Wheat

A recall of pet food tainted with melamine, a chemical used to make plastic products, has been widened to include 22 types of dog biscuits, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. The biscuits, made by Sunshine Mills Inc., contain wheat gluten imported from China that contained melamine, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the FDA. Sunshine Mills of Red Bay, Ala., manufactures branded and private label dry pet food and biscuits. The recalled biscuits include Nurture Chicken and Rice Biscuit, Ol' Roy Peanut Butter Biscuit and Pet Life Large Biscuit.

Not so long ago, celiac disease was considered to be an allergy to gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains, that predominantly affected children. Now, however, it is known that celiac disease is an autoimmune disease that affects about 1 percent of people in the United States, says Dr. Alessio Fasano, director of the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. What is celiac disease? Nowadays, celiac disease is perceived to be an autoimmune disease like diabetes and multiple sclerosis, not a food allergy to wheat as thought before.

Nine employees at Wheat First Union, including a team of four veteran brokers, quit the firm's Baltimore office and opened a local branch yesterday for competitor Tucker Anthony Inc.The group, led by Charles W. "Pete" Shaeffer Jr., told superiors at Wheat First Union on Friday afternoon that they were leaving the company to join Tucker Anthony, a Boston-based brokerage firm that has aggressively moved into Maryland in recent weeks, Shaeffer said."

The corrugated metal door to the hangar swings open and there it is in the shadows: the single-engine Mooney that nearly killed Emory Wheat.Actually, this is a slightly older version of the Mooney that came screaming out of the frozen night sky above South Dakota six years ago, when Wheat came as close to death as he'd ever care to.In the stifling hangar at Martin State Airport now, Wheat lovingly rubs the wing of the small brown and yellow four-seater he...

50 years ago: Dr. M. B. Johnson of the Medical and Chirulurgical Faculty of Maryland was the guest speaker at the weekly meeting of the Westminster Rotary Club. In his report to the members, Dr. Johnson brought out several points of interest. Although the U.S.A. contains 6 percent of the world's population, it has half the number of hospital beds in the world. Being opposed to socialized medicine as proposed by the government, the speaker stated that the 40 million families in the U.S.A. now average $165 per year per family, as opposed to about $400 per family under socialized medical care.

More than 150 county farmers gathered for their annual midwinter meeting at the Maryland Cooperative Extension yesterday to hear dismal news about grain prices and frustratingly little information on new state nutrient-management regulations still being written."

Wheat First Union is reportedly trying to lure as many as seven BT Alex. Brown Inc. employees from its Institutional Sales division to build its own operations in Baltimore, according to sources familiar with the situation.The Richmond-based brokerage and investment banking firm has made offers to a group of "institutional salesmen," but Alex. Brown officials have countered to prevent them from leaving, sources said.Institutional salesmen are key players within investment banking companies, because they sell research material generated by the firm to brokerages, mutual funds and pension funds.

"The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization," by Thomas L. Friedman. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 382 pages. $26.The skills we needed for success as individuals were reading, writing and arithmetic applied with diligence. A nation was strong if it had a large standing army and missiles with a large throw-weight. A corporation could thrive if it had a well-made or cleverly priced widget to sell. Those were the equations for every type of security. You could bank on them, and we did and many of us became comfortable and rich.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The Louisville Cardinals are playing mind games at the East Regional, and it's not just the uncertain status of injured point guard DeJuan Wheat, either.The Cardinals ride the crest of what coach Denny Crum calls "neuroscience" into today's regional final against North Carolina.At stake is a berth in the Final Four and perhaps a boom time for this little-known offshoot of sports psychology.If the Cardinals somehow find their way to Indianapolis later this week, the man of the hour will be a "neuroscientist" named Steve Haladay.

Corn has inspired decorations on porcelain, furniture, metalwork and paintings for centuries. In the 1880s, corn became a symbol of America.About 1889, the W. I. Libbey & Son Co. of Toledo, Ohio, made a pattern of milk glass that resembled ears of corn.A tumbler was formed from the ear of the corn with green, blue or red leaves. The corn kernels were made in light yellow, white or light green.The pattern was called "Maize," and pieces are expensive collectors' items today.A saltshaker sells for $100 to $200; a celery dish for $275; a condiment set with three shakers for about $800.

A minor revolution, in the form of cheese lasagna, had come to the cafeteria at Hampstead Hill Academy, but the struggle had only just begun. Kitchen staff accustomed to heating pre-made meals had to wrestle with sticky pasta noodles, then brace for balky eaters on this, the first "Meatless Monday" for Hampstead Hill and other Baltimore public schools. On Mondays throughout the year, cafeteria menus will be all vegetarian - a first for city schools and, it's believed, any large school system nationwide.

BEIJING -With the global economic crisis producing unrest in rural areas, Chinese authorities have taken emergency action in wheat-growing regions that are suffering from their worst drought in 50 years. The three eastern provinces that account for more than half of the country's wheat production have seen winter rainfall levels as much as 80 percent lower than normal, the National Meteorological Center reported. In a sign of how seriously the government is taking the drought, state-run news media reported that the State Council, the highest level of executive authority, discussed the crisis Thursday.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Zimbabwean authorities confiscated a truck loaded with 20 tons of American food aid for poor schoolchildren and ordered that the wheat and pinto beans aboard to be handed out to supporters of President Robert G. Mugabe at a political rally instead, the American ambassador said yesterday. "This government will stop at nothing, even starving the most defenseless people in the country - young children - to realize their political ambitions," said the ambassador, James D. McGee, in an interview.

LOLA ODESSA WHEAT, 89, of Philadelphia, formerly of Baltimore. The burial will now take place in Tohickon Union Cemetery, Perkasie, PA.

Motivated by the skyrocketing price of groceries, I took a stab at growing my own salad and baking my own bread. My efforts did not go well. The salad, made from spinach plants that I had nursed through the winter, was meager and tough. The leaves did not seem to have many flavors. The bread, which I made using a no-knead recipe, was disappointing. It was dense, flat and the crust tasted of cornmeal. I suspect that future loaves would have been better. Bread making, like essay writing, usually improves with subsequent efforts.

Melinda Watson's New Year's resolution: Spend less. She has always been frugal, but now she's very worried about the economy. Her family cut back on holiday presents. They're traveling less and eating in more. And the Baltimore resident, a 52-year-old homemaker, is in school studying nursing to land a recession-proof job. "We feel like we've really been conscientious about saving and planning, and in spite of that, we're feeling like we're going to have trouble keeping our heads above water," said Watson, who is concerned about retirement, health care costs in particular.

The Rev. Bill Miller-Zurell was recently presiding at Communion, moving from congregant to congregant, offering the body, offering the blood, until he got to a little boy who, seeing the piece of bread, stopped the pastor short. "He asked me if there were any nuts in it," said Miller-Zurell, who leads New Hope Lutheran Church in Columbia. "His mom, who was standing behind him, made him. And he only took it after I assured him that there were no nuts." In an increasingly susceptible world, where more and more people are realizing that things like nuts and wheat and even certain pungent scents can make them quite sick, religious organizations are reconsidering the most time-honored of traditions.

Not so long ago, celiac disease was considered to be an allergy to gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains, that predominantly affected children. Now, however, it is known that celiac disease is an autoimmune disease that affects about 1 percent of people in the United States, says Dr. Alessio Fasano, director of the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. What is celiac disease? Nowadays, celiac disease is perceived to be an autoimmune disease like diabetes and multiple sclerosis, not a food allergy to wheat as thought before.

On October 18, 2007; SHIRLEY BURNS WHEAT (nee Cochran) of Bel Air, MD; beloved wife of Gene Wheat, died suddenly. She was 72 and was a lifelong Harford County resident. Shirley was the daughter of the late Edna Burns and Clyde Cochran of Fallston, MD. She was a devoted mother to her daughters, Sharon Levin (and husband Emanuel),of Owings Mills, MD., Cheryl Gregson,of Miami, FL, and Leslie Spencer ( and husband Jody), of Monticello, FL. Shirley is also survived by her sister, Ruth Ann Bennett(and husband Harold)

The dust inside a grain bin on South Manor Farm in Ellicott City swirled around County Executive Ken Ulman yesterday morning like the tornado that spun Dorothy's house in the Wizard of Oz. Ulman climbed out of the cylindrical bin heaving and coughing - his black T-shirt covered in sweat - after a half-hour of shoveling and sweeping the last of the year's wheat harvest out of the silo. "Phew! Man!" Ulman said as he removed his protective breathing mask. His asthma had kicked in, and he needed a moment to catch his breath and cough some more.