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State to extend hiker/biker trail at BWI AirportThe Baltimore-Washington International Airport hiker/biker trail now under construction in North County will be lengthened to connect with light rail in Linthicum, state Transportation Secretary O. James Lighthizer has announced.Construction of the trail will be completed in four phases. The north portion of the first part of Phase One is under construction.Originally planned to run from North County High School past the historic Benson-Hammond House to Dorsey Road, the first part of Phase One now will extend north from the high school to the Linthicum light rail station, adding six-tenths of a mile to the trail and bringing its total length to 11.1 miles.

Police release name of Pasadena girl, 2, who drowned in pool Anne Arundel County police have released the name of the 2-year-old Pasadena girl who drowned in her family's pool Monday afternoon. Kaycee Theresa Gilliss of the 200 block of Hillcrest Road was pronounced dead after being rushed to North Arundel Hospital. Police said the toddler entered the family pool without her parents' knowledge. Her mother then saw her floating on the surface of the pool from an upstairs window. Police and paramedics responded to the scene about 5:30 p.m. but could not revive the girl.

Q: My son, who will be 4 in October, has decided to be a cat. For about two years he pretended off and on to be a dog. Everyone said it was a phase. Well, now he's a "kitty," as he says. He even sits at the dinner table on his haunches with his fists balled up like paws and wants to be fed like an animal. I have tried to play along, but I feel this dinner-table bit is going too far. We have two cats he teases relentlessly, even though he knows this is not acceptable. I am a stay-at-home mom, and he is my only child -- so it's not about attention.

A young man believes he will never die. More important, he believes he will never have to wear a hat. For years I was just such a man: I strode about with wind in my hair, sun in my hair, fingers in my hair, and just plain, good old thick hair up there. In those heady days of my reign over the planet Earth, my spurs were shiny, my sword had an edge, my heart could take a licking and keep on ticking.Then, on a dark day not too long ago, I felt an ill wind blow cold across those northerly reaches.

With the success of its Harford County store, bridal boutique Amanda Ritchey Bridal and Beauty announced plans to open a second location in Baltimore County. Scheduled to open in late summer, Amanda Ritchey Bridal and Beauty of Baltimore will be located at 1905 E. Joppa Road. The 5,400-square-foot boutique will feature bridal attire for the bride and groom as well as a collection of social occasion, mother-of-the-bride and groom and bridal party dresses. A grand opening event is planned for October.

Carroll County General Hospital's largest expansion project is on schedule as it reaches the halfway point of its first phase. Steel beams that form the skeleton for what will be a new emergency department, along with a makeshift lobby and relocated offices, are some of the signs that work is well under way on the $80 million project. The first phase of the expansion is in line to meet its projected October completion date, said Maurice E. Spielman, the Westminster hospital's director of facilities.

According to Patrick Hedge, the Baltimore Orioles' coordinator of strength and conditioning, young ballplayers stick out in spring training like someone wearing combat boots to a tap-dancing contest. They've got that chunky-chest, big-biceps overkill look. "Too strong in the front of the body," says Hedge. "So we've got to balance them out." Football players can fall victim to that same tunnel-vision training, notes Jeff Friday, strength and conditioning coach for the Ravens. Matter of fact, he adds, so do most members of local health clubs: "They overemphasize muscles they can see."

State and local officials joined Shaun Donovan, the nation's top housing official, on a tour Friday of construction efforts that they hope will give residents of a blighted corner of West Baltimore affordable and environmentally minded housing. The development, which aims to renovate or build 111 low-income apartments by the end of this year, is in the Poppleton neighborhood, where boarded-up buildings sit alongside tidy, well-kept homes. The Department of Housing and Urban Development provided $1.5 million of federal stimulus funding to outfit apartments in the development with features that include double-pane windows, cabinets free of formaldehyde and energy-efficient appliances.

Tickets to the 2012 Olympics in London are now available, marking the first opportunity for fans of Michael Phelps and other athletic luminaries to secure their seat for next year's global competition. The Olympics begin in just about 500 days and tickets went on sale about mid-day Tuesday with organizers offering more than 6.6 million tickets - about 58,000 available initially in the U.S. - to some 650 competition sessions. This is just the first phase and people can apply for tickets through April 26. Tickets are not being sold first-come, first-serve, however.

FAIR HILL -- Mark Weissbecker, who has been riding since he was a youngster, experienced his biggest victory yesterday, winning the Fair Hill International Three-Day Event at the Fair Hill Natural Resources Center in Cecil County.The 40-year-old from New England had taken the lead after Saturday's speed and endurance phase and maintained the top spot yesterday even though his mount, Best Seller, knocked down one rail in the stadium jumping."It's about time," Weissbecker said when asked how it felt to win his first major event at the age of 40.Weissbecker said he had "an incredible dressage ride" on Friday when he placed fifth of the 63 riders and maintained the momentum with a quick and clear cross country trip on Saturday, which moved him up to first.