Ned

After years of talk and not much action, the western is finally galloping back to the airwaves.It begins with "Ned Blessing: The Story of My Life and Times" tonight at 9 on CBS (WBAL-Channel 11), followed by another Western, "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.," premiering Aug. 27 on the Fox network (WBFF-Channel 45).If "Brisco County" is tongue-in-cheek -- and believe me, it is -- "Ned Blessing" is anything but. This one is about as sincere as it gets.We meet Blessing (Brad Johnson) as an older man in a jail cell awaiting his own hanging.

Edward Nicholas "Ned" deRussy, a longtime law book sales representative, died of pneumonia Saturday at his Blakehurst Life Care Community home in Towson. He was 90. A longtime resident of Ruxton, he was known in the legal community as an accomplished and well-read man who tended to the needs of lawyers and libraries in Maryland and Delaware. A lawyer by education, he sold books for West Publishing Co. and spent 37 years with the specialty publishing house in the Baltimore area. When he retired in 1978, the Bar Association of Baltimore City honored him, and West gave a portrait of him to be displayed in the bar library in the Baltimore Criminal Courts Building.

The ever-employed Ned Beatty estimates he has made about 60 movies. Add in the television and theater productions he's got under his belt and his acting credits number in the hundreds. Not bad for an easygoing, 57-year-old actor who says matter-of-factly of his prolific career: "I've been so lucky."Mr. Beatty's acting accomplishments will be feted in a career tribute tomorrow night at the Senator Theatre. He won't have to travel far for the festivities, considering he's living in Ruxton while shooting the Baltimore-based TV series, "Homicide."

Last month's raid on the Patapsco Flea Market in Southwest Baltimore netted $47.3 million worth of counterfeit luxury goods, the largest seizure at a flea market in the United States, federal authorities announced Thursday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations also confiscated $1.5 million in cash, which it described as "suspected criminal proceeds. " Federal officials released new details of the April 22 raid on the bazaar, where authorities say vendors sold counterfeit and pirated goods with the market owner's knowledge.

Crush has closed. The last day for the Belvedere Square restaurant was Nov. 28. Crush, which opened in 2008, was from Daniel Chaustit, who had been the "Daniel" half of Timonium's still-running Christopher Daniel restaurant. There is no firm word yet on future plans for the restaurant space. In an emailed statement, a representative of Cross Street Partners, the property's managers, wrote, "Right now Belvedere Square owners and management are discussing options for the space. Our goal is to maintain a wonderful neighborhood restaurant there.

Undercover federal agents rented a booth at Patapsco Flea Market to gain access to its management as part of a 2 1/2 -year sting targeting merchants selling counterfeit and pirated goods - an investigation that resulted in a raid Sunday on the Southwest Baltimore marketplace, according to a search warrant and affidavit released Monday. Capping the intensive investigation into fake brand-name clothes and accessories, as well as pirated DVDs and musical recordings, special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations confiscated numerous items being sold at the sprawling market.

"Aren't you always so clever with your schemes and your plots?" Queen Cersei Lannister "Schemes and plots are the same thing. " -- Tyrion Lannister It wouldn't be a stretch to argue that the second season of"Game of Thrones"has been a good deal duller than Season 1. Until tonight. During the HBO show's first season, no less than four major characters (including several potential kings) were killed off: Protagonist Ned Stark, Khal Drogo, Viserys Targaryen and the king himself, Robert Baratheon.

Vendors at the Patapsco Flea Market have a history of allegedly selling counterfeit and pirated merchandise, according to an affidavit, which outlined the latest accusation that resulted in a raid Sunday by federal Homeland Security Investigations special agents. Capping a 2 1/2-year-long investigation into counterfeit apparel and accessories as well as pirated DVDs and musical recordings, federal investigators confiscated numerous items being sold there. Federal authorities released few details about the raid, but the affidavit details several undercover operations that found that many of the items sold at the flea market were fake.

Take a tuba and sculpt Where do old musical instruments go when they become irrevocably out of tune? If they fall into the hands of once-upon-a-time-professional-welder-tur ned-sculptor Robert Martin, they may be playfully reincarnated as giraffes, elephants or fanciful characters. Martin started out with fountains made of plumbing fixtures (the first was his 12-foot Water Faucet Water Fountain for a restaurant in California). Then one day, he says, he was in Cincinnati looking for old faucets when he tripped over a trombone.

There are scads of similarities between 1989's epic western miniseries "Lonesome Dove" and tonight's two-hour TV movie "Ned Blessing" (9 o'clock on CBS, Channel 11).They both, to pick just one similarity at random, have horses in them. And they share an executive producer, Bill Whittliff.Mr. Whittliff took a different approach with this western outing. Instead of bagging stars like "Lonesome Dove's" Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones, this time he got Daniel Baldwin, who played the womanizing tavern regular "Cheesy" P. Chadwell in the 1990 CBS midseason replacement series "Sydney."