California

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

Kevin Krigger walked the shed row this morning at Pimlico, wearing sunglasses and leading Goldencents, the 17th finisher at the Kentucky Derby, around Barn D. The colt had arrived at 1:30 in the morning, a few hours later than planned, on a van from New York, where he had flown earlier in the day from Louisville. Two of trainer Doug O'Neill's assistants -- Jack Sisterson and Tyler Cerin -- drove from Kentucky and were here to meet the horse. That was all planned. Krigger's presence came as a surprise.

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

It's Bring Your Child to Work Day. Or Take Your Kid to Work Day. Or maybe officially " Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work " day. Whatever it's called, my kids are at school. They see me on the computer enough as it is, and I have a feeling they wouldn't be too excited by what I'm actually doing most of the time. "See this comma? It's called a serial comma and we're going to delete it. And the abbreviation for California should actually be Calif., not CA. We call that 'AP style,' honey!"

"What's in California?" quizzed Don Worsham, the self-proclaimed Mayor for Eternity of Glen Ridge Drive. "Just a lot of congestion and pollution, from what I've heard. And phony actors and singers. Betcha there's not even an American Legion post there. " Well, dear friend and neighbor, you're right on the first two points, but a bit off base on the last. During our eight hotel tour de force, I saw dozens of Legion posts. And all of them, like most of the Golden State, were draped in fragrant red, yellow and white roses, all wild.

Dr. Christy Anna Hipsley, of Berlin, Germany, daughter of Bruce and Shelly Hipsley of Bel Air, and granddaughter of Stephen and Helen Saradin, received her doctorate degree in biology on Aug. 16 from the University of California and has accepted a post-doctorate position with the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany. Hipsley received her master's degree from Lund University in Sweden, her bachelor's degree from N.C. State and is a 1995 graduate of Bel Air High School.

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.

It certainly would seem that way. One calamity after another has hit the Golden State. Earthquakes. Firestorms. Prolonged drought. Intense smog. Unreal traffic gridlock. Recession. And now massive urban rioting. California seems to be under a perpetual state of siege.Yet for millions, California remains the land of opportunity. A vast tidal wave of Asian and Latino immigrants has swelled the population to 30 million, with another 650,000 people arriving each year. They are placing a strain on a state government already on the verge of breakdown.

CHICAGO -- Part of becoming an adult is accepting responsibility for the consequences of your actions. That's one tempting argument for arrested adolescence. It's much more satisfying to congratulate yourself for everything good that happens to you while blaming someone else for everything bad. Judging from his recent conduct, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has been watching too many reruns of Peter Pan. His is the latest bid for membership in the Have Your Cake and Eat It Too Club.

I've heard horror stories about dog-walkers. People who hired a dog walker to come in every day to walk their pup, only to find out that the person took the money daily, but never touched the dog. Or the one about the woman who returned home from work once to find that the pup waiting there for her belonged to someone else. People who hire dog-walkers trust that they will actually show up, actually take their dogs out -- and keep them out and moving for the amount of time paid for. But that doesn't always happen.

MEN D-II semifinals: teams TBA CBSSNNoon, 2:30 Elite 8: Syracuse vs. Marquette 13, 94:20 Elite 8: Wichita State vs. Ohio State 13, 96:55 WOMEN Sweet 16: Delaware vs. Kentucky ESPNNoon Sweet 16: Connecticut vs. Maryland ESPN2 Sweet 16: Georgia vs. Stanford ESPN9 Sweet 16: California vs. LSU ESPN211:30

California Gov. Jerry Brown has done a lot to finally balance his state's budget, but his greatest challenge still lies ahead ("Jerry Brown: A survivor at the top of his game," Feb. 3). In 1978, during Mr. Brown's first term as governor, he helped pass Proposition 13, a property tax cap that has mostly benefited large corporations at the expense of California's once elite education system. Since the passage of Proposition 13, California schools have gone from the best in the country to 49th in education spending.

They came to pay off a wager, but they couldn't escape a little trash talk. California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer walked humbly to Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski's Capitol Hill hideaway on Thursday to pay off their Super Bowl bet, showering Mikulski and Sen. Ben Cardin with cheese, wine and crab -- the West Coast variety. "This is real crab," Feinstein said as she handed a Dungeness crab to the Maryland senators. "It was caught a few days ago in a trap off of the Golden Gate Bridge...It comes with our deepest congratulations.

It's said in politics that timing is everything, that success depends on picking the right time to make one's move. When Barack Obama decided in early 2007 to launch a presidential bid as a freshman U.S. senator at age 45, the naysayers wondered why he was in such a hurry. He proved them wrong. Three decades earlier, another young political comet named Jerry Brown, freshman governor of California at age 38, similarly had reached for the presidency in 1976. However, despite a late-surging campaign, he lost.

Dick Van Dyke brought his characteristic charm to the SAG Awards this weekend, and Internet users dutifully searched for all sorts of details on him -- anything to distract us from the icy weather that caused school closings from here to Ann Arbor.  Another top distraction this weekend was this year's edition of the Royal Rumble , covered for The Baltimore Sun from Arizona by blogger Arda Orcal. Links to full details are below. || ONLINE TRENDS || School closings (Google search, Twitter)

Brenna Doherty's dream of becoming a world-class figure skater has had its share of bumpy landings. They began when Doherty was a freshman at Oakland Mills High in Columbia. After making the finals at junior nationals at ages 13 and 14, Doherty thought she wanted to try being a typical teenager. "When I first entered high school, I wanted to be a part of the Homecoming committee, and all kinds of stuff like that," Doherty, now 18, recalled recently. "I followed my friends and joined some of their clubs, but I definitely decided it wasn't for me. I wanted to go to the ice rink every day and train.

LOS ANGELES -- Christo unfurled his latest environmental artwork yesterday as a lush green countryside in Japan blossomed with 1,340 blue umbrellas, and the California portion of the project was poised to open just after dawn today.The Japan umbrellas -- each is almost 20 feet tall and weighs 488 pounds -- started opening at 5 a.m., Japan time, Wednesday. Four hours later, almost all were open."So far, the Japan umbrellas are going up without mishap," said Augie Huber, general contractor for the project, which has been six years in the making and will cost more than $26 million.

Have no fear that California ever will become "normal" or "boring" -- at least so far as its tourism advertising is concerned.Recently the state kicked off a $3 million nationwide television-and-print ad campaign geared to polish California's tarnished image as a vacation destination. Developed under contract with the J. Walter Thompson agency in San Francisco, the campaign includes as a component a new, toll-free telephone number -- (800) GO-CALIF ([800] 462-2543) -- that consumers can call to receive any of four "travel tip sheets" within minutes via fax machine.

James A. Buck gladly accepted the package at his Parkville office from the deliveryman wearing a UPS uniform. But minutes later, police swooped in to arrest Buck, 54, and seized the parcel, which had contained three pounds of marijuana he sent to himself from California, according to court records. Buck pleaded guilty to a possession charge, though he said in a recent interview that the drugs were for medicinal use. Buck's case and search warrants unsealed last week offer a glimpse into a long-standing — and growing — smuggling practice: mailing drugs from California to Maryland.

This time last year, Dan Duquette arrived at the annual GM meetings just a week into his new job as Orioles executive vice president focused on getting reaccustomed to fellow front office executives. The 2012 GM meetings open today in Indian Wells, Calif., and run through Friday. The meetings don't usually lead to much news, but for general managers, it serves as the opportunity to lay groundwork for next month's winter meetings in Nashville. Duquette will now have a much better grip on things at the meetings, especially after the Orioles' best season in 15 years.