Luster

On March 6, 2005, MAXIE RAY LUSTER, beloved wife of the late Charles E. Luster; devoted mother of M. Louise Long, M. Frances Maley, Linda Rae Shook, Peggy Sue Lake and the late Shirley Jean Oaken and Charles E. Luster. Dear sister of Dorothy Smith and Ida Luster. Also survived by fourteen grandchildren, fourteen great-grandchildren and two great, great grandchildren. Visitation Wednesday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. at the CVACH/ROSEDALE FUNERAL HOME, 1211 Chesaco Avenue. Funeral service Thursday 11 A.M. Interment Oaklawn Cemetery.

Between 1983 and 2004, Syracuse advanced to the NCAA tournament semifinals every year, a remarkable accomplishment that may never be matched again. What makes Duke's seven consecutive appearances in the Final Four nearly as impressive is that the Blue Devils have achieved that in a four-round tournament, which was expanded from 12 to 16 teams for the 2003 season. But seventh-seeded Duke (14-5), which will tangle with Cornell (14-3) in the first of two national semifinals this Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, is just 2-4 in the Final Four, advancing to the title game in 2007 (losing to Johns Hopkins)

Forget Liberty closing the gap further on the South Carroll boys lacrosse program in Carroll County.None of that happened last night in the first showdown of the season between the Cavaliers and Lions at South Carroll.This one was all senior attackman Tom Luster and South Carroll from the start, with Luster scoring four goals in less than four minutes of the first quarter to send the Cavaliers on the way to a 14-3 victory over Liberty.South Carroll (7-2, 2-0 in the county) has won seven straight games as it aims for a ninth straight Carroll County championship.

By his own admission, Kyle Busch fell out of contention for the Sprint Cup title when his car blew an engine Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. That's a shame — for Busch and for NASCAR fans. Busch, 25, not only is the most controversial driver in the series, he's also one of its most fearless and dynamic racers. There's a reason his many nicknames include "Rowdy. " Temperamental, opinionated and testy at times, Busch is either loved or hated by NASCAR fans, and he revels in being the object of those conflicting passions.

South Carroll quarterback Tom Luster kept his word last night to fallen teammate Greg Mihalko.Moments before Mihalko, who had carried the ball 36 times for 207 yards and two touchdowns, left the field in an ambulance with a neck injury, Luster leaned over to Mihalko and told him: "I love you Greg. We're going to win this game for you."Mihalko reached out and squeezed Luster's hand in an emotional scene in the middle of the field before the door closed on the ambulance.A teary-eyed Luster went back into the huddle with his team, facing a second-and-seven at the Westminster 47-yard line with four minutes left in the game and the score tied at 21.Luster took charge and five plays later, he tossed a 25-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Esworthy to lift the Cavaliers to a 27-21 victory and the 1994 Carroll County championship at Westminster last night.

NEW MARKET -- Nobody will call South Carroll coach Gene Brown conservative anytime soon.After quarterback John Luster hit Dave Keefer with a 19-yard touchdown pass that brought the Cavaliers to within one point of host Linganore last night with 50.2 seconds left, Brown decided to roll the dice.He called timeout and decided to go for two points rather than kick for the tie. Luster then rolled right and barely got into the end zone for the conversion that gave South Carroll a stunning 29-28 victory over Linganore in a Central Maryland Conference game.

WASHINGTON - With control of both the House and Senate hanging in the balance, Democrats are struggling to find a political theme for this year's election campaign to offset the wartime luster of President Bush. The Enron debacle once looked as if it had the potential to snare Bush and his party in a political scandal. Indeed, the millions of dollars doled out by officials of the energy trader to candidates in both parties gave a boost to campaign finance reform legislation. But polls suggest that voters see Enron primarily as a saga of corporate misdeeds, not necessarily associated with Republicans.

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico - Under any other circumstances, the residents of this beach town would have been just plain happy to have Andrew Luster off the streets. In his last five days of freedom, the heir to the Max Factor fortune and fugitive serial rapist was living in a motel that rents by the hour next to the local office of the Mexican version of the FBI. Nights would find him in the flashy clubs, consorting with lots of young women. But when a U.S. bounty hunter tackled Luster last month in front of a taco stand near the waterfront, the capture created its own brouhaha over vigilantism, national sovereignty and neighborly relations.

The scene repeated itself over and over yesterday. A hungry diner would walk up to the Homewood Delicatessen, look through the darkened window with a frown, then finally catch the yellow sign in the window.It was a death notice."Closed. We thank everyone for their support," read the handwritten sign telling customers that the Homewood Deli was out of business."We were just here last week," said a surprised Thelma Gross, who had come to the deli with Doris Carroll, a co-worker at the Board of Education.

