Lakeland

VIERA, Fla. -- More than two decades have passed since Orioles reliever Alan Mills left Kenya with his parents, but his memories are vivid, colorful mental pictures of gazelles, of monkeys sitting on a mountainside watching cars pass, of his schoolyard friends.Mills' father, Hugh, moved to Kenya when Alan was 5 to be an agricultural consultant, and for three years, Alan played with Akeel, another boy from Kenya, and Sundervan, a native of India. "There were kids from all over the world," Mills remembered, and they all played soccer together and sometimes cricket.

Brett Jacobson was sitting in the home clubhouse of the Single-A Lakeland (Fla.) Flying Tigers on Aug. 17, playing cards with teammates and getting ready for batting practice before a game against the Clearwater Threshers, when he was approached by Glenn Ezell, the Detroit Tigers' director of player development. "I thought I was in trouble for something. He didn't look too happy," Jacobson said. Ezell told the 22-year-old right-hander he had been traded to the Orioles for first baseman Aubrey Huff.

Observations, opinions and musings from last week in Major League Baseball. There have been plenty of big-name players getting injured this year, but last week set the standard. St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols (calf strain) hit the disabled list, and so did Chicago Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano (broken hand) and Cleveland Indians catcher Victor Martinez (elbow surgery). Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman (shoulder tear) will be out for at least four more weeks, and Indians pitcher Jake Westbrook is done for the year after elbow-ligament surgery.

By the time the ball drops in Times Square tonight, 500 Baltimore senior citizens will already be reminiscing about their New Year's celebration Friday afternoon at Martin's West. Mary and John Scott, husband and wife for 54 years, partied with peers from across the city at the recreation and parks event. She and her husband had "a magnificent time," said Mary Scott, 71, taking to the dance floor to "shake it up." Tonight, though, she plans to be in church. Conspicuous New Year's Eve carousing might have its fans, but many revelers prefer to shun midnight madness for more intimate and low-key ways of welcoming 2008.

A 31-year-old woman found dead in her southern Baltimore home was murdered, police said Friday.  Officers were called to a home in the 2600 block of Wegworth Lane, in the Lakeland neighborhood, on Thursday at noon for a report of a person who was not breathing, said Det. Jeremy Silbert, a police spokesman. Inside, they found Rachel Curtis unresponsive and suffering from undisclosed trauma to her body. She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. Silbert said detectives consider the killing to be "domestic-related," and said they have a person of interest.

A running gun battle that broke out late Thursday night between Baltimore police and a suspect after a domestic incident in Canton left one man dead, two women shot and a quiet Southeast Baltimore street rattled. Police worked Friday to unravel the circumstances surrounding the overnight incident. It was the year's eighth officer-involved shooting and the second in which a suspect died. Officers responded to call about a disturbance at a house in the 3400 block of Foster Ave. just before midnight.

Wearing a black fedora and a dark checkered blazer and with his daughter at his side, Ray Lewis attended the premiere screening of the DVD that chronicles the Ravens' Super Bowl winning season last night at the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric. His first offseason appearance in Baltimore as a retired player, Lewis admitted that it felt a little weird to not be preparing for another year of football. “Honestly, there's no pressure because every year is always a new year, every offseason is always a new offseason.

When police carted Gordon Ragler and his wife away in handcuffs last year, neighbors thought the around-the-clock drug dealing in their Southwest Baltimore community had finally come to an end.But 13 months later, the Raglers slipped through a net carefully crafted by undercover drug officers and confidential informants. It didn't seem to matter that police conducted hours of surveillance of open-air drug sales or collected solid evidence to make their case: 50 bags of cocaine and a loaded semiautomatic pistol.

A 28-year-old man shot mid-day Monday in South Baltimore's Lakeland neighborhood later died of his injuries, city police said.  Ronald Dawson was found unresponsive at about 12:30 p.m. in the 2600 block of W. Patapsco Avenue, and taken to Maryland Shock Trauma center where he died about an hour later. Dawson was from the unit block of Cue Court in Owings Mills and may have stepped off a bus from Mondawmin Mall prior to the shooting. Police didn't give a motive for the crime, which happened near the county line that divides Baltimore from Lansdowne, and said it remains open.

In 1990, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA was intended to create a level playing field for people with disabilities by ensuring them equal opportunity in employment and equal access to places of public accommodation.The recent decision by an Oregon federal court to exempt disabled golfer Casey Martin from the Professional Golfers Association's no-cart rule has stretched the application of the ADA far beyond the original intent of Congress. Far from ensuring a level playing field, the court has given Martin a free ride over the same courses on which other PGA players must walk.