More Charges In High School Brawl

From today's WaPo:

By Raymond McCaffrey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 30, 2007

A second young man accused of participating in a February brawl that left an 18-year-old dead outside a high school in Ellicott City has been charged with assault, the Howard County state's attorney's office said yesterday.

Corey M. Lehnhoff, 18, is alleged to have assaulted two people with an aluminum baseball bat and punched another person during the late-night fight outside Mount Hebron High School.

Lehnhoff, who, according to his attorney, was a friend of the teen who died, appeared to be an instigator of the brawl, charging documents state.

The fight involved about 20 young men, most connected to Mount Hebron or Hammond High School in Columbia. Robert Brazell Jr. of Ellicott City was fatally injured when he was struck in the head with an aluminum bat.

Kevin F. Klink, who graduated last year from Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, was charged with murder. His case is scheduled for trial in February.

Lehnhoff, of Ellicott City, and Brazell "were close friends, best friends" and had been students at Mount Hebron, said Lehnhoff's attorney, Joe Murtha.

"Now the focus has gone from Kevin Klink for being responsible and an aggressor to the people who may have been with Robby Brazell that evening," Murtha said.

Lehnhoff was indicted Wednesday and charged with two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of carrying a dangerous weapon and other counts, said Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office.

Before the fight started, Lehnhoff, "out in front of a group of males, ripped off his shirt, approached an opposing male and began arguing. This act began the brawl that consisted of about twenty males," the charging documents state.

One witness said that Lehnhoff was "the biggest fight participant" in one of the groups and that Lehnhoff and Brazell "were standing in the front of the group of males that made up the opposing group," according to the documents.

Lehnhoff, who was 17 when the incident occurred, was charged as an adult.

College Angst

Here at Talk central, we find ourselves obsessing over college these days. Ma Talk is in the final stretch of her masters, the Talk kids are beginning to assess their choices, and Pa Talk still has this recurring nightmare where he is sitting all over again for the big Calculus III test with absolutely no idea about how answer the questions.

So this story in the Sun caught our eye. It seems today's ambitious teen spends many late nights and weekends completing as many as 12 applications or more with the help of "lots of coffee."

Yikes!

Technology is part to blame. Many colleges allow people to apply online and they use a common form. We even heard a Podcast lately touting the benefits of the "social media" application, one where you add links to your Web pages and sports highlight reels on YouTube. (But don't forget to scrub the MySpace page!)

For Pa Talk, that's enough to spur some more nightmares....

But there is at least one college trend we believe can't come fast enough. Check out this story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required):

"Colleges are moving to eliminate -- or at least ease -- student debt as pressure builds in Washington for them to spend more from their endowments to help families afford the rising cost of school.

"This month, Williams College announced that it will eliminate loans from all financial-aid packages beginning next school year and replace them with grants. Amherst College recently announced a similar initiative. And Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., began this fall replacing loans with grants and student employment.

"Other schools are stopping short of getting rid of loans entirely, but are still finding new ways to minimize debt, at least for some students. Colby College, a private college in Waterville, Maine, announced this month that it will eliminate loans for Maine residents starting next fall. Beginning with next year's freshmen, Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., will eliminate loans for its neediest undergraduates and reduce debt by an average of 35% for all other students on aid.

"And this year, Emory University in Atlanta announced its 'Emory Advantage' program, which eliminates loans for undergraduate students whose families earn less than $50,000 a year, while capping total loan volume at $15,000 over four years for families with income of up to $100,000."

A Triple-A County

Wanna know what Wall Street thinks about Howard County? One of the major bond rating services, Fitch, rates HoCo's latest bond offer AAA. Fitch is like Standard & Poor's or Moody's. A higher rating means the county can borrow money cheaper.

Here's its analysis:

"The 'AAA' rating reflects Howard County's deep and diverse economy, strong financial management, affluent residents and a moderate and rapidly retired debt burden. The county's financial position is strong, with ample liquidity, sound general fund reserves above the charter-mandated level, and excellent financial planning. Current and projected tax-supported debt levels are affordable.

"Howard County's relative affluence, high quality of life, excellent schools, and proximity to both Baltimore and Washington, D.C. have resulted in continued strong demand for housing and related commercial expansion. Repeatedly listed as one of the best places to live in popular magazines, the county controls its growth, limiting new housing units to 1,850 annually and placing 10% of its land under permanent farmland preservation easements. Further growth is anticipated as recent Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) recommendations will bring the Defense Information Systems Agency and other Defense departments' activities to Ft. Meade, in adjacent Anne Arundel County. Assessed valuation growth has been solid, averaging 10.0% annually since fiscal 2000; Fitch anticipates that the county's assessment process will shelter it, at least in part, from market declines over the next few fiscal years. Residential employment remains strong, with the September 2007 unemployment rate of 2.7% comfortably below the state's 3.6% and the nation's 4.7%. Wealth and income indicators are high, with per capita personal income 25% above state and 53% above national averages.

