Contract

Years after a multimillion-dollar contract to replace the state's fleet of aged medevac helicopters caused controversy in Annapolis, two newly purchased aircraft arrived Tuesday at the aviation command of the Maryland State Police. Four more are expected to fly into the police facility at Martin State Airport in Middle River this week, state police said — behind initial schedules for the new fleet's arrival. The four remaining AW139 helicopters of the 10 purchased by the state for $121.7 million also will arrive soon, said Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman.

The exhibition season is underway, but it'll be awhile before anybody should draw any conclusions from the makeup of the Orioles' Grapefruit League starting lineups or the early performances of the pitchers. Manager Buck Showalter has indicated that he's going to bring the pitchers along more slowly than usual because of the longer preseason schedule. He has nine pitchers throwing one inning apiece in the first two games and said his starters probably will pitch only two innings in their second outings.

As Joe Flacco and his agent attempt to negotiate a new contract extension with the Ravens, who also have the option of using a franchise tag to keep the soon-to-be free-agent quarterback off the open market, Flacco's backup, Tyrod Taylor, is approaching this offseason no differently than he has the past two years. “I have to approach my job as if I'm the starter,” Taylor said Friday as he signed autographs at a memorabilia show presented by MAB Celebrity Services at the Pikesville DoubleTree.

Ozzie Newsome, you can make it stop. All this talk about Joe Flacco's contract that's consuming Ravens Nation? As the Ravens' general manager, you can make it all go away. Just pay the man. Get a deal done so Ravens fans can go back to their lives. Get it done so they can stop vibrating with anxiety over the whole thing. Ozzie, this is how bad it is. I have priests stopping me on the street to talk about what kind of hit Flacco's deal will have on the Ravens' salary cap. I have little old ladies asking me whether Flacco should get an exclusive franchise tag or the nonexclusive one. Whatever happened to playing Bingo?

- Besides trying to hammer out a long-term contract with quarterback Joe Flacco, the Ravens have made starting inside linebacker Dannell Ellerbe another one of their top priorities. With Ray Lewis retiring, the Ravens have a void in the middle of their defense. As a pending unrestricted free agent, though, Ellerbe is expected to draw heavy interest following a breakout season capped with a team-high nine tackles during a Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers. Ellerbe's agent, Hadley Engelhard, said he's set to meet with Ravens team officials this weekend at the NFL scouting combine.

This time last year, Darren O'Day was fighting for a roster spot in Orioles spring training - every outing precious, every impression critical - as he tried to salvage his big-league career. After a stellar 2012 season in which he was the team's most consistent reliever, O'Day - a quirky, light-hearted side-armer - was rewarded with a two-year contract from the Orioles with a third-year club option, the team announced on Monday. It's the peak of a remarkable 15-month ascension for the 30-year-old O'Day.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Orioles right-hander Jair Jurrjens, signed to a minor league contract Friday evening, joined spring training camp this morning for the team's first full squad workout of the spring. Jurrjens, who initially agreed to a major league deal worth $1.5 million pending a physical, settled for a minor league contract with spring training invite when his physical raised health concerns. “There's no hard feelings,” Jurrjens said before Saturday's workout. “That's part of the business.” Jurrjens will compete for a rotation spot, but since he's signed to a minor league contract, the team could easily send him to Triple-A Norfolk.

The wait on Jair Jurrjens is finally over. Three weeks after the right-hander reportedly agreed to a major league deal with the Orioles, the club announced Friday night that it has instead signed Jurrjens to a minor league deal with an invitation to major league spring training. Jurrjens, 27, is expected to arrive in camp Saturday, in time for the team's first full-squad workout of the spring. According to sources, Jurrjens and the Orioles agreed to a one-year, $1.5 million major league deal (with $2.5 million more available in bonuses)

Anne Arundel County officials say they will appeal an arbitrator's decision that the county must give deputy sheriffs pay raises from 2009 that were negotiated in their contract - but which the county cut, saying it needed help to solve a budget crunch. "We feel that the arbitrator did not get it right," said John Hammond, acting county executive, who added that the county will file for judicial review in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. Last month, arbitrator Andrew M. Strongin found in favor of the deputies, saying the administration punished the union in a 2009 dispute when it held back the raises.

The Baltimore school board voted Tuesday night to not renew the contracts of several charter and other independently run schools — but deferred making decisions about whether most of them would close. In January, city schools CEO Andrés Alonso recommended closing four independently operated schools and bringing two other schools under district control, after a review of their progress concluded they had failed to live up to their promise. Some had low test scores while others had financial problems.