Washington And Baltimore

Names in the newsJay Goldscher was appointed vice president of sales and administration by Whitmore Print and Imaging, a full-service printer in the Baltimore-Annapolis-Washington metro area. Goldscher serves as the vice chairman of the board of Printing Industries of Maryland and on the board of directors of Printing Industries of America. Information: 410-263- 6660.Douglas Corby, owner of Annapolis Opticians, was recently honored as the 1998 Distinguished Optician of the Year for Maryland by the Opticians' Association of Maryland.

100 Years Ago* A large number of Anne Arundel County berry growers and commission merchants met Wednesday in Brooklyn on the issue of letting the crate go with the berries. This was rejected. Instead the shippers are to be allowed eight cents for each crate returned. -- The Sun, March 4, 1893.* The Anne Arundel County commissioners are considering increasing the assessments on railroads. At present, they are assessed as follows in Anne Arundel County: Baltimore and Potomac (double track), $12,500 per mile; Annapolis and Baltimore Short Line and Annapolis, Washington and Baltimore R.R. each $5,000 per mile.

Anyone who insists that guns are not the problem is the problem.A Meadowlands sports complex in Laurel is an idea whose time has passed. It needed the Washington Redskins and Baltimore Colts and Baltimore Orioles to work.The good thing about the Baltimore City police commissioner search is that there are still people who want the job.Washington would be an OK town if you could drink the water.

The man on the phone sounded alarmed about what he had just seen: a black man apparently posing as a deputy sheriff, walking around Annapolis in uniform, even carrying a revolver.The man called Anne Arundel County Sheriff Joseph Alton because he thought Alton should knowabout this immediately. Alton did know, because Alton had deputized the tall, black man, put him in the dark blue uniform, given him the gun and sent him out on the streets of Annapolis that day in 1951.Thus, the city had its first glimpse of George Phelps Jr. in the role of enforcer and keeper of the peace, a role Phelps would later turn into a successful business and be called upon to play time and again in the city.

Last week presented the sort of opportunity that elected officials crave. As Gov. Martin O'Malley signed the gas tax increase into law, he announced a slew of new Maryland transportation projects - $1.2 billion in all - that can now move forward to relieve congestion, make roads safer and stimulate economic development. And while all of them, from widening U.S. 29 in Howard County to designing several new light rail lines in the Washington and Baltimore areas, have their constituencies and benefits, none is likely to reap more immediate rewards than expanding MARC commuter rail operations, including allowing Penn Line trains to run on weekends.

CEDAR ISLAND, Va. -- The bedraggled raccoon clung to the bottom of a pole, aslosh in the frigid Atlantic surf. It was too weak to run from us or to climb up to the once-fine beach home where it had been living.The recent twin northeasters had turned the raccoon's world upside down and written yet another chapter in the intriguing saga of Cedar Island, Va., several miles south of Chincoteague.The animal was clearly dying. The house, now moving smartly out to sea along with others nearby as the shore erodes from beneath it, will go in the next storm or two. Four others here went in the latest northeasters.

After nearly 200 years, Francis Scott Key has come back to Fort McHenry. A life-sized bronze statue of the Maryland lawyer who wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" stands in the $15 million Visitor and Education Center that opens Thursday. Other elements include a film told from Key's perspective and touch-screen panels providing details about his life and views. It's a fitting tribute to man whose words help draw about 650,000 visitors a year to the site of the 1814 Battle of Baltimore at the tip of Locust Point, said Vincent Vaise, chief of interpretation for Fort McHenry.

The lesson is clear when a facility deemed unfit for animals is seized by the homeless as an improvement in their condition. Fortunately, this tale does not come from America, where the homeless on the streets of New York, Washington and Baltimore are familiar sights.No, it is in Milan, fashion and industry capital of Italy, that the old, central-city zoo was closed because cooping the animals in its small cages was considered inhumane. Animal rights groups protested. The zoo was condemned, its animals moved to more spacious zoos.

The pastor of a Reisterstown congregation has been tapped to lead Washington's Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church, the national church of United Methodism. The Rev. Frank E. Trotter Jr. is scheduled to preach his first sermon in the high-profile pulpit tomorrow. Trotter, who has served as pastor of Reisterstown United Methodist Church for the past 17 years, was appointed to the 1,400-member Washington congregation by Bishop Felton E. May after a national search. He succeeds the Rev. William B. Lawrence, who left to take a position as associate dean for development and church relations at Emory University's Candler School of Theology in Atlanta.

100 Years Ago* The homing pigeon service at the Naval Academy may have to be discontinued, owing to the want of an appropriation. This service was introduced by Professor Henry Marion, who will return the 29 birds to the War Department. -- The Sun, Oct. 4, 1895.* The store of W. L. Cecil, at Millersville, on the Annapolis, Washington and Baltimore Railroad, was broken into and robbed last night of a small sum of money, postage stamps and some merchandise. -- The Sun, Oct. 16, 1895.* A uniformed rank of the Junior Order American Mechanics, known as the "American Guards," was organized in Annapolis last night with John H. Wells selected captain by the 30 to 35 members.