Van Buren

This is the 52nd presidential election.The 16th was the first to be held on the same day everywhere in the nation. It came after a two-year war with Mexico in which Gen. Zachary Taylor became a national hero. Whigs nominated him to run for president. Democrats chose Sen. Lewis Cass of Michigan, a supporter of the war.Cass had cast pro-slavery votes, and Taylor was a Louisiana slaveholder. Abolitionists had nowhere to go. Many voted for a new Free Soil Party, whose nominee was former Democratic President Van Buren.

Felton Barner retired in late 2007 after spending 30 years in the information technology industry. But the 60-year-old Columbia resident didn't stay retired for too long. Earlier this year, Barner decided to pursue his lifelong interest in photography; he opened an art gallery business in May. Peter Van Buren, too, was ready for a new start after a 25-year career in wine sales. Finding a company that matched his passion in promoting environmental sustainability proved challenging, though.

Legal buffs who go to see "Amistad" for its climactic scene in the Supreme Court know better than to expect the real thing. It would be impossible to get what really happened in a two-hour movie. John Quincy Adams alone spoke for over eight hours.As the movie makes clear, the case -- about whether to return the Africans who had mutinied and taken control of a Spanish slave ship to Spanish citizens who claimed them as their property -- was a dramatic and political high point in American history of the period between the Revolution and the Civil War.No court case before that one in 1839-1841 so captured the public imagination, and none afterward would till the Dred Scott case in 1857.

TELEVISION LAW & ORDER / / 9 p.m. Wednesday. WBAL-TV (Channel 11). ....................... The longest-running cop drama on television returns for its 18th season this week with lots of changes. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) is the new district attorney, and Detective Edward Green (Jesse L. Martin) has a new partner, Cyrus Lupo (Jeremy Sisto). There are a couple of new assistant DAs as well: Connie Rubirosa (Alana De La Garza) and Michael Cutter (Linus Roache). Happily, Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson)

This is the 52nd presidential election.The 13th was held in 1836. In 1828 and 1832 Andrew Jackson had created a Democratic Party based on the votes of ''the common man.'' His opponents coalesced into a new party, the Whigs, so-named because Jackson's critics, invoking Revolutionary-era rhetoric, said he was making the presidency too ''royally'' powerful.Rather than back a single opponent for Jackson's hand-picked successor, Vice President Martin Van Buren of New York, the Whigs supported regional tickets in New England, the West and the South.

IN THE aftermath of the Persian Gulf war, President Bush's "approval rating" in national polling is so high that some people think the Democrats needn't bother to show up in 1992.But don't be so hasty. There's more to being president than running a war. And history shows that splendid handling of foreign policy hasn't always aided incumbent presidents.No president knew that better than John Adams, who finessed an undeclared naval war with France from 1798 to 1800, getting the French to agree to America's most insistent demand, the end of its alliance of 1778.

When George Bush won the presidency four years ago, he was heralded as the first incumbent vice president to capture the White House since Martin Van Buren pulled off this feat in 1836. Is he now to suffer Van Buren's fate: a defeat after just one term, with mocking opponents chanting "Van, Van, the used-up man"?Mr. Bush's task as Republicans gather in Houston tonight for the opening of their 35th national convention is to demonstrate convincingly that he is anything but a "used-up man." It will not be easy.

JEANNE Moreau no doubt has a number of fans in Baltimore, especially after her memorable performance as Aunt Lili in the new movie, "The Summer House." So it's worth noting that, for her part, the French actress is a fan of Baltimore. In a recent interview with the New York Times she spoke of her disdain for Europeans who profess dislike for the United States:"When I hear people in Europe talk about 'the Americans,' I say, 'You don't know a thing about the Americans'," she said. "This is an incredible country.

From The Sun Feb. 23-29, 1842FEB. 25: Ex-President Van Buren arrived in this city yesterday, on his way to the "Hermitage," to visit the venerable Jackson. Mr. Van Buren is in fine health and spirits and looks remarkably well. We hope he will find the "Old Roman" healthy, hearty and firm.FEB. 28: Yesterday afternoon, two elegant ponies, attached to a barouche, became frightened in York Street, and after running over a bridge, lost one of the four wheels, in which condition they passed up Baltimore Street at the top of their speed until they arrived at Sharp Street.

