Fair

North County High School freshman Jack Andraka stood on the auditorium stage, speaking about the invention that earned him the $75,000 grand prize at the recent Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Behind him stood Dr. Anirban Maitra, a professor in the Johns Hopkins University's department of pathology who gave Jack use of his lab to craft his invention, a cheap and effective "dipstick-sensor" method of testing blood or urine to identify early-stage pancreatic cancer and other diseases.

North County High School freshman Jack Andraka stood on the auditorium stage, speaking about the invention that earned him the $75,000 grand prize at the recent Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Behind him stood Dr. Anirban Maitra, a professor in the Johns Hopkins University's department of pathology who gave Jack use of his lab to craft his invention, a cheap and effective "dipstick-sensor" method of testing blood or urine to identify early-stage pancreatic cancer and other diseases.

In the wake of WWE's Over the Limit pay-per-view, a new Intercontinental champion has been crowned, four other champions continue to hold onto their titles and John Laurinaitis remains employed. Sunday night's show delivered an evening of quality entertainment and good in-ring performances. On a non-major PPV event, WWE delivered a product that surpassed the expectations of many. Here's a match-by-match look at the show: Battle Royale This last-minute addition to the card was a means of crowning a No. 1 contender for one of the midcard titles.

Kentucky has the Derby. Maryland, of course, is home to the Preakness Stakes. And Pennsylvania boasts the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair, an annual celebration of all things equestrian that dates back well over a century. "It started as a one-day horse show in 1896," says Leonard A. King, Jr., 80, a longtime leader in the equestrian community who chairs the event. "We're now in the 116th year, and we'll go for 11 days. Over the years, we've had presidents, celebrities and visitors from across the country, and foreign countries, in attendance.

Thank God for Joan and Don. Without their lunchtime escape from the office, replete with witty, sexy banter, this episode, the worst of the season, would have been pointless. Nothing else quite worked here, in what clearly was a transitional throwaway leading up to the final few episodes this season. I, for one, do not care about Lane's financial issues (though, surely him forging Don's signature on a check to pay debts will come back to bite him). Anything involving Harry is sort of blah, even though his subplot this week brought back and old friend, Paul Kinsey, who has, ahem, gone through some changes.

Sometimes the small things make all the difference in professional wrestling. Too often, critics -- especially those on the Internet -- nitpick every decision WWE makes and find the logical or creative flaws. Many times, this creates an unnecessary sense or allegation of failure. But on tonight's Raw, WWE (or, more specifically, general manager John Laurinaitis) made a mistake that is almost unforgivable. While I personally wasn't offended by Sunday's match between John Cena and Laurinaitis at Over the Limit , many people have lashed out against the match.

Hundreds of people lined up on sun-drenched asphalt Saturday to see if they could get regular payouts, in the form of paychecks, from the new Maryland Live! Casino, a slots casino scheduled to open at Arundel Mills mall in about three months. "I hope I get lucky enough to get a position," said Mark Ellison, who's from West Baltimore. "They want people who are willing to go the extra mile so customers come in and enjoy spending their money. " The operators of what will be the state's largest casino hosted a job fair Saturday with the Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corp.

Deputed Testamony is 32-years-old. His dark brown coat is shaggy, and his biggest excitement is going into his paddock at Bonita Farm for three or four hours of grazing each day. He is a pensioner, an icon. The oldest living winner of a Triple Crown race. But when Billy Boniface looks at the horse in his paddock, he sees the striking colt that was born and trained at the family farm and raced to victory in the 1983 Preakness - the last horse bred or trained in Maryland to do so. "Oh my gosh, I still get goose bumps when I look at him and remember that day," said Boniface, who was 18 then and had just taken over the breeding operation at the farm.

Four trucks laden with 100 slot machines arrived early Wednesday morning at the nearly completed casino at Arundel Mills mall. For the next two hours, workers wheeled banks of the gleaming new machines, one by one, inside on hand trucks. Installation of the first set of slots moved Maryland Live! Casino, the state's largest, another step closer to its scheduled opening in three months. That's progress for Maryland's lackluster gambling program, which has yet to be fully implemented more than three years after voters approved five slots locations statewide.

