Mountains

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.

When Mount St. Mary's took the unusual route of redshirting attackman Cody Lehrer, midfielder Eric Ososki and long-stick midfielder Mark Burns so that they would be able to use their final year of eligibility in 2013, the move appeared risky but well-conceived with the winner of the Northeast Conference tournament earning the league's first automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament. But a 0-3 start in conference play capped by a 12-11 loss to Robert Morris on April 14 eliminated the Mountaineers from contention for the four spots in the Northeast tournament.

I say leave our mountains alone ( "Controversy over 'Negro Mountain' reveals urban-rural divide," Feb. 20)! A simple solution could be to add an explanation of the history of the name. It is really silly to change the names of Polish and Big Savage mountains also. In this time of Maryland's money problems, people without jobs, homeless folks, hungry children, firemen, policemen and teachers losing their jobs, it seems that using much needed money on this is a terrible waste. Joan Lease, Cumberland

Here is the second installment of a series that checks in with the seven Division I programs in the state to give a glimpse into the past and the future. Teams are scheduled to appear according to the chronological order in which their seasons ended. Tuesday's visit was with Navy. Wednesday's visit is with Mount St. Mary's. REVIEW The good: After absorbing a 23-6 drubbing at the hands of then-No. 2 Maryland in the season opener for both teams on Feb. 12, the Mountaineers rebounded nicely with victories over then-No.

The eternal summer dilemma -- the mountains or the shore -- occurs for presidents as well as lesser mortals. Bill Clinton settled it in what is becoming his trademark way. He went to both. In the gusher of criticism being leveled at him for spending last week at that very symbol of Eastern Establishment privilege and leisure, Martha's Vineyard, it is being overlooked that he began his vacation the week before in modest digs at Beaver Lake on the Ozarks Plateau in his home state."Modest" is a relative term.

Sergei Bodrov has said that he wants his "Prisoner of the Mountains," which opens today at the Charles, to be a universal story, not a Chechen story. It is universal, too, except possibly in a way that Bodrov never realized: It's universal in its evocation of the power of the star to illuminate material to an extraordinary degree.This is particularly interesting here because the star is pure: He's got his charisma, and that's it. No covers of Premiere, no Cowan & Rogers flacking for him, nobody flogging phoners with the taco-circuit dailies.

The pitcher's mother was on the phone. "There's this sports bar with a satellite dish here," Ellie Mussina was saying yesterday, "and the man who owns it went to school with my husband, and he opened up early Sunday so we could see the game. There were, oh, maybe a hundred people there. Just about anyone who'd had anything to do with Mike."A hundred people crammed into a sports bar in a little town in the middle of Pennsylvania, near Williamsport, in Joe Paterno country, watching an epochal event in their lives: one of their own blood pitching in the major leagues for the first time, for the Orioles, against the White Sox. And the pitcher's mother sidled over to one of his high school coaches.

On his only day off during the 23 days of the Tour de France, Greg LeMond took a hard two-hour bicycle ride in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains."

CRAWFORD NOTCH, N.H. - At one end of the building, a mass of rambunctious sixth-graders is learning about geology. At the other, a group from Elderhostel, which runs programs for people 55 and over, readies for its first overnight backpacking trip into the White Mountains. And in between, a hand-lettered sign on the otherwise-bare bulletin board issues this disclaimer: "When it came down to the last minute, we could either make the beds or finish the signs ... " All 122 beds at the Appalachian Mountain Club's new Highland Center are in proper order, I'm pleased to say. The AMC is known for maintaining the hut system in the mountains and for its hiker-friendly Joe Dodge Lodge at the base of 6,288-foot Mount Washington.

"East of the Mountains," by David Guterson. Harcourt Brace. 288 pages. $25.One of the great lines in contemporary literature graces the final page of the first-novel phenomenon, "Snow Falling on Cedars." "(Ishmael) understood this, too": David Guterson wrote at the close of his mystery, "that accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart."It was Guterson's achievement, with "Snow," to explore matters of law and landscape, passion and history, within a whodunit framework that kept its readers hungrily turning its pages.

A players-only meeting, some serious offensive tinkering and the emergence of midfielders Brian Hess (McDonogh), Pat Corbett and Alex Drake has led Lehigh to a 12-4 finish. It's placed them in a position to do what they failed to do last year — win the first NCAA tournament game in program history. "The seniors met; then we had a team meeting. I always knew we had the talent and the guys on the field capable of getting the job done. Guys had to believe in themselves. We needed to call guys out and we needed more out of guys; we've done that," attackman David DiMaria said of the team meeting after Lehigh's 6-4 loss to Massachusetts on March 20. "We thought we arrived last year, and the plan was to remain," coach Kevin Cassese said.

When Mount St. Mary's secured a 10-9 upset of Northeast Conference leader Bryant last Saturday, coach Tom Gravante was gratified to see the team play with the kind of intensity, concentration and decision making he thought would be absent after the players learned that they were eliminated from contention for a spot in the four-team conference tournament. But the Mountaineers' effort left Gravante wondering what might have been if they had played that well in conference losses to Sacred Heart (14-5 on March 30)

Denver's Jill Remenapp had no idea she was on her way to a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation record when she handed out nine assists in the No. 15 Pioneers' 20-9 win over St. Mary's (Cal.) on Sunday afternoon. “I didn't realize I was on such a roll,” the Century graduate said. “At halftime, Josie Owen, our grad assistant coach, said, 'Jill, you have six assists.' I was like, 'What?' because when I'm in the game I'm not thinking, 'Oh I had another assist.' Plus, you don't know whether you're going to get recorded for it. But [the St. Mary's defenders]

You don't need to be a scratch golfer to enjoy Mountain Branch Grille & Pub. Though the restaurant is located on the grounds of Mountain Branch Golf Club in Joppa, it is open to golfers and non-golfers alike (the course is open to the public, too, and golf memberships are also available). It's no surprise that Mountain Branch is a popular spot for weddings: The space - with exposed rafters, stone accents and enormous windows overlooking the course - is jaw-dropping. Fortunately, the food and service are just as impressive.

Mountain Road (MD 177) in Pasadena was closed in both directions on Tuesday morning as Anne Arundel County Fire Department officials investigated what it deemed was a suspicious item near a dumpster, but about an hour later county police said the state highway had been reopened after the item was deemed safe. The state Department of Transportation reported at 9:11 a.m., that MD 177 was closed in both directions. Anne Arundel County Fire Department Division Chief Keith Swindle said that MD 177 between Postal Court and Magothy Beach Road was closed as state and local fire officials investigated the scene.

Last Sunday's 12-11 loss to Robert Morris saddled Mount St. Mary's with a winless record in the Northeast Conference and a spring without a berth in the league tournament. The Mountaineers (4-9 overall and 0-3 in the conference) could end the regular season with victories over Bryant (5-8, 3-0) this Saturday and Wagner (1-10, 0-3) on April 27, but they would be unable to vault over the Colonials (6-5, 2-1), Quinnipiac (5-6, 2-1) and Sacred Heart (2-9, 2-1) as all three of those teams own the head-to-head tiebreaker over Mount St. Mary's.

TEPOZTLAN, Mexico -- Unless you have Aztecs in your family tree, you might find this city's name hard to pronounce. But so much else about the city is easy, or irresistible. The Aztec echoes, the steam baths, the ice cream, the pyramid, even the corn smut. Tepoztlan -- pronounced teh-pose-LAWN -- is a smallish city that sits in a lush valley rimmed by mountains that appear to have been smuggled out of a Chinese landscape painting. At its center, a 16th-century convent and church rise above a marketplace full of residents making tortillas, nibbling on fried grasshoppers and licking locally concocted sherbets.

PINEDALE, Wyo. -- The last time anyone saw David Crouch, he was striding across a harsh gray landscape of boulder and crag, well beyond the green comfort of the timberline and miles ** beyond the reach of his friends.A few backpackers passed in the opposite direction, offering greetings even as they wondered at this unlikely sight so close to sundown -- a young man heading up a dead-end trail without pack or parka, carrying nothing but a fishing rod.They said hello. He said nothing. And no one has seen him since.

When Secret Mountains released its long-awaited first album, "Rainer," in February, the band seemed poised to make a leap to higher prominince in the indie music world. The shoegazed-inspired Baltimore sextet had already garnered positive write-ups from online tastemakers Stereogum and Pitchfork. Even the New York Times joined in the praise with a concert review in 2011. The band achieved all of this without a full-length album to its name. But lately, things have been relatively quiet with the band, and last week, singer Kelly Laughlin announced to The Baltimore Sun why: She had left Secret Mountains right before "Rainer" was released.

The Mount St. Mary's team that pulled off impressive victories over Bucknell and Delaware in February seems like a distant memory now. That's because the Mountaineers have dropped their last four contests, including opening play in the Northeast Conference with back-to-back losses to Sacred Heart and Quinnipiac. The team's numbers have precipitously declined since diving into the conference schedule. The offense is averaging more than three goals fewer (6.5 goals from 10.7), the defense is just as porous (13 goals from 13.3)