University Of Florida

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- New house. On campus. Lake view. Free. Meals provided. Must fly in to appreciate.University of Florida officials are aggressively seeking tenants, but the house isn't for students.It's for bats.Taking a $30,000 gamble, university officials hope to coax nearly 6,000 of the creatures out of the bat-infested track, baseball and tennis stadiums and into a custom-designed bat house just west of a wildlife sanctuary in the heart of the campus."To my knowledge, nothing on this large of a scale has been attempted before," said Marshall Hanks, a Wisconsin man who has a national reputation for removing unwanted bats from attics and buildings.

Darren O'Day doesn't just transcend the dumb-jock stereotype. He shatters it into tiny pieces. He scored high enough on his entrance exam to get into medical school. Scored high enough on another entrance exam to get into law school. But right now he's too content with his gig as a quietly effective side-arm reliever for the Orioles to think about doing anything else. "I knew I wanted to play baseball," the 29-year-old right-hander says now. "You can't give up that opportunity for anything.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Academic idealism is taking root at the University of Florida.This week, students will vote on a new honor code for the state's flagship university.The tradition many of their parents knew so well -- signing a pledge on tests and assignments that they hadn't cheated -- died decades ago with the arrival of the computer.Since the university went to electronic registration, University of Florida's 39,600 students have not had to take the pledge. Paperwork doesn't matter much anymore.

Marc B. Terrill, 47, has been president of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, the umbrella planning and fundraising organization for Baltimore's Jewish community, for almost six years. A graduate of the University of Florida, he received a master's degree in social work from Yeshiva University in New York. He is a frequent traveler to Israel and Jewish communities around the world. He loves football and lives in Owings Mills with his wife, Diana, and children, Maddie and twins Eli and Samantha.

Tip--Soot removal-- To remove soot from walls, use a vacuum cleaner with a wand attachment, taking care not to touch the soot. -- University of Florida

It's not alligators you should be afraid of. It's Bambi."- FRANK MAZZOTTI, University of Florida wildlife scientist, explaining that despite three recent fatal gator attacks, the deadliest animal in the United States is the deer, which is involved in roughly 130 fatal car accidents each year; alligators have killed only 20 people in Florida since 1948 [SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL]

The University of Florida decided yesterday against filing a formal appeal of National Collegiate Athletic Association sanctions announced last week, but school president John V. Lombardi proposed cutting eight scholarships in 1991 and four in 1992 in football rather than a ban on a bowl appearance this season.He said the school suggested the proposal because it feels the no-bowl sanction imposes a "special hardship" on the team's senior class. There was no comment from the NCAA.

In the wake of Sunday's second annual surreptitious Nude Relays at the University of Florida, university president John Lombardi seems unperturbed.Skinny-racing might be illegal for all he knows, Lombardi said Monday, but since the Nude Relays by college track team members and other runners apparently did no harm, he's not worried about them."

River Hill High's Shane Stroup, the reigning All-Metro Runner of the Year in both indoor and outdoor track, signed a letter of intent to accept a track scholarship with the University of Florida on Saturday. Stroup, who set the meet record of 16 minutes, 2 seconds at the state cross country championships while winning the Class 3A state title, chose from among Auburn, Clemson, Tennessee, Maryland and Florida. "It's warm in Florida so I can train all year, and I like the facilities and coaches," said Stroup, whose strongest event is the mile.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- A new AIDS test pioneered by a University of Florida researcher may soon allow people to test their saliva at home for signs of the virus.The simple "dip-stick" test will be manufactured by a Singapore company under a five-year contract with the university.University medical researcher Roger Clemons, who developed the test last year, said it will go on sale abroad within several weeks. Approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration probably will delay over-the-counter sales in this country until at least 1994.

INDIANAPOLIS -- James Carter has been to two Olympics, two world championships and one World Cup. He has been ranked in the top 10 of the world's 400-meter hurdlers six of the past eight years. He has run on every continent but Antarctica. But you'll never catch this 29-year-old Baltimore native, out of Mervo and Hampton University, taking a "been there, done that" attitude. For Carter, there was new excitement in his triumph yesterday at the USA Outdoor Championships. He won it in 47.72 seconds, the best time in the world this year.

More than 2.8 million freshmen are expected to enter college this fall. That's the easy part. Until then, however, parents are experiencing: Stress. Worry. Worry, followed by stress. Stress, followed by worry, then stress, followed by this truth: If we had to apply to college today, not only would many of us be rejected on a litany of academic counts, we would probably be fined for even applying. In 1981, I graduated from the University of Florida, an esteemed state university (not too shabby in sports, either)

Tip--Soot removal-- To remove soot from walls, use a vacuum cleaner with a wand attachment, taking care not to touch the soot. -- University of Florida

Passed away on June 12, 2006, four days before his 90th birthday. The youngest of six children, he was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. Following service in the Australian Air Force during World War II, David came to the United States to attend graduate school. He received his Ph D in statistics from Iowa State University in 1947. After several years at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the University of Florida and the University of North Carolina, he joined the Johns Hopkins University Department of Biostatistics in 1960, working as a professor until his retirement in 1984.

It's not alligators you should be afraid of. It's Bambi."- FRANK MAZZOTTI, University of Florida wildlife scientist, explaining that despite three recent fatal gator attacks, the deadliest animal in the United States is the deer, which is involved in roughly 130 fatal car accidents each year; alligators have killed only 20 people in Florida since 1948 [SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL]

MIAMI -- A Miami college professor and his wife have been indicted as illegal foreign agents and accused of passing on nonclassified information to Cuba. Florida International University education professor Carlos Alvarez, 61, and his wife, Elsa, 55, were ordered held without bond yesterday after U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton sided with a federal prosecutor's argument that the couple would leave their five children and flee to Cuba if granted bail. The couple did not enter pleas in Miami federal court to the charge that they failed to register as "agents of a foreign government" with the U.S. attorney general's office.

MIAMI -- A Miami college professor and his wife have been indicted as illegal foreign agents and accused of passing on nonclassified information to Cuba. Florida International University education professor Carlos Alvarez, 61, and his wife, Elsa, 55, were ordered held without bond yesterday after U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton sided with a federal prosecutor's argument that the couple would leave their five children and flee to Cuba if granted bail. The couple did not enter pleas in Miami federal court to the charge that they failed to register as "agents of a foreign government" with the U.S. attorney general's office.

Julia Gorman and Jill Johnson Chasson, former North Baltimore Aquatic Club members who earned international recognition over the past 10 years, are the newest members of the Maryland Swimming Hall of Fame.Inducted during the group's sixth annual awards program last week, they are the 24th and 25th selections since Arthur "Red" Hucht became the first in 1985.At the same time, members Patrick Kennedy and John Considine were formally recognized. Both had been inducted in a less-formal setting a decade ago.Kennedy was an All-American at Loyola High School and the University of Florida, and an Olympian, (eighth in the 200 breaststroke in 1984 at Los Angeles)

A virulent - and sometimes deadly - canine influenza is sweeping the U.S., and with researchers confirming the disease in Washington, D.C., this month, Maryland dog people are bracing for the worst. A total of 13 states - including New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Jersey - have reported cases of the flu, which is not believed to affect humans, and local dog boarders and caretakers already are taking action. They are scrubbing, disinfecting and bleaching with a vengeance. They are posting signs, sending e-mails and handing out pamphlets to inform customers.