"Financial operations are stable after a difficult recessionary period, during which the loss of capital gains and bonus income severely eroded income tax collections. Strong financial management increased the fiscal 2007 unreserved general fund balance to $67.3 million, representing a high 9.2% of spending, from a negligible $307,500, or 0.1% of spending, in fiscal 2003. The county has restored the general fund charter reserve to 7% of the prior year's audited expenditures and is increasing its pay-as-you-go funding for capital needs. In fiscal 2007, the county designated $15 million of its fund balance to fund its obligations for healthcare and other post-employment benefits."

Poinsettia Tree Is No More

We missed the real news about the Santastic display at the mall. It replaced the traditional poinsettia tree that's been a staple of holidays past for more than 30 years, according to this story in the Flier.

The mall folks apparently donated the wire frame to the symphony of lights for its outdoor display, sans plants of course.

Which doesn't seem quite the same somehow.

Anyway, the mall's move made history, according to this e-mail from the folks in town center.

"History is all around us – even in what we call a new town. Columbia Archives Manager Barbara Kellner will share the story of some historic treasures in a slide show tour on Tuesday, December 11 at 7pm at Historic Oakland in Columbia.

"The program will highlight Columbia’s ties to its agrarian past and the world of horse racing. It will also include some of Columbia’s more recent history including the recent demise of a long-time Columbian tradition, the Poinsettia Tree at the Mall in Columbia.

"The program is free, but registration is encouraged. For more information and to register, please contact Barbara Kellner at Columbia.Archives@ColumbiaAssociation.com or call 410.715.3103. Historic Oakland is located at 5430 Vantage Point Road in Columbia."

Synthetic Space

Howard County plans to use state open space money to cover some of its ballfields in artificial turf, at more than $500,000 a pop, according to this story in WaPo.

The first fields to get the plastic stuff are out in the Western Regional Park.

Folks around here seem cool with the idea. There's already plenty of synthetic fields over at SAC's soccer park. But WaPo says "artificial-turf fields have stirred opposition recently in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts, where activists say the rubber pellets might release harmful chemicals into the air or rainwater.

"The turf industry has responded that its products are safe and that they help the environment by reducing the need for pesticides and fertilizer."

Gary Arthur of the Recreation and Parks Department told WaPo that the county's old grass fields were routinely spoiled by overuse.

"We quickly found out, as the population increased and participation increased," Arthur said, "that we weren't able to keep natural turf on the field, and it became basically dirt." That led to puddles, divots and, inevitably, to crazy bounces and sprained ankles.

The Tax Package Comes Home

WaPo says in this story that residents "who buy new cars, smoke cigarettes and get their computers fixed will be among the hardest hit" by the tax package approved by the General Assembly this week.

Computers fixed?

"The lion's share of new revenue is generated by the state sales tax, which will increase from 5 percent to 6 percent. The sales tax will be applied to computer services, which are now exempt, a move estimated to raise about $214 million."

A 6 percent sales tax means Amazon and other online retailers just got cheaper.

The tax on your smokes will go up from $1 per pack to $2. The corporate income tax will climb from 7 percent to 8.25 percent. The titling tax on your car will go from 5 percent to 6 percent.

Income taxes will go up for the wealthier among us. Currently, everyone pays a flat 4.75 percent rate on income above $3,000. Under the new plan, single filers reporting more than $150,000 income and joint filers reporting more than $200,000 in income will be taxed at progressively higher rates.

After all the revenue adjustments, Howard will see state aid grow by $6.6 million to $273.3 million in fiscal 2009, according to a chart in WaPo. But all you will hear is complaints that we are "losing" $8.8 million that we had hoped to get on top of that.

This from the Sun: "The final General Assembly votes left another $550 million in cuts for O'Malley to make in the fiscal 2009 budget that he is to propose in January, which also concerns local officials.

'We think the cuts are about $9 million or $10 million, but that's before the governor spells out the $550 million. I'm assuming some portion of that will come from counties,' said Howard County Executive Ken Ulman."

Eraser Man

This brought a smile to the globally minded team at Columbia Talk:

Columbia's WR Grace got a little cultural lesson when it tried to introduce Eraser Man to China, according to this story in the trade Industry Week.

"Eraser Man seemed like a harmless gimmick to promote lean manufacturing throughout the global operations of Columbia, Md.-based W.R. Grace & Co. The pink eraser mascot was supposed to convey a simple message: eradicate or 'erase' waste. But when the $2.8 billion specialty chemicals manufacturer introduced Eraser Man during a focus-group session in China, the company's Asian staff was perplexed and perhaps a little miffed. That's because in China, erase actually means invisible.

" 'They said, "Do you really want this program to be invisible?" '" recalls Michael Piergrossi, W.R. Grace's vice president of human resources. 'Of course, the answer is, "no."'

"Also at issue was the color pink. 'Pink is just not an acceptable color in China; it's feminine. No self-respecting man would want to be associated with a program that's marked by the color pink,' Piergrossi explains."

All is well now. Eraser Man is now tan and employees in China are asked to "simplify" or "reduce" rather than erase, the magazine said.