Atlantic City

Tom Zbikowski will take on Caleb "True Grit" Grummet in a four-round cruiserweight fight Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall, but the biggest battle for the Ravens safety could come next year. Zbikowski told The Baltimore Sun he wants to explore ways of fighting next offseason and beyond, which he understands will be a challenge. It is believed Zbikowski would become the first person to pursue a career in boxing while still actively playing in the NFL. Committed to showing he's far from a novelty act, the man known as "Tommy Z" in the boxing world has teamed up with legendary trainer Emanuel Steward and acknowledged he is working toward becoming the cruiserweight champion.

Football's loss may be boxing's gain. With the NFL in labor limbo, Ravens safety Tommy Zbikowski returned to pro boxing Saturday and produced a first-round technical knockout over less-fit opponent Richard Bryant. The 25-year-old Zbikowski pounded a left hook to the 235-pound Bryant's belly, and the big man lost his breath and slumped to the canvas. Bryant was so out of wind referee Russell Mora stopped the fight at the 1:45 mark of the first. "I knew I hurt him," the 193-pound Zbikowski said.

Atlantic City Antiques & Collectors Show What: Antiques show with appraisals, glass repair, pottery restoration. The show organizer has partnered with AntiqueClothier.com to present "Revisit the Empire through Fashion," an exhibit that will feature clothing and accessories from the 1920's, styles often seen in "Boardwalk Empire," a TV show on HBO that's set in Atlantic City during the Prohibition era. "Boardwalk" actor Michael Stuhlbarg (he plays Arnold Rothstein) and producer Terence Winter will sign autographs from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Atlantic City gets an undeserved bad rap. The area doesn't exactly conjure thoughts of luxury, class and glamour. Its casino roots are kind of hard to shake. (Insert images of smoke-filled rooms, gold chains, exposed chest hair and hideously cheap outfits.) The MTV show "Jersey Shore" hasn't exactly helped to inspire thoughts of class. When the Miss America pageant abandoned Atlantic City for Las Vegas in 2006, some thought that was the last bit of glitz to leave. And now comes HBO's "Boardwalk Empire," a TV drama that paints the city with gangster stripes.

If you wanted to play blackjack, poker and roulette on the East Coast, you used to have to drive to Atlantic City. Now you just have to drive to Maryland's borders. That short trip is what Baltimore charter company Superior Tours is betting on. It has begun weekly trips to the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races in West Virginia, about a 90-minute drive west of Baltimore. Superior Tours packed two buses for its inaugural trip to Charles Town this month. "We've been taking people to Atlantic City for 16 years," said Marc Komins, an executive vice president at Superior Tours.

Maybe it is the bright lights on its facade, or the vivid colors of the dining room walls, or Sinatra crooning over its sound system. Whatever the reason, Tony's Diner reminds me of dining in an Atlantic City hotel. First a note on the restaurant's exterior: It is cool. At night, seven pillars of colored lights wash the upper reaches of the restaurant's front. The lights slowly change colors. This brightens a stretch of Park Avenue just north of 1st Mariner Arena and blends in nicely with the neon glow of a sign reading "Tony's Diner."

Anne Arundel County police have charged a 42-year-old Glen Burnie man with human trafficking and selling the sexual services of a 12-year-old Washington girl who had been reported missing nearly two weeks ago. Derwin Samuel Smith, who lives in an apartment in the first block of McGuirk Drive in Glen Burnie, was ordered jailed Wednesday in lieu of $100,000 bail to await trial. Police were involved in the case as part of the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force. They said the girl was reported missing May 25 from Washington and was believed to be working as a prostitute.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - It took more than two years, nearly $12 million in fees to lawyers and others and a billionaire's bargain-basement bid, but the Tropicana Casino and Resort has been salvaged by its sale to Carl Icahn. The $200 million deal completed Monday marks the investor's return to Atlantic City, the nation's second-largest gambling market, and ends one of the most tortured casino sales in U.S. history. Icahn bought the casino out of bankruptcy for 80 percent less than what it was expected to fetch before the recession hit. A previous deal to sell the Tropicana to Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. fell through.