Boosters

It has been said that 90 percent of the schools in big-time college sports abide by the rules -- and the other 10 percent go to bowl games.That cynically humorous axiom has been decried by a range of reform groups in recent years. And it is being challenged again by the Pacific-10 Conference which declared last Sunday that one of its perennial bowl contenders, the University of Washington, broke the rules big time.In an arena so large, so clotted with rules and so distorted by the pressure to make money, the Pac-10 may hope that home-based enforcement will have an immediacy and sting that is missing when punishment comes from a distant National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Public health officials are warning adults and adolescents to get booster shots in the wake of an unusually large number of cases of whooping cough this year around the nation and in Maryland. More than 20,000 cases of the respiratory disease were reported in the first seven months of the year in the United States, almost 21/2 times the number in all of last year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency says there are likely many more cases that are not reported.

IT WAS A SAD day last week when the Maryland Chamber of Commerce stepped into the water at Ocean City and started sinking.Barry Rascovar is deputy editorial-page editor of The Sun.

A group supporting gambling expansion in Maryland released a new radio ad this afternoon that focuses on costs of the slot machines, which under the current law are funded by taxpayers instead of casino operators. "Maryland is one of the only states in America with government-owned slot machines - where taxpayers pay twice as much as private companies," says a disgusted-sounding man in the ad. "Maryland is about to waste more than $290 million over the next five years on government-owned slot machines.

BARBARA LAY admits she knows very little about football. She knows what position her son Rob plays for the Glen Burnie High varsity team. She knows the yellow flags the referees throw are usually bad news for our team. She can distinguish the gopher mascot in a crowd of cheerleaders.And now, as the new president of a revived football booster club, Lay knows that equipment and uniforms cost money -- lots of money.So it's fund-raiser time on the football field.As part of the boosters' efforts to raise $3,000 to replace the junior varsity football uniforms, players are conducting a submarine sandwich sale this week.

CLEANING OUT notebooks and mulling over some stuff that, maybe, is worth sharing to start a new year: The man who in 2 1/2 years has written more fan mail (alas, just three letters) about this column than anyone else, Ellicott City's J. T. Merryman, took us to task again last week for espousing the addition of lighting for county high school stadiums. If you missed his missive, Merryman suggested that with so many county schools overcrowded, sports boosters should "rethink their priorities and consider purchasing portable classrooms, books, software or computers, instead."

Public health officials are warning adults and adolescents to get booster shots in the wake of an unusually large number of cases of whooping cough this year around the nation and in Maryland. More than 20,000 cases of the respiratory disease were reported in the first seven months of the year in the United States, almost 21/2 times the number in all of last year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency says there are likely many more cases that are not reported.

Ed Vinson never has seen anything quite like it at Northeast High. And he's been a member of the school's athletic boosters for 17 years."I haven't seen these kinds of emotions and discontent. I've had teachers calling me, coaches calling me, parents calling me," Vinson,53, said of the negative reaction to last week's dismissals of Athletic Director Bob Grimm and Assistant Athletic Director Bart Rader.Principal Joseph Carducci Jr.'s decision to advertise the two positions met with resistance by a coalition of Northeast supporters -- including Vinson -- seeking to have Grimm and Rader reinstated.

You can call it a bar fight. Baltimore tourism boosters -- backed by nationwide trends that show people clamoring for late-night entertainment -- are preparing to battle what they see as outdated liquor and zoning laws. While party-until-dawn nightlife is reviving the travel industry in New York, New Orleans and Miami, several influential leaders here say the city has been slow to recognize the trend, costing it "tens of millions of dollars." "A city today, in order to win, it has to be considered a happening place," said Carroll R. Armstrong, president of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association.

A new 1996 Ford 4-by-2 Ranger pickup truck is the prize in the Chesapeake High School Athletic Boosters' raffle. Tickets are $10, and only 3,000 will be sold."

Maryland's children would be required to get more vaccines before attending school under a proposal being considered by state health officials. But doctors and state health officials said most children are already getting the shots and that they are looking to regulate the process. Under the proposed guidelines, pupils would be required to get a chicken pox booster before starting kindergarten. The chicken pox vaccine is now required to be given to babies. Seventh-graders would be required to get the Tdap vaccine, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.

