Exceptions

Only five freshmen signed by the Maryland football team for the 1990-91 school year did not meet the university's regular admission standards. That's the football team's lowest number of "exceptions to admissions" in the last decade, although the number could go up again for the 1991-92 recruiting class."

Dear Scholar, It was wholly a pleasure to get your thoughts about the current debate over illegal immigrants and how to approach the nettlesome challenge they represent to us -- and we to them. It was good of you to rehearse some classical history for me, explaining how other societies, our forerunners as democracies (Athens) and republics that acquired an empire (Rome), dealt with their immigrants. All in the course of challenging my view that some way to citizenship should be left open for our millions of illegal immigrants.

Months after Howard County's strict new anti-smoking law took effect, local bar and restaurant owners have discovered legal exceptions -- blessed by the county's Office of Law -- that let some diners continue to smoke.The most common tactic is for restaurants to enclose several dining tables alongside a bar in a separately ventilated bar room -- about the only place restaurant patrons still can legally smoke in Howard.But Bennigan's restaurant in Columbia's Town Center has taken that logic a step further, enclosing 14 tables in a "bar area" that includes no bar."

If you are anything like me, then your feelings about the city - this city, any city - are bittersweet. As you peer over your shoulder while walking down an unfamiliar street or lock yourself in for the evening, you have some idea, right or wrong, of what a stranger might do. You hope for the best and brace for the worst, as I did six months ago when I began this column. Back then, I had my own ideas about how many people would read it, what percentage might bother to write, and how many of them would do so only because I'd ticked them off. All of my guesses were wrong.

Carol Carr's diagnosis of colorectal cancer at age 44 ("Colon cancer rises for young," July 30) underscores the point that even though current national guidelines for average risk individuals call for colon screening to start at age 50, there are important exceptions. Anyone experiencing symptoms like Ms. Carr's should talk to a gastroenterologist. African-Americans fall into a high-risk category and are another exception to the rule to start screening at age 50. The American College of Gastroenterology in its official screening guidelines recommends that African-Americans should start younger - at age 45 - because they face a higher incidence of colorectal cancer generally, have more cancers in the right side of the colon, as well as potentially more aggressive tumors.

Facing a $400 million shortfall in the current year's budget, Maryland budget officials yesterday tightened the 11-month-old state government hiring freeze. "Due to the continuing effects of the weak national economy on state revenues, it is necessary to restrict the flexibility that has been provided under the statewide hiring freeze," budget chief T. Eloise Foster wrote in a memo to all Cabinet secretaries and agency heads yesterday. "The [availability] of exceptions to the statewide hiring freeze is curtailed and the authority of certain agency heads to approve hiring exceptions is rescinded," Foster wrote.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier's decision to choose the officers he wants to rotate through various jobs is not unfair to labor, a hearing commissioner has ruled.A federal hearing examiner, Jerome H. Ross, decided in a 10-page ruling that an agreement signed by department and union officials clearly gives Frazier the "authority to specify assignments."The union was upset that Frazier made exceptions to his policy of rotating every officer to a new assignment every four years.

Lack of parking was the only concern voiced at last night's Mount Airy public hearing on proposed zoning changes to allow housing for senior citizens in the town.Council members proposed raising the 1.5-space-per-unit minimum to two spaces per unit after Town Council President Delaine Hobbs suggested that many of the residents might have two cars or require parking spaces for regular visitors."You have to count on every unit needing that second vehicle," Mr. Hobbs said.Amid audience laughter, Mr. Hobbs said the ordinance did not dTC allow for the possibility of "live-ins."

The Sun Magazine's photo contest is one of the most popular features we have -- people start calling us months before we announce it each year to find out when we're going to run the rules. Its appeal, I think, is that it's unabashedly a contest for amateurs. In fact, maybe we should do what Kodak does with its international competition: Call it a snapshot contest. Having said that, I should add that I'm always surprised at the high quality of the entries -- many of them are much more artistic than the word "snapshot" implies.

BROADCASTS OF the county commissioners' meetings will never crack the Nielsen ratings, but they may crack the cloaked nature of some of their proceedings. We say may because their dual executive-legislative role leaves the commissioners more escape outlets than a prairie dog town. The legal exceptions -- excuses -- offered for the commissioners' habitual executive sessions and closed meetings prompted a recent inquiry by the state's Open Meetings Compliance Board. There's no chance of remedy from that panel, whose opinions are purely advisory and without legal sanctions.

