New Jersey

Orb's path to the finish line in the second leg of the Triple Crown remains uncrowded. Normandy Invasion, the fourth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, dropped from contention for Saturday's 138th running of the Preakness on Sunday. Trainer Chad Brown and owner Rick Porter decided to stick with their original plan and point the horse toward prestigous races for 3-year-olds later in the summer. That leaves Orb, the colt co-owned by Baltimore County resident Stuart Janney III and Ogden Mills "Dinny" Pipps' stable, with only seven confirmed challengers at this point.

Foremost on my mind as the days lengthen is where I might get my ocean "fix" once summer arrives. Sometimes I crave the New Jersey shore where I vacationed as a kid, other times the Maryland beaches since I lived there during summers in college. This year, I am wondering how these places fared during superstorm Sandy. The news can't be good, since Congress recently dispensed the first infusion of $50.5 billion approved for recovery efforts related to the devastating storm. That's right: Billions and billions of dollars were dedicated to one big storm.

WJZ meteorologist Bernadette Woods is leaving the CBS-owned station to join a non-profit firm in New Jersey focused on climate change, she said Wednesday night. Woods, who has been with WJZ for seven years, said she will remain at the station helping with the transition for the next month. After that, she, her husband and their two children will be moving to Princeton, N.J., where she will join Climate Central as staff meteorologist. "I'm very excited about the opportunity in Princeton," she said.

Health officials continue to investigate how contaminated hot water sickened nearly two dozen people at the Johns Hopkins at Keswick complex Monday, but the case is similar to previous ones involving faulty water-heating systems that let chemicals mix into drinking water. Twenty-three people at the Hopkins facility - home to about 600 health system and university administrative workers - fell ill with headaches, breathing difficulty and dizziness. The investigation confirmed that chemicals known as nitrates and nitrites in the water supply were responsible for the illnesses, but officials still are exploring their origin.

New Jersey became the first state in decades yesterday to abolish the death penalty, giving hope to opponents of capital punishment that Maryland and other states could soon follow. But the obstacles to passing a repeal or even a moratorium in the General Assembly next month remain high. Key lawmakers concede that the legislature is as polarized over the emotionally charged issue as it was last year, when a bill seeking a repeal was defeated by one vote in a Senate committee. Still, the news of New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's decision to sign the repeal bill yesterday and to commute the sentences of the state's eight death-row inmates led many to believe that the momentum in Maryland will be on the opponents' side.

The Westfield Marching Band Parents Association would like to extend our warmest thanks to the staff, parents and students of Atholton High School in Columbia. The recent hurricane and snowstorm in New Jersey kept the WHS Band from practicing in the lead-up to their most crucial performances of the season, the National Championship in Annapolis and the New Jersey State Championship. By opening their facilities, striping the field, providing water, snacks and coffee for the band and parents and staff, the school provided a huge boost to the band.

Regarding letter writer D.B. Herman's claim that President Obama was "nowhere near" the disaster area after Hurricane Sandy, Is it possible he did not see the president with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie inspecting the destruction both from the air and on the ground ("Obama's disastrous storm response overlooked," Nov. 16)? President Bush viewed the mess from Hurricane Katrina from the comfort of Air Force One. Perhaps he joins the group of Republicans who chastised Chris Christie for praising the president for his quick response to and commitment to helping the governor and the state of New Jersey.

Baltimore will send an "ambulance strike force" to New Jersey to help victims of superstorm Sandy, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday.  “The people of Baltimore stand with the people of New Jersey and New York who have suffered great damage and tragedy as a result of this historic storm," the mayor said in a statement.  Two Baltimore city medics and a supervisor will travel to New Jersey, overseeing a team of five medic units...

LONG BEACH ISLAND, N.J. -- Blue-green algae have decided to have a population boom along the New Jersey shore.While some forms of algae are toxic to fish and humans, the current culprit - known in the science world as Gyrodinium aureolum - won't harm finned or limbed swimmers, at least in this part of the world. Still, some people can suffer skin irritation."It tends to feel sticky or clingy," said Dave Rosenblatt, an environmental specialist with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Patricia O'Connor lives in Aberdeen. Or, by a certain way of thinking, New Jersey. Every Friday, she drives from her cozy mobile home in Harford County to her childhood home near the seaside in Point Pleasant Beach, where she lived until her job with the Army came to Maryland. Every Monday, she makes the trip back. She's one of hundreds who haven't completely relocated - or haven't relocated at all - since the Pentagon shut down Fort Monmouth in New Jersey and moved thousands of jobs 150 miles southwest to Aberdeen Proving Ground.

