. Then, witnesses said, while he was driving toward home he swerved repeatedly into the path of oncoming traffic.Charles County Sheriff's Deputy Chris Becker, a traffic homicide investigator, said he theorized that Knight may have meant to commit suicide.