Damascus

THE SYRIAN Accountability Act provides plenty of reasons for increasing sanctions against Damascus: its 20-year military presence in Lebanon, its support of Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists and its defiance of United Nations sanctions against Iraq. The Bush administration, which last year succeeded in stalling action on the bill, says now it doesn't oppose the measure. The reason for the White House's turnaround rests with Syria's apparently lax assistance in the war on terrorism and refusal to confront Palestinian militants operating in Damascus.

Israel and Syria continue to fight, Robert Downey Jr. continues to  pretend to fight, and in sunny, pastoral northern Pennsylvania, a former judge is still getting international attention a week after his sentencing over what amounts to a human-trafficking scheme. Welcome to your daily trends report for Monday, May 6, 2013. Mark Ciavarella, a former common pleas judge in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., was sentenced early last week for his role as a cog in the prison-industrial complex. Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, received kickback money from private jail operators to fill their beds with children as young as 10 without due process, often on first-time offenses.

Stop by the Red Rooster, a 10-seat joint just off Main Street in this rural community an hour west of Baltimore, and you can order a burger, some barbecue or the fried chicken that some locals claim is the best on the East Coast. But don't bother asking for a beer to wash it down with. The Red Rooster, like every other business here, is barred by law from selling alcoholic beverages. And that suits co-owner Kevin Miller just fine. The lifelong Damascus resident says the local ban has helped preserve the quiet character of this unincorporated corner of northern Montgomery County.

The last three teams Aberdeen has met in the girls basketball playoffs have been able to play with the Eagles - for a while. In Thursday night's state Class 3A semifinals, Damascus stayed close into the second half. Then came the big Aberdeen spurt. The No. 2 Eagles made their break with 10 straight points in less than two minutes of the third quarter. With a couple of steals and a lot of rebounds, Aberdeen broke open a two-point game and ran away with a 71-50 victory at UMBC's RAC Arena.

Damascus is about to get wet. The Montgomery County town, which had banned the sale of alcoholic beverages for as long as anyone can remember, voted Tuesday to permit local restaurants to sell wine and beer. Four times in the previous 35 years, residents of the unincorporated town of just over 15,000 had voted to keep the place dry. In 1996, the ban was upheld by a few hundred votes. But this year, the vote wasn't close, as 66 percent said yes to alcohol. Retail sales of alcohol will not be permitted.

Fourstars Allstar, the $1.5 million turf earner who has had a love-hate relationship with Maryland racing during his six-year career, will be a no-show tomorrow in Pimlico's Damascus Handicap despite being the 120-pound high weight and likely favorite.A spokesman for trainer Leo O'Brien said yesterday that the 7-year-old horse, who is stabled at Belmont Park, will race instead in the $100,000 Cliff Hanger Handicap tomorrow night at the Meadowlands. Two other Damascus entries, Older but Smarter and Brave Note, are also cross-entered in the Meadowlands race.

Owings Mills coach Guy Pritzker said he thought his Golden Eagles would finish fourth in the Class 1A-2A state wrestling championship. He said anything above that would be a bonus.Pritzker got his bonus. In fact, he cashed in.Owings Mills got championships from Steve Kessler and Josh Ellin, and the Golden Eagles rallied to stun defending champion Damascus by 1.5 points and claim their third state title in five years last night at Western Maryland College.The Eagles finished with 91.5 points, nipping Damascus (90)

FROM HIS HILLTOP palace, Syrian President Bashar Assad rules a nation in a state of emergency. He inherited a country under martial law from his father, the late Hafez el Assad, who ruled for nearly 30 years. The young Assad professes to be an agent for change. But incremental change is all he can effect, he says, because of Syria's tribal customs, economic stagnation and political isolation. The United States, he says, has a fundamental misunderstanding of the challenge he faces. When Mr. Assad talks to American journalists, which he rarely does, the 39-year-old ophthalmologist can sound perfectly reasonable.

State champion Tom Horwat (171 pounds) escaped with 15 seconds left, securing a 4-3 decision over sixth-ranked Ron Katzenberger and a match-clinching lead as Damascus downed Northeast, 34-20, in yesterday's 1A-2A dual-meet state championship at South Carroll.Damascus had gone up, 28-17, on consecutive pins by third-ranked Danny Wolford (152) and Ricky Stott (160) with three bouts left, putting the Eagles in position to need victories in their last two bouts -- one having to be a pin.But Horwat (29-2)

DAMASCUS -- The vote was close this time, closer than ever, but the northern Montgomery County community that gives no quarter to sellers of alcohol remains dry.So there will be no Chianti served at the Little Italy Ristorante in the shopping plaza, no bourbon sold in town to spike the holiday eggnog. For the third time in 16 years, voters have rejected a proposal to allow alcohol sales in the 12th Election District, which also includes the community of Woodfield and part of Cedar Grove.The proposal went down 53 percent to 47 percent in last week's referendum, a margin of 460 votes: 3,966 to 3,506, not including absentee ballots.

