Untouched

50 Years Ago (week of March 2-8, 1941):* Fire engine companies from Ellicott City, Sykesville and Sandy Spring battled a fire this week at Doughoregan Manor. The manor house and surrounding buildings were untouched by the flames, but nearly 150 acres of ground were burned in the two hours before the fire was brought under control. Doughoregan Manor was once the home of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one ofthe signers of the Declaration of Independence. The estate remains in the Carroll family to this day.Information for this column was culled from the Howard County Historical Society's Library.

Debbie Hurd sees it in the parking lots along North Point Boulevard — the answer to what life would be like if the steel mill that fueled the tight-knit communities near Sparrows Point never reopens. Fewer cars. Fewer customers for businesses. She gestured in her family's empty bar, Pop's Tavern, and said the days of steelworkers lined up for a drink are long gone. "Everything I see on this boulevard is really, really hurting," Hurd said. "I've told some of my employees, 'Don't get mad at me if I have to let you go.' " No big employer goes down without setting off ripples in the local economy.

Shrine or redesign? Now that your child is bound for college, will his or her bedroom remain untouched, or will it become an office, a sewing room or sleeping quarters for another sibling? Let us know your plans for an article we're working on; contact Stephanie Shapiro at stephanie.shapiro@baltsun.com

Mary Lou and the Untouchables will be the musical group Friday, June 8, 6 to 9 p.m., when the Towson's Feet on the Street Friday night block parties continue on Allegheny Avenue, between Washington Avenue and York Road. Sponsored by the Towson Chamber of Commerce, the series includes live music, food, children's activities, prizes, beer and wine. According to the chamber website, there will also be a moon bounce for children, a limbo contest and Hula-Hoops for the young and the young at heart.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. -- Trey Rash (Broadneck) turned a short reception into a 65-yard scoring play with 4:30 remaining in fourth quarter to give Western Maryland (2-1, 1-0) a 21-17 win over Gettysburg (1-1, 0-1) in the Centennial Conference opener for both teams.Rash grabbed Brian Van Deusen's pass at the Western Maryland 43, broke a tackle and went the remaining distance untouched down the left sideline. The sophomore wide receiver posted career highs of seven receptions and 143 yards.

Noah's RavenWhy should I have returned?My knowledge would not fit into theirs.I found untouched the desert of the unknown,Big enough for my feet. It is my home.It is always beyond them. The futureSplits the present with the echo of my voice.Hoarse with fulfilment, I never made promises.Cat GhostsIYears afterin a kitchen of another countryyou're still hungryII& In the heat of the dayyour shadow comes backto lie on your stone

It was expected to be a battle of senior pitching standouts, but in the end Edgewood used better hitting and better fielding to post a 9-2 non-league victory over visiting Patterson yesterday.Sophomores drove in the first five runs for No. 10-ranked Edgewood (4-0), as the Rams built a 5-0 lead through five innings behind left-hander Wade Greason.After three Patterson errors helped Edgewood pad its margin in the sixth, Greason lost his shutout bid in the seventh, yielding two hits and two walks and delivering a wild pitch.

HERE'S a dirty little secret presidential candidates hide from voters: They won't be able to deliver on their campaign promises. Texas Gov. George W. Bush's 10-year, $1.7 trillion tax cut plan couldn't happen without slashing federal programs to the bone or raiding money earmarked to preserve Social Security. His chief Republican rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain, offers a tax-cut plan half that size, but it would consume so much revenue that current programs, from military support to welfare grants to states, would suffer.

The Horn of Africa, comprising Ethiopia and its surrounding countries, is cut off from the rest of the continent by mountain ranges and coastline, forming an "ark" that, in the words of author Graham Hancock, "shelters an astonishing variety of human societies: from the ancient and highly sophisticated to the remote, simple and untouched. . . ." (The region has other ark connections as well; this is the traditional homeland of Noah, and the ancient Ethiopian city of Axum is, "Raiders" notwithstanding, the legendary resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

As spring training nears for the Orioles, some club officials are up to their ears in audiotape.The number of applicants for the part-time position of public address announcer at Camden Yards is approaching 300, with more cassettes arriving each day postmarked before the Jan. 9 deadline. Spiro Alafassos, director of ballpark entertainment, TTC said he hopes to have Rex Barney's replacement named by March 1, but first comes the process of sorting through the candidates."It's a little steeper than the amount we had envisioned," said spokesman John Maroon.

