Committed

State Sen. Paula C. Hollinger, D-11th, said yesterday that she sees no problem over housing potentially violent mentally retarded patients at Rosewood Center as long as security is adequate.Her chief political rival, Sen. Janice Piccinini, D-10th, is to meet today with Gov. William Donald Schaefer to ask the governor to order that court-committed potentially violent patients, including several pedophiles, be moved to another institution.Redrawn legislative boundaries have put the senators into the same Baltimore County district, setting the stage for a political battle in next year's election campaign.

Roddy Peters ' plan to claim Maryland's starting point guard job suffered a significant setback in December when the Suitland senior underwent season-ending shoulder surgery. Doctors told Peters at the time that he probably wouldn't be back on the court at full strength until July or August. But the future Terp had a different timeline in mind.  “I'm back now. It ain't an injury no more,” said Peters, who signed with Maryland in November. “I'm like 97 percent. Another week before I'm back.” In the aftermath of his surgery, Peters went to physical therapy twice a week and worked out separately every other day. He's maintained his stamina through consistent treadmill work, and he's focused recently on “a lot of shoulder stuff” in the weight room.

Gary Player, winner of six major championships on the Senior PGA Tour and nine majors on the PGA Tour, has committed to play in the State Farm Senior Classic on July 3-9 at Hobbit's Glen Golf Club in Columbia. Since joining the Senior Tour in 1985, Player has recorded 19 wins and 115 Top 10 finishes and has earned more than $5 million. He is one of only four golfers to win all four Grand Slam events, joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus. This will be Player's first appearance at the State Farm Senior Classic.

NAME, PREP SCHOOL AND/OR HIGH SCHOOL, COLLEGE Jamel Artis , Notre Dame Prep (Mass.), PITTSBURGH Chase Cormier , Fishburne Military / Milford Mill, GRAMBLING STATE Will Darley , Fishburne Military / Dulaney, UMBC Rodney Elliott , John Carroll, UMBC Ben Grace , Gilman, UMBC Rodney Hawkins , Mt. Zion Prep / Lake Clifton, SAINT PETER'S Lavon Long , Oakland...

In a civil case that highlights growing competition in the health care industry, a Baltimore County jury has levied a $5 million judgment against Midatlantic Cardiovascular Associates, the area's largest cardiology practice, finding that two of its doctors committed fraud when they steered a patient to a surgeon employed by the practice rather than his own surgeon, who belongs to a rival group. In its verdict, the jury found that Dr. Mark G. Midei, a cardiologist who is also the director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, and Dr. Jeffrey E. Sell, a cardiac surgeon, had deliberately misled a patient to believe his heart surgeon was not available to perform a bypass operation.

A 28-year-old Baltimore man was committed to a mental institution yesterday after admitting he used a saw to decapitate the matriarch of a local Gypsy family last fall because he thought her to be "a demon."Douglas Thomas Clark's voice was barely audible as he pleaded guilty but not criminally responsible to first-degree murder in the slaying of Deborah Stevens, an East Baltimore fortune-teller known as Sister Myra, and to carrying a deadly weapon with the intent of harming her.Baltimore City Circuit Judge Clifton J. Gordy Jr. accepted the pleas and committed Clark indefinitely to the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which will determine if he can ever be released.

Dressed in a sharp black suit accented by a Maryland-red tie, 17-year-old Antonio Logan-El sat before a television camera yesterday at ESPN Zone in Baltimore, surrounded by Maryland football fans waving red pompoms and holding Terps signs. Highlights of his football games at Forestville High School in Prince George's County flashed on a giant screen behind him as the top offensive lineman in the state turned his college commitment into prime-time entertainment. Logan-El first pulled a Florida cap out of a bag before declaring it wasn't the school for him and tossing it aside.

Doctors at Crownsville Hospital Center say a nurse committed nine years ago after she was charged with stabbing her mother 40 times and leaving the woman's body in a trash bag outside their Annapolis home is ready to be released.They planned to release Pearl Rose Ford Jan. 5, but Circuit Judge Eugene M. Lerner, who ordered that she be committed, has scheduled a hearing Jan. 14 to decide whether the release is warranted.Mrs. Ford, 51, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1982 slaying of her bedridden, 76-year-old mother.

CHICAGO -- Having a lifelong commitment to a loved one means you never have to say you're sorry. But having a lifelong "commitment" to your job means having to say you're very serious about it.The option to pledge devotion to a career is relatively new for the nation's employed women.Those who are thus committed tend to be women who are financially independent and have no children younger than 18, according to new research by Helena Z. Lopata, professor of sociology and director of the Center for the Comparative Study of Social Roles at Loyola University of Chicago.

No sooner did Dwayne Norris slip into a Bandits jersey early last November than he noticed a big "C" sewed onto the front of it. Coach Walt Kyle was looking for a team captain. He knew Norris was his man."Watch this guy," said the coach. "He can be spectacular." Many times this season, he was, especially when the "Plug Line" of Norris, Mike Maneluk and J. F. Jomphe was in full bloom. It was the other things Norris brought to the job of team leader that counted just as much, however: hustle, desire, dedication and the first requirement -- leadership.

On his way to Virginia in January, Johnathan Thomas decided to make a quick stopover at Maryland. The three-star running back from St. John's Prep in Danvers, Mass., got a tour of the campus and met with coach Randy Edsall , who offered him a scholarship “right on the spot.” “He showed great interest in me. I was their No. 1 running back prospect,” Thomas said Sunday. “That just made me want to really think about the place and see what they had to offer. And I got to see what they had to offer.” Four months after this trip to College Park, Thomas decided to accept Edsall's offer.

Orb's path to the finish line in the second leg of the Triple Crown remains uncrowded. Normandy Invasion, the fourth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, dropped from contention for Saturday's 138th running of the Preakness on Sunday. Trainer Chad Brown and owner Rick Porter decided to stick with their original plan and point the horse toward prestigous races for 3-year-olds later in the summer. That leaves Orb, the colt co-owned by Baltimore County resident Stuart Janney III and Ogden Mills "Dinny" Pipps' stable, with only seven confirmed challengers at this point.

After more than 100 pitches, the fastball had lost some steam and the breaking ball that baffled batters earlier in the game didn't have the same snap. South River senior pitcher Scott Mitchell, his dirty jersey showing the effects of an already demanding day, took a deep breath as pitching coach Gary Gubbings approached the mound for a second visit in the seventh inning. "Can you get this last guy out?" Gubbings asked as he looked the No. 5 Seahawks' ace in the eyes. Mitchell's response was quick and direct: "I got him. " With two runners on against No. 10 Severna Park in an Anne Arundel County matchup, Mitchell threw a high fastball that Falcons second baseman Danny Fulton swung through for the third strike to end the Seahawks' 2-1 win in early April.

A Baltimore man who was found suffering from a gunshot wound in Rosedale early Sunday morning had driven to the gas station where he collapsed onto the parking lot, Baltimore County police said Monday. Robert Wynder Jr., 23, of the 1700 block of Montpelier Ave., was shot in a different location before driving to a Shell gas station on Kenwood Avenue in a gold four-door Honda Civic, police said. Officers were called to the gas station at 4:28 a.m., where Wynder was suffering from at least one gunshot wound in front of the gas station.

For as long as Will Ulmer can remember, Maryland has been his favorite college football team. The Terps' well-documented struggles never seemed to bother the St. John's (D.C.) quarterback. Even as Ulmer began to accumulate scholarships from college football powers across the country, the Laurel native kept coming back to his strong feelings about the program down the road in College Park. “[I was just thinking about] staying home and being a local guy / local star just doing it for the hometown team,” Ulmer said Wednesday.

More than a couple of Leron Fisher 's close friends openly questioned his decision-making process one year ago. Why, some of them asked, would the former Lake Clifton standout pass up a Division II basketball scholarship in favor of junior college? “I knew I could play Division I,” Fisher said Monday. “I knew if I went to junior college for one year and had the opportunity to play my best, I'd come away with a Division I scholarship.” Fisher's JUCO gamble paid off last weekend when Longwood offered him a full ride during his official visit to the Big South school in Farmville, Va. The former Lakers star accepted the Lancers' offer before heading home.

Shane Clark, a 6-foot-7 forward at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., will sign a national letter of intent today to play basketball for the University of Maryland, his coach, Kevin Keatts, said yesterday. Clark, who gave an oral commitment to the Terrapins' coaching staff 10 days ago, could be the only member of next season's freshman class. "We're in an unusual situation," said Terps coach Gary Williams, who isn't permitted to comment specifically on recruits per NCAA rules.

HILLAH, Iraq - U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, a chief architect of the war, insisted yesterday that the U.S. military is committed to Iraq, and he spoke passionately about the need to bring members of Saddam Hussein's government to justice. "We're not playing any games with Saddam Hussein," Wolfowitz said, bristling at the suggestion of a local official from the southern city of Karbala that the United States isn't doing everything it can to capture Hussein. "The sooner we catch that bastard - excuse me - the better off everybody will be."

Throwing a game away - literally - doesn't usually sit well with teams, especially when they are attempting to establish themselves as consistent winners. So when the Orioles dropped a 9-8, 10-inning loss to the Oakland A's Sunday afternoon on consecutive poor throws following sacrifice bunt attempts, it would be understandable if the players were chewing nails in post-game interviews. For the most part, that was not the case - not after the Orioles (15-10) took three of four in their personal pain chamber, the Oakland Coliseum, to kick off a brutal, three-city, 11-game West Coast swing.

It has been nearly three years since my predecessor, Cardinal Edwin O'Brien, and the Blue Ribbon Committee on Catholic Schools released the Strategic Plan for Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Since that time, enrollment declines have been stemmed in many schools; innovative new programs such as our dual language and Montessori initiatives have kept our schools competitive; and systemic changes to the governance of our schools, renewed focus on school leadership - training of principals and development of local school boards, as well as system-wide accreditation - are ensuring Catholic schools remain an excellent value (average annual K-8 cost is approximately $5,000)