It's a fact The Orioles have lost the season series to the Yankees five straight seasons and in 18 of the past 20. He said it "This last month has taken the luster off the season. Eighty percent of it was very successful. That's how I choose to look at it." Mike Hargrove, Orioles manager

It wasn't all that long ago that the PGA Tour's annual arrival at TPC Sawgrass would reignite discussion as to whether The Players Championship deserves major status. That debate has pretty much died off now. And in at least one pro's mind, golf's richest event may not even hold honorary "fifth major" acclaim. England's Lee Westwood raised eyebrows at last week's Quail Hollow Championship when he suggested the maturation of the World Golf Championships series may have nudged The Players aside.

COLLEGE PARK -- Lance Stephenson, a McDonald's All-American who is one of the top unsigned basketball prospects in the nation, is no longer being recruited by Maryland, according to two sources with knowledge of the school's efforts. Stephenson, a 6-foot-5 swingman from Brooklyn, N.Y., whose off-the-court issues have caused Maryland and other colleges concern, has not been pursued by the Terrapins program for several weeks. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussing recruits.

WASHINGTON - On the eve of the vice-presidential debate, a new poll shows that most Americans regard Sarah Palin as unqualified to take over as president should it become necessary. The finding is a sharp reversal from earlier polling that showed she was considered qualified, and points to the heightened stakes for Palin in her faceoff with Delaware Sen. Joe Biden this evening. "If Palin does well, her performance will go a long way to rehabilitating her image," said John J. Pitney Jr., a Claremont McKenna College political scientist.

Singer Bruce Dickinson explains how the British metal gods still attract teenage metalheads by the tens of thousands. To keep the excitement level high, he says, "we just, you know, play a bit less." Iron Maiden's touring schedule is never very full, typically sporting only a handful of stateside dates each time out, and often with a conceit attached, from The Early Days Tour, focusing strictly on material from the band's first four albums to 2006's trek behind the hailed return-to-form A Matter of Life and Death, when the group would play the album in its entirety, to this season's Somewhere Back in Time Tour, devoted to reviving the bulk of the band's 1984 World Slavery Tour, complete with a wilder pyrotechnic display and the most gigantic Eddie (Maiden's skeletal mascot)

The Triple Crown is at hand for Big Brown, but his coronation as one of racing's elite horses will have to wait. So say many in the racing business, people who are starving for a Triple Crown winner but wary of bestowing greatness on a precocious 3-year-old before it has been earned. Belmont Stakes Saturday, 6:25 p.m. post time, Elmont, N.Y., chs. 2, 7 Past royalty Triple Crown winners: Year Horse 1919 Sir Barton 1930 Gallant Fox 1935 Omaha 1937 War Admiral 1941 Whirlaway 1943 Count Fleet 1946 Assault 1948 Citation 1973 Secretariat 1977 Seattle Slew 1978 Affirmed

WASHINGTON - The ethanol bandwagon has run off the road. Thanks to rising food prices, ethanol has lost its luster in Washington. Lawmakers reworked the recent farm bill to lower incentives for ethanol. The governor of Texas wants a waiver from federal requirements for more of the fuel in the coming years. And critics from around the world - from food companies to United Nations officials - say ethanol is to blame for more expensive food. In the middle sit Detroit's automakers, who have made ethanol the centerpiece of their environmental efforts - supporting ethanol mandates, building about 5 million flex-fuel vehicles so far, and pledging to make half their fleets capable of burning 85 percent ethanol fuel by 2012.

Somewhere out there is Troy Luster, but nobody seems to know exactly where. Once, he was found in newspaper headlines. Now, neither the school where he played basketball nor the school where he occasionally attended class knows where he's gone.Some think nobody particularly cares any more, since his scholastic athlete days are done. Luster was a very good basketball player, but a very indifferent student. This is putting it kindly.He played ball this year for Douglass High School while enrolled -- now and then -- at Harbor City Learning Center, which is an educational court of last resort for kids with troubled histories.

In the truest sense of the word, Gloria Luster has built a victory garden. When she adopted her cluttered Pimlico lot from Baltimore City a decade ago, she could not get a pick ax into the hard pan that had replaced a razed house.To "help the soil become alive," Mrs. Luster fed her lot with organic matter; grass clippings and leaf compost, mostly. She fought what few pests plagued the garden with "beneficial" insects, such as praying mantises, and if absolutely necessary, made judicial use of Rotenone and Pyrethrum, powerful organic insecticides.

WASHINGTON - It's one thing to hate Duke. Even Mike Krzyzewski admitted, the day before yesterday's West Regional second-round game at Verizon Center, that he couldn't remember the last time the crowd at any arena besides Cameron Indoor Stadium was on his team's side. The pro-Duke contingent was outnumbered again yesterday when the Blue Devils faced West Virginia; it surely was the same when America tuned in on CBS, and you have to figure it wasn't because everyone was cozying up to Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins.