Evidence

We're at the finale already (didn't this season seem short?). I'll say it right here at the top of the episode - unless William falls repeatedly on his keister, requiring the judges to give him 5's across the board, there's no way he's not winning this thing. That being said, I'd be OK with any of the three finalists winning, even though I'm personally Team Driver. Tonight's show will have each couple dancing two dances:  1. Judge's pick, which are new routines danced to new music, but in a style the couple has previously danced and in which the judges would like to see them improve.  2. Freestyle Tomorrow night, the couples will be doing some sort of third scored dance, details about which we'll learn later.

The owner of a downtown 7-Eleven that was attacked by a mob of youths drawn by a free Slurpee promotion says an envelope filled with the day's receipts — $6,600 in cash — went missing during the melee, according to Baltimore police. Salman Iqbal told police that the money was in his front right shirt pocket while he was being attacked Wednesday afternoon after he confronted up to 40 youths wearing yellow school shirts and khaki pants. He reported that some youths had stolen candy from the store on Light Street, near the Inner Harbor.

I hope everyone has taken a few moments to collect themselves after that spectacular finale. Midway through, I was a bit worried as the episode was beginning to seem more like a series finale than a season finale. However, the last 15 minutes provided everything a good finale should: suspense, murder, a love triangle (quadrangle!), a drug overdose, break-ups (bonus points for calling off an engagement), a conniving friend, heart break, a parent finding their child unconscious, unplanned pregnancy, a declaration of “never speak to me again” followed by a quick hang up, an engagement, a serious accident (plane instead of car, way to go big!

NFL must prove guilt Sam Farmer Los Angeles Times The suspension of Jonathan Vilma was not too severe if in fact he offered $10,000 bounties to any teammate who took out Kurt Warner or Brett Favre. That's clearly crossing the line. But the thing is, did he actually do that? That's what the NFL needs to prove, or risk suspicion that the league rushed to judgment. It's time for the league to lay its cards on the table, reveal what specific evidence it has against the Saints, and put the matter to rest.

If all goes as planned, sometime this morning a spacecraft will blast off from its launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and ride a fiery plume of contrails upward through the pre-dawn darkness to begin a two-week journey to the International Space Station and back. But the flight won't be just another NASA resupply mission. Instead, the Falcon 9 rocket and its unmanned Dragon cargo capsule built by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation - SpaceX for short - will be the first commercially owned and operated vehicle ever to rendezvous with the station's orbiting astronauts.

When I read the article about the African-American teen being attacked by a member of a Jewish community watch dog group ( "Tension in Park Heights," Dec. 5), I saw it as another incident of crime in the city. I was then astounded to read that the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance was suddenly calling for the "violent fringe group" Shomrim to be disbanded! Was this incident one of many such attacks? Is there any indication that this group are vigilantes, out to get blacks?

NFL must prove guilt Sam Farmer Los Angeles Times The suspension of Jonathan Vilma was not too severe if in fact he offered $10,000 bounties to any teammate who took out Kurt Warner or Brett Favre. That's clearly crossing the line. But the thing is, did he actually do that? That's what the NFL needs to prove, or risk suspicion that the league rushed to judgment. It's time for the league to lay its cards on the table, reveal what specific evidence it has against the Saints, and put the matter to rest.

The Maryland SPCA is not only disappointed in the Maryland Court of Appeals recent ruling stating all "pit bulls" are inherently dangerous but also Dan Rodricks ' commentary ("Pit bulls: Own at your risk," April 30). It is tragic to hear of anyone harmed by an animal. We believe these situations can be avoided by responsible dog owners. To prevent dog bites and attacks, owners must appropriately supervise their dogs, provide them with training and socialization, and have them spayed/neutered.

A drunken driver crashes into another vehicle. The drunk is injured. The other driver is hurt - maybe even killed. So the drunk gets rushed to the hospital. A police investigator, trained in the handling of evidence in such cases, goes there, too, hoping to collect the blood samples that could convict the perpetrator of driving under the influence or even more serious charges. But once in the emergency room, the investigator is told it is hospital policy not to allow its medical personnel to help collect such evidence because they could be hauled into court and diverted from patient care.

A Baltimore judge refused Thursday to set a man free before his Jan. 26 attempted-murder trial, despite having thrown out a key - and possibly the only - piece of evidence against him last week because it had been altered by police. "That doesn't change the public safety component," said Circuit Court Judge John P. Miller in explaining his decision to let an $800,000 bail stand, after it was revealed that an officer altered a photo of the defendant to get positive witness identification.

George Huguely V sits in the corner of a narrow, white room, at the end of a long wooden table, looking every bit the college athlete who just rolled out of bed after a normal night out — but for the bloody scratches ringing his right ankle. Hours earlier, he had used that leg to drunkenly kick in his girlfriend's bedroom door, he tells Charlottesville detectives, during a 64-minute recorded interrogation into the fatal beating of Cockeysville native Yeardley Love. The public got its first look at the video Tuesday, two years after it was made, on the morning of May 3, 2010, and nearly three months after Huguely was convicted of second-degree murder in Love's death at her University of Virginia off-campus apartment.

We get busy. We have work to do. We have long days crowded with chores and commitments, and we get caught up in things that seem in the moment so important - a project, a decision, a purchase, a deadline. And this is your life, and it moves faster than you expected it would. Before you know it, you're not a kid anymore; your parents are gone and you're the only adult in the room. Everyone experiences this differently, and at different times. Some of you might have lost a parent when you were teenagers, or in your 20s, or 30s. Or maybe you're in your 50s now and just getting used to the absence of your mother or father, or a beloved aunt or grandparents - the elders you thought would be around forever.

One document proposed a deliberate plan to suppress black votes: "The first and most desired outcome is voter suppression. " Another depicted the campaign of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. promising a bonus to consultant Julius Henson if he made "the city turnout stay low" on Election Day 2010.  A third document contained notes from a Henson employee that said: "Suppress turnout in black communities," next to the words: "Obama, O'Malley,...

The Maryland SPCA is not only disappointed in the Maryland Court of Appeals recent ruling stating all "pit bulls" are inherently dangerous but also Dan Rodricks ' commentary ("Pit bulls: Own at your risk," April 30). It is tragic to hear of anyone harmed by an animal. We believe these situations can be avoided by responsible dog owners. To prevent dog bites and attacks, owners must appropriately supervise their dogs, provide them with training and socialization, and have them spayed/neutered.

The Baltimore County Police Department announced Friday that, in the wake of a Maryland Court of Appeals opinion, it will discontinue collection of DNA samples at the time of arrest from suspects charged with certain violent crimes. But in a press release, Police Chief James Johnson expressed his displeasure over the ruling, and said he hopes it will be reversed. "Our job is public safety, and DNA collection is an invaluable tool for helping us protect citizens from criminals," Johnson said in the statement.

The arrest of George Zimmerman on charges of second-degree murder in the killing of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin does not mean that justice has been done. But it does provide the opportunity for justice - for a full presentation of the facts before a judge and impartial jury. It was the denial of that opportunity by local officials in Sanford, Fla., who chose not to arrest Mr. Zimmerman immediately after the shooting six weeks ago, that had so inflamed the nation. It led to inevitable questions about whether race was a factor in how the case was handled - Trayvon was black, and Mr. Zimmerman is white and Hispanic - and to outrage at the notion that a young man could be killed without anyone being forced to publicly account for it. Now the Sanford community and the entire nation can get answers about what happened that day, and that is what our criminal justice system is supposed to do. Angela B. Corey, a special prosecutor brought in from Jacksonville to handle the case, said Wednesday evening that her decision to bring charges was not based on public pressure but on the evidence she had gathered.

WASHINGTON --A grand jury charged yesterday that a former federal prosecutor in Detroit who led one of the Justice Department's biggest terrorism investigations concealed critical evidence in the case in an effort to bolster the government's theory that a group of local Muslim men were plotting an attack. The prosecutor, Richard G. Convertino, and a State Department employee who was a chief government witness were indicted on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice. The grand jury charged that they had conspired to conceal evidence from the jury about photographs of a U.S. military hospital in Jordan that was the supposed target of a terrorist plot concocted by the Detroit defendants.

The other day, a Senate committee was talking about universal health care and the need to assure that no one is discriminated against for reasons of age, sex, or any other reason. It is a fine concept but it made my blood run cold.That's because these decisions seem to wind up being made by federal bureaucrats. And they have a strange way of dispensing what they consider to be justice.An example is a case I wrote about recently, that of a restaurant operator named Hans Morsbach, who runs several restaurants in Chicago's Hyde Park area.

A 22-year-old man faces sentencing Wednesday morning for trying to sexually assault a boy in a Dundalk middle school bathroom in 2010. Sean T. Schleigh entered an "Alford plea" to attempted first-degree sexual assault in Baltimore County Circuit Court on Tuesday in the attack on a 12-year-old boy at Holabird Middle School on Dec. 16, 2010. By entering such a plea, Schleigh was not admitting guilt, but acknowledging that the state has enough evidence to convict him. Assistant State's Attorney Stephanie Porter told Judge John G. Turnbull II in a 20-minute hearing Tuesday that she is recommending a sentence of life in prison with all but 40 years suspended, plus five years of supervised probation.

Prosecutors dropped charges Monday against Ryan Marcus Coleman, a former City College administrator accused of sexually abusing a 17-year-old student, saying they lacked sufficient evidence to take the case to trial. Coleman, 36, was charged in July 2010 with sex abuse of a minor, fourth-degree sex offense and second-degree assault. Assistant state's attorneys Michael Leedy and Katherine Smeltzer dropped all of those charges in Baltimore Circuit Court just before jury selection and a trial were slated to begin.