Controversy

Rappers Pitbull and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis will headline this year's Preakess InfieldFest May 18 at Pimlico Race Course, organizers announced Monday morning. In recent years, Pitbull has become one of Top 40's most consistent acts, both in the U.S. and Latin America. "Back in Time," his single for "Men in Black 3," has sold two million copies, and he recently performed as part of New Year's Rockin' Eve. "Pitbull is young and energetic," said Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas on Monday morning outside by Pimlico Race Course's finish line.

Since the Motown sound went silent -- except on oldies stations -- and General Motors and Chrysler (but not Ford) required life support from Washington, there has been little to recommend Detroit, Mich., to visitors, much less its residents. The recent conviction of Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, on multiple charges, including racketeering, fraud and extortion, adds another insult to the city's injury, increasing its misery. During the mid-20th century, Detroit was a vibrant city with a population of almost 2 million.

Enrollment in a controversial program that provides free cell phone service to low-income families has increased faster in Maryland than any other state in the nation, jumping nearly 90-fold since 2008 — renewing scrutiny on Capitol Hill over its management. The Lifeline program, created in 1984 to soften the impact of telephone deregulation on low-income families, had nearly 509,000 subscribers in the state last year, up from 5,821 in 2008. Growth in Maryland was nearly 40 times greater than the national average.

On June 24, 2011, a middle-aged Harford County woman drove to the Hollywood Casino in Perryville to give authorities permission to arrest her for trespassing if she ever set foot again in one of Maryland's casinos. Before she signed the paperwork she wanted one last taste and lost hundreds of dollars at slot machines. "I considered it my last hurrah. That I was going to gamble and then I was going to sign myself out," said the 50-year-old woman, before a recent Gamblers Anonymous meeting at Mountain Christian Church in Joppa.

An article Sunday about the condemned Riverdale Apartments in Essex-Middle River incorrectly described the status of the property. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has foreclosed on half of the complex; Chemical Bank, now part of Chase Manhattan Bank, holds a mortgage on the other half and has not foreclosed.The Sun regrets the errors.PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Richard M. Schlesinger lives a life of controversy -- and contrast.Here on Florida's Gold Coast, he lives among the moneyed elite -- Donald Trump, Rod Stewart and the Ford family -- behind the walls of a $13 million oceanfront mansion.

Q: While on a camping trip in Western Maryland, we were surprised by a large snake lying across the trail. We did not know if the snake was poisonous, and no one was bitten, but we realized that we did not know whether there are poisonous snakes in Maryland or what to do in case of a snakebite.A: Two types of poisonous snakes are found in Maryland: the timber rattlesnake in the western third of the state and in a small area north of Baltimore, and the copperhead found throughout the state except in the central part of the Eastern Shore.

MIAMI -- For one moment Ina Brown thought that she had become a millionaire. After spending years subscribing to American Family Publishers magazines in the hope of winning the sweepstakes, in January she received a mailing that read: "INA BROWN, YOU STAND ALONE AT THE TOP -- YOU'VE SWEPT PAST 200,000+ OTHER WINNERS WITH OUR FIRST $11,075,000 PRIZE IN HISTORY!"Brown, 76, was ecstatic, but elation has turned to anger. After a telephone call to American Family Publishers, when she found out that she had won nothing, she filed suit in Tampa, Fla., on Jan. 20 against the company for breach of contract and racketeering.

As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether to strike down Maryland's controversial DNA collection law, the House of Delegates on Thursday voted to extend it.  The 2009 law allows police to collect DNA samples from people arrested for certain violent crimes. It is set to sunset at the end of the year. By a 135-1 vote, the House decided to make it permanent.  The measure now moves to the Senate. In late February, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the law violated the Fourth Amendment right against illegal search and seizure.

WASHINGTON -- A California gambler yesterday filed suit against Autotote Systems Inc., alleging that the company's widely used wagering equipment is so badly designed and operated that honest bettors have lost millions of dollars to fraud. Jimmy "The Hat" Allard, who described himself as an actor turned professional "racehorse analyst," said the admission of bet rigging by a former Autotote computer programmer prompted him to file the class-action suit. "For years, I have said I believe somebody is getting into the computers and I believe somebody is past-posting us," Allard said at a news conference at the National Press Club.

LOS ANGELES -- Actress Keri Russell says it was a "brave and liberating thing to do." Her boss, Susanne Daniels, the head of programming at the WB, thinks it was a knucklehead thing to do and says she doesn't want to see it happen ever again. We're talking about about Felicity's hair. With hundreds of channels and millions of possible shows to write about, the key to covering television is to know what matters. Felicity's hair matters. Over the summer, Russell, star of the WB's "Felicity," cut her long, curly hair, and six months later it is still one of the hottest topics of discussion on the Winter Press Tour.