Event

Hernias are a common ailment among Americans; more than 4 million people develop the painful condition. And although both men and women develop hernias, female patients may be harder to diagnose. Doctors and patients may not realize the abdominal pain a woman is feeling is because of a hernia. Dr. Hien Nguyen, assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said the pain can be mistaken for other conditions with similar symptoms, such as adhesions from prior surgery, endometriosis, fibroids and ovarian cysts.

MAY Horseshoe Crab and Shorebird Festival. Come pay tribute to horseshoe crabs and migrating shorebirds native to the Delaware Bay during the 10th anniversary festival. Held in Historic Milton, the event includes arts and crafts, food, music, water activities, games for children and more. May 25. Milton Memorial Park. Call 302-684-1101. JUNE Downtown Rehoboth Beach Restaurant Week. Dinner guests enjoy three-course meals at participating Rehoboth eateries.

This year's Extreme Rules pay-per-view event left us with some unanswered questions but also some new beginnings. In the main event (a rare moment in WWE history where all wrestlers in a final match on PPV weren't on a full-time WWE schedule), Brock Lesnar defeated Triple H in a cage match. Lesnar went up 2-1 on "The Game" and is likely poised for another future match in WWE (not against Triple H), perhaps at Summerslam or Wrestlemania 30. Questions coming out of this match are: will Triple H wrestle again?

In the days and weeks after the Boston Marathon bombings, the National Rifle Association has repeatedly stated that many Bostonians who did not possess guns probably wished that they had them in their homes during the tense "shelter in place" manhunt. That statement is in large part a straw-man argument. Much of what occurred during those unfortunate days disproves the NRA's usual narrative about guns and public safety. Let's begin with the obvious: Had everyone in Boston been armed the day of the bombings, the bombings would have still occurred.

For many folks headed to Preakness, the focus of the afternoon isn't the race. It's the fashion — and we don't just mean hats. If you're in the grandstands, the Jockey Club area or Corporate Village, you'll want to dress the part. Betsy Dugan, owner of Bettina Collections in Cross Keys and former co-owner of Octavia in Pikesville, has been dressing women for Preakness for years. "This is the time ... to dress up," she said. If there's one rule of thumb, it's that ladies and gentlemen at Preakness should look like ...well, ladies and gentlemen.

Baltimore County police officers from several precincts were called to the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium on Saturday after the promoter of a weekend motorcycle show said he asked a gang to leave. The Pagans, a rival of the Hells Angels, were asked to leave by the organizers of the Timonium Motorcycle Show about 1 p.m., police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said in an email. She said additional police support was requested because the department was concerned about a possible confrontation after the Hells Angels were displaying their colors, which motorcycle clubs were told not to do during the event.

Boston Cannons midfielder Paul Rabil , a former All-American at Johns Hopkins, is hosting the second annual Paul Rabil Foundation Holiday Magic Gala on Thursday, Dec. 6 at Sammy's Trattoria Restaurant in Baltimore. Entertainment will be provided by Maryland Live Casino, and all proceeds will go to the Paul Rabil Foundation, which specializes in benefiting children with learning disabilities. The event, which runs from 7 p.m. to midnight, is open to those age 21 and older; it will include a silent auction, wine and martini tasting, and top-shelf open bar. The gala is black tie optional, and the total cost of the event is $125, covering the cost of production, with all other proceeds going to the Paul Rabil Foundation.

It is a story about faith, friendship - and perhaps a little fantasy. It is about three people whose ages span 30 years, but whose careers and experiences led them to find this historic town on Maryland's Eastern Shore as the perfect spot to start the next phase of their lives. Ultimately, they also found one another. Given the size of St. Michaels, with a little more than 1,000 full-time residents according to the 2010 census, it's not unusual that Mike Kerrigan met Peter Paris.

A weekend festival in Canton that promised classes on bondage, role play and other sexual techniques has been canceled after the new operators of the Clarence H. Du Burns Arena idecided the erotic exposition was not appropriate at a facility also used for children's sports practices. The organizers of the Touch of Flavor event sued the arena's managers this week, saying that their contract was breached. They also made an unsuccessful bid for a restraining order that would have let the festival go on. The two-day event was to have featured classes on the use of hot wax, sex-dungeon safety and "Rope Bondage You Can Actually Use. " "We feel like there's been a great interest due to books and things that have come out," said Cassie Fuller, one of the organizers.

On Friday night, the home of the Aberdeen IronBirds was transformed into a wrestling arena for TNA wrestling, an event officially called “BaseBrawl.” In case you missed it, three dedicated Baltimore Sun interns -- Everett Cook (@everettcook), Zach Helfand (@zhelfand) and Steve Petrella (@steve_petrella) -- were there to provide a running, retroactive commentary of the event. Here's their account with time of each post. Zach 7:19 Organizers are setting up a wooden announcers' table along the third-base line.

It took two unexpected turn of events for former Gilman lacrosse standout Gordie Koerber to end up playing at the University of Denver, one of four teams left in this year's Division I NCAA men's lacrosse tournament. Until seventh grade, Koerber was the goalie for his lacrosse team before suffering two injuries made him change his mind about the position. After taking two close range shots to his chest just days apart, Koerber's parents, Bryan and Gillian, were fearful of additional injuries, especially as he faced larger, stronger players.

On Monday, May 6, the Harford Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) held its fourth annual Food Fight, bringing together four chefs from around the region to compete in a cooking competition - one wherein each chef prepared, in one hour's time, an appetizer and entree from a basket of secret ingredients. For the first time, the event took place at the Vandiver Inn in Havre de Grace, where Susan, the inn's chef, offered her own version of the secret ingredients for viewers to purchase and enjoy.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will preside over a mass wedding of same-sex couples at this year's Baltimore Pride Celebration, with the event drawing interest from couples as far away as Atlanta, according to organizers. In November, Maryland became one of the first states to have same-sex marriage approved by voters in a referendum. "After doing so much work on this — on the ballot initiative — we thought, how do we really celebrate this?" said organizer Carrietta Hiers, who plans to marry her partner of nearly 13 years, Tonya Cook, at the ceremony.

A weekend festival in Canton that promised classes on bondage, role play and other sexual techniques has been canceled after the new operators of the Clarence H. Du Burns Arena idecided the erotic exposition was not appropriate at a facility also used for children's sports practices. The organizers of the Touch of Flavor event sued the arena's managers this week, saying that their contract was breached. They also made an unsuccessful bid for a restraining order that would have let the festival go on. The two-day event was to have featured classes on the use of hot wax, sex-dungeon safety and "Rope Bondage You Can Actually Use. " "We feel like there's been a great interest due to books and things that have come out," said Cassie Fuller, one of the organizers.

An 18-year-old man was arrested and accused of making a false bomb threat on Thursday that targeted the Old Mill school campus in Millersville, Anne Arundel County police said. Matthew Permenter, 18, of Baltimore, was charged with disturbing school operations, threatening to detonate a destructive device and giving a false statement. It could not be immediately determined whether he had obtained a lawyer. Police spokesman Justin Mulcahy said police received a call from the school at around 8:46 a.m. A current student at the school had said a former student posted an item online that a bomb would be placed near the school and target a "Relay for Life" cancer walk event scheduled to take place on Friday evening.

Barbara Shapiro's love affair with Druid Hill Park dates to her childhood, when she passed through it daily on the way from her Ashburton home to old School 49 on Cathedral Street. And even when construction of Druid Park Lake Drive in the 1940s and the Jones Falls Expressway in the 1960s removed many of its grand entrances, Shapiro never lost her affection for the park. "I do think construction of the Jones Falls did separate the city from the park," Shapiro, 78, said the other day. She also recalled attending the city's annual one-day Baltimore Outdoor Art Festival during the 1950s until its demise in the 1970s, held on the periphery of the Druid Hill Park Reservoir.

If you're spring cleaning and want to purge piles of outdated and unnecessary documents and electronic media full of sensitive information, we've got the shredding event for you. The Maryland Attorney General's office , Incred-A-Shred and Junior Achievement will host a free shredding event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 9 at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, 1400 W. Cold Spring Lane. Both businesses and residents are invited to bring their shred-worthy items to be destroyed, keeping your personal information --- or your clients --- out of the hands of identity thieves.

Kate Joyce detests running. She has since she was in high school. But the prospect of trotting through vibrant clouds of yellow, blue, orange and pink has prompted her to make an exception this weekend. Joyce will be among 25,000 people participating in Saturday's inaugural Baltimore Color Run, a 5K race - in the loosest possible sense of the noun - that's non-competitive and all about having a blast as runners are smothered in colored cornstarch. Many won't break into anything more than a brisk saunter over the entire course, surrounding Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium.

Anne Arundel County Police collected 27 guns at a turn-in event on Saturday. The guns included 13 handguns, nine rifles, four shotguns and one submachine gun, said Justin Mulcahy, a department spokesman. The turn-in event at the Glen Burnie Improvement Association was one of two dozen held across Maryland on Saturday. In Annapolis, officers collected 16 guns.

It used to be that the Maryland Film Festival was just a cool neighborhood event for Courtney Knipp - a bunch of obscure movies being shown just up the street from her home in Mount Vernon. Not anymore, not with thousands of film fans massing in and around the Charles Theatre , watching movies - 127 this year - - and comparing notes with hundreds of filmmakers from all over the world. This tiny corner of the Station North Arts District becomes the center of the film universe for one weekend every May. And that is so cool by Knipp.