Identity

The American Muslim community continues to experience numbness and is in deep shock following the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim psychiatrist who was born in Virginia to Jordanian parents, is accused of opening fire on his colleagues, killing 13 and wounding 38. The officer, who was commissioned in 2001, provided counseling to help alleviate psychological stressors that servicemen and woman experience. The Muslim community has worked faithfully since the tragic events of Sept.

In 2008, Ed DeRosa witnessed the infamy of the Preakness infield - the passed-out partiers, the chucking of full beer cans into crowds and of course, the "Running of the Urinals," where drunken infielders ran down a row of portable toilets. DeRosa, a horse-racing reporter from Lexington, Ky., who attended Preakness from 2005 to 2011, says nothing could have prepared a first-timer for the debauchery. "I was in Vegas for New Year's Eve a couple times, and until I had been to the Preakness infield, that was the craziest I'd ever seen people behave," DeRosa, now 33, said.

The identity of a Howard County police officer found dead Sunday at her Columbia home was released Monday. Jennifer Cree, 31, was discovered by a relative, said police, who do not believe there was any foul play. Police are investigating the possibility that a medical condition might have contributed to the death of the eight-year veteran. "The entire Police Department family is saddened by Jennifer's death," Police Chief William J. McMahon said in a statement. "We are grateful for her service and extend our condolences to her family."

ESPN analyst Paul Carcaterra participated in a Q&A Monday. The former Syracuse All-American midfielder, who can be followed on Twitter via @paulcarcaterra, also answered a few questions about No. 4 Maryland, No. 7 Loyola, No. 13 Johns Hopkins, Towson and UMBC. A month ago, many people would have said that Maryland is the heavy favorite to win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Are the Terps still the favorite? No, I think it's a three-horse race between Maryland, [No. 1]

This is the last weekend to see Diane Samuels' "Kindertransport" at AXIS Theatre. An exploration of identity, the play rides a collision course between past and present. In the past, it concerns a German Jewish family that sends its daughter to England for safety on the eve of Kristallnacht. In the present, it focuses on a young English woman confronting her true heritage.Directed by Brian Klaas, "Kindertransport" features a cast including Carol Cohen, Amanda Brown-Lipitz, Bethany Brown, Mary Alice Feather and Mark Bernier.

Science fiction tends to play by its own generous rules, but it helps to have a clearly defined purpose and a consistent tone. Those two traits are lacking in J-F Bibeau's "Self, Inc.," a Baltimore Playwrights Festival entry getting its premiere by the Theatrical Mining Company at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. The time travel-reliant plot concerns personal identity-related issues within a corporate context, but it's not certain exactly what Bibeau wants to say about such things.

"Hello. It's so good to see you again. I met you a couple of weeks ago at the museum," the nice lady said to me. "I'm so glad you could come to this. " "This" was the sendoff for the president of the Friends of Trees in Portland, Ore. I was videotaping a play involving some friends who were popping out like gnomes and fairies in the forest in the upper northwest part of the city. I was also on jet lag. "No," I said to her. "I just arrived in Portland yesterday. " "Oh, yes," she insisted, "it was you I met at the museum.

The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri. Houghton Mifflin. 304 pages. $24. Achingly artful, Jhumpa Lahiri's first novel showcases her prodigious gifts. Readers attracted to the cultural intimacy of her Pulitzer-winning collection of short fiction, Interpreter of Maladies, will be pleased to find she has honed her powers of description to the microscopic. Where other writers shed description at the expense of pacing, or practice an economy relying on symbolism, Lahiri makes each detail of the scene relevant to her characters' brooding and yearning.

Among all the things that happened with the Ravens in their 27-24 loss to the New England Patriots on Monday night, they may have found an offensive identity. The Ravens haven't had one this season, and the offensive coaching staff has been out of sync with the group. But against the Patriots, the Ravens rushed for 166 yards on 37 carries, led by running back Willis McGahee's 138 yards on 30 attempts. This wasn't a fluke, either. The Ravens pounded New England, especially in the middle, where guards Ben Grubbs and Jason Brown and center Mike Flynn got in on the bodies of the Patriots' inside linebackers.

Baltimore County officials on Wednesday released the identity of a county worker who died after emergency responders were called to a former county golf course earlier this week, and crash investigators are probing what happened to him as he was plowing snow. Philip Wayne Higgins, 57, of the 4400 block of Declaration Circle in Belcamp, was found Monday, 10 to 20 feet from his county truck at the former Gunpowder Falls Golf Course in Kingsville, police said. He worked for the Property Management Division, which maintains county properties.

