Minors

Left-handed reliever Ron Villone has been released by the Washington Nationals. The Nationals signed Villone to a minor league contract last month and invited him to spring training. But Villone had a 16.20 ERA in three relief appearances covering 1 2/3 innings. The Nationals also sent five pitchers to their minor league camp, including righty Collin Balester .

The Orioles have agreed to terms with well-traveled left-handed reliever J.C. Romero on a minor league deal, the club announced Thursday afternoon. Romero, 35, will be with his fourth organization since the beginning of the 2011 season. He was released by the Cardinals on May 14 after compiling a 10.13 ERA in eight relief innings. He had allowed nine runs in 3 1/3 innings in his past three outings before his release. He will report to the Orioles' Triple-A team in Norfolk.

Owners of five Howard County liquor stores and restaurants are facing liquor law violations for allegedly selling alcohol to underage customers without asking for any identification in a police sting tried on 20 county outlets. County police said two teenage volunteers were able to buy alcoholic beverages at Centennial Cue and Karaoke in Ellicott City, Dobbin Square Liquors in Columbia, Friendship Liquors in West Friendship, Montpelier Liquors in North Laurel, and Woodbine Wine and Spirits in Woodbine.

Pudgy, pink Gerber babies are no longer the typical children being born in the United States. According to theU.S. Census Bureau, moms who are Latino, Asian, African American or mixed race are now giving birth to just over 50 percent of American babies. Though the median age of Americans of European heritage is 42, the median age of Latinos is 28. The median for Asians and blacks falls somewhere around 33. You do not need a biologist or sociologist to tell you younger people make more babies, so this historic trend toward an increasingly multiracial nation will continue.

A man has been showing explicit photos on his cellphone to minors outside of a Crofton Goodwill store, Anne Arundel County police said Monday. Officers were called at 6:28 p.m. Thursday to a store in the 1600 block of Crofton Center in Crofton where a man was displaying photographs on his phone, police said. The incident has happened before and that the man has frequented several Goodwill stores in the area, police said. Investigators have identified a person of interest but continue to search for victims.

Five Howard County businesses, including Zapata's True Mexican Food in Columbia, were cited by Howard County police for selling alcohol to minors, police said Monday. The businesses are: the 7-Eleven on Frederick Road in Ellicott City; Absolutely Wine & Spirits in Columbia; All Saints Liquors in Laurel; Owen Brown Wine & Spirits in Columbia; and Zapata's True Mexican Food in Columbia. Each of the businesses have been cited with one count of selling alcohol to minors. Zapata's was charged with two counts of "selling [alcohol ]

Reliever Dennis Sarfate, who was designated for assignment last week when the Orioles re-signed Miguel Tejada, has cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk. Sarfate, 28, was 0-1 with a 5.09 ERA in 20 games last year for the Orioles after going 4-3 with a 4.74 ERA in 2008. He missed nearly four months last year with a circulatory condition that caused numbness in his right hand, but he came back in September and then pitched in the Mexican Winter League.

Owners of a liquor store in Waverly Woods were fined $2,000 and ordered to stop selling alcoholic beverages for three days starting at 6 a.m. Dec. 16 after a second incident this year of selling to minors. Howard County's Alcoholic Beverage Hearing Board issued the order Tuesday to Richard Brunatti and Michael Platt, the two licensees of Your Wine and Spirit Shoppe at 10805 Birmingham Way, Ellicott City. On Jan. 24, county police found three underage people in a car with three bottles of alcohol after a traffic stop.

The Houston Astros reassigned right-handed pitcher Josh Banks (Severna Park) to minor league camp. Banks, 27, who had been invited to major league camp as a nonroster player, has appeared in 26 big league games, including eight starts, with the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres, with whom he was 1-1 with a 7.15 ERA last year. MLS: D.C. United signed Academy midfielder-forward Andy Najar to a Generation adidas contract to join the first team. Najar, 17, a native of Honduras, is the second player to sign with the first team directly from United's Academy.

A 35-year-old Baltimore County man pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to sexually abusing two teen boys and producing child pornography by photographing the acts with his iPhone, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office. Joseph Lawhorn, of the 4000 block of Marjeff Place, had sexual intercourse with two minor males between the ages of 12 and 16 on multiple occasions throughout 2008, according to a statement of facts contained within his plea agreement. Authorities said they found at least 22 images on Lawhorn's computer of the boys engaged in sexual conduct, along with several others on his cell phone, court records show.

The Orioles have acquired left-handed minor-league reliever Mike Belfiore from the Diamondbacks as the player to be named later in the Josh Bell trade, the club announced Saturday. The 23-year-old was 0-0 with a 2.37 ERA with 28 strikeouts and just five walks in 19 innings this season with Arizona's high Class-A team in Visalia, Calif. This is the first season in Belfiore's four minor leagie seasons that he's pitching exclusively out of the bullpen. In four minor-league seasons, Belfiore is 9-16 with a 4.05 ERA and 267 strikeouts in 282 2/3 innings Bell, once seen as the Orioles' third baseman of the future, was acquired in July 2009 along with minor league pitcher Steve Johnson in the deadline deal that sent closer George Sherrill to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

So much of the Washington Capitals' success in the postseason has stemmed from their ability to protect and hang on to even the slimmest of margins regardless of the adversity they faced. At a certain point, though, there was bound to be a break that went against them. On Monday night at Madison Square Garden it came in the form of a high-sticking call and double-minor penalty on Joel Ward late in the third period as Washington protected a one-goal lead. The New York Rangers scored twice on that power play — Brad Richards to force overtime, then Marc Staal 1:35 into the extra session — to secure a 3-2 victory and a three-games-to-two lead in this Eastern Conference semifinal series.

A survey of 549 community-based organizations suggests that housing discrimination is on the rise, particularly targeting disabled individuals, immigrants, minorities and families with children, according to the nonprofit Consumer Action . Locally, Baltimore Neighborhoods Inc. has said it found similar problems. The organizations, which has sent “testers” out in the region to inquire about available housing, filed suit last year and in 2010 over alleged discrimination.

Alcohol is far too attractive and easy to obtain online for kids, says Dr. David Jernigan, director of Johns Hopkins' Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth . Jernigan wrote a commentary for the Archive of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine to accompany a new report from researchers at the University of North Carolina that documents how easy it is for underage drinkers to make purchases on the Internet. While it's long been known kids could buy alcohol online, this is believed to be the first peer-reviewed study to look at age verification practices of online vendors.

Political consultant Julius Henson took the witness stand Friday to defend himself against charges he tried to suppress the black vote on Election Day 2010, saying his job in former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s campaign was to encourage minorities to vote for the Republican. Henson said he had proposed working as a general consultant with a "bold" broad-based plan to help Ehrlich return to the governor's mansion. Instead, Henson said, his designated role was "outreach" to black communities.

A 65-year-old Linthicum man who molested a 9-year-old girl and exchanged more than 200 text messages with an undercover detective pretending to be her pleaded guilty Thursday to using a cell phone to coerce a minor to engage in sexual activity, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein's office. David Mitchell Rowe admitted to police that he had molested the girl and other young girls in past years, and that he is attracted to minors, the prosecutor's office said.

Fernando Valenzuela, waived last Friday by the California Angels, has agreed to a minor-league contract with California. Valenzuela's agent, Tony DeMarco, his attorney, Dick Moss, and Angels senior vice president Dan O'Brien came to terms Wednesday on a deal that will send the left-hander to the minors for at least 30 days.DeMarco said Valenzuela's first pitching assignment will be tonight for Midland of the Class AA Texas League. The left-hander is expected to pitch several games before reporting to Class AAA Edmonton in the Pacific Coast League.

A Jessup liquor store that has served customers for 32 years is in danger of losing its liquor license for allegedly serving an under-aged police cadet twice in the past two months.The Howard County Police Department is filing a petition to have the liquor board suspend or revoke 999 Tavern's liquor license.The family-owned bar and carryout in the 7700 block of Washington Blvd. was one of seven stores in Howard County caught in the past month selling alcohol to patrons under 21 without asking for identification, police said.

The Orioles have agreed to terms with veteran free-agent utility man Bill Hall, according to multiple industry sources. He will report to the club's Triple-A team in Norfolk and will replace Josh Bell, who was dealt to the Diamondbacks this weekend after he was designated for assignment. The Orioles like his glove at third base and his ability to hit for power against left-handed pitching. Hall spent most of his 10-year big-league career with Milwaukee, where he had a 35-homer, 85-RBI season in 2006, but the Orioles will be his seventh organization since the beginning of the 2009 season.

Josh Bell, once thought to be the club's third baseman of the future, is now an ex-Oriole. The Orioles traded the 25-year-old third baseman to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday for a player to be named later or cash considerations. “We didn't have a meeting of the minds for the player. So we are going to work on that for a short period of time,” said Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette. “It may or may not be a player. We assigned (Bell to Arizona) and it may or may not be a player, it may just be cash considerations.” The Orioles acquired Bell in July 2009 along with minor league pitcher Steve Johnson in the deadline deal that sent closer George Sherrill to the Los Angeles Dodgers.