<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>washingtonpost.com - Maryland</title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/metro/columns/offthebeat/md?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><description>Maryland</description><language>en-us</language><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>washingtonpost.com</title><width>140</width><height>20</height><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com</link><url>http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/image/wp_web.gif</url></image><item><title><![CDATA[Liquor Store Owner Undeterred by Push for Midnight Closings]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12492-2005Apr23.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12492-2005Apr23.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  In 1985, Amrik and Ravinder Melhi moved into a Riverdale apartment complex with the goal of someday owning their own home and their own business. After several years of working long hours in convenience stores, the couple purchased an abandoned liquor store on Branch Avenue in Temple Hills.]]></description><author> Hamil R. Harris</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Talbot Schools Hope Laptops Lift Grades 8 to 12]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56596-2005Feb26.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56596-2005Feb26.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  The tiny Talbot County school district on Maryland's Eastern Shore is about to equip all upper-grade students with laptop computers, an ambitious and costly foray into wireless learning.]]></description><author> Daniel de Vise</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Campaign Aims to Save the Snakehead]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19918-2005Feb12.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19918-2005Feb12.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Of all the names that have been hurled at the northern snakehead -- intruder, predator, Frankenfish -- Alan Gardner would like to add one more to the list: victim.]]></description><author> Joshua Partlow</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Some Doubts About Outspoken Critic of Hornsby]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12623-2005Jan15.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12623-2005Jan15.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  As Prince George's County schools chief Andre J. Hornsby faces state and federal investigations into his dealings with educational software companies, one voice has risen above all others among his critics -- that of Del. James W. Hubbard (D-Prince George's).]]></description><author> Nancy Trejos</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Subdivision Blaze 'Was Truly an Awesome Sight']]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58236-2004Dec11.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58236-2004Dec11.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[When Wally Danielson's pager started rattling at 4:54 a.m. last Monday to report a fire of an undetermined nature at Hunters Brooke, the volunteer fire chief in Marbury didn't think much of it.]]></description><author> Joshua Partlow</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Thrill of Give-and-Take With the Governor]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36041-2004Dec4.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36041-2004Dec4.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Halfway through an hour-long interview with the Maryland governor on his college radio show, Aaron Kraus was cruising: The 21-year-old senior was asking solid questions, matching the politician fact for fact, keeping his composure and obviously impressing him.]]></description><author> Daniel de Vise</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[McCarrick Sees Growing Need to Share Meals and More]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16954-2004Nov27.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16954-2004Nov27.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick was due in Rome on Thanksgiving to meet with the pope. But the archbishop of Washington spent part of his Wednesday in an apron to help prepare holiday meals for people living with HIV, AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses.]]></description><author> Hamil R. Harris</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[New Park Service Division Chief Is Another Pioneer]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12875-2004Oct30.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12875-2004Oct30.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  The symbolism was not lost on those gathered Thursday night to fete the National Park Service's new superintendent for the district stretching from Greenbelt to the steps of the U.S. Capitol.]]></description><author> Hamil R. Harris</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Machines Get an Initial Vote of Approval From League]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57577-2004Oct23.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57577-2004Oct23.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  For the members of the League of Women Voters  who gathered Thursday for a test of Montgomery County's electronic voting machines, it was like watching someone defuse a bomb. All these cables and cords and touch screens and thingamajigs wired together into foldable, collapsible, portable instruments of democracy: Would they actually work?]]></description><author> Rebecca Dana</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Among Concerns of Bay Area Voters, Pollution Ranks Near the Top]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38823-2004Oct16.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38823-2004Oct16.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Pop quiz: Name two of the three most serious problems in the Chesapeake Bay watershed area, according to a poll of voters in July and August.]]></description><author> David A. Fahrenthold</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Redskins-Ravens Matchup Is Just a Taste of Things to Come]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20941-2004Oct9.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20941-2004Oct9.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Sports used to be a lot simpler for Richard Kreiner. The Redskins were, for a while, the only football team anywhere near his Columbia home. And the Orioles have been the only baseball team for decades.]]></description><author> Hamil R. Harris</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Memory of Founder Inspires Community as It Confronts Change]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3003-2004Oct2.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3003-2004Oct2.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ James Rouse built Columbia in the late 1960s with the idea that he could create a multicultural, modern-day Utopia between Washington and Baltimore. He left his company in 1979 but lived in Columbia until his death in 1996, watching over the planned community like a doting parent.]]></description><author> Miranda S. Spivack</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Baltimore's Subversive Auteur Doesn't Disappoint at Premiere]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32137-2004Sep18.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32137-2004Sep18.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Just as the well-dressed throngs were surging into the art deco Senator Theatre on Baltimore's York Road last week for the premiere of John Waters's latest movie -- a "sex education" stunner of a film that has earned an NC-17 rating -- the neighborhood church bells started to ring.]]></description><author> Darragh Johnson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Window on the Controversy Over Importing Drugs]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14662-2004Sep11.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14662-2004Sep11.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  As Montgomery County prepares to join a growing number of state  and local governments endorsing the purchase of lower-cost medicines from Canada, opponents are clearly distressed.]]></description><author> Cameron W. Barr</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[MBA Classroom Staples Now Include BlackBerrys]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42721-2004Aug28.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42721-2004Aug28.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   A year or so ago, they were just another high-geek gadget. But suddenly they've become the de rigueur accessory in fast-paced corporate and political circles -- one of those how-did-we-ever-live-without-it technologies that is remaking the workplace.]]></description><author> Amy Argetsinger</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Radio Operators Provide Health Care Communications in a Pinch]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22590-2004Aug21.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22590-2004Aug21.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Bob Howell, who works at Prince George's Hospital Center, noticed that the lights on his office phone weren't working last Monday morning.]]></description><author> Ovetta Wiggins</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Operator Goes Zzzzzzzz in the Night]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48828-2004Aug7.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48828-2004Aug7.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  The low, rumbling snore has been broadcast across the airwaves and  over the Internet -- the snore heard around the world -- and become fodder for television anchors who seemed to delight in poking fun at an Anne Arundel County 911 operator who fell asleep while taking an emergency call last month.]]></description><author> Eric Rich and Christian Davenport</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Latino Activists Get Two Kinds of National Recognition]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58436-2004Jul17.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58436-2004Jul17.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ In front of a rented 57-inch television tuned to Channel 7, about 27 Latino activists and supporters gathered at CASA de Maryland's Silver Spring office to see their work lauded on "Oprah."]]></description><author> Darragh Johnson</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Kerry Passes the Townsend Test With Black Leaders]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41577-2004Jul10.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41577-2004Jul10.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Two years ago, when then-Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend chose a Republican military leader as running mate in her bid for governor, some Democrats saw it as a shrewd move to draw in Maryland's moderate voters.]]></description><author> Hamil R. Harris</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[After Month of Questions, Injured Woman Reunites With Son]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54956-2004Jun19.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54956-2004Jun19.html?nav=rss_metro/columns/offthebeat/md</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 8:20:38 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  The mystery began a month ago, when police found a woman lying on a street in Langley Park. She had been hit by a car or fallen onto University Boulevard.]]></description><author> Avis Thomas-Lester</author></item></channel></rss>