Accepted

The Havre de Grace Ambulance Corps, Inc., along with the Marine Corps Reserve and the Toys for Tots Foundation, have designated the Havre de Grace Ambulance Corps station as a Toys for Tots drop-off location again this year. "We are looking for new, unwrapped toys or clothing items that will be distributed to needy children in our community during this holiday season," Ambulance Corps spokesman Mark Hemler said. Last year the Ambulance Corps was again, the 3rd largest Toys for Tots drop off site in the State.

Submitting sports notices The deadline for submitting sports copy is 9 a.m. Monday. We prefer email (howardcountysports@patuxent.com). Questions? Call 410-332-6605. Soccer The Central Maryland Soccer Association (CMSA) is currently accepting team registrations for the 18th Annual Bay State Holiday Indoor Soccer Tournament scheduled for Dec. 27-29 in Hampstead, MD. The tournament is open to all school, recreation and club level travel teams throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

In casting their ballots for Question 6, what Maryland voters were actually doing was putting their stamp of approval on homosexuality. Most gays and lesbians aren't interested in getting married. They do want to have same-sex relationships and not be called names for doing so. It will be interesting to see how many marriages occur in this group. If there is no significant increase in same-sex unions, a terrible mistake was made. An institution that has kept the human race in existence since its beginning will have been irreversibly changed for nothing.

Nice try, John Boehner. On Wednesday, the House speaker announced a willingness to work with the newly re-elected President Barack Obama on a long-term solution to the nation's budget problems that avoids January's "fiscal cliff" - and if you didn't listen too closely, it sounded like he was even willing to budge on the GOP's no-new-taxes dogma. In reality, though, Mr. Boehner was more or less recapping the House's position from 2011, the last time he and Mr. Obama engaged in serious discussions on the issue.

The impressive numbers keep piling up for Navy freshman Keenan Reynolds. The winning streak that corresponds with Reynolds' insertion at quarterback last month remains intact. The recent string of bowl appearances, following a year's hiatus, has been revived. After a slow start by Navy and its emerging star, the Midshipmen overcame an early 10-point deficit to Florida Atlantic on Saturday, roaring back behind Reynolds to take a 14-10 lead at halftime and holding on for a nervewracking 24-17 victory before a chilled crowd of 29,326 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

I write in response to Dan Rodricks ' column, "Same-sex unions: What would Jesus do?" (Oct. 25). I more or less agree with his befuddlement with the "extravagant manifestations" of modern day religious Christianity. Nevertheless, his personal opinion concerning what Jesus would do in regard to homosexual marriage runs counter to Christian doctrine. The Bible preaches repentance, not unconditional love to those in willful rebellion against God. Mr. Rodricks makes the common error of confusing God's unconditional love for those who have repented and turned to him in faith, as manifested in Christ's sacrificial death on the cross, with a generalized, sentimental acceptance of all behaviors that dismissed the evils of sin and the severity of God's response to it. This is a fatal mistake.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday that Comptroller Joan M. Pratt's use of free legal services from Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos' law firm represents a breach of the city ethics code — an accusation vehemently rejected by Pratt. The Angelos firm is handling without charge Pratt's lawsuit against the administration's efforts to install a new city phone system that Pratt says illegally circumvented the competitive bidding process and wasted taxpayer dollars. Addressing reporters after Wednesday's Board of Estimates meeting, the mayor contended that Pratt's acceptance of the free legal help violates the ethics code, which generally prohibits elected officials from taking gifts from people who do business with their agency.

Immediately after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nation's unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent in September, conservatives started attacking the agency for producing figures that sounded a little too convenient for the Obama administration. The most prominent doubter was former GE chairman Jack Welch, who tweeted shortly after the announcement, "Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change numbers. " But he was hardly alone.

As J.J. Hardy's game-winning double bounced off the outfield wall in the 13th inning, it dawned on 49,307 suddenly quiet New Yorkers that the 2012 Orioles just won't go away. With their 2-1 win over the New York Yankees Thursday, the Orioles kept their season alive and set up a decisive Game 5 in the Bronx on Friday afternoon. Just as the Yankees could not shake the Orioles all season, they could not shake them through a marathon elimination game. "It's been a fight to stay ahead of this team all season, and it seems fitting," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of having to play a fifth game against the Orioles.

Whether or not they accept the scientific evidence that climate change is man-made, Maryland businesses and families with electric lights know that climate change has already had a dire economic impact on our region. Unprecedented weather extremes have pummeled our state and power distribution system. Crippling storms and heat in the summer and snow storms in the winter, previously rare in Maryland, have become commonplace. Such extreme weather events dramatically increase the risk to Maryland's old-fashioned electric utilities, which were built and are managed for a 1950s economy - and climate.