Fines

Special cameras are the answer, all school areas need them. I live close to Scotchtown Hills Elementary in Laurel, and the camera helped slow down the speeders there. There is also a four-way stop close by and I've seen trucks speed through without stopping as some auto drivers do. I doubt a smiley face or frown face would mean anything to those who don't care, but a $40 fine would get their attention. Luella Cain Laurel

I'll Have Another, fresh off winning the second leg of the Triple Crown, nipped at anyone who came by Sunday morning. He was more playful than ornery. Someone told trainer Doug O'Neill that the colt's eyelids looked heavy.  "He's always got that look," O'Neill shot back. It's true. I'll Have Another appeared only mildly bothered yesterday after running a mile and three-sixteenths in under two minutes and being herded into a crowded winner's circle. After his connections partied late into the night outside of his barn - except for O'Neill, who went to his hotel room with his wife and kids and ordered room service - I'll Have Another was spry at dawn.

The Environmental Protection Agency has levied nearly $250,000 in fines against Baltimore City and Anne Arundel and Harford counties for failing to adequately protect their waterways from pollution washing off streets, parking lots and lawns. The EPA's Mid-Atlantic regional office in Philadelphia proposed fining the three local governments more than a year after inspections found they were violating permits requiring them to control storm-water pollution from government facilities, construction sites and businesses.

Rick Dutrow knows there's a difference coming into Preakness with a horse that has won the Kentucky Derby and one that didn't even make it to the starting gate at Churchill Downs. If anything, it might be a little easier for Dutrow coming to Pimlico for Saturday's race with Zetterholm than it was four years ago with Big Brown. "When you win the Derby, you have to ship to Baltimore and have to get ready to run in two weeks," Dutrow said by cell phone from New York earlier this week.

Selling beer to an underage, undercover police volunteer has proved costly to the owners of two Howard County liquor stores. Rakesh Shah, licensee of a 7-Eleven located at 9049 Frederick Road in Ellicott City, was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and to stop selling alcohol on four days over two consecutive weekends starting May 6. The county's appointed Alcoholic Beverage License Board imposed a $600 fine on Winfield Kelly III's Woodbine Wine and...

The city liquor board handed down a five-day liquor license suspension Thursday night to a strip club on The Block after a dancer in the bar was found guilty of fondling the genitalia of a male patron. Mouse Trap II in the 400 block of E. Baltimore St. was also fined $2,250. A liquor board inspector testified at the hearing that he saw a dancer with her hand inside the unzipped pants of a man July 12. The club was also fined for selling alcohol to an underage patron that same night. - Brent Jones

The 30-day warning period for Howard County's new speed cameras will end next week. As of 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16, drivers caught going 12 mph or more over the speed limit will receive citations and be fined $40, according to the Howard County Police Department. The speed cameras are in vans and operate in school zones on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. The county has two cameras now, but county law allows for up to eight. The police department's website is updated each Thursday with camera locations for the following week, though it does not give specific dates and times.

Great Oak Lending Partners, a Timonium broker, is being fined $11,000 for what U.S. officials describe as misleading advertising about Federal Housing Administration mortgages. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees FHA, said this week that its mortgagee review board found several problems with Great Oak Lending's direct-mail ads. In addition to the fine, the company will have to forward its advertising to the FHA for monthly reviews during a six-month probation, HUD said.

It's 2 a.m. on a Saturday, and young people in various states of inebriation stream out of a Federal Hill bar. Some are so intoxicated they appear to be walking into a stiff wind, staggering and clutching friends for support. One woman tries to steady herself on the hood of a car, then slowly slides to the ground. A commotion breaks out and several police officers — stationed nearby for the seemingly inevitable late-night fight — hurry to pull two young men apart. A woman wearing a short leopard-print dress and towering high heels rushes over.

Two East Baltimore pizzerias were closed last week by city health officials who found they repeatedly violated a ban on distributing fliers to residences and failed to pay their fines. The food permits of the two carryout restaurants, both named Nephew's Pizza, were suspended for five days, a period that ended Friday. "It's a good first start. It sends a message," said City Councilman Jim Kraft, who introduced the 2006 bill that banned distribution of commercial fliers to homes.

