Fresh

SARASOTA, Fla. - As pitchers conducted their first workout of the spring at the Orioles' minor league camp Monday, the beginning of two comebacks took place in the bullpen area of the Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex at Twin Lakes Park. It's been nearly four years since the Orioles made highly touted high schoolers Matt Hobgood and Mychal Givens their top two picks in the 2009 draft. Both have struggled to live up to expectations, but they both arrive in camp this spring with renewed hope for their careers.

Laura Neuman comes to the job of Anne Arundel County executive as an almost complete outsider to county (and Maryland) politics. She spent a career in the private sector, then less than two years working for a Democratic administration in another county before being named last week to a post that makes her the second-highest-ranking Republican in public office in Maryland. She has not worked on campaigns, much less run one of her own, and she is being greeted with no small amount of skepticism by the GOP. She could be in for a steep learning curve in both the policies and the politics of her new job. But Ms. Neuman, who met today with The Sun's editorial board, may also be the kind of leader Anne Arundel County needs right now. She comes to office in the wake of the trial, conviction and resignation of John Leopold, whose political and personal misdeeds brought dishonor to the county and sapped the morale of the government he led. Ms. Neuman has no association with him or with his opponents, and that may help her be seen as an honest broker in the process of rooting out those who were complicit in the Leopold scandal - an effort she has already begun.

John Leopold has been found guilty of misconduct in office ("King of Arundel, deposed," Jan. 31). Like many people, I was horrified and deeply disappointed as witness after witness provided detailed accounts of Mr. Leopold's behavior in office. Simply said, Anne Arundel County, you deserve better! But now that the dark cloud of this trial is over, we can focus our attention on moving forward. The first order of business is the appointment of a new county executive. The second, and perhaps more important, order of business is to restore integrity and credibility to county government.

In this town, it remains a sepia-toned nightmare: Billy Cundiff's 32-yard field-goal attempt in the chill of Gillette Stadium drifting left, left, left - so far left you thought it would smack one of the cheerleaders. Cundiff has never recovered from that miss in last year's AFC championship, the one that left the Ravens in stunned disbelief and the New England Patriots headed to the Super Bowl with a 23-20 win. Funny thing is, Justin Tucker can't get away from that miss, either.

Jake Layman's adjustment to college life in general at Maryland and basketball in particular was a bit more difficult than the other three freshmen who were part of second-year coach Mark Turgeon's first recruiting class. That he admittedly fell behind in his classwork - to the point where Turgeon benched him for the first half of a recent game for failing to turn in a paper - contributed to the issues he had on the court, the 6-8 forward said Monday. “I think me getting behind in school, which was a good learning experience for me the first semester, it turned into me not doing well on the court, too,” Layman said after practice at Comcast Center.

Call it manifest restaurant destiny. In 2012, Baltimore-based restaurateurs set about expanding their empires, or at least their brands. Clementine opened a second location in the Creative Alliance in Highlandtown, the team behind Langermann's in Canton opened a second location in South Baltimore, and the owners of Mo's opened a new restaurant in Towson, in the old Hersh's Orchard Inn. And, in December, a version of Baltimore's estimable Prime...

A bullet lodged in an off-duty Baltimore County police officer's wallet became a key piece of evidence as investigators tracked down a suspect in his shooting, according to charging documents. Police said Friday that they had arrested Michael Jabateh, 18, charging him with the attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of Officer Carlos Moorer. Jabateh, who lives in the 100 block of Commodore Drive in Essex, is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. In the charging documents, detectives wrote that Jabateh fired at Moorer four times, wounding him twice.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor will welcome 2013 with live music, a fireworks show and a giant digital clock counting down the seconds, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced today. This year's celebration, with entertainment beginning at 9 p.m. leading up to the midnight fireworks, is being sponsored by the Orioles, hot off a 2012 playoff appearance and eager to keep that momentum going into the 2013 season. "This celebratory event will be the perfect start to what we expect will be an exciting year ahead," team spokesman Greg Bader said in a news release.

Attendance at the National Aquarium this year is expected to tick up a little more than 1 percent to 1.33 million, but remains significantly below levels experienced several years ago before the recession. Still, an economic impact report to be released Wednesday found that many of the visitors to the Inner Harbor attraction come from out of state, spend a good deal of money in the region and cite the aquarium as the reason they came. The study, conducted by Sage Policy Group, estimates that the aquarium is responsible for an economic impact of nearly $320 million in the Baltimore and Washington region, providing an underpinning for more than 3,300 jobs.

As the patient and sympathetic host of shows like "Food 911" and "How to Boil Water," Tyler Florence has been a welcome presence on the Food Network for 16 years. But some fans have trouble pinning him down, Florence said. They'll say, "What do you do? You're not the Italian guy, you're not the New Orleans guy. " The chef will be in the Baltimore area Saturday, signing copies of his new cookbook, "Tyler Florence Fresh," which was to be released Tuesday. Florence's ninth book is a departure from his previous titles.