Nation

As Maryland takes part in National Safe Boating Week (May 18-25), Natural Resources Police spokesman Sgt. Brian Albert has a number of suggestions and warnings for those planning to be on the state's waterways this spring and summer. •Wear your life jacket and make sure it fits. While Friday was "Wear Your Life Jacket To Work Day," it really kicks in with the start of the boating season and its first big weekend leading up to Memorial Day. "We like to remind people that this might be their first time out this year on the water, and we want them to get their life jackets out," Albert said.

When Salisbury opened the 2013 season in defense of the national championship it had captured last May, the team limped to a 1-2 start and the thought of advancing to the NCAA tournament semifinals appeared to be remote. At least that was the way coach Jim Berkman saw it. “It was definitely a distant possibility at that time,” he said Thursday after recalling a 13-12 setback to Lynchburg on Feb. 16 and a 7-6 double-overtime decision to Washington and Lee four days later. “But by the same token, they were both one-goal losses and in both games, we had a one-on-one to win the game.

According to Maj. Gen. James Adkins, as quoted in "Md. Guard preparing for Afghanistan, and after" (May 10), "Many of the soldiers that are serving now have known only war. " And four members of the Maryland Guard have been killed in Afghanistan. It is astonishing that the U.S. is still mired in the Afghanistan quicksand. And while democracy is quite elusive, corruption among Afghan government officials is rife. Trillions of tax dollars have been wasted there. Imagine if that money had been invested instead in infrastructure in cities across the country.

Salisbury is the torchbearer for NCAA tournament semifinals, making 10 of the last 11 Final Fours. But Stevenson is beginning to establish itself as a regular in the semifinals. The No. 4 Mustangs (20-2) will be making their fourth Final Four appearance in the last five years when they play host to the reigning national champion and No. 12 Sea Gulls (17-5) this Sunday night at Mustang Stadium in Owings Mills. It is a badge of honor for a program that had not qualified for the NCAA tournament until 2009.

Targeting tea party groups is an ironic act on the part of the Internal Revenue Service ("Taxing the tea party," May 14). Examples of bullying tactics, corruption and neglect keeps cropping up all over the map of America. In the midst of this, why pour gasoline on emotions by labeling tea party members views as, "extremist, anti-civil rights, anti-immigration?" Snarky remarks in an editorial, however tempting, are not constructive. We need hard core unemotional and nonpartisan journalism now more than ever.

Tucked away in the state's capital, adjacent to the Naval Academy, sits the Peggy Stewart House, a historic house that played an important role in the American Revolution and was home at different times to a signer of the Constitution and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The Georgian-style home, built in the 1760s and designated a National Historic Landmark, is on the market for $3.2 million. The remodeled home at 207 Hanover St. has five bedrooms, 31/2 bathrooms, six fireplaces and an eight-car garage.

An Ecuadorean national living in Baltimore was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on charges that he raped a 12-year-old girl, the federal agency and city police said. Henry Estrella-Cordova, 31, who is in the country illegally, was taken into custody on Wednesday in Silver Spring at a bus terminal and charged with second-degree rape and related sex offense charges, according to an ICE spokeswoman. The rape was reported May 7 in Baltimore's Southeastern police district and involved a girl who was known to him, city police said.

The cards did not look stacked in Salisbury's favor as the reigning national champion took on the unenviable task of trying to upend undefeated Dickinson. But that is exactly what the No. 12 Sea Gulls did as they evicted the No. 2 Red Devils, 11-9, from a NCAA tournament quarterfinal Wednesday. Salisbury improved to 17-5 and will meet No. 4 Stevenson (20-2) this Sunday night for the right to advance to the title game in Philadelphia on May 26. It is a development that coach Jim Berkman is thankful for. “It was a great win on the road against a team that had an unblemished season,” he said Thursday morning.

Dickinson, the top seed in the South region, will make only its second appearance in a NCAA tournament quarterfinal when Salisbury visits Carlisle, Pa., on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Sea Gulls, a 10-time national champion, will play in their 16th consecutive quarterfinal. Advantage, Salisbury? Coach Jim Berkman declined to declare that, but he did agree that the tension and pressure is turned up as a team advances deeper into the postseason. “Being at this point, there is more at stake, there is more tension, there is more urgency into the game,” Berkman said Monday.

Tomorrow, Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to sign into law the most comprehensive gun control legislation Maryland has seen in at least 25 years, a bill that will not only help guard against a mass shooting incident, like December's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but will also help fight the day-to-day violence that plagues Baltimore and other communities. The bill has become doubly important with the failure - at least for the moment - of attempts to tighten gun laws on the federal level, both because it will make Marylanders safer and because it can serve as a model for other states as they seek ways to address gun violence.