Nickel

Three Baltimore men have pleaded guilty to being involved with a scheme to steal imported metal worth $2.6 million from the Port of Baltimore, prosecutors said Tuesday. Thomas Jefferson, 50, and James Robinson, 41, admitted in court Tuesday to conspiring to possess stolen goods from a foreign shipment. In December, Alan Verschleisser, 66, also pleaded guilty to that charge, according to a statement Tuesday from Maryland's U.S. Attorney's Office. Jefferson also pleaded guilty to actually possessing the stolen metal.

Conventional wisdom around the Ravens was that once Jimmy Smith recovered from the high left ankle sprain that had shelved him since the season opener on Sept. 11, the rookie cornerback would quickly overtake Danny Gorrer as the fifth defensive back in the defense's nickel package. But that wasn't the case on Monday night as Gorrer, not Smith, lined up as the nickel back in the team's 12-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Smith, who is still dealing with some soreness in the ankle, was relegated to strictly special teams work against Jacksonville.

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Officially, Danny Gorrer finished with one tackle and one pass breakup in the Ravens' 29-14 victory over the Houston Texans Sunday. But that breakup may have been the third-year cornerback's most significant play of the season. On fourth down-and-4 from Houston's 26-yard line, quarterback Matt Schaub appeared to hit wide receiver Jacoby Jones on a comeback route good enough for the first down. But Ravens coach John Harbaugh challenged the ruling of a completion, and replays showed that Gorrer shoved Jones just enough for him to fail to get his right foot down in bounds.

With the Ravens shorthanded at cornerback and safety, Danny Gorrer got a few reps as the third cornerback in Sunday night's 34-17 victory over the New York Jets, enjoying his longest stint of the season. When the defense went to its nickel package in the second half, Gorrer lined up against the outside receiver, and starter Lardarius Webb shifted to the slot receiver. “It was just an amazing feeling being out there with the guys, knowing that they trust me enough to get out there and play with them,” said Gorrer, who broke up one pass.

The question of which personnel the Ravens would send out when the New York Jets went to a three-receiver set was answered fairly early in the first quarter when three safeties were employed. Seven-time Pro Bowl free safety Ed Reed lined up against the slot receiver, strong safety Tom Zbikowski backpedaled to the deep portion of the defensive backfield, and strong safety Bernard Pollard blitzed. That package changed when Zbikowski sustained a concussion, which opened the door for reserve cornerback Danny Gorrer to join starting cornerbacks Cary Williams and Lardarius Webb in the nickel package.

As I've written before in this space, I'm not an advocate for nickel-and-dime taxation policies. One of the unfortunate consequences of the post-1980 tax revolt triggered by Ronald Reagan's election is that politicians at every level of government, rather than raising income taxes, instead devise inventive, often sneaky ways to generate revenue piecemeal. Parking meters, speed cameras, car registration fees, snack taxes, levies on cable television and other forms of communication and entertainment, not to mention the so-called sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco — these are the byproducts of the anti-tax movement that has grown so powerful, even President Barack Obama caved to its pressure by extending the Bush-era income tax policies.

It was a deceptively simple heist. People cut through a chain-link fence surrounding a nondescript warehouse, backed trucks onto a lot and drove off with chassis loaded with shipping containers filled with nickel briquettes and a metal called ferrochrome. But cashing in on one of the biggest thefts in recent Baltimore memory proved to be much more difficult. Total weight of the stolen metal: 321,872 pounds. Total value: $2.6 million. City police began their investigation shortly after the Labor Day break-in and quickly identified a suspect.

"Paper or plastic?" is no longer the question most often on store clerks' lips in the nation's capital these days when shoppers are buying food. Instead, cashiers here routinely ask customers if they want a bag at all, since they have to pay a nickel for each disposable sack they use to hold their groceries, snacks or takeout meals. For many shoppers in the District of Columbia, the nickel fee has been an impetus to cut back on previously free store bags that all too often wind up in the trash - or littering nearby streams and trees.

After weeks of waiting patiently for his turn, Chris Carr's reward Sunday is his first start of the season, against the reigning Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who torched the Green Bay Packers for 503 passing yards and three touchdowns Sunday. That suits the fifth-year cornerback just fine. "I've been out there," Carr, 26, said Wednesday. "It's not like I've been on the bench the whole entire season and all of a sudden I'm right in there.