My 16-year career in two legislatures (eight in the Maryland General Assembly and eight in Congress) included many debates on the most divisive issues of our time: Capital punishment, affirmative action, war and peace, impeachment, entitlement reform and abortion rights were guaranteed to generate partisan strife and emotional debate. No issue generated more emotion than a woman's right to choose. Intense, emotional debates produced a unique lexicon, as legislators debated the merits and implications of "judicial bypass," "parental consent," "partial birth" and the many complexities attendant to Medicaid (taxpayer)

The Baltimore Sun As state and local highway crews braced for the first storm of the new year, they took comfort in the fact that their budgets have plenty of money to handle it — and more. Mild weather has kept the region's plows idle, salt sheds virtually untouched and ledgers in the black, public works officials say. If the trend continues, leftover money would be used to offset other government expenses or pay for road projects. Crews began the waiting game Friday afternoon, as snow and sleet developed from southwest to northeast and temperatures slipped below freezing.

The MLB trade deadline is less than two weeks away, and the Orioles have pulled one of their most valuable trade chips , shortstop J.J. Hardy, off the table. With a three-year extension, Hardy isn't likely to be dealt at the July 31 deadline. But the new contract -- well-deserved, by the way -- doesn't make him untouchable. Each team has a few players who are off-limits in trade negotiations, and some will argue that no player is truly invaluable and untouchable. But which current Orioles players and prospects fall into that category?

One political party overwhelmingly favors a dramatic change to how health care is delivered in this country. The other denounces it, and polls show the public opposes it, too. Yet proponents stick to their guns — and voters punish them for it. A description of the 2010 mid-term elections and the effect of President Obama's health care reform initiative on Democrats in Congress? No, that's what is happening right now with the Republicans and proposed changes to Medicare. Irony, thy name is Washington.

Howard County's schools represent the county's single largest expense, but the $1.56 billion budget proposed by County Executive Ken Ulman gives the County Council virtually no chance to either cut or add money to the school board's request for more than one-third of that money. That's because Ulman proposed giving the board its full request of $512.6 million in locally raised revenue, which also represents just enough to satisfy the state law that requires counties to maintain per-student spending levels or risk a major loss of state funds.

Business groups and other transportation advocates are asking lawmakers in Annapolis to build a proverbial "fire wall" around the transportation trust fund. That may sound appealing, but what's needed is something more along the lines of a split rail fence or perhaps a nice garden trellis — barriers that discourage trespassing but can be breached. There's no question that for more than a quarter-century governors have been dipping into the trust fund — money raised by the gas tax and a variety of other sources set aside for highways, transit, airports and ports — with too much regularity.

First off, Dan Johnson wants to be clear about who was not invited to the Ninth General Assembly of the World Future Society going on in Washington this weekend.Among the 1,000 attendees are scientists, sociologists, health policy experts, corporate strategists, economists and environmentalists.Barred at the gates are psychics, bookies and, above all, New Age zealots."Our membership is very ra-tional," says a sober-sounding Johnson, an editor on the society's monthly journal, The Futurist.

A FEW DAYS before he leaves his fourth-floor corner office in the Arundel Center for the last time, John G. Gary seems to be at peace.He jokes. He smiles. He bears no resemblance to "King John," the supposedly overbearing bully who ran Anne Arundel County for the past four years.Even more remarkable is that Mr. Gary doesn't look or act like a man who suffered a battering at the polls one month ago. The veteran politician who had hoped to serve another term as Anne Arundel's county executive seems remarkably free of bitterness.

WASHINGTON - -A game of musical committee chairs in the U.S. Senate ended Wednesday and left Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland right where she is: as the most senior senator without a committee chairmanship. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin is taking over as head of the Senate health committee, succeeding Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who died last month at the age of 77. Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who took charge of health legislation while Kennedy struggled with brain cancer, was first in line to chair the committee, formally known as Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

On a steamy night in Baltimore last week, Jordan Thomas drove his fraternity brothers through two-plus hours of running, calisthenics and dance. A videographer from ESPN followed their every move. Banter filled the air. On a parking lot at Morgan State University, his squad -- Iota Phi Theta fraternity brothers from Morgan State and Coppin State universities -- was drilling for the Super Bowl of their sport. It is hard to say what brought this unheralded group to the brink of "Super Stomp," otherwise known as the Stomping on the Yard National Step Show Championship.