Young Adults

CRAFTS SUGARLOAF RETURNS Catch the 31st annual Sugarloaf Craft Festival at the Maryland State Fairgrounds tomorrow through Sunday. The festival will feature more than 350 artists with specialties from jewelry to clothing to pottery. Attendees can also watch craft demonstrations, including glassblowing, iron forging, wool spinning and metal spinning. There will be daily performances from Middle-earth Studios, a children's dress-up theater show; food from various vendors; and an area for purchasing prepackaged food such as soup and jams.

WASHINGTON -- Federal health officials proposed new label warnings for all antidepressants yesterday, a move aimed at protecting 18- to 24-year-olds who might be at increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior during early months of treatment. The "black box" update would follow similar changes made to antidepressants' labels in 2005 that added a warning of increased suicide risks among children and adolescents but did not give specific ages. The Food and Drug Administration emphasized that patients who are advised by their doctors to take an antidepressant should not stop using the drug.

More witness testimony is scheduled today in what is expected to be a weeklong trial for a 28-year-old Columbia man accused of fatally shooting a 20-year-old man from Savage during an altercation last summer. Michael Dean Jackson Jr. of the 8900 block of Skyrock Court is charged with first-degree murder, accused of shooting Anthony James Owen-Smith at least six times with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun during an argument near Jackson's residence in the late evening of June 23. The shooting came after a fight that evening that involved dozens of young adults at Kings Contrivance Village Center, prosecutors said during opening statements this week in Howard County Circuit Court.

Maryland's single greatest competitive advantage in today's high-tech, global economy is its well-educated work force. But that is also its great vulnerability: Workers eventually retire, and unless the state replaces each retiring generation with a generation that has an even larger proportion of college graduates and holders of other post-high school certificates, its competitive edge could soon disappear. Will Maryland do what it takes to keep raising the education level of its work force?

Conventional wisdom says that the youth vote is fickle, that in a world of limited budgets, campaign managers are smart to direct resources elsewhere. But new trends in youth political engagement challenge this long-standing belief. And for presidential candidates seeking to exploit these new developments, the message of 2008 may well be, "It's the genocide, stupid." For the past three years, a stunning number of young people have been active at all levels of the democratic process for the sake of civilians in Darfur, Sudan.

MORE THAN 100 soft dolls, handmade by members of the Women's Club of Hampstead, were donated by the club to Operation Smile, an international medical program, on Friday.Operation Smile, founded by the husband-and-wife team of Dr. William T. Magee, a plastic surgeon, and Katherine Magee, a nurse, offers reconstructive surgery and related health care to indigent children and young adults in developing countries and the United States, and provides associated training to health professionals around the world.

DOUG ULMAN always knew he wanted to teach. He planned to teach history, but a twist of fate has channeled his strong spirit into deeper waters.Now he teaches about cancer.The Ellicott City resident graduated from Centennial High School in 1995. He was a dynamo: soccer team captain, Howard County Student Government Association president, student representative to the school board.Ulman was home for the summer after finishing his freshman year at Brown University when his life changed.Then 19, he was jogging on a hot August night with his older brother, Ken Ulman, when he felt a constriction in his chest.

IF TELEVISION had a golden age, when would it have been?Many nostalgic people with flawed memories date it around the time Edward R. Murrow was making a legend of himself in the '50s. The legend, sadly, comes across as a fuzzy, pompous bore when rerun today. The situation comedies of the '50s cause the eyes to glaze before the first commercial.There followed in the '60s and '70s the glory days of broadcast networks, when they were overstaffed, spent money like drunks, killed good shows like homicidal maniacs, owned the airways, owned the Federal Communications Commission as well and first started paying their anchors seven-figure salaries.

College students who live in dormitories rather than off campus triple their risk of developing bacterial meningitis, a new study has found.Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said a Maryland study -- published today in a national journal -- raises a complicated question: Is it housing that makes the difference, or something else?While the crowded conditions of a college dormitory might be ideal for the dangerous infection, scientists say there might be other explanations -- including tobacco and alcohol.

Baltimore resident Kenneth Merchant, soon to be an engineering student at Morgan State University, doesn't smoke American cigarettes at all. He prefers bidis, a flavored cigarette imported from India, for the extra kick they give. "It's just like cigarettes," he says, "except it's a little stronger."Bidis, Americanized as "beedies," are 2 inches long, hand-wrapped in a brown leaf called tendu and tied at one end with string.Although this description may suggest marijuana, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found that beedies contain no controlled substances.

