Featured Articles from the Baltimore Sun

Baltimore prosecutors have dropped half of the charges filed against four young people accused in a St. Patrick's Day attack on a tourist, whose brutal beating and robbery was videotaped and widely viewed online. Aaron Jacob Parsons, 20; Shayona Mikia Davis, 20; Shatia Baldwin, 21; and Deangelo Carter, 19, were each charged in with first-degree assault in the incident, in which an Alexandria, Va. man was battered, stripped of his clothes and left unconscious in front of the Baltimore circuit courthouse on North Calvert Street.

Before sunrise Monday, Kevin and Shelley Taylor set out from their Millersville home to a new employment center for the Maryland Live! Casino, a slots parlor next to the Arundel Mills mall seeking workers for 1,500 jobs. Having tracked the progress of what will be the state's largest casino, the Taylors believe the facility could provide opportunity for their five-member family. Though Kevin Taylor has a job, he wants a better-paying one. And Shelley Taylor has been out of work for several months.

For many folks headed to Preakness, the focus of the afternoon isn't the race. It's the fashion — and we don't just mean hats. If you're in the grandstands, the Jockey Club area or Corporate Village, you'll want to dress the part. Betsy Dugan, owner of Bettina Collections in Cross Keys and former co-owner of Octavia in Pikesville, has been dressing women for Preakness for years. "This is the time ... to dress up," she said. If there's one rule of thumb, it's that ladies and gentlemen at Preakness should look like ...well, ladies and gentlemen.

On paper, Sunday night's WrestleMania looked as if it could be one of the strongest installments in the event's 28-year history. In execution, it was anything but. I personally avoided Twitter and Facebook, so that the thoughts I would be sharing here would be as purely mine as much as possible. The show lacked the feel of WrestleMania; the first hour felt rushed and most of the matches seemed to be missing something. The show wasn't bad by any means, so I don't want people to misread what I am saying, but I expected more.

I'll Have Another's path to the Triple Crown will be crowded. His competition at the Preakness, the second leg, could include the five horses who followed him across the line at the Kentucky Derby. That hasn't happened since 1958. In fact, the last time even the top five Derby finishers all raced in Baltimore was 1992. Bodemeister, the pacesetter and runner-up last Saturday, remains undecided. Trainer Bob Baffert - a five-time winner of the Preakness - is in California and does not plan to visit Bodemeister or Derby sixth-place finisher Liason until the weekend.

After the usual introduction folderol, we get the encore dance - Donald's jive with Karina and Peta. Still good, but maybe not quite as high energy as it was last night. Footage from last night: Donald & Peta got compliments from the other contestants up in the kiss and cry and then went ass over teakettle in the interview area. Katherine & Mark prompt the judges to get very silly after they hold up their paddles. I love seeing the masks slip. The brief glimpse we get of Katherine, Mark, and Tristan making silly faces and screaming in the backstage interview makes me wish Katherine had been paired with Tristan - they're partners in goofy.

Maryland Live! Casino at Arundel Mills will have its grand opening at 10 p.m. June 6, casino officials announced Thursday morning. The grand opening still requires approval by the Maryland Lottery, which will oversee a trial run to take place before June 6. The announcement comes as the state slots commission on Thursday considers a bid to open a casino in Rocky Gap, in Western Maryland, by Evitts Resort LLC. The commission also has yet...

Six months after the game's initial release, the whispers of the first expansion pack for Bethesda Softworks' "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" have finally been confirmed . The pack is titled "Dawnguard. " The name is, as far as we know, unique within the Elder Scrolls universe, and isn't referenced in any in-game literature (according to the very useful Elder Scrolls Wiki ). If you consider the "Dawn" part of the name, the location immediately seems to point to the northern Skyrim city of Dawnstar, which is near the edge of the current playable map. Of course, "Dawn" could point to time, not location.

“Wolfenstein 3D” is the “Seven Samurai” of first-person shooters. Without the proper context, it seems like something sparse and ancient. In its simplicity, though, rests a mechanical genius that lead to two decades of shooters that continue to flourish today. To celebrate 20 years since its release, Bethesda Softworks' website is hosting a browser-based version of the game for free . In addition there is an extensive director's commentary available from John Carmack, co-founder of id Software, the game's original developer.

The Under Armour brand is poised for continued growth with a soon-to-be-released football cleat that's expected to drive footwear sales, as well as plans to keep expanding into international markets, executives told stockholders Tuesday. Consumers who choose Under Armour over other sports apparel brands do so because the products help solve problems for athletes, said Kevin Plank, the company's chairman, president and CEO, during the company's annual stockholders' meeting at its South Baltimore headquarters.

Gleaming white with twin black smokestacks and a 23-ton red paddle wheel at its stern, the Queen of the Mississippi is an apparition rising more than five stories above the Wicomico River. Before the month is out, the lines holding it dockside at Chesapeake Shipbuilding Corp. will be cast off and the Queen will churn down the coast on its way to New Orleans, a life on America's most famous river and a showdown with a bigger-name rival. American Cruise Lines, the Connecticut-based owner of the vessel, is betting that the 280-foot riverboat is exactly what the cruising public wants.

Four trucks laden with 100 slot machines arrived early Wednesday morning at the nearly completed casino at Arundel Mills mall. For the next two hours, workers wheeled banks of the gleaming new machines, one by one, inside on hand trucks. Installation of the first set of slots moved Maryland Live! Casino, the state's largest, another step closer to its scheduled opening in three months. That's progress for Maryland's lackluster gambling program, which has yet to be fully implemented more than three years after voters approved five slots locations statewide.

Navy Lt. Mark Tedrow has no problem reconciling an air show with a commemoration of the War of 1812, an era that precedes flight by almost a century. The Blue Angels pilot said he looks forward to flying over the Inner Harbor, Middle River and Fort McHenry - birthplace of the national anthem - during a bicentennial celebration in June. "It will be outstanding to perform multiple maneuvers over Fort McHenry," he said. "It will show just how far we have come. " Tedrow and his co-pilot flew into Martin State Airport in Middle River on Thursday to give a small preview of what the Navy's renowned flight team will do for the bicentennial maritime and air festival that kicks off June 13. "Stake out your places on the waterfront so you don't miss a thing," said Lt. Cmdr.