Defending state champion Aberdeen found itself in unfamiliar playoff territory Friday night, trailing City at halftime of the Class 3A North girls basketball final. Still, it wasn't anything a defensive tweak and small scoring spurt couldn't fix. Fortunately for the No. 2 Eagles, the defensive tweak helped spark a big scoring spurt with 24 straight points, setting them on course for a 73-45 victory and their third straight regional title. Freshman Stephanie Jones scored 11 of her 33 points and had 10 of her 21 rebounds as host Aberdeen took off in the third quarter.

Winters Mill hadn't really been tested in a state dual meet all year. On Saturday night at North Point, that all changed. The No. 2 Falcons got a pin from senior Chase Cullison at 3:44 in the second period over No. 9 Glenelg's Anthony Pagnotta to give Winters Mill its second consecutive Class 2A-1A state dual meet title, 35-30, over the Gladiators. Winters Mill entered the final match trailing, 30-29. "Let's just say I'm speechless," Cullison said after the match. "Other than that, no comment.

Syria's 20-month-long civil war appears to be approaching a tipping point as fighting around Damascus intensifies amid signs that President Bashar Assad's grip on power may be weakening. As the final phase in the long conflict apparently draws nearer, the U.S. needs be prepared for the challenges it will face in a post-Assad Syria that, like Libya, could well remain unsettled for years after the dictator's departure. In recent weeks, Syrian rebels have captured a number of strategic military bases and weapons dumps, allowing them to press their advantage.

At the Music Cafe on Ridge Road, the restaurant local residents call the hippest in town, owner Randy Anderson says he's thrilled he'll soon be able to add beer and wine to his menu for the first time. A few blocks away, at the down-home Red Rooster restaurant just off Main Street, owner Pat Miller says she'd sooner close her 10-seat establishment than serve booze. "I don't need the problems that would bring. I thought things were just fine the way they were," she says. This week, residents of this rural town of about 15,000 in upper Montgomery County finally put to bed a question that has divided the community since 1884: Should it allow the sale of alcohol or not?

Damascus is about to get wet. The Montgomery County town, which had banned the sale of alcoholic beverages for as long as anyone can remember, voted Tuesday to permit local restaurants to sell wine and beer. Four times in the previous 35 years, residents of the unincorporated town of just over 15,000 had voted to keep the place dry. In 1996, the ban was upheld by a few hundred votes. But this year, the vote wasn't close, as 66 percent said yes to alcohol. Retail sales of alcohol will not be permitted.

Stop by the Red Rooster, a 10-seat joint just off Main Street in this rural community an hour west of Baltimore, and you can order a burger, some barbecue or the fried chicken that some locals claim is the best on the East Coast. But don't bother asking for a beer to wash it down with. The Red Rooster, like every other business here, is barred by law from selling alcoholic beverages. And that suits co-owner Kevin Miller just fine. The lifelong Damascus resident says the local ban has helped preserve the quiet character of this unincorporated corner of northern Montgomery County.

Defending state tournament champion Damascus of Montgomery County continued to roll in Class 1A-2A by winning the South Region championship yesterday at Howard.The Hornets, defending South Region champs, already had won the state Class 1A-2A dual-meet championship.Lackey of Charles County finished runner-up, and the Chargers gave Damascus a strong challenge before falling, 164 1/2 to 151. Only 4 1/2 points separated the teams entering the finals.A key match for Damascus was Dan Wolford's 4-1 victory in the finals over Ryan Hershey of Lackey at 152 pounds.

You have to hand it to Syria's Bashar Assad; the man's got chutzpah. His interview in Damascus last week with ABC's Barbara Walters was either a case study in delusional thinking or unbounded cynicism. Mr. Assad's amazing performance, in which he denied any role in the killing of thousands of demonstrators protesting his rule, was an uninterrupted outpouring of absurd lies, obfuscations and evasions that would have embarrassed even his murderously deceitful father, the late former president Hafez Assad, from whom he inherited his position.

Syria's bloody crackdown on anti-government demonstrators reached new levels of brutality this week with the killing of hundreds of civilians in the city of Hama, a hotbed of resistance to the regime of President Bashar Assad. For months, Mr. Assad ignored the international community's mounting condemnation of his repressive tactics, choosing instead to hunker and unleash his security forces against unarmed civilians. He continued to lash out even after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait — nominal allies that have been reluctant to criticize a fellow Sunni Arab leader — took the rare step last week of recalling their ambassadors from Damascus in protest.