Felton Barner retired in late 2007 after spending 30 years in the information technology industry. But the 60-year-old Columbia resident didn't stay retired for too long. Earlier this year, Barner decided to pursue his lifelong interest in photography; he opened an art gallery business in May. Peter Van Buren, too, was ready for a new start after a 25-year career in wine sales. Finding a company that matched his passion in promoting environmental sustainability proved challenging, though.

The 2nd Star folks have hit one out of the park - Whitemarsh Park, that is - with their current production of Damn Yankees, playing weekends through June 26 at Bowie Playhouse. Winner of numerous awards for its musicals, 2nd Star won the coveted Ruby Griffith Award for last season's spectacular Mame. This production of the classic feel-good show has winner written all over it: from the great tunes delivered by terrific pit musicians, to the spirited chorus and soloists on stage, to the champion execution of fantastic choreography, and finally to a strong cast from top to bottom.

Community college announces students on president's list Harford Community College has announced the students who have been named to the president's list for the fall semester. In qualifying for the president's list, a student must have a 3.76 grade-point average or higher. Full-time students must have completed 12 credit hours during the semester. Part-time students are eligible after completing 12 credit hours and then six more credit hours during the current semester. Students named, by community, are: Aberdeen: Patricia David, Rosalie Luby, Michelle Parker, Kimberly Ann Potter, Pamela Reed, Jocelyn Rudd, Amanda Smith, Judaye Arrin Streett and Joshua Weeks.

To Susan Van Buren, the city-owned Cylburn Arboretum is "Baltimore's secret garden." "Even many people who live near here don't realize it's public property," she said of the secluded space that includes carefully cultivated gardens, a nature preserve and a 19th-century mansion not far from Pimlico Race Course in Northwest Baltimore. Van Buren is on a mission to change that unofficial designation. As the newly named and first executive director of the nonprofit Cylburn Arboretum Association, she wants to raise the arboretum's profile beyond the avid gardeners and birders who are regular visitors, and help fund improvements to the grounds and buildings.

Charles M. Powell Jr., a retired Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority supervisor, died of a heart attack Aug. 6 at his Mitchellville home. He was 70. Mr. Powell was born in Lutherville and raised on Druid Hill Avenue. As a youngster, he began singing with the Baltimore Boys Choir and his dream was to be a member of the boys choir at Father Flanagan's Boys Town in Nebraska. Though not an orphan, Mr. Powell, a tenor, was allowed to enroll at Boys Town, from which he graduated in 1951.

Like the lingerie she sews, the African-American seamstress at the heart of Lynn Nottage's new play, Intimate Apparel, is a woman whose existence is largely unrecognized and concealed from view. But we get to know this early 20th-century seamstress - perhaps better than she knows herself - in Nottage's distinctive drama, which is receiving a captivating world premiere at Center Stage in a co-production with California's South Coast Repertory. A single woman who has just turned 35, Esther Mills worries that she will spend the rest of her life alone, tethered to her sewing machine.

In 1955, when baseball was considered the national game, the struggles of an underdog team made a surefire subject for a musical. Today, sports fans lavish their strongest emotions on basketball and pro football, but an outstanding production of "Damn Yankees" at Toby's Dinner Theatre proves that the show still has the power to delight an audience. The show opens with a chorus of suburban husbands watching a baseball game on television, to the despair of their neglected wives. The men are rooting for the Washington Senators against the New York Yankees, but they're backing a lost cause (in the 1950s, the Washington team had a permanent home at the bottom of the American League, while the New Yorkers were virtually invincible)

CUB SCOUT Troop 459 from Union Bridge shared holiday cheer with residents of Brookfield Manor Resident Care Inc. recently when the Scouts read Christmas stories and played "Jingle Bells" on their trumpets. The Scouts' visit to the assisted-living home in Middleburg is an annual event that began nearly a decade ago, according to Pat Keeney, the Scouts' den mother. One Scout's mother said that her son didn't have grandparents close by and that it would be nice to pay a visit to elderly people.

WASHINGTON -- It's a long way from the Democratic National Convention being held in Los Angeles this week, but in the 1830s, Democrat Simon Cameron suggested his party hold its national convention the third week in May of each presidential election year in Baltimore. His suggestion was never formally adopted, but 15 national political conventions were held in Baltimore during Cameron's lifetime, most of them involving the Democrats. Even so, the Democrats weren't the first to hold a convention in Baltimore.