Award

Baltimoreans have long acknowledged the city's good fortune in having pianist Leon Fleisher in residence at the Peabody Conservatory. Though not a native, he has made the city his home for 48 years and has enhanced Baltimore's cultural scene and reputation through teaching, conducting and, most notably, performing over these many years, even as he struggled to overcome a debilitating affliction of his right hand. But his talent has reached far beyond the borders of his adopted city - and his receipt of a Kennedy Center Honors award last weekend confirmed that.

Education analyst to speak at meeting Nationally known education policy analyst Neal McCluskey will be a guest speaker at tomorrow's meeting of the Anne Arundel County Citizen Advisory Committee as part of the group's effort to improve participation and attendance. McCluskey, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom, will speak about the changing nature of public education, particularly in high schools, under federal mandates like No Child Left Behind. It's a topic McCluskey has explored in numerous newspaper columns as well as in his latest book, Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education.

Awards Susana SaCouto, Leslye E. Orloff and Patricia Chiriboga-Roby were honored for their work in the advancement of women's legal rights by the Women's Law Center of Maryland. Joseph M. Oddis, president of Harbor Hospital, was presented with the CEO Quality Improvement Leadership Award by the Maryland Healthcare Education Institute in conjunction with the Maryland Hospital Association and the Delmarva Foundation. The Health Facilities Association of Maryland honored several professionals and advocates in long-term health care.

In the 1800s, the area now known as Clipper Mill was one of Baltimore's busiest work sites, an iron foundry and machine shop that produced steam engines, locomotive parts, even cannon balls. In the 1860s, its furnaces melted pig iron to cast 36 columns for the U.S. Capitol. Today, 12 years after an eight-alarm fire nearly destroyed a key building there, the Woodberry property has been reborn as one of Baltimore's trendiest communities, with condominiums, apartments, offices, artisans' studios and a "green" restaurant.

The National Council of Instructional Administrators has awarded Howard Community College's Step UP program its 2007 Exemplary Initiative Award for student retention and success. Step UP, a mentorship program established in 2005, offers coaching, support, encouragement and listening. The program serves about 100 students each semester. Information: Sue Frankel, 410-772-4826. HCC cookbook goes on sale for $15 A cookbook featuring favorite recipes from students, staff and faculty at Howard Community College is on sale at the HCC Bookstore in the Rouse Company Foundation Student Services Hall.

Westboro Baptist Church, the Kansas-based anti-gay group, and three of its members have a tiny fraction of the nearly $11 million they were ordered by a Baltimore jury last month to pay for their protest at a Marine's funeral in Westminster, according to detailed financial papers unveiled by a federal judge yesterday. Eight pages of documents submitted in U.S. District Court in Baltimore by the church and three of its members - and made public at The Sun's request - reveal they have a net worth of almost $1 million but do not fully explain how the church is able to fund its picketing near military burials across the country.

Invasor was named 2006 Horse of the Year at last night's 36th Eclipse Awards ceremony in Beverly Hills, Calif. Preakness winner Bernardini won 3-Year-Old Male of the Year. Roy and Gretchen Jackson of Lael Stables, who campaigned 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, shared Owner of the Year honors with Darley Stable, which owns Bernardini. Edgar Prado, who spent most of his career riding in Maryland before moving to New York in 1999, earned the Eclipse as the top jockey. Prado, 39, rode Barbaro and is credited with helping to save the horse's life when Barbaro took a catastrophic misstep and broke his leg in the early moments of the Preakness.

That Parker Posey gave a loopy, improvisational performance recently isn't unusual. It's just that, this time, she wasn't filming a movie. The indie urchin, obviously not cowed by the presence of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood, Forest Whitaker, Pedro Almodovar, Oliver Stone, Jonathan Demme, Penelope Cruz, Djimon Hounsou and a barefoot Helen Mirren, had them belly-laughing as she admitted after...

Siobhan Gorman, who covers the intelligence community for The Sun, was honored yesterday with a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for her reporting last year about the National Security Agency. Gorman's award marks the third major prize in recent weeks for Sun journalists. Robert Little received a George Polk Award for "Dangerous Remedy," his series about the Army's use of an experimental blood coagulant, and the series "On Shaky Ground," by June Arney and Fred Schulte, won an honor from Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Newspapers are often accused of printing only bad news, but you'd think a front-page report on an American's winning the Nobel Peace Prize would be considered good news. You would be wrong. Years ago, the news that an American had won the world's most prestigious award would have been cause for celebration and national pride. It would have been received as an especially good kind of good news. But that was then. Given the reaction of readers of The Sun and other newspapers across the country to the news that Al Gore will share this year's Nobel for his work on climate change, we can no longer assume such news is "good."

