Ideas

Maryland Del. Jon Cardin , who along with Del. Dana Stein introduced a bill Friday that would mandate protective headgear for girls youth lacrosse programs, said the purpose of the bill is to start a conversation about player safety in girls lacrosse. "The idea is to start a serious conversation about the safety and protection of student and youth athletes," Cardin said. "This will be high up on the agenda of discussion of how to make sure we're doing everything we can to keep student athletes safe.

Robert Prettyman walked along the uneven ground surrounding Anne Arundel Community College's resource management building and pointed to soil erosion, storm runoff and other evidence that the area is losing its battle against the elements. "You can see the erosion. It's a mess," said Prettyman, 51, a student at the college. He then ventured down a series of weather-beaten steps in the woods to a small waterway known as Divided Creek. Runoff from the resource management building flows through underground pipes and spills into the creek before heading to the Magothy River and Chesapeake Bay. Prettyman, a Glen Burnie resident studying ecosystem restoration and environmental monitoring, wants to stem that tide of erosion, and he recently came up with a project to reduce and naturally filter some of the runoff from the building.

A little more than two years ago, Corey Hirsch's older sister gave him an idea. Bridget Hirsch, a student at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York, had recently seen her school participate in a charity hockey game benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project. She took a few pictures at the event and sent some information to her family, thinking it might be something they could replicate back home. Corey thought it was a great idea. Then a sophomore at DeMatha, Corey approached coach Tony MacAulay about doing something similar with the Stags hockey team.

Unfortunately, a lot of military decisions are being made by people who have never served in combat or have had limited service ("Military ceiling lifted," Jan. 25). President Barack Obama never served in the military, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta served a brief two years in military intelligence. Not only will women in combat create all kinds of additional issues as far as personal privacy, but you are adding an undue burden to these units which is the last thing they need while in a front line situation.

When will they ever learn? Probably never. We all know social media can be a figurative stick of dynamite in the hands of angry, frustrated NFL players. Now it's pretty obvious their wives should stay away from it, too. For evidence, look no further than Wes Welker's wife and her nasty Facebook rant about Ray Lewis, which has blown up in her face and in the face of the New England Patriots' organization, too. Not dealing well -- obviously -- with the Ravens' 28-13 win over her husband's Patriots in the AFC Championship game Sunday, Anna Burns Welker wrote this on Facebook about the Ravens' legendary and soon-to-be-retired inside linebacker: "Proud of my husband and the Pats.

Elijah's sugar daddy George is reeling over the news that Elijah cheated on him -- and cheated on him with a woman. He breaks up with Elijah and walks out, leaving Elijah with no steady form of income. Elijah and Hannah watch Aaron's sad, lovelorn and somewhat angry YouTube musical dedication to Hannah, which is rhymeless and awkward. "I know he always said he was murdery in like a sexy way, but what if he's murdery in like a murdery way?"

The storms of winter 2010 shut down roads, cancelled classes, closed up shops and nearly ended a signature Baltimore event before it started. On a cold January night, organizers of the Pratt Contemporaries' inaugural Black and White Party watched the uncertain forecast and the falling snow, worried that the conditions were going to keep guests away from their humble celebration. Yet several inches of snow - usually a kiss of death for the winter-wary in Maryland - did not prevent 200 or so people from attending.

Big playoff games deserve big bar specials. A $3 domestics deal might have worked a couple of months ago, but the AFC championship game demands more. As players elevate their games, it's only fitting sports bars do, too. This concept is not lost on No Idea Tavern, the cozy Federal Hill bar a comfortable distance from the Cross Street Market madness. There are only four words you need to know about No Idea's Ravens special on Sunday: all you can drink. Although it's normally a New York Jets bar, No Idea will make an excellent spot for Ravens and Patriots fans, given its 17 TVs and larger-than-expected space.

As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, we are reminded that equality is unconditional, something we basically knew from the start.  And it wasn't born out of the Great Charter of the Liberties of England, or the Magna Carta; the Declaration of Independence; the Constitution or even the Bill of Rights. Rather, as Abraham Lincoln said in the movie "Lincoln": "it was right there all the time; there in Euclid's (Father of Geometry) 'Elements,' a 2,000-year-old book of mechanical law. " In fact, Abraham Lincoln, who explored and wrestled with passage of the 13th Amendment focusing on the abolition of slavery, unflinchingly put Euclid this way in the movie "Lincoln": "Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.

Tribune Tower was in crisis, and the illustrations of penguins installed in the building's ornate lobby were meant as a constant reminder. With Tribune Co. revenues sliding and managers struggling to adjust to an Internet revolution, executives in early 2007 turned to a Harvard Business School professor to motivate employees. The penguins in the building's display cases stood on melting icebergs - the professor's metaphor for an industry experiencing rapid and potentially fatal change.