Maryland

Inside Westminster Abbey, eight 20-foot-tall live trees lined the center aisle during the wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William. The trees transformed the space, doing what even the most elaborate floral arrangement could not — providing a natural, living sense of permanence and an air of drama. The move was unexpected, unpretentious and bold. A potted tree on your patio or deck can have the same effect. While not every tree is well-suited for a container, there are a surprising number of options, ranging from crape myrtles to hollies.

Maryland men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon believes that you can never have enough shooters. That philosophy was proven again Sunday, when rising senior swingman Jared Nickens orally committed to the Terps after taking a visit to College Park over the weekend. The 6-foot-6, 180-pound Nickens joins two more highly touted prospects, shooting guards Dion Wiley and Melo Trimble, for the 2014 recruiting class. Barring any early departures, it brings the Terps to 12 scholarship players - one under the limit - for that season.

Sen. Rand Paul is recruiting plaintiffs - and seeking donations - for a class-action lawsuit against the National Security Agency. “Dear Patriot,” the Kentucky Republican wrote Thursday in an e-mail to supporters. “I'm looking for ten million Americans to stand with me and sue the federal government and TAKE BACK our rights. “Can I count on your help? “Without it, I truly fear where our fragile Republic could be headed …” Paul, who is expected to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, told a Fox News interviewer this week that he would be asking Internet providers and telephone companies to join him in a lawsuit against the electronic eavesdropping agency based at Fort Meade.

Sister Marie Vincent Brothers, a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame who spent nearly three decades as a teacher and graphics designer at Notre Dame of Maryland University and was once described as one of the "swingingest" nuns, died June 8 at Maria Health Care Center in Baltimore County of lymphoma. She was 86. "She had a lovely gift of integrating art into just about everything," said Sister Miriam Jansen, who knew Sister Marie Vincent for at least 40 years. "Her creativity was just remarkable.

They don't make many power couples like this: He's a self-proclaimed whistle blower, the focus of international headlines and Obama administration ire. She describes herself as a "world-traveling, pole-dancing super hero. " Edward Snowden and Lindsay Mills lived in a modest blue clapboard house with white trim here in a Honolulu suburb until about six weeks ago. Their former neighbors described them as quiet and private. On Sunday, Snowden announced that he was responsible for leaking secrets about America's telephone and Internet surveillance pograms to the media, reviving a global debate about Big Brother-style government surveillance of private citizens.

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet - one-tenth the size of the average new American house - and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap - that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

Researchers hailed the Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that bans the patenting of human DNA, saying it would expand access to genetic testing for disease at lower cost to patients. In a unanimous decision, the justices said Myriad Genetics did not have exclusive rights to the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes that are linked to significantly greater risk for breast cancer and thus should not be the only company allowed to test for it. "Myriad did not create anything," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for his fellow justices.

Forecasters are watching an expected outbreak of severe weather from Illinois to Maryland that some are likening to last June's derecho; one meteorologist predicted it would be a "multi billion dollar storm" causing massive power outages. Storms were developing in Illinois and Wisconsin early Wednesday evening, bringing tornado threats from there through Indiana and into Ohio. Meteorologists say conditions could be conducive for those storms to strengthen into a massive squall line packing up to 70 mph winds, large hail and heavy rain.

A waterspout zipped across Baltimore harbor Monday afternoon, tossing pieces of a warehouse roof into the air, and at least one other tornado was reported in the area as storms brought heavy downpours and flooding. In Fells Point, cars sat in standing water and sandbags were placed at doors to prevent water from entering businesses. In the Inner Harbor, 1.74 inches of rain had fallen by 5 p.m. - all but a half-inch of it in the span of an hour before 4 p.m. Steve Fogleman, a Glen Burnie attorney and chairman of the Baltimore liquor board, was driving north on Interstate 95 just south of the Fort McHenry tunnel a little before 4 p.m. when he noticed a rotating cloud and something whipping through the air near Silo Point.

On Thursday, the day the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, a 47-year-old Baltimore woman went to the drugstore, and pulled out her debit card to pay for a prescription refill. But she didn't have enough money in the account to cover the $425 charge. So she asked the pharmacist and staff for a favor. "I asked them to break up the prescription to give me one-third," says the woman, who would not allow her name to be published because she didn't want to disclose her medical conditions.

Ty Whittaker was sitting on his couch, perusing the Internet on his iPad last month when he saw the horrifying news: an EF5 tornado had ravaged Moore, Okla., and the surrounding area. Whittaker, an assistant coach for the Team Maryland, and his players were supposed to stay in the area during the all-star baseball team's upcoming trip for the Heartland Classic tournament from June 18-22. He immediately contacted host families in the devastated area and learned that all of the families' houses were safe.

HERSHEY, Pa. -- If its first few minutes returning to the Big 33 Classic were any indicator, Maryland didn't belong. Returning as Pennsylvania's opponent in the annual high school football all-star game for the first time in 21 years, Maryland opened the game at Hersheypark Stadium by allowing Tyler Boyd to take back the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown. The hosts scored the first 28 points in a 58-27 victory, as Maryland used the rest of the night finding its footing in the territory it had left in 1992.

HERSHEY, Pa. -- Many high school graduates spend their final night before college with family and friends. The five Terrapins-to-be on the Maryland team in Saturday night's Big 33 Classic spent theirs where they'll be for much of the next 4 to 5 years: on a football field. The Maryland team's 58-27 loss to Pennsylvania in the annual high school all-star game marked the end of a life chapter for Shane Cockerille (Gilman), Milan Collins (Bishop McNamara), Elvis Dennah (Annapolis Area Christian)

A Washington-based think tank has named Maryland No.1 in the country for the performance of its low-income students, finding that in the last eight years, Maryland's poorest students made the most academic progress than any comparable population in the nation. The report, published by Education Sector, an independent policy and research group, examined what it called the "The New State Achievement Gap," and whether new waivers from the federal No Child Left Behind Act could help or hurt the growth states have experienced under the embattled education policy started under the administration of George W. Bush.  Critics and supporters of NCLB agree that, while controversial for its elusive goals, the policy has helped target the achievement of students that have historically been disadvantaged in the classroom, such as low-income and special education students.

The American clock brings us to the 50th anniversaries of two extraordinary events involving two extraordinary women, Gloria Richardson Dandridge and Madalyn Murray O'Hair — both strong-willed champions of liberty and disturbers of the status quo, but women of very different character, purpose and legacy. One is now 91 years old, long esteemed as a brave civil rights leader who refused to smile on demand and who famously brushed away a bayonet. The other was a noisy atheist, reviled as the most hated woman in America; she died a violent death nearly two decades ago. This month marks 50 years since the race riots in Cambridge, the small city on Maryland's Eastern Shore that became a crucible for civil rights in 1963.

One of Randy Edsall's goals in his final year at Susquehannock High School in Glen Rock, Pa., was to be named to the Pennsylvania roster for the Big 33 Football Classic. Although he wasn't selected for the 1976 game despite being an all-state quarterback, the Maryland football coach was ecstatic last October when he learned the state of Maryland would return to the high school football all-star game this year. The Maryland Football Coaches Association signed a five-year agreement with the Big 33 Scholarship Foundation, Inc., last fall to renew the state's participation in the game after a 21-year hiatus.

The University of Maryland Medical Center will send layoff notices to employees at the end of the month as it looks to cut costs in the wake of federal budget cuts and what it and other state hospitals have called inadequate rate increases. Jeffrey Rivest, president and CEO of the Baltimore hospital, sent an email to managers Tuesday that said individual letters regarding layoffs would be given out June 25, 26 and 27. The number of people who will lose their jobs still is being finalized, said spokeswoman Mary Lynn Carver said.

Gambling started Wednesday afternoon at the Rocky Gap Casino Resort right after the state approved the opening of its fourth casino, one that Western Maryland leaders hope will lure not only gamblers but also their families to a region eager for more tourist dollars. "It's open and jamming," said Scott Just, the general manager of the resort near Cumberland. "There's a couple hundred people in there. They were pressing up against the ropes. " The $35 million casino, located in what was the lakeside golf resort's conference center, will be open around the clock.

Gilman's Biff Poggi was looking forward to one final chance to coach his son, Henry Poggi, the Greyhounds standout and Michigan-bound defensive lineman. "I sure would've liked to coach him one more time," said Biff Poggi, the original coach of the Maryland team in Saturday's Big 33 Football Classic at Hersheypark Stadium who stepped down from the position last week for reasons he discussed in a phone call Friday afternoon. "It's a different schedule than I thought it was going to be," said Biff Poggi, who coached in this year's Under Armour All-America Game and was previously on staff in the 2011 Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl and Chesapeake Bowl.

F.N.B. Corp. announced Friday it plans to acquire BCSB Bancorp, the parent of Baltimore County Savings Bank, in a stock swap valued at about $79 million. BCSB's share price jumped $4.82 after the announcement on Friday to close at $21.79. F.N.B.'s stock fell 34 cents to $11.09 per share. With this acquisition, F.N.B. will gain $640 million in assets and 16 banking offices across Baltimore, Harford and Howard counties. F.N.B., based in Hermitage, Pa., has $12.4 billion in assets and more than 250 branches in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia.