Young Adults

"We love our children with all our hearts," Gordon Livingston, psychiatrist, philosopher, author and twice-bereaved parent says from his home in Howard County. "We imagine that they will bury us. Then fate intervenes and we must bury them. Nowhere is the fragility of life or the randomness of death more apparent than in the deaths of children. " I contacted Livingston because of the train tragedy in Ellicott City - an event extraordinary in its randomness. A train pulling tons of coal derails on the bridge over Main Street.

Rachel Tova Minkove, a University of Maryland School of Social Work student who wanted to assist young adults as they fought cancer, died of Hodgkin's lymphoma complications July 29 at her Cheswolde home. She was 28. Born in Baltimore, she was the daughter of Dr. Judah Minkove, an internist, and Judith Fruchter Minkove, a Johns Hopkins Medicine writer and editor. She was raised in Northwest Baltimore and was a 2001 graduate of Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School. She then studied a year in Israel at a Jerusalem seminary school.

This is in response to the July 5 article by Lindsey McPherson, in which local officials and a resident applauded the recent Supreme Court decision upholding the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. While the case cited needs to be addressed by changes in health care, the best system in the world should not be radically changed to do so, especially when it will be financed through a mandatory tax on healthy young adults and all...

Amber Barner has had a summer job through the city's YouthWorks program seven times, every year since she was 14. But this time is different. This time her job will outlast the summer. That twist comes courtesy of Baltimore's fledgling effort to encourage businesses to hire young adults directly through the city's program, rather than simply donate money to help cover their wages elsewhere. Wells Fargo, part of YouthWorks' new Hire One Youth initiative, decided to hire at least one young person for a permanent job. "It's my first time working at a bank," said Barner, 20, a teller at the company's Hamilton branch.

This is cool. On June 27, Heavy Seas Alehouse will close its restaurant to the public for a Guest Chef Dinner. The line-up of visiting chefs, each of whom will design one course, includes Kyle Bailey of Washington, D.C.'s Birch & Barley (first course), Sergio Vitale of Chazz: A Bronx Original (second course) and Chris Ford of Wit & Wisdom (dessert). Heavy Seas' own Matt Seeber is taking the third course. Brendan Dorr of B&O Brasserie is designing a specialty cocktail menu, and a Heavy Seas beer and wine will be paired with each course.

These groups meet regularly. Abusive relationships - Mondays, 7-8:30 p.m. Domestic Violence Center of Howard County, 5457 Twin Knolls Road, Suite 310, Columbia. Free child care. 410-997-0304. Adult Children of Alcoholics - Wednesdays, 7 p.m., First Presbyterian Church of Howard County, 9325 Presbyterian Circle, Columbia; Saturdays, 12:45 p.m., Serenity Center, 9650 Basket Ring Road, Columbia. 410-796-4680. Alcoholics Anonymous - Sundays, 7 p.m. Share experience, strength and hope with each other to solve this common problem and help others to recover.

Martha Gardner takes the maternal approach to teaching. She ushers in every new school year "with butterflies of anticipation" as she welcomes her newest students into her family. After 32 years in the classroom, that family has grown very large. "If you are part of my life, you are family," she says to those students about to join her in a yearlong adventure. "I am excited to see their faces on the first day. These smiling, uncertain people don't know it yet, but they have just met the newest member of their family — me. " Those sentiments helped earn Gardner recognition as the Anne Arundel County Teacher of the Year.

More young adults are moving back in with their parents than ever before, and if a recent think tank report is correct, both generations are OK with this. The reasons are often economic, of course. Our children can't find jobs that pay enough to allow them to live on their own — and in the style to which they became accustomed under our roofs. But they aren't down about it, according to the Pew Research Center. A significant majority say they are satisfied with their living arrangements and upbeat about the future.

They started at the Cornucopia. Filled with blankets, water, bread, matches and a variety of other objects, those supplies were soon depleted as the 15 participants raced to take the objects they deemed necessary for survival. As the game started, many discovered some of their choices may have been unnecessary in the environment created by the imagination of the Taneytown Library staff - an environment where constant rain made drinking water unnecessary and coats and blankets a necessity.

Baltimore County police said they filed charges against several people Wednesday in a triple stabbing that occurred the day before in the Garrison neighborhood. One victim remains hospitalized and two others have been treated and released, police said. Police were withholding the names of those charged until after their bail hearings. Officers were called at 3:45 p.m. to the unit block of Spectator Lane near Reisterstown Road. Residents told police a 20-year-old man had already gone to Northwest Hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries.