Competition

The future economic growth and competitiveness of the United States depends on our capacity to innovate. Many ideas have emerged from government, industry and academia regarding how best to inspire and support innovation. But nothing spurs creativity and innovation more than a combination of incentive and challenge: a reward for achievement, combined with the urgency of a dare to succeed and the reality that we must race against others. We are at our best when we compete. This is why I believe that prizes and competitions are crucial to create a climate of innovation and entrepreneurship, and for driving new advances in targeted areas.

Maryland Live officials often tout the Hanover facility's standing as the highest-grossing casino in the Mid-Atlantic when only slots revenue is taken into account. In fact, the casino has been generating 25 percent more slots revenue than the second-place casino, Parx in Philadelphia. Maryland Live is situated amid some of the country's wealthiest counties, and faces only far-flung competition: Hollywood Casino in Charles Town, W.Va., is 75 minutes away, while the much smaller Hollywood Casino in Perryville is an hour up Interstate 95. Parx competes with five other casinos that take no longer than an hour and 15 minutes to reach.

Salisbury's 10th annual Pork in the Park Festival is coming the weekend of April 19-21 to Winter Place Park. The centerpiece of the popular festival is the barbecue competition, one of the biggest competitions east of the Mississippi that's sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. There's an amateur barbecue competition, too. And this year, the festival  introduces the Mountaire Farms Eastern Shore Wing War to the weekend's pork-heavy lineup.  On April 21, Salisbury-area restaurants will compete in a bracket-style wing competition, in which "the people" will decide who has created the best wings.

Cards started turning and dice began rolling early Thursday morning at Maryland Live, already the largest slots casino in the Mid-Atlantic. Opened just 10 months ago, the casino next to an Anne Arundel County outlet mall rakes in more money from slot machines than any other casino from New Jersey to West Virginia, including those in Atlantic City. And now it has added table games such as blackjack, roulette and baccarat, taking a big step toward becoming the Mid-Atlantic's dominant full-scale casino.

ESPN analyst Mark Dixon, who will be handling play-by-play duties when No. 7 Notre Dame visits Georgetown this Sunday, writes a weekly column for Inside Lacrosse in which he provides his thoughts on results from the previous week. The former Blue Jays midfielder, who can be followed on Twitter via @Dixonlacrosse, discussed the biggest surprise from last weekend, a team setting itself up well and Albany sophomore attackman Lyle Thompson's candidacy for the Tewaaraton Award. What results from this past weekend stood out to you?

SARASOTA, Fla. - Orioles manager Buck Showalter spent much of Friday afternoon telling players who will and won't be making the club's 25-man roster - leaving him with only one decision remaining. Steve Pearce and Conor Jackson are still battling to be the final first base-outfield reserve on the club's 2013 roster. Otherwise, things are set for Tuesday's season opener, with right-hander Jake Arrieta winning the final rotation spot, lefties Brian Matusz and T.J. McFarland added to an eight-man bullpen and infielder-outfielder Ryan Flaherty capturing a utility role.

When today's high school seniors started kindergarten in 2000, there was no iPhone, text messaging was hardly used, and very few K-12 students took online classes. While virtually every other arena has seen rapid change over the past decade, K-12 education has remained virtually the same. However, we cannot successfully educate today's students to succeed in tomorrow's world with yesterday's curriculum and instructional methods. Together, we at the Baltimore County Board of Education and Baltimore County Public Schools propose to propel our school system and students forward with a bold new theory of action.

One of the main competitions - really, one of the only competitions - in Orioles spring training this year is for the fifth starter's role. A whole lot of names have been thrown into the mix: Jake Arrieta, Zach Britton, Steve Johnson, Brian Matusz, Jair Jurrjens, Tommy Hunter and T.J. McFarland. Hunter, in particular (and Matusz, potentially) is earmarked for the bullpen. McFarland, a Rule 5 pick, may have to be offered back to the Cleveland Indians because he doesn't look like he'll make the rotation.

The most debated move the Ravens made this offseason and arguably the biggest subtraction from their Super Bowl roster was the trade of gritty 32-year-old wide receiver Anquan Boldin to the San Francisco 49ers. Boldin never cracked 1,000 receiving yards in his three years in Baltimore, but he was quarterback Joe Flacco's favorite target and the team's leading receiver in each of the past three seasons. Boldin was traded after refusing to take a pay cut, something that owner Steve Bisciotti says was necessary, albeit very painful.

Charles Sandlass, a retired computer instruments worker who competed in numerous wheelchair sports competitions, died Wednesday at the Baltimore Washington Medical Center. Family members said no cause of death has been determined. He was 74 and lived in Essex. Born in Baltimore and raised in Highlandtown, he attended City College. Family members said he lost the use of his legs in an accident and later enrolled at the Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking and Repair at Woodside in Queens, N.Y., where he lived in the 1960s and 1970s.