The Longfellow Elementary School Springtastic Spring Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 1 at the school, 5470 Hesperus Drive in Columbia. There will be games, a silent auction, dunk tank, food and more. Admission is free. Information: 410-313-6879.

Parents, prepare to be begged. Victoria Justice, aka Tori Vega on Nickelodeon's popular show "Victorious," will perform at this year's 131st Maryland State Fair. The singer-songwriter-actress will perform Aug. 31, a year after another teen-idol, Selena Gomez, graced the Fair's stage. (Read my review of the Gomez show here .) Country act the Band Perry will perform at the Fair the following day. The State Fair stop will be apart of Justice's "Made in America" summer tour.

As a conservative Republican, I cannot believe that I actually agree with a Montgomery County Democrat ("Income tax is facing dissent," May 15). If you missed the story, Del. Charles Barkley, a Montgomery County Democrat, stated opposition to the Democratic leadership's "doomsday" tax plan, telling The Sun, "I don't like the income tax plan. I don't think it's fair to taxpayers. " No kidding. Delegate Barkley is right: the new income tax is unfair to taxpayers. If you work hard and obtain wealth, why should it be taken from you?

Thomas M. Neale, who writes that the rich pay more than their fair share of taxes ("The wealthy pay more than their fair share," May 14), needs to read his own letter. The data he presents explains why the rich, who make up a much smaller part of the U.S. population, pay more taxes then the rest of us. In a universe of two, where one person makes a million dollars and the other makes $10,000 a year, the higher income person would pay 100 percent of the individual income taxes due under our system.

His day-to-day work has not changed. The routine for Graham Motion is no different now than it was in the early 1990s, when he first became a thoroughbred trainer. "We send them out there, see how they are doing, take what we can from what we see and do it again the next day," Motion said last week. He spoke from the grounds at the Fair Hill Training Center, a bucolic full-service facility nestled near the northeast corner of the state. Motion, who has pointed Kentucky Derby fourth-place finisher Went the Day Well to Saturday's 137th running of the Preakness Stakes, has settled in here as one of the most respected in his field.

Be proud, Marylanders. After a 90-day session, our one-party state government could not agree on a budget. Now, after meeting in secret, Gov.Martin O'Malley, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, and House SpeakerMichael E. Buschannounce that they have an agreement to raise taxes. The Sun agrees that this is a "fairer solution" ("A balanced solution," May 10). I question how any arrangement can be fair that is agreed upon out of the public eye. M. Link, Baltimore

Your recent editorial on the elections in Europe states that you believe Americans are now ready to embrace tax increases rather than voting for "conservatives and further cuts to government spending" due to the "widening gulf between the haves and have-nots, the 1 percent and the 99 percent" ("Rejecting austerity," May 9). Such misguided statements make for superb political rant, playing on President Barack Obama's continued class warfare rhetoric which he hopes will blunt criticism of his abysmal economic record.

The Columbia Association Teen Advisory Committee and Howard County Library will sponsor a college fair from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. April 13 at Centennial High School, 4300 Centennial Lane in Ellicott City. Representatives from more than 80 schools will be present. The event is free. For more information, call 410-715-5523.

For the second time in 40 years, a member of the "Flying Wallenda" family will wow Inner Harbor crowds Wednesday with nothing between him and the murky harbor waters but a wire cable. Self-proclaimed "King of the High Wire" Nik Wallenda will follow in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Karl, "The Great Wallenda. " While Karl Wallenda crossed the harbor over 600 feet of wire 60 feet in the air in 1973, Nik Wallenda will ascend a wire stretched 300 feet from the Light Street pavilion to a barge in the harbor, up to a height of about 90 feet.

It was a standing room only crowd April 20 at the Havre de Grace Activity Center for "Fair Housing in 2012: A Clear Path for All. " The training, free and open to the public, was the result of partnership and collaboration among the Harford County Department of Community Services Office of Human Relations, the Harford County Housing Agency and the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. "Havre de Grace was essentially the last stop on the Underground Railroad for many heading north," Harford County Executive David Craig said in a press release.