Collapsed

The Capitals hold a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series against the Rangers, but it is only natural for Washington fans to be nervous after Sunday's Game 3 loss. In their history, the Capitals have been up 2-0 in best-of-seven playoff series five times, but they squandered their should-be-commanding lead all but once. After the Rangers outplayed the Capitals on Sunday and won on a late goal by Brandon Dubinsky, the Capitals need to reclaim control of the series in Wednesday's Game 4 to ensure that history does not repeat itself.

He circled the track at Northwestern High School six times, completing 1.5 miles in 12 minutes and 28 seconds — four minutes under the cutoff. Gilnord Estime Charles had already passed the civil service exam. His successful run on the morning of Jan. 14 got him one step closer to Baltimore's police academy, and one step closer to fulfilling his dream of being an officer. Then the 29-year-old walked off the track and collapsed. Two other applicants, both paramedics, rushed to his side, and an ambulance took him to Sinai Hospital, where he died.

A two-alarm fire that began inside a vacant East Baltimore house Wednesday night spread to a neighboring, occupied house and forced its evacuation, fire officials said. The fire broke out about 8 p.m. in the 2200 block of Boone Street in the East Baltimore Midway neighborhood and spread to a neighboring home with residents inside. No one was injured, said Kevin Cartwright, a fire department spokesman. Officials did not know how many people live in the occupied home or who was home at the time.

With the collapse of the most recent round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks this month, the Obama administration may be facing the end of the road for the diplomatic process it set in motion on taking office two years ago. Though U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has vowed to restart indirect negotiations, as things stand now the emergence of a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in peace is looking increasingly...

A long-impassable section of the brick promenade that rings the Inner Harbor could soon be repaired if a settlement deal among Baltimore officials, a team of Harbor East developers and a design firm is approved by the city's spending board. The section of promenade, which spans the 1400 and 1500 blocks of Thames St., was built by the city with a state highway grant in 2004. It partially collapsed about three years ago, after "undetected soft soils" settled, shifting the bricks.

An 18-year-old bassoonist at the Peabody Conservatory collapsed during a private lesson Monday and was declared dead at Mercy Medical Center, a school spokesman said. Casey Butler, a first-year student at the conservatory, was in the midst of her weekly lesson about 12:30 p.m. when she lost consciousness, said Richard Selden, the spokesman. "In a small community such as ours, a loss such as this touches every individual," said Jeffrey Sharkey, the institute director, in an e-mail to students and faculty.

An argument between two men in the New Southwest/Mount Clare neighborhood last night ended in one of them being struck in the face and later dying, and police are investigating the incident as a suspected homicide this morning. Around 6:45 p.m., officers responded to a reported assault on the 400 block of South Vincent Street. Upon arriving, they found a 46-year-old man lying on the sidewalk. According to police, the man got into an argument with another man and was struck in the face.

From the time he could walk, Devonte Bundley never felt more alive then those moments when he held a basketball in his large hands. Countless hours of his youth were burned up in his parents' Bel Air driveway, gripping a ball and staring up at the rim. He yearned to dunk as much as any boy has ever yearned for anything, friends and family said, and so when it finally happened — when he finally soared high enough and flushed the ball cleanly...

A Maryland research center established to protect soldiers from chemical and biological attack has been enlisted in the fight to save honeybees from the mysterious disorder that has been devastating commercial bee populations. Scientists at the Edgewood Arsenal's Chemical Biological Center, in Harford County, have turned equipment developed several years ago to identify proteins present in potential biological weapons, such as anthrax, to figure out what kind of viruses, bacteria or other pathogens are killing the bees.

Fire crews were searching through the rubble of a building collapse on Druid Hill Avenue, but after more than an hour of searching officials said it did not appear anyone was hurt. The collapse was reported about 3:20 p.m. at a vacant two-story building in the 1800 block of Druid Hill Ave., said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a fire department spokesman. The caller said a woman had been walking by and was possibly trapped under the debris. "There's no evidence whatsoever [of a trapped person]