Pioneers

Maryland became the first state in the nation Friday to create a new class of company that falls between a for-profit and a non-profit, giving companies flexibility to generate public benefits along with profits. Eleven people lined up early Friday in the charter division of the state Department of Assessments and Taxation to register businesses as "benefit corporations," said Robert E. Young, the department's acting deputy director. The state's benefit corporation legislation was signed into law in April and took effect Friday.

Denver coach Bill Tierney jokes that it took only four years for college coaches, including himself, to put Eric Law in the best position to succeed. Law has gone from being a backup at Salisbury as a freshman to - after transferring to the Pioneers - a sophomore midfielder to a junior wing attackman to the quarterback of the offense in 2013. And Law has thrived in his latest role, setting both team and personal bests in assists (31) and points (64). “So finally, after three years of playing - one at Division III, one at midfield and one at not his most comfortable position - in his fourth year of college, he gets to do what he does best, and you've seen the results,” Tierney said with a chuckle.

Volunteers at the Susquehannock Environmental Center in Bel Air wondered for years whether the rest of the world ever would catch up to them.Born in a high school ecology club, Susquehannock is among the oldest continuously operating recycling centers in the nation. It just celebrated its 20th anniversary.When a science teacher named Bob Chance and his eco-club began accepting recyclables from Harford countians in January 1972, they were considered tree-huggers, the counter-culture flakes.

After seven years as director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Jeffrey Sharkey is stepping down. He will remain with the conservatory until a successor is named. "So much of what I hoped to accomplish I feel I have accomplished," Sharkey, 48, said Friday. "But there's an arc to a leadership position. I think that fresh eyes are always a good thing. A new burst of energy will be good for Peabody, and for me, too. " Peabody, the nation's oldest conservatory, opened in 1866.

His team accomplished a first over the weekend, but he hopes it isn't the last positive thing to happen this season.Jim Fontaine's Anne Arundel Community College women's cross country team never had beaten Hagerstown until Saturday, when the Pioneers withstood the hot and humid conditions at the Howard Express Invitational in Columbia to finish ahead of the Hawks.Salisbury State won the meet, with Anne Arundel placing second and Hagerstown third.Lynn Kurchock, an All-American last year, took second out of 35 runners.

One night earlier, the Anne Arundel Community College men's basketball team had taken a sizable lead into the locker room at halftime.Last night, against Hagerstown Junior College, the Pioneers were carrying a heavy burden.They were down by 12 points after 20 minutes, and their hottest shooter and leading rebounder, Sylvester Clarke, had been sitting with three fouls.The Pioneers had stayed close for a while against a bigger, faster and deeper opponent, but it wouldn't last. Visiting Hagerstown ran away in the second half, getting points from all 13 players in a 119-78 win.Four Pioneers scored in double figures, led by Aderio Jones with 18 points, including 9-of-10 from the line.

Anne Arundel Community College's men's basketball team rang in the new year with the same old problem, losing to the Naval Academy's junior varsity on Tuesday, 93-69, despite 17 points from guard Nat Scott and 14 from forward Jim Flahaven.Guard Wendell Williams had 10.Scott made three three-point shots, and the Pioneers (5-8 overall, 5-6 in JuCo) totaled eight.Guard Gene Pleyo went into the game averaging a team-leading 24 points, but he didn't touch the ball often enough and finished with justsix points.

The question was simple enough, but Sylvester Clarke couldn't have been prepared for the answer."He asked me what I wanted him to do this year," recalled Anne Arundel Community College basketball coach Mike Tummings. "I told him a little bit of everything."And that's precisely what Clarke has done for the Pioneers, who began play yesterday in the Maryland JuCo Tournament.He has scored, rebounded, passed and played defense. And he has worked hard.He went into yesterday's first-round game against Prince George's CC averaging 16 points, second on the team to Aderio Jones.

THE LIVING. Annie Dillard. HarperCollins.416 pages. $22.50. Novels about what happened to America's pioneers are plentiful. Novels about what America's pioneers thought about are far fewer. Annie Dillard, the author of such nonfiction works as the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," has written her first novel, "The Living," about Puget Sound's earliest settlements -- the American Indians, Asians, Europeans, Canadians and white settlers who merged there.Farmers, miners, hermits, murderers, mothers, shopkeepers, fishermen, realists and idealists, the mad and the sane -- all these are portrayed not only as themselves but also as representatives of the strong and weak, the misguided and perceptive, and the stagnant and expansive.

The streak continues.Anne Arundel Community College's men's basketball team won its fifth game in a row Tuesday, 87-84, over Charles.Aderio Jones led the Pioneers with 25 points.Sylvester Clarke added 23 points and 17 rebounds, and Tony Curro (10 assists) and William Brown each had 12 points.The Pioneers (9-11) had won their fourth straight last Friday, 81-78, over Dundalk, which led by three points at halftime.Jones had 23 points to lead four Pioneers in double figures. Clarke added 16, and Curro and Nat Scott 12 each.