Submitting sports notices The deadline for submitting sports copy is 9 a.m. Monday. We prefer email (howardcountysports@patuxent.com). Questions? Call 410-332-6578. Booster camps Registration for the Hammond High School Boosters summer sports and clubs program can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/hammondhsboostercamps/. Email hhsboosterscamps@gmail.com with questions. Registration for the Marriotts Ridge High School Boosters Summer Camps is open.

Lisa Morris , of Nottingham, a student at Wofford College, Spartanburg, S.C., is studying abroad during the fall of 2011 in Guayaquil/Quito, Ecuador. Morris, a member of the class of 2012, is the daughter of Patrick and Sevil Morris. Kelly Cunningham of Baltimore, a class of 2013 student attending Denison University, Granville, Ohio, is studying with the Danish Institute for Study Abroad program in Denmark for the fall 2011 semester. Chelsea Simpson of Perry Hall, daughter of Jean Milburn and Frank Simpson, has been inducted in the Sigma Beta Delta honor society of Washington College, in Chestertown.

While area prep squads prepare for new season, coaches are feverishly attempting to figure out the best way to put oomph into offenses and determination into defenses. Look for your favorite team's most uplifting prospects below: Calvert Hall 2010 record: 11-1 Returning starters (offense): 5 Returning starters (defense): 5 First game: Sat., Aug. 27, 1 p.m., at John Carroll Fast fact: The Cardinals captured their first Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference title last season.

Chris Knoche and Keith Neff were with Gary Williams on Wednesday night at a Terrapin Club function in Columbia. The mood was upbeat, despite the news that sophomore star Jordan Williams had signed with an agent and was making himself eligible for the NBA draft. At no time did Williams give any indication of his sudden retirement plans to Knoche, who played for Williams at American and has been the radio analyst on Maryland games for the past 11 years. The same was true for Neff, one of Williams' closest friends since he came back to College Park in 1989.

Republican presidential hopefuls have been scrambling to figure out the right vocabulary for denouncing President Barack Obama's decision to launch U.S. planes and ships into action against Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. Because Mr. Obama made the decision, they know they're against it. But it took most of them a day or two to settle on exactly why, in part because so many of them had called for intervention before Mr. Obama pulled the trigger. Take Newt Gingrich. Two weeks ago, the former House speaker and possible presidential candidate denounced Mr. Obama for not intervening forcefully against Mr. Gadhafi.

LAST WEEK, a dozen or so high-schoolers made quick work of $1,000 worth of groceries.Parents of many teens wouldn't find that unusual. But these kids were feeding others.The groceries came from a deal between Oakland Mills High School's Scorpions Booster Club and Metro Food Markets. Boosters helped Metro do market research and Metro paid them with gift certificates that the boosters used to purchase food for needy families whose children attend the high school.For a week in November, parents of high school students stood outside the store in Oakland Mills Village Center asking shoppers about their buying habits and merchandise preferences.

A Southwest Baltimore grocery store owner was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison yesterday for leading a roving pack of thieves who shoplifted more than $4 million in merchandise from department stores around the country. Albert Eugene Roberts, 37, was the head of an organized interstate ring that sent teams of experienced shoplifters into Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target stores to steal health and beauty aids, federal prosecutors said. Some of the merchandise was later sold for bargain prices at Marge & Gene's, his South Monroe Street store.

Some state lawmakers questioned Tuesday why slot machine revenue allocated for racetrack improvements should be diverted to help fund the day-to-day operations of the Maryland Jockey Club, which reported losing millions at Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course in recent years. Referring to the Jockey Club's recent filing of unaudited financial statements for 2008 and 2009, Del. Frank S. Turner, a Howard County Democrat, said at a House committee hearing that he was "disturbed" that lawmakers did not have enough information about the tracks' operations.

At a forgettable, long-shuttered building on North Liberty Street that people hurry past without a second glance, LaTrice Whitaker will be selling cupcakes, playing jazz and pouring mugs of gourmet coffee. At a similarly empty building nearby, two local men will showcase furniture they craft by hand from salvaged wood. And if Sarah Doherty has her way, after sundown every night, the blank facade of 307 W. Baltimore St. will become a virtual movie screen as she projects video artworks onto its arched front windows.