  Weis Markets will unveil a remodeled store in Woodstock on Sunday. The store in the Waverly Woods development in Howard County has remained open during the course of the $3 million project. It will have larger produce and service seafood departments, an expanded deli, larger frozen and dairy sections, a bigger pharmacy and more self-scan lanes. Weis is also finishing work on two new stores that will open in Woodlawn and Towson. The grocery chain has 163 stores in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and West Virginia.

It took until the fifth try and the eighth day of the season, but the Washington Capitals finally managed to put together a complete game under the guidance of first-year coach Adam Oates and come away with a victory. Fueled by contributions from every corner of the lineup, from Alex Ovechkin through to Joel Ward and John Erskine, Washington played a smart and aggressive brand of hockey to defeat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2, on Sunday afternoon at Verizon Center . It was the only reward the Capitals wanted after days of making gradual progress in getting up to speed with their new coach and new system.

A Baltimore insurance broker was sentenced to prison in New Jersey for stealing almost $2.6 million from the Perth Amboy Board of Education, New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced. Francis X. Gartland, 71, submitted false bills to the board and also collected more than $200,000 in fees from the City of Perth Amboy for a "non-existent 'wellness program' for city employees," according to a statement from Chiesa's office. Gartland was the health insurance broker for both the school board and the city.

In past summers, Rodney, the fictional Ocean City lifeguard in the resort town's advertising campaign, has ventured to rescue New Yorkers and New Jerseyites from summer boredom. After Hurricane Sandy, Rodney may have less convincing to do. While Sandy affected a large swath of the East Coast, it made landfall on the Jersey shore and caused nearly $37 billion in damage to that state, according to recent estimates. In the beach town of Seaside Heights, a roller coaster knocked into the Atlantic Ocean has become a symbol of the destruction wrought by the storm.

A Baltimore artist has designed a poster from photos he shot of storm-barricaded Fells Point doors to raise money for Hurricane Sandy victims in New Jersey. Randall Gornowich is calling the poster he's selling on Etsy "Hurricane Sandy Knocks. " It's a grouping of 16 photographs, all of doors barricaded for last month's storm, that he captured as the hurricane blew through Baltimore on its way wreaking much greater havoc in New Jersey and New York. "I couldn't imagine being stuck without having someone reach out," Gornowich says.

Domino Sugar is donating 30,200 pounds of its products to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey to help victims of the massive storm called Sandy, the company announced Monday. Trucks carrying the Domino products - including brown, powdered and granulated sugars, coffee service canisters and powdered drink mixes - left Baltimore's Inner Harbor refinery Monday for storm-ravaged New Jersey. "For our company, Hurricane Sandy hit home," said Stu FitzGibbon, the Baltimore refinery's manager, in a statement.

"To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan." There has never been a more succinct statement about the obligation and privilege the nation has to care for its military veterans than that brief clause in Abraham Lincoln's second Inaugural Address. But the New Jersey legislature thinks setting aside a day on which to remember those who have bought our freedom with their blood is not as important as it used to be. New Jersey legislators have unanimously passed a measure that includes a provision to remove the state mandate to teach about Veterans Day in the public schools.

New Jersey filed suit yesterday against three dozen former executives and directors of Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co., charging them with mismanaging finances and driving the nation's 18th-largest life insurer into insolvency.The suit seeks to hold a list of prominent business leaders responsible when they served as directors of Mutual Benefit. If successful, the suit could make the defendants personally liable for more than $1 billion in company losses. Insurance covers only $20 million of the directors' liabilities.

Regarding letter writer D.B. Herman's claim that President Obama was "nowhere near" the disaster area after Hurricane Sandy, Is it possible he did not see the president with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie inspecting the destruction both from the air and on the ground ("Obama's disastrous storm response overlooked," Nov. 16)? President Bush viewed the mess from Hurricane Katrina from the comfort of Air Force One. Perhaps he joins the group of Republicans who chastised Chris Christie for praising the president for his quick response to and commitment to helping the governor and the state of New Jersey.

The Westfield Marching Band Parents Association would like to extend our warmest thanks to the staff, parents and students of Atholton High School in Columbia. The recent hurricane and snowstorm in New Jersey kept the WHS Band from practicing in the lead-up to their most crucial performances of the season, the National Championship in Annapolis and the New Jersey State Championship. By opening their facilities, striping the field, providing water, snacks and coffee for the band and parents and staff, the school provided a huge boost to the band.