Waterloo

School officials who had planned to move about 40 children from special education classes in Cedar Lane School to Stevens Forest Elementary this fall have instead decided to move them to Waterloo Elementary.Educators changed plans after determining there would be problems in partitioning areas at Stevens Forest for the classes, said Associate Superintendent James R. McGowan.Transferring the children from Cedar Lane is an effort to balancethe early childhood center at Running Brook Elementary School, whichis in Columbia and serves families living west of Route 29, with a similar center on the east side, said Sue A. Brown, special education supervisor.

Charging willful and repeated lack of safety precautions for workers building the Waterloo Place downtown apartment complex, the state has fined three contractors more than $130,000.Workers at the North Calvert Street project were in continuous danger of falling from heights of up to 100 feet, working without guardrails, safety lines, nets or other protection, the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health office charged.In some cases, only a thin plastic tape was strung across the elevated work platforms to warn employees of the potential danger of falling, MOSH said.

It's one of those stories that sounds like it could have happened only in the movies.West Virginian John Roby was a World War I doughboy in the trenches in France when a German bullet whistled in and hit him in the chest.It would have killed him instantly if it hadn't been stopped by the Bible he was carrying in his shirt pocket.Roby escaped injury that day in 1917, though a stray bullet claimed his life as the war was ending.Seventy-four years later, the Bible, an angled slash onits brown fabric cover showing the path of the bullet, is on loan from Roby's family for Waterloo Elementary's first school museum.

When architect Robert Mills finished building a row of 12 town houses in the Mount Vernon area in 1818, the country was coming out of a recession and few people were in the market for new residences. The project went bust, the builders took up residence in lieu of payment, and the houses were nicknamed Waterloo Row for Mills' "defeat."This year, as David Tufaro finishes construction on a new housing development that replaces Waterloo Row, the country once again is coming out of a recession, and the housing market is anything but strong.

The state Fire Marshal's office is investigating whether a string ofrecent barn and vacant building fires in the county is the work of an arsonist.A fire in Waterloo on Tuesday is the fourth suspiciousfire in three weeks involving vacant buildings, county fire records show.Tuesday's fire occurred at a vacant house on Old Waterloo Road near Port Capital Drive.The fire began at approximately 8 p.m., directly across from the site where someone set fire to a vacant barn onSunday.Firefighters say the barn was a total loss; a damage estimate onthe two-story home was not available.

Washington. Saddam Hussein hopes to force America to fight on the ground before air bombardment has substantially ''attritted'' his defenses. Iraqi and U.S. forces locked even momentarily in equilibrium on the ground would provide the stark symmetry that would serve his political aims if he survives to boast about it.Mr. Hussein's aim is for American casualties to reach the threshold at which U.S. decision-makers flinch from the additional violence required to eliminate his regime. His premise is: If he survives the fighting, he wins.

ANNAPOLIS -- George Chaump has talked about him in reverent tones all season. The Navy coach has even had the audacity to mention him in the same breath with Napoleon McCallum.Ivan Bullard is his name. He is a 225-pound sophomore tailback from Hinesville, Ga., who now, after a series of false starts, is actually going to start his first game when Navy entertains Delaware Saturday.Chaump has raved about Bullard's speed and power. He has said, although he wishes he had the words back, that Bullard might remind some people of McCallum, the runner who went from Navy glory to the NFL, with a military hitch mixed in.Bullard has rushed only eight times for 11 yards this season, which suggests a problem.