The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating whether the body of a man that washed up against a homeowner's pier in southern Anne Arundel County on Thursday is that of a crew member who went missing from a commercial container ship late last year. Officials with the state's Department of Natural Resources Police alerted the Coast Guard of the body, which was found in Deale, about 7:40 p.m. Thursday, said Lt. Peter Francisco, a Coast Guard marine investigator. "Whenever there is a body recovered, that's cross-referenced against all missing people that the Coast Guard has searches for," Francisco said.

Consumer advocates say they didn't get everything on their wish list during the latest meeting of the General Assembly, but the session produced several victories for Maryland consumers. For example, Marylanders would find it easier to buy auto coverage from a state insurance fund, foster children would gain protection from identity thieves and debtors would be less likely to be jailed under bills recently passed by lawmakers. Gov. Martin O'Malley is expected to sign these and other consumer-friendly bills next month.

After spending 15 hours Friday locked on coverage of the manhunt in Boston, here are my picks for the highs, lows and deeper media stories of this remarkable day and night. The best moment belonged to Diane Sawyer and ABC News for a phone interview Friday night with George Pizzuto, a next-door neighbor to the man who discovered a wounded and bloody Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lying under a tarp in a boat in his backyard and called police. The interview started at 8:02 p.m., and was the first clear explanation of how the police found the 19-year-old bombing suspect in Watertown Friday night.

A homeowner cleaning out debris from a detached garage in Essex on Saturday stumbled upon skeletal remains. Baltimore County police detectives responded to the house in the 200 block of Back River Neck Road about 4:30 p.m. and examined the bones. They sent them to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for identification and an autopsy, which could determine the cause of death. Police said there appeared to be no sign of foul play. jgeorge@baltsun.com Twitter.com/justingeorge

A German native who consorted for years with New England's social elite by pretending to be a Rockefeller was convicted Wednesday in Los Angeles of first-degree murder, capping a nearly three-decade-old mystery involving a missing couple and a body buried in a Southern California backyard. Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, 52, was accused of bludgeoning his landlady's adult son with a blunt object, then digging a 3-foot-deep grave in the backyard of the victim's home in San Marino. The body was buried behind a guest house where Gerhartsreiter had been living.

Baltimore County officials on Wednesday released the identity of a county worker who died after emergency responders were called to a former county golf course earlier this week, and crash investigators are probing what happened to him as he was plowing snow. Philip Wayne Higgins, 57, of the 4400 block of Declaration Circle in Belcamp, was found Monday, 10 to 20 feet from his county truck at the former Gunpowder Falls Golf Course in Kingsville, police said. He worked for the Property Management Division, which maintains county properties.

By virtue of defeating Maryland, 9-3, in the NCAA tournament final on Memorial Day and capturing the national championship, Loyola has gone from unknown and overlooked to recognized and celebrated. And as the reigning national titlist in 2013, the Greyhounds will no longer be the hunters, but the hunted. And if that's supposed to worry coach Charley Toomey, he didn't verbalize those concerns. “That's really what made this team so unique. It didn't matter what the label was because they didn't care,” he said.

A federal judge on Monday sentenced a Baltimore County man to 11 years in prison and ordered him to pay close to $200,000 in restitution to victims of a wire fraud and identity theft scheme that victimized Johns Hopkins doctors, among some 250 others, the U.S. Justice Department said. Derrick Hill, 53, of Woodlawn, previously pleaded guilty to the charges, along with co-conspirators Renee Cabell, 51, John Coffey, 43, and Tawney King, 46. Authorities said Hill and the other defendants stole identities, then cashed counterfeit checks and rented apartments in the names of victims.

In the aftermath of last Friday night's 9-8 loss to a then-unranked Duke team, Loyola invited scrutiny about whether it had the talent and will to match last year's squad that captured the university's first Division I national title. The constant comparisons to last season, however, are not welcomed by coach Charley Toomey. “I'm only going to talk about this team. We've got to stop comparing this team to last year,” Toomey said Tuesday morning. “… Right now, I really believe there's enough talent and enough leadership in our locker room that we just need to take baby steps every day and continue to gel and get ready for a March-April-May run. It starts this weekend with Air Force, which is a very talented team.