Inadvertently

ClarificationYesterday's coverage of the power outage at Saturday's Preakness inadvertently left the impression that officials at Pimlico offered no apologies for inconvenience to fans.In fact, the front-page story about the outage should have included quotes from Joseph A. De Francis, president and CEO of the Maryland Jockey Club, praising the "patience and sportsmanship of our fans the greatest fans in the country." De Francis also apologized in remarks to other news organizations.In addition, a sports column criticizing De Francis for failing to apologize referred only to De Francis' remarks on the victory stand.

Seeing a chance to stop one of the most deadly kinds of cancer before it forms, doctors at Johns Hopkins and at other hospitals around the nation are focusing on the common pancreatic cyst. Up to 20 percent of pancreatic cancer begins as one of these small, fluid-filled brown lesions. And left to grow unabated, pancreatic cancer kills 95 percent of sufferers within five years. "We have a wonderful opportunity to intervene at an early stage," Dr. Anne Marie Lennon , an assistant professor and director of a new Hopkins Multidisciplinary Pancreatic Cyst Program.

On a recent Friday night, Hollywood Casino in Perryville whooped, shrieked and fluttered with the shrill din of thousands of slot machines at full blast. Crowds flitted from shiny penny slots to $1 machines, hoping to hit it big, or simply spend a night away from the couch. The cavernous complex in the middle of rural Cecil County felt like the inside of a pinball machine. Walking around this casino, Maryland's largest, and the Casino at Ocean Downs, the state's second, can be a dizzying, trippy experience.

The Sun reported incorrectly yesterday that President Bush spoke Wednesday to a teachers group. It also reported incorrectly that a Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday stayed implementation of the state's abortion law. In fact, both events occurred Tuesday.* The Sun regrets the error.WASHINGTON -- A White House microphone, accidentally left on after President Bush completed a closed-circuit broadcast to a California audience, has confirmed what some reporters had long suspected: Some of Mr. Bush's seemingly spontaneous exchanges with the public are actually scripted beforehand.

Anne Arundel County school board members held an unannounced private meeting Saturday where they discussed priorities for future votes, then acknowledged yesterday - five days later - that they "inadvertently" violated Maryland's Open Meetings Act by not informing the media of the session. Though the daylong retreat was planned weeks ago, board President Paul G. Rudolph blamed the failure to publicize the meeting on last week's snowstorm, which closed schools early Feb. 22 and canceled classes Feb. 23. "The Board acknowledges with regret this inadvertent violation of the Open Meetings Act and reaffirms its intention to comply with the law in all respects in [the]

Quick, name a limousine company in the Baltimore region. If All Stretched Out came to mind, you have fallen prey to one of the creepy twists of high-profile crimes and infamous incidents: They can create brand-name recognition that money can't buy. While the murder case against Ray Lewis case has riveted Baltimore, several news accounts have mentioned the owner of the limousine he was riding in that night: Linthicum-based All Stretched Out Limousine Service....

A man who police believe accidentally shot a 9-year-old girl Saturday during a shootout with another man in West Baltimore later was found dead in a vacant rowhouse, authorities said yesterday.Detectives were searching yesterday for a 31-year-old man who they believe was involved in a gunbattle with Haywood Young, 35, of no fixed address, who was found dead in the rowhouse.Agent Robert W. Weinhold Jr., a police spokesman, said Jerome Richards, 31, known as "Rommie," of the 1300 block of Stockton St., and Mr. Young exchanged shots about 11:40 a.m. in the 1400 block of Riggs Ave.The spokesman said that a bullet, apparently fired by Mr. Young, hit Rhonda Moore, 9, in the abdomen.

In a rare mistake, a city prosecutor inadvertently dropped murder charges against a man accused of assaulting a man and then setting his Midtown-Belvedere apartment on fire this month. The suspect, Zukael T. Stephens, spent a weekend free while friends of the man he is accused of killing, Marcus Rogers, a transgender activist, held a memorial service Saturday night. Police detectives rearrested Stephens yesterday at his home near Randallstown. On Thursday, a prosecutor dropped several charges against Stephens, 29, and he was released the next day, according to court documents and officials.

Maryland energy regulators have ordered Exelon Corp. to explain how the company "inadvertently" violated some conditions related to its merger with Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group. As part of Maryland Public Service Commission's approval for the deal, the companies agreed to several conditions, including selling Constellation's three coal-fired plants in Maryland to mitigate concerns over market concentration in the mid-Atlantic electricity grid. Until the plants could be sold, the companies agreed to sell power from those facilities as well as others in the region's wholesale energy market at a price it costs to operate the plants, said Exelon spokeswoman Judith Rader.

PANG THRUK, Thailand - In a village where generations of farmers have raised chickens, people ordinarily might scoff at the idea of remembering one particular rooster. But they are unlikely to forget the rooster that a 6-year-old boy, Captan Boonmanut, received last month as a gift from a favorite aunt, a bird that contributed to the boy's death and a new, worldwide health alert. Captan had cradled the rooster in his arms. The boy's uncle had culled it from a brood of fighting cocks because the bird seemed too big for anything other than a hungry household's next meal, and it also seemed too sick.