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is in a situation simultaneously so thrilling and yet so uncomfortable that it's hard to figure out just how much she is to be envied and resented. On her 31st birthday, the Columbia novelist and short-story writer won a "genius" grant - which is not unlike being anointed king - and was given $500,000 to use as she pleases. In her native Nigeria, she is so famous she sets fashion trends. Now, all she has to do is spend the rest of her life living up to all the accolades.

A Circuit Court judge has affirmed the decision of a Baltimore County jury to award $150 million to neighbors of a Jacksonville service station to compensate for damages arising from a leaking underground pipe. But the judge, Maurice W. Baldwin Jr., who presided over the five-month trial in the residents' lawsuit against the station's owner, Exxon Mobil Corp., gave the oil company a small reprieve: He reduced the damages by between $3 million and $4 million, partly by taking into account the money received by four families who were able to sell their properties, and partly by adhering to a cap set by state law for such compensatory damages.

Left-hander Brian Matusz, the Orioles' top draft pick in 2008, has been named the organization's minor league Pitcher of the Year, and Brandon Waring, an offseason trade acquisition, is its position Player of the Year. They will be honored at Camden Yards in a ceremony before Wednesday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Matusz will receive the Jim Palmer Award and Waring will get the Brooks Robinson Award. Jim Howard will be recognized with the Jim Russo Award, given to the organization's top scout.

On Friday, the same day two more people were sentenced for the contract killing of her son, Margaret Shipley was given the first of what's to be an annual award named after him. The Lackl Award honors victims or witnesses whose "extraordinary fortitude and perseverance ensures that justice prevails," Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said in a statement. Shipley's son, Carl Stanley Lackl, agreed to testify in a murder case despite grave personal risks, and he was killed for it two years ago. Eight people have been convicted in Lackl's death, and seven of them sentenced, including Patrick Byers, who used a contraband cell phone in prison to order Lackl's murder.

The following is an entry from The Baltimore Sun's education blog, www.baltimoresun.com/insideed, and selected comments from readers, on the selection of Polytechnic Institute's Nicholas Greer as Baltimore Teacher of the year. The blog It's clear that Greer is an excellent teacher ("the best teacher I've had yet," said student Denzel Hamilton, 14). He teaches Ingenuity biology, honors bio, and Ingenuity science and computers. He also coaches Poly's boys soccer team, mentors a UMBC intern and chairs the School Family Council at Poly.

So, a former city police commissioner is miffed at the sitting city police commissioner for hyping a drug bust. Five years ago, Kevin P. Clark stood in front of the TV cameras and hailed the seizure of 338 pounds of cocaine, describing it as one of the largest in recent years. A week ago, Frederick H. Bealefeld III stood in front of the TV cameras and hailed the seizure of 90 pounds of cocaine, describing it as the biggest in the Baltimore Police Department's history. Clark called the newspaper to complain.

LAS VEGAS - Former Orioles catcher Ramon Hernandez knew he would eventually be replaced by prospect Matt Wieters. He just didn't expect it to happen this soon. "I know they like that kid Wieters, and I know they want to make a role for him, but I was surprised because it was that quick," said Hernandez, whom the Orioles traded to the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday for outfielder-utility man Ryan Freel and two prospects. "But it's good to make that move now rather than in the middle of the season.

Anne Arundel County's two medical centers have received certification awards from a national cardiology organization, which recognizes that the hospitals adhere strictly to established treatment guidelines when providing cardiac care. Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie and Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis received the Silver Performance Achievement Award from the American College of Cardiology Foundation's National Cardiovascular Data Registry. Both medical centers are among 93 hospitals nationwide and four in the state to have earned the award.

Ten months after using an expletive on a national radio show to describe Baltimore, and six months removed from being booed lustily on Opening Day at Camden Yards, Orioles designated hitter Aubrey Huff completed a bizarre but highly successful season by being named the 2008 Most Valuable Oriole yesterday. Huff was presented with the Louis M. Hatter MVO Award by club president Andy MacPhail, who fined him an undisclosed amount last year after Huff's controversial and risque November appearance on Sirius Radio's Bubba The Love Sponge.

A paramedic who leads emergency medical service training for peers as well as for doctors and nurses been named the county government's Employee of the Year. Fire Lt. Joseph Ross, a full-time instructor at the James N. Robey Public Safety Training Center in Marriottsville, is the lead instructor for the Emergency Medical Training courses and paramedic continuing education courses, according to the county government. In addition to training his peers, Ross teaches nurses and doctors about advanced cardiac life support and pediatric advanced life support.