Tavon Stokes, 22, is seldom sick and keeps in shape by running and walking. He figures he has no need to see a doctor. So even though the full-time sales clerk from Baltimore could get health insurance from his employer, RadioShack, Stokes figures he can find far better ways to spend his cash. Health problems "aren't coming up yet, so it's not much of a priority," he said. In the debate over health care reform, Stokes and his peers are known as "invincibles," strong and healthy young adults who have no experience with wallet-crippling illness and feel they have no need for coverage.

As an example of how opponents of health care reform have been able to twist facts to scare older Americans, look no further than a comment made to President Barack Obama during a recent town hall meeting. Mary of North Carolina told the president she was worried about rumors she's heard about health care legislation. "I have been told there is a policy in there that everyone that's Medicare age will be visited and told to decide how they wish to die," Mary said. "This bothers me greatly."

Sarah (nee Kitzes) Berkowitz, Funeral services Tuesday, June 16 in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. Memorial contributions may be directed to the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults, 4725 Dorsey Hall Drive, Ellicott City, Maryland 21042 www.ulmancancerfund.org

The entrance is marked by a block-long garden with outdoor "rooms" and a circular labyrinth where therapists can work with patients learning to use a wheelchair or walk with a cane. The main lobby features a mini-aquarium and lounge where teens can shoot pool or play Wii games. The top floor is a light-filled aquatic center containing swimming pools with underwater treadmills and hydraulic lifts. These are a few of the features of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building, a $35 million, state of the art outpatient center that the Kennedy Krieger Institute is opening this spring as part of an effort to improve and expand services to children and young adults with developmental disabilities and spinal cord injuries.

Hometown: Baltimore Members: Drew Shaffer, vocals and guitar; Brian Pollack, guitar; Justin Goodman, bass; Jordan Goodman, drums Founded: 2008 Style: rock Influenced by: Death Cab for Cutie, Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead Notable: The group's first EP, All I Thought Impossible, will be released in April. The group won a contest to perform at Tigerfest in Towson in late April. Quotable : "The record really encompasses what I think we're going for as a band - trying to have a mature sound as young adults," Justin Goodman said.

Forum on teens, abuse, HIV/AIDS The Columbia Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. will sponsor a forum on "Teen Intimidation, Abuse and HIV/AIDS: What Parents, Teens and Adolescents Need to Know and What to Do," 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, North Laurel. A continental breakfast and lunch will be served. Permissions slips are required for attendees younger than 18. Participants of all ages will be given a pre-session test to assess their knowledge of dating violence and HIV/AIDS, and a post-session test to assess the usefulness of the program.

Saying she wants to put cigars out of the reach of young adults, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon announced a new city rule that inexpensive cigars must be sold in packets of five or more. "Single cheap cigars are becoming quite popular," Dixon said at a City Hall news conference. "These products are addictive and deadly." Single cigars often cost as little as 50 cents at city corner stores, and people often empty them and refill them with marijuana. The new regulation, which will go effect Oct. 1, includes cigars that cost $2.50 each or less.

Here's another conversation parents didn't know they had to have with their kids: Don't send nude photos of yourself out into cyberspace. Too late. They are. A survey of teens and young adults released last week reported that one in five teens - and a third of 20-somethings - have electronically sent or posted online nude or semi-nude pictures or video of themselves. Even more - 40 percent of teens and 60 percent of young adults - are "sexting," sending raunchy messages via text, e-mail or instant message to each other.

Learning the lessons of failed war in Iraq When it comes to President Bush's invasion of Iraq, we must resist the president's continuing efforts to rewrite history ("Bush sees Mideast 'freer, more hopeful,'" Dec. 6). Facing the truth is too important to ignore his distortions. The realities are that: * By invading an Arab nation that had nothing to do with 9/11 or international terrorism, President Bush has, ironically, become the greatest recruiter of terrorists since the Crusades. * The war, now nearly 6 years old, continues to be tragically costly in terms of life, limbs and money for the United States - costs our country and casualties will pay for years to come.

They claim to "give you wings," "unleash the beast" and propel you to attack life at "full throttle," but the bevy of energy drinks on the market could provide more than a turbo-charged rush. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University say some of the wildly popular beverages contain potentially harmful levels of caffeine - as much as 14 cans of Coca-Cola. In a review article appearing in this month's issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, the researchers say the drinks should carry warning labels displaying their caffeine content and possible health risks, such as nervousness, anxiety, insomnia, rapid heartbeat and tremors.