Cases

A retrial of the man accused of killing Phylicia Barnes has been put off until October, as defense attorneys and prosecutors asked Tuesday for more time to prepare in the case of the teen who went missing while visiting family in Baltimore. A jury convicted Michael Maurice Johnson of second-degree murder in March, but a judge reversed the verdict because he said prosecutors failed to provide defense attorneys with information about a key witness. Barnes, a 16-year-old from North Carolina, disappeared during a visit in late 2010.

Monday's NCAA men's Division I lacrosse final in Philadelphia was an exciting matchup of one of the sport's most storied teams, Syracuse, against Duke, an underdog that came back from a losing record early in the season (and a 5-0 deficit at the start of the championship game) to win it all. There was only one thing missing: about 13,000 people. The NCAA started holding men's Division I finals in NFL stadiums in 2003, rotating among Baltimore, Philadelphia and Foxborough, Mass. During that time, the average attendance for the final match on Memorial Day was 41,678.

When someone complains to the Anne Arundel County Human Relations Commission about housing or employment discrimination, commissioners are powerless to do much about it. That's the impression the commissioners themselves have, and they say it affects how people perceive their ability to help. "Our complaints are probably low because people know that we don't have any enforcement powers," said Yevola Peters, a special assistant to the county executive who serves as the county government's human relations officer.

In less than a generation, mobile communications have evolved from a luxury item to an essential element of everyday life. With nearly 7 billion devices in use, mobile communications are nearly ubiquitous, impacting the way we work and live throughout the world every day. As the use of mobile cellular communications continues to expand rapidly, the federal government and Maryland must continue to keep pace with emerging technologies and enact policies...

At great political peril, George Ryan did the right thing. Not to canonize the man. After all, the then-governor of Illinois was later imprisoned on corruption charges. But that doesn't change the fact that, in 2000, stung that 13 inmates had been exonerated and freed from death row in the previous 23 years, Mr. Ryan committed an act of profound moral courage, imposing a moratorium on capital punishment. In 2003, in the waning days of his term, he one-upped himself, commuting every death sentence in his state.

The Justice Department's secret review of Associated Press telephone records gives advocates for federal employees one more reason to doubt the Obama administration's full commitment to protecting whistleblowers, particularly those in national security agencies. Revelations about the department's broad prying into the work, home and mobile phone records of AP journalists in Washington, New York and Hartford, Conn., sent a chill through news organizations. Perhaps that was the point.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. asked Friday for another rate increase, three months after winning approval for higher charges, and company officials said they expect to seek more in the future. It's the third time in as many years that BGE has requested higher distribution rates. If approved, the typical residential customer getting both electricity and gas would pay about $72 more a year for distribution. Company officials said they expect to ask for frequent rate increases as they seek reimbursement for more aggressive tree-trimming, infrastructure upgrades and other work aimed at improving service.

In the third week of February, two separate killings of couples alarmed Baltimore police and contributed to a spike in the city's homicide numbers that prompted the department to shift strategies, deploy more officers on foot patrols and hold community meetings in neighborhoods feeling the wave of violence. This month, police arrested one of the men they believe is responsible for one of the double homicides. On May 6, court records show, Perry Alexander, 19, of the 1700 block of Holbrook St. was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and gun charges in the shooting death of Shantese Evans, 26, on Feb. 24 in the 1700 block of Montpelier St. in the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello neighborhood.

The Maryland Tax Court has frequently failed to rule on residential property assessment cases as promptly as the law requires, according to a state audit made public Thursday. The court, which hears appeals in cases involving state and local taxes, must hear and decide residential property assessment cases within 90 days. But 41 percent of the cases heard between July 2010 and mid-February took longer - as much as a year past the 90-day point, the Office of Legislative Audits said.

Whether you are pro-choice or anti-choice, the fact remains that if a woman wants to terminate a pregnancy, she will find a way to do it ("After Gosnell, Md. should rethink late-term abortion," May 8). Filthy, unethical "clinics," such as the one run by Dr. Kermit Gosnell, are becoming more commonplace, unfortunately, as local legislatures continue to pass laws that make running a legal clinic just about impossible. That, coupled with so-called "prayer groups" harassing clinics and threats to the doctors' lives and lives of their families are making even early abortions hard to get and resulting in desperate women turning to places like Dr. Gosnell's.