Six games have passed since Chris Boland returned from a broken collarbone suffered in Johns Hopkins' season-opening victory over Towson on Feb. 17. During that span, the fifth-year senior attackman has recorded nine goals and nine assists, including two assists in the team's 10-9 overtime upset of Loyola on April 28 and three goals and two assists in a 13-6 thumping of Army last Saturday. Boland acknowledged last week that it took some time for him to gain confidence in dodging and landing on the collarbone, which was how the original injury occurred.

Compass Rose Studio Theater will complete a successful inaugural season this spring, capped by Lionel Bart's classic musical "Oliver. " Based on Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist," the story of an impoverished orphan sold to an undertaker before escaping to join a gang of pickpockets, Bart's musical adaptation premiered in London in 1960. It ran for a record-setting 12 years and created several beloved standards including "Consider Yourself," "Where is Love?" and "As Long as He Needs Me. " Bart strips down Dickens' tale to essentials in his musical, which is appropriately shrunk further by Compass Rose director Lucinda Merry-Browne to fit her intimate theater space.

Orioles right-hander Jason Hammel says he's a much different pitcher from the one who last faced the New York Yankees in 2008. Through four starts this season, Hammel - acquired in the February trade that sent No. 1 starter Jeremy Guthrie to the Colorado Rockies - has been a surprising success story. He takes a 3-0 record and 1.73 ERA into the Bronx for Monday's series opener, looking to give the Orioles his fourth quality start of the season. Hammel, who entered the season with a career 4.99 ERA, said he has grown mentally since he was demoted to the Rockies' bullpen at the end of last season.

I'll tell you what annoys me: the buy-one-get-one-free deal on strawberries at the supermarket. First of all, you must have the store's bonus card to get the deal. Plus, they really don't want you to know the price of the first item, so they print it so small on a card so far across the produce bin that you need a drone with advanced optics to fly over and read it. Since we're on the subject, I'll tell you what else annoys me: •Seven dollars for a medium-size bag of popcorn at the movies in Hunt Valley.

If you take a peek into furniture maker Bill Hergenroeder's shop in Cockeysville, you may be surprised at what you don't see: no computer-assisted drawings or other high-tech design aids. He prefers the simple life. The concrete floor of his shop is splattered with old splotches of paint. Stacks of hand-drawn sketches, veneer outlines, screwdrivers and the occasional power drill are scattered around the small space, with just enough room for him to move about to work on his custom furniture creations.

Capitals Ovechkin says he's fine with reduced ice time The Washington Capitals entered the third period of Game 4 on Thursday night with a one-goal lead, and as the Boston Bruins pushed in an attempt to tie the NHL Eastern Conference quarterfinal contest, coach Dale Hunter turned to his most defensively responsible forwards to carry the load down the stretch of the 2-1 victory. Star left wing Alex Ovechkin played only 1 minute, 58 seconds in the final period and just 15 seconds in the final 14 minutes of regulation.

The state's energy regulator on Wednesday fined Pepco $1 million for failing to properly maintain the utility's electricity grid, resulting in prolonged and frequent power outages during storms and normal conditions. In its order, the Maryland Public Service Commission said Pepco, which serves Maryland customers in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, "compounded those reliability problems through poor customer communication. " The fine came more than a year after the PSC initiated an investigation into Pepco's reliability, which was prompted by numerous customer complaints.

Editor: I am a resident of Harford County who has just finished reading the article "Harford County officials push for county business loan fund," in your April 13 edition. You quoted Economic Development Director [Jim] Richardson, as saying that Harford County could be the, "New Silicon Valley. " Other than the fact that a handful of developers and politicians would make a ton of money, why in the world would anyone want to transform a beautiful county into a network of congested roads, shopping centers, office buildings, housing developments, higher crime rate, overcrowded schools and probably higher taxes!

An appointment with a pediatrician Thursday was a "big relief" to Katie Bauer, whose seven-month pregnancy with rare "momo" twins was at first confusing and then exhausting. "It's all behind them, these guys are doing just fine," Dr. Joseph A. Garcia said after he finished immunizing Nolan and Brooks Bauer, identical boys who developed in the same fetal sac, exposing them to dangers not encountered during most pregnancies. The boys were born Feb. 13. Babies like Nolan and Brooks have at least one chance in 10 of dying during the last weeks of pregnancy or the first month after birth — so Garcia's upbeat assessment at two months was an important milestone for the Perry Hall family.