Ravens inside linebacker Ray Lewis met the media for the first of several times this week and he said his "hunger" to win another Super Bowl is "probably off the charts. " "I was 25 when I won my first Super Bowl. To be 37 and back here and have a chance to win another one in my last year, there's no greater hunger that I have," Lewis said. "I'm going to give my teammates everything I have and not just on Sunday. Starting today, I'm not going nowhere. I'm sitting in my room and I'm studying and studying and studying.

  What's next, an attack on a Sunday School class?  Quick, put armed guards in all the churches! What about malls?  Do we want armed guards at every entrance?  Is this how we want to live?   Americans are fond of saying our country is exceptional.  It's true: Twenty times more people are shot to death here than in any other country.  Ninety percent of children killed by gunfire are Americans.  Often they are doing something as innocent as going to school or watching the fireworks on New Years Eve.  About 30 people die from gunshots every day.  Is this how we want to be exceptional?

The NCAA Division I Board of Directors voted Saturday in favor of deregulation that will affect a wide swath of the rulebook for all sports, including getting rid of a ban on text messages from coaches to recruits. In all, 25 of 26 proposals recomended last month by the NCAA Rules Working Group were approved and will go into effect Aug. 1. The board delayed action on one of the most controversial - a uniform start date for recruiting. The presidents asked the Rules Working Group to expedite its study of the issue and return with a solution as soon as possible.

Click here for the gallery "The Wire: Where Are they Now?" Robert F. Chew, a 52-year-old Baltimore actor and teacher who portrayed one of television's most unforgettable characters as Proposition Joe on HBO's “The Wire,” died Thursday of apparent heart failure in his sleep at his home in Northeast Baltimore, according to Clarice Chew, his sister. Mr. Chew, who appeared in “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “The Corner,” as well as “The Wire,” also taught and mentored child and young adult actors at Baltimore's Arena Players, a troupe he stayed with as his television career blossomed in David Simon HBO series.

Today's editorial "What about climate change?" (Oct. 18) was great! Thank you for asking the question that CNN's Candy Crowley decided was less important than the economy during the debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. You described Mr. Obama as "head-and-shoulders above his challenger," but being as far behind as we are on climate change isn't a virtue. James Hansen of NASA is the planet's best-informed climate scientist. He said we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent per year, until we reach zero emissions.

Heavy rain and the possiblity of severe weather postponed all games and cancelled all practices Tuesday afternoon in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford and Howard counties. All other after-school activites also were canceled in the public schools in those jurisdictions. Carroll County officials postponed all games except volleyball, while Baltimore City sports were scheduled to go on as usual. Much of the area was under a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch during the afternoon just as game and practice time approached.

My 6-year-old son has been enrolled in a karate class for almost a year.Can karate be harmful to his physical development?How about soccer, gymnastics and other organized athletic activities?With a few exceptions -- boxing and weightlifting come immediately to mind -- it is perfectly safe for a young child to participate in sports, provided a few guidelines are followed:The sport should be fun for the child and the motivation should come from the child, rather than a parent or coach.The sport should not take all the child's free time.

It's lunchtime at C. Milton Wright High School in Harford County, when 500 hungry students rush into the cafeteria, pressing past the 500 who have just eaten. They have 25 minutes to file through the lines, find a seat, eat, clean up and get out so the next 500 can herd in. It takes four lunch periods, four assistant principals with walkie-talkies, four teachers and three custodians -- not to mention cafeteria workers -- to get the 1,840 students fed each day. "We've reached the point we can no longer manage," Principal Thomas Ackerman said.

The Ravens and the Steelers don't meet until the middle of November -- then again two weeks later -- but the Ravens are clearly on the mind of Steelers safety Ryan Clark, even if he tried to say otherwise on Wednesday. Appearing on NFL Network, Clark, who was selected to his first Pro Bowl in 2011, was asked about how much he hates the Ravens. He downplayed it at first, but he made it clear that he has a bitter taste in his mouth after the Ravens swept the season series against the Steelers in 2011, including a 35-7 beatdown in Week 1. “I get that question a lot and I don't really hate them,” Clark said.

With school only weeks away, it's time to think ahead to earlier bedtimes, nightly homework, after-school soccer - and Scouts. My son's a Webelos this year. Having decided to join in first grade, he's stayed with it. He's learned how to carve a boat out of wood and fire off a rocket, how to be a responsible brother and son, and a good neighbor. Along the way he's made friends and had fun. He and I should be proud. Trouble is, I'm no longer entirely comfortable with what Boy Scouts of America (BSA)