California

High school sports are sometimes a funny thing. Sometimes opportunity lies at your feet. Other times, it walks right through the front door. River Hill girls volleyball coach Lynn Paynter figured this year might be one for rebuilding. She had lost an All-Metro second-team hitter in Megan Rosburg and a Howard County All-Star in Sarah Okey. Then, on Aug. 12, senior Amber Wiswell walked into the team's first practice. Wiswell grew up in Ventura, Calif., where volleyball is king. Tuesday, Wiswell and her teammates proved that maybe this won't be a rebuilding season after all by defeating seventh-ranked Mount Hebron, 25-15, 25-14, 25-12, in the opening match for both teams.

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.

Patterson basketball standout guard Aquille Carr has decided to play in the sixth annual Boost Mobile Elite 24 basketball showcase this Saturday in California, despite questions being raised about whether that would affect his high school eligibility. Sponsored by ESPN and also in connection with Under Armour, the Boost Mobile game is set for 7 p.m. Saturday in Venice and will be televised live onESPNU. After hearing from Baltimore City Public Schools that playing in the game may violate a rule in the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association's guidelines on Tuesday, Carr, a rising junior, cancelled his original flight that was set for Wednesday.

This wine came as a big surprise. Usually, a California pinot grigio is better at a year old than two. But this full-bodied white wine from Carmenet — a once-prestigious label that seems to be undergoing a revival — is surprisingly complex and outstanding for its type. It offers an appealing and mature mix of lemon, apple, honey and spice flavors — far beyond the typical, fairly neutral pinot grigio. This sleeper wine punches way above its weight class. Drink it up this year. From: California Price: $12 Serve with: Salmon, lobster, turkey

"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.

Led by goalkeeper Chante' Sandiford (McDonogh), the Eagles Under 23 of Camarillo, Calif., defeated the Kansas City Dynamos, 2-2 (4-2 penalty kicks), in Bowling Green, Ky., to win their second straight U.S. Adult Soccer Association national title and become the first team to win four age-specific USASA national championships. "I feel so comfortable, absolutely at home in the goal, and I love the challenge of keeping the ball out of the net," said Sandiford, an Owings Mills resident who played for the Baltimore Bays, Bethesda Rapids and Washington Freedom youth development program.

For Columbia's Alex Ketley , the dance road leading to this week's national TV exposure on "So You Think You Can Dance" began under the tutelage of the late Anne Allen as a member of her Columbia Multi-Media Dance Theater Company. That training opened doors for this Wilde Lake High School graduate, and earned him credits with the Washington Ballet. The road led eventually to California as a classical dancer with the San Francisco Ballet, where Ketley performed from 1994 to 1998 in a wide-ranging ballet repertory that included the works of master choreographerGeorge Balanchine.

Working out of a Highlandtown studio, Ben Walsh and his small team of video game developers recently created My Pet Rock, a family-friendly Facebook game. But, Walsh said, some day he might decide to design a video game for a more, er, mature audience — and he's heartened to know the Supreme Court now has his back. In a landmark case, the high court on Monday struck down a California law barring the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The 7-2 decision gave video games the same First Amendment protections afforded books, plays and movies.

Supporters of the controversial new Maryland law to extend in-state tuition discounts to illegal immigrants cheered the Supreme Court's refusal Monday to take up a challenge to a similar law in California. Advocates for undocumented students in Maryland said the high court's action reinforced their position that the state was on solid legal footing when it approved the law, and suggested it would make it harder for opponents to challenge the measure in court. "Opponents for a long time painted this issue as unconstitutional and said that we were violating federal law," said state Sen. Victor Ramirez, the Prince George's County Democrat who sponsored the legislation.

Sex, power, class and race. For all their differences, the scandals encircling French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is accused of sexually assaulting an African-born maid in New York, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has confessed to having a child out of wedlock with a Latina housekeeper, both conjure major taboos. The stories hold our attention not just because they involve powerful men brought down to size (always an American favorite) but because they remind us of the often-hidden history of interracial sex, and its roots in global migration, labor markets and social hierarchies.