Additions

A series of safety improvements are in the works at Maryland social services offices after an infant girl was allegedly stabbed by her mother during a supervised visit this spring, state officials said last week. The child, Pretty Diamond, who is about a year old now, has recovered from her physical wounds and is in a "loving and safe home," state human resources secretary Theodore Dallas said. Her mother, Kenisha Thomas, is scheduled for trial Oct. 29 for attempted murder, assault, child abuse and related charges.

The ties between Maryland and Notre Dame in men's lacrosse already run deep. Both Dick and George Corrigan, uncles of Fighting Irish coach Kevin Corrigan, were All-American attackmen for the Terps . On the flip side, Maryland coach John Tillman once interviewed for a job at South Bend. The word Wednesday that Notre Dame will join the Atlantic Coast Conference, in all sports but football and ice hockey, takes things even further. Five times, the schools have met in lacrosse.

The federal government this week acknowledged a link between unhealthy conditions at ground zero in the  in the aftermath of the the Sept. 11 attacks and several types of cancer. It added 58 cancers to covered illnesses for people exposed to toxins at the site of the World Trade Center after the attacks 11 years ago today. Dr. John Howard, administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program, had originally proposed the additions in June. The recognition of the cancers will help get treatment for firefighters, medical personnel, survivors and others who worked on rescue efforts after the attacks.  The original list of conditions related to ground zero did not include cancers, but allowed for addition of other illnesses over time.  For information: www.cdc.gov/wtc or 1-888-982-4748 for information on how to apply.

"Monday Night Football" will open its 43rd season at M&T Bank Stadium with several new wrinkles. There will be a two-man instead of three-man booth with Mike Tirico doing play-by-play and Jon Gruden on analysis. One of the biggest changes will be on the sidelines where Lisa Salters will debut as the new sideline reporter for the storied franchise. Salters, a Penn State graduate, talked about her new job, her goals in that role, her hard-news values and the way she was socialized to journalism at Baltimore's WBAL-TV and ABC News in the Peter Jennings era. Q. Sideline reporter for Monday Night Football is one of the highest visibility jobs in the business.

The outcome of Sunday's races could come down to how the drivers negotiate the chicane that officials initially removed after last year's inaugural event, then decided to put back late Friday night. The Pratt Street chicane is designed to slow drivers down as they barrel over the light rail tracks, but several drivers failed to properly make it around the barrier Saturday and found themselves - and their cars - going in many different directions. "If you're following another car into that chicane, you're going to be blinded where the curb is," three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Dario Franchitti said.

Johnny Unitas, considered by many to have been the greatest quarterback of all time, will be inducted posthumously into the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame with six others at the 53rd enshrinement ceremony Nov. 8 at Michael's 8th Avenue in Glen Burnie. Unitas, the Pro Football Hall of Famer who led the Baltimore Colts to NFL championships in 1958 and 1959 and Super Bowl V in 1971 over 17 seasons with the team, will be honored along with golf legend Carol Mann as a result of a change in the organization's by-laws.

Leith Walk Elementary School kicked off the Baltimore city school system's "21st Century Buildings for Our Children" campaign, a billion-dollar borrowing plan that will require a funding commitment from the state, in order to overhaul the system's aging infrastructure--a feat determined to cost $2.4 billion. The Sun's back-to-school coverage was notably devoted to the school shooting that took place in Baltimore on Monday, shortly after the state welcomed students back to school for the 2012-2013 school year.

The Orioles hope their acquisition of left-hander Joe Saunders from Arizona on Sunday can help propel them to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. Saunders was on Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette's wish list this season -- he signed a one-year, $6 million deal with the Diamondbacks after being non-tendered -- and Duquette had been in discussions about Saunders with Arizona for weeks before consummating a trade this weekend. So what does it mean? Saunders, 31, gives the Orioles starting rotation the veteran presence it needs and has been lacking over the past six weeks with the absence of right-hander Jason Hammel. No member of the existing starting rotation has more than 13 career wins (Chris Tillman and Zach Britton)

Cholera broke out in Haiti two years ago, and more than 7,000 people have died. Some researchers traced the outbreak's origin to United Nations peacekeepers sent from Nepal after the devastating earthquake in 2010. The theory that Nepalese soldiers unwittingly spread the bacterial gastrointestinal ailment has become widely accepted based on genetic fingerprints revealing the strain's Asian roots. Now research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and College Park campuses is painting a more complicated picture, with recent findings showing that a second cholera strain also sickened some Haitians.

The mother and the brother of a suspect in a triple shooting were gunned down in an ambush outside their Northeast Baltimore home, according to sources, prompting police to assign a special unit of top investigators to stop the "momentum of violence. " Police released few details Friday about the crimes - the triple shooting took place Wednesday in Southwest Baltimore and the ambush a day later - but condemned the violence. "From now on, when incidents like this happen, when there's this momentum of violence, we need to respond," said acting Police Commissioner Anthony Barksdale.