Limits

With C.J. Brown back in a limited role after missing last season because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament, and Perry Hills and Caleb Rowe continuing to rehab their own knee injuries, Maryland coach Randy Edsall said Monday that his two healthy quarterbacks will be off-limits to contact when spring practice starts Saturday. Edsall might not be able to see how junior transfer Ricardo Young can take a hit, but he will surely make some determinations as to whether the former Gatorade Player of the Year at H.D Woodson High in Washington can challenge Brown for the starting job going into the 2013 season.

A bill to lift state curbs on development using septic systems has died in Annapolis, less than a week after a small "tractorcade" to the State House by farmers upset over pending limits on how many houses can be built on their land. The House Environmental Matters Committee gave an "unfavorable" report to HB106 , which would have repealed the "Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act of 2012. "  Sponsored by Del. Michael A. McDermott, a Republican representing Wicomico and Worcester counties on the Eastern Shore.

Quick: Name the school closest to North Charles Street and Lake Avenue in North Baltimore. Stumped? The city's Department of Transportation has the answer: It's the Bryn Mawr School, less than a half-mile southwest of the intersection as the crow flies over the trees and side streets. The distance matters. Charles and Lake is the site of one of the city's 75 permanent speed cameras. Under state law, the devices must lie within a half-mile of a school, or 2,640 feet. With its hundreds of schools, Baltimore is essentially one giant potential school zone, as the accompanying map shows.

A consortium of Northeastern states including Maryland has agreed to reset a power plant emissions cap to current levels and to tighten it annually starting in 2015, an action officials said would increase investment in energy efficiency and slightly raise electricity prices, besides cutting pollution. The change amounts to a 45 percent reduction in the cap's ceiling, which has far exceeded actual pollution levels because of improved energy efficiency, increased renewable power generation, mild weather and the slumping economy.

As Senate Intelligence Committee members file into room 216 of the Hart office building in Washington for a CIA confirmation hearing this afternoon, they will be under a spotlight much brighter than they anticipated last week. That was before a Monday NBC report unveiled leaked documentation from the Obama administration strongly implying that extrajudicial drone killings of American citizens abroad are made casually, with little meaningful oversight or geographic restriction.

Under Maryland law, there's a limit to how much money a citizen can donate to state political campaigns — $4,000 to a single candidate, $10,000 in total donations during a four-year election cycle. But some Marylanders are less limited than others. Take, for instance, the developer Edward St. John. Through dozens of corporations he owns that operate out of the headquarters of St. John Properties in Baltimore County, he's funneled more than $250,000 to Maryland politicians of both parties over the past two years.

Last week, top Maryland Democrats announced their intention to make it more difficult to put statewide policy referenda on the ballot. The move is a clear response to Republicans' success last year in putting to referendum policy questions in the hope of achieving victories the GOP couldn't win in the legislature. The Republicans' ballot plans backfired, most notably the surprising approval by voters of same-sex marriage. But the Democrats, who dominate state politics thanks to large legislative majorities, took notice of the potential threat to their legislative monopoly.

The state will be raising the speed limit from 55 mph to 60 mph next month on the Intercounty Connector, Maryland's first all-electronic toll road. The decision Monday by the Maryland Transportation Authority came after more than six months of study of engineering data and the 20 single-vehicle crashes that occurred in the highway's first year of operation. It also renders moot a bill filed last month by two Montgomery County lawmakers to increase the speed. State officials estimate the higher speed will shave 90 seconds off a trip from Interstate 270 in Gaithersburg to Interstate 95 in Laurel.

Baltimore Councilman William H. Cole IV introduced a bill Monday to limit a program that allows some city employees to take government cars home every day. Cole's bill, which is co-sponsored by Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young, would bar any city agency from granting a take-home car to anyone who uses it to travel more than 25 miles beyond the city limits, except on official city business. "It's just waste," Cole said of the program. "Some of these cars are traveling hundreds and hundreds of miles a week.

Maryland scored 64 points and shot 42 percent against Duke on Saturday, but it wasn't the team's offense that coach Mark Turgeon said today that he was most concerned about. It was the defense. Here's why: Maryland has turned into a solid defensive team - far better than last season. Since the Terps don't score much these days - a 62-point average since ACC play began - their chances are increasingly dependent on keeping the score down. Maryland ranks ninth in the conference in scoring average in ACC games.