Controversy

The sorry tableau of two replacement referees standing side by side in the end zone making opposite calls on a controversial play at the end of ESPN's "Monday Night Football" led to the largest audience on record for the post-game SportsCenter show. That image of those two hopeless referees making the opposite call on a contested reception will long serve as the symbol of what has happened to the game in this labor dispute between the real referees and owners. But the ratings for the games, compromised as they might be by utterly inept officiating, just keep going up. Sunday's contest between the Ravens and the New England Patriots was seen by 21.3 million viewers.

Not even the end of the Ravens' 31-30 win against the New England Patriots Sunday night could escape controversy. Officials ruled that rookie kicker Justin Tucker's 27-yard field was good although the ball appeared to be very close to flying outside the right upright. Immediately after the kick, Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork berated officials and coach Bill Belichick placed his hand on another official just prior to his post-game handshake with Ravens coach John Harbaugh.

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.

A Towson University student says he's gathering support for a white-pride organization on campus, a semester after his efforts to start a related group stalled amid a campuswide debate over race and free speech. Matthew Heimbach, a senior U.S. history major, is leading the effort to create a White Student Union. His former group, Youth for Western Civilization, had sparked controversy with its public displays against Islam, same-sex marriage and multicultural education. That group disbanded after it lost the support of its faculty sponsor, but Heimbach said he hopes his new organization will promote white identity without disparaging other people.

Many in Baltimore County and elsewhere are no doubt bewildered by all the fuss that was raised in recent months over the redevelopment of the former Solo Cup plant in Owings Mills into an upscale development featuring a Wegmans supermarket. If you're going to build a shopping center (and built-up Reisterstown Road is no stranger to them) isn't this what you'd want? But alas, the proposal proved as contentious and fraught with political intrigue as any county land use decision in recent memory.

Close to the southern boundary of Annapolis, near the mouth of the 340-acre park deemed the jewel of Anne Arundel County's park system, proposed developments have sparked citywide debate on how to protect trees. These last two big tracts of undeveloped forest along Forest Drive are projected to become the site of hundreds of homes and a senior community. Plans for that development have drawn 1,500 petition signatures and opposition from 19 environmental and community groups. "People get really upset when they see the last of the forests going down, and they ask hard questions like, 'Shouldn't they be protected?

As a practicing attorney, I am compelled to correct the many misstatements in the media and in letters to the editor regarding the role of the First Amendment in reference to the controversy stirred up by Chick-fil-APresident Dan Cathy ("Chick-fil-A controversy raises free speech issues," Aug. 7). The First Amendment begins, "Congress shall make no law," and thus, it is a limitation placed upon our government, prohibiting it from "abridging" citizens' freedom of speech, among other rights.

I believe The Sun, along with many other news outlets, misses the major issues regarding the Chick-fil-Astory: Why is there such intolerance for CEO Dan Cathy's personal views, and such disregard for his freedom of speech ("Chick-fil-A gets busted by the thought police," Aug. 2)? In his business practices, the man never treated gay individuals prejudicially, nor did he post his views in his restaurants. Instead, he responded honestly to a direct question about his views on marriage in a few interviews and chose to contribute to organizations that supported traditional family values.

An informational meeting held Thursday for Baltimore officials to review the initial design of a mixed-use development planned for the site of the Morris A. Mechanic Theatre ended with impassioned comments about the proposed demolition of the architecturally significant building. "You people are being manipulated," Baltimore land-use attorney John C. Murphy told the city Planning Department's Urban Design and Architecture Review Panel. Murphy and others in the audience at the public meeting, which had no binding outcome, said the architecture review panel should delay discussion of the plans until a decision is made on whether the theater at Baltimore and Charles streets should be allowed to stand.

If viewers to WBAL's 6 p.m. news were confused, they had the right to be. Outside of a graphic that appeared onscreen during the sports portion of the news, the only mention of Michael Phelps' failure to win a medal in his first event Saturday came in a graphic shown onscreen during Gerry Sandusky's sports portion of the show. And Sandusky warned viewers to look away before the news of Phelps' fourth-place finish was shown on the screen if they didn't want to know. Sandusky never verbally reported the results, according to WBAL General Manager Dan Joerres.