Easton

7th annual Easton Plein Air Competition and Arts Festival What : Fifty-eight artists will compete in the seventh annual Easton Plein-Air competition. The weeklong event is one of the largest of its kind and features a competition, art exhibit and sale, and a "quick draw" event highlighting emerging artists. The arts festival includes other fine art exhibits, workshops, lectures, theater and music. Plein air translates roughly to "in the open air," but the essential element is that the artist paints from direct observation of the subject.

Barclay Haskins Trippe Jr., a retired Easton businessman and preservationist, died June 2 of cancer at the Talbot County farm where he had lived his entire life. He was 87. Mr. Haskins, the son of a businessman and a homemaker, was born and raised on the family farm near Easton. He was a 1941 graduate of Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., and enlisted in the Navy the next year. He served aboard destroyer escorts in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters, and was discharged in 1946 with the rank of lieutenant.

Jamie Izdebski Lansdowne Izdebski, a former player at Maryland, has developed one of the top programs in the area. She led the Vikings to their second Class2A state championship game in three years. Lansdowne finished the season 19-4 and outscored opponents 34-1 in regional playoff games. Lansdowne lost to defending champion Easton, 8-5, in the state title game. Izdebski has nurtured several players who became some of the top performers in the state. "We don't have many club players on our team, and I think that says a lot when you play against a team with a lot of club ball players and lose by three," Izdebski said of her team's performance against Easton.

When a young Lansdowne softball team reached the state championship game two years ago, the Vikings admittedly were awe-struck by the spectacle of the event. It also didn't help that Lansdowne was facing one of the top pitchers in the state in McDonough's Melanie Mitchell , who struck out a record 19 batters that day. In Saturday's return trip against Easton, the Vikings played much more confidently, but a late rally fell just short in an 8-5 loss at the University of Maryland.

Lansdowne played with the confidence and poise of veterans in the Class 2A state championship game against Easton Saturday in College Park. A much more tentative and less confident Lansdowne (20-4) appeared in the final two years ago and was shutout by McDonough, 4-0. Unfortunately this time, the Vikings faced another powerhouse and lost 8-5 to Easton, winners of two straight championships and three in four years. "There aren't many of club players on our team," Lansdowne coach Jamie Izdebski said.

Lansdowne coach Jamie Izdebski has seen junior Maude McCourry slowly grow as a leader since making the team as a freshman and playing a vital in the Vikings' run to the state finals. McCourry has continued to be a spark for Lansdowne all season, and she pitched a complete game and had four RBIs in the Vikings' 10-7 victory over McDonough in the Class 2A state semifinals Tuesday at Bachman Softball Park in Glen Burnie. Lansdowne will play Easton, which beat No. 5 North Carroll, 1-0, on Saturday at Maryland in search of its first title.

Remember John Tyner? He was the young man whose smartphone captured an "enhanced" pat-down at the San Diego Airport — a search immortalized when he warned, "Don't touch my junk. " This simple quote captured how many of us felt about the government getting too much into our business. After this episode, I never imagined publicly using the Department of Homeland Security as an example of government common sense. Unfortunately, recent actions by the Talbot Public County Schools — the suspension of two lacrosse players (and arrest of one of them)

Varsity athlete Graham Dennis never thought of the pen knife he carried in his bag to repair his lacrosse stick's strings as a dangerous weapon. It was a tool of the sport, he believed, until Easton High School officials found the item in a search of bags on a school bus headed for a game. Dennis and teammate Casey Edsall, who had a lighter that he also used to repair equipment, were sent to the principal's office and the police were called. Dennis was hauled off in handcuffs to be fingerprinted and charged as a juvenile with possession of a deadly weapon.