Before Lauren Preston opened the cover of the book "Spring" to read to her pre-kindergarten class at Mary Ann Winterling Elementary School, her students excitedly told her why, and showed her how, the season was underway. Daffodils - not just "yellow flowers" - were appearing from beneath the soil, they said. Hyacinths were blooming, they demonstrated with the slow unfolding of their tiny fists. And butterflies were emerging, the students showed by flapping their curled arms. In pre-K classrooms around Baltimore's school system, subtle changes like interactive reading are having a substantial effect in helping prepare 4-year-olds for elementary school - addressing an achievement gap that city schools have faced for years.

Denver's Jill Remenapp had no idea she was on her way to a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation record when she handed out nine assists in the No. 15 Pioneers' 20-9 win over St. Mary's (Cal.) on Sunday afternoon. “I didn't realize I was on such a roll,” the Century graduate said. “At halftime, Josie Owen, our grad assistant coach, said, 'Jill, you have six assists.' I was like, 'What?' because when I'm in the game I'm not thinking, 'Oh I had another assist.' Plus, you don't know whether you're going to get recorded for it. But [the St. Mary's defenders]

Loyola is 3-2 against Denver, and the Greyhounds won all three meetings last year en route to the university's first Division I national championship, but the combined margin of victory was five goals. And in the Pioneers' only visit to Baltimore, they scored a 12-8 victory over Loyola on March 16, 2011. Top-ranked Denver (9-2 overall and 4-0 in the league) has won four consecutive games, and both losses have been by a combined four goals. Senior attackman Eric Law, a former Salisbury transfer, entered the week ranked seventh in Division I in points per game (4.4)

Despite being the defending national champion and winning nine of 11 games this season, Loyola needs to make a statement in 2013. The Greyhounds have had other opportunities to do that this season, but they lost by two goals to No. 4 Maryland and one to No. 2 Duke. No. 8 Loyola gets another chance when No. 1 Denver (9-2) comes to the Ridley Athletic Complex on Saturday afternon, and this outcome will be heard around the college lacrosse world. "We don't have a win against a Top 5 ranked team on our resume.

Reigning national champion Loyola's showdown with top-ranked Denver this Saturday at Ridley Athletic Complex will probably be the first of two meetings between these Eastern College Athletic Conference rivals and potentially the first of three contests. The No. 8 Greyhounds (9-2 overall and 5-0 in the league) and the Pioneers (9-2, 4-0) are vying for the top seed in the conference tournament, and a loss for either team will likely mean a No. 2 seed. But coach Charley Toomey said a victory would enhance Loyola's RPI, which is ranked 10th in the first list released by the NCAA.

Loyola's satisfaction over playing with a full starting lineup lasted just one game. After pounding then-No. 8 Ohio State, 9-4, on March 30 with its full complement of starters, the team took care of Fairfield, 13-7, last Saturday without freshman attackman Zach Herreweyers. Herreweyers had started in the No. 10 Greyhounds' last four contests, but was not dressed for Saturday's victory. Coach Charley Toomey wouldn't say what was ailing Herreweyers. “We're all fighting something,” he said.

Anne Arundel Community College's second run at a national title in women's soccer ended yesterday the same way it did last year, with a first-round loss in the the eight-team National Junior College Athletic Association tournament.The third-ranked Pioneers (16-2-2) fell, 4-0, at CCBC-Essex to defending national champion Champlain College. The No. 8-ranked Beavers (11-6) from Burlington, Vt., put the game away early, jumping to a 3-0 in first 16 minutes."It's tough to come back when you're three goals down with like 20 minutes left in the first half," said Anne Arundel coach Scott Peavler.

Eleven runners on Anne Arundel Community College's cross country team posted their fastest times of the year at Saturday's Tidewater Invitational in Salisbury.Once again, the men were led by Bobby Downs, who covered the 8-kilometer course in 28 minutes, 4 seconds, good for fifth place out of 45 runners."He's a work in progress," coach Jim Fontaine said. "He's getting better and better. He's living proof that hard work pays off. Too many runners shut it down over the summer, but not Bobby.

Many teams would be hard-pressed to win at a consistent rate without their conference's Specialist of the Year and one of the top midfielders in the country. But that's exactly what Denver is doing. Despite the right knee injury that has sidelined senior Chase Carraro, the Pioneers have picked up three straight victories and risen to No. 8 in The Sun's rankings. Coach Bill Tierney said the posterior cruciate ligament in Carraro's right knee is improving to the point where he has returned to running on the practice field.

Dr. Gary S. Hill, an internationally renowned renal pathologist and the former chief of pathology at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, died Tuesday from lung cancer. He was 74. Dr. Hill pioneered a new technique for biopsies of tissue, in addition to developing a system for identifying lupus and how far the disease had progressed in a patient. Colleagues and family described him as a man greatly interested in conversation and friends, traits that translated into the way he moved forward in his career.