Older Sister

A little scrap of political biography hidden in the Government House closet until now: Martin O'Malley is a Trekkie. Or at least he has Trekkie tendencies. Describing a lousy week of wrangling between House Speaker Mike Busch and Senate President Mike Miller, the governor pulled out an obscure Star Trek reference during a speech this week to the Maryland League of Conservation Voters. "Do we have any Star Trek fans in the house?" he asked.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Sisters for life and doubles partners later in the afternoon, Venus and Serena Williams put all that aside for nearly two hours yesterday at Wimbledon, slugging serves and ground strokes in each other's direction with a vengeance. It had been five years since they had played a Grand Slam singles final together, and the long wait resulted in one of their most intense and entertaining matches despite the gusty conditions that made Centre Court feel more like a wind tunnel.

A couple of hundred mourners joined the family of Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony at the funeral Monday for his elder sister, Michelle Anthony, in Randallstown. The mother of four children, Michelle Anthony, 38, died Dec. 21 in Baltimore. Details about the cause of death have not been disclosed. A statement released by the Nuggets last week said she died of a "pre-existing condition. " Carmelo Anthony, 26, attended Towson Catholic High School and played college basketball at Syracuse University.

When they were younger, Heather and Tiffany Jacobson just wanted to be like their older sisters. At every River Hill volleyball game, the two would make up their own cheering section - blue and yellow pom-poms in hand - sporting their older sisters' jersey tops. Heather always had Krystal's No. 8 on her back, while Tiffany wore Stephanie's No. 35. The 2001 season was the best, when Krystal was a senior and Stephanie was a sophomore. "We'd watch them play in high school and I'd think, `Wow, this is so awesome, and they are so good,' " said Tiffany, 15, who was 10 at the time and in fifth grade.

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. -- A thin, beautiful model dies under mysterious circumstances, and the questions begin.Could the blast of bronchial spray she inhaled have killed her? Eating disorders? Drug use?Broward County, Fla.'s medical examiner, Joshua Perper, doesn't know yet what killed Krissy Taylor on the brink of supermodel status, although preliminary autopsy results point to heart failure.But doctors and pharmacists say Primatene Mist, the asthma inhalant she used about two hours before her death, can cause rapid heartbeat which, in combination with other medical conditions, could kill an otherwise healthy young girl.

When she was a sophomore on the River Hill girls soccer team, Lynlea Cronin spent much of the season on the sideline, admiring the leadership role her older sister, Kelsey, had for the Hawks. "Since she was a senior and had a really important role on the team, I wished that I could be like that," Cronin said. "I hoped that my time will come to do good stuff like her." Fast forward two years and Cronin's time has arrived, although some of the details have changed. The uniform, for one. Cronin transferred to Wilde Lake last year, and in her second season there, has become one of Howard County's most potent goal-scoring threats.

The Palumbo family has half a basement room dedicated to wrestling, mat included.Converting the space became necessary when none of the older three Palumbo brothers could pass another in the hallway without a wrestling move being applied.A mat downstairs would translate into harmony upstairs, right?Guess again."The living room still wins," said Jake Palumbo, a senior at Annapolis Area Christian. "It takes time to roll out the mat. It's so much easier to just move the table away in the living room."

/TC Meghan White sat in the bleachers in Dulaney High School's gymnasium one afternoon last week and gazed across the hardwood floor at the four red and white banners that bear her sister's name."

With storms bearing down Monday evening, F. Patrick Marlatt hustled his daughters out the doors at the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute on the University of Maryland, College Park campus, urging them to leave before the torrential rains and ferocious winds hit. Within minutes, Marlatt would be buried under the rubble of the trailers that housed the institute, and his daughters, both students at College Park, would be dead, victims of a swirling wind...

Midway through the xx's set at April's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Annual Festival in Indio, Calif., the London-based trio threw a cover song into its set: Aaliyah's smoldering 1997 single "Hot Like Fire. " Solange, the R&B singer and friend of the xx, joined the band on stage to solidify one of the weekend's standout moments. Guitarist and vocalist Romy Madley Croft, 23, talks modestly about her acclaimed band, but doesn't hesitate to gush about the two R&B singers who helped make the highlight possible.