Renew

After protesting at a nearby coal plant in 2008 and becoming discouraged with his own dependence on unsustainable energy, Charles County Commissioner Ken Robinson decided to build a wind generator on his coastal property and get off the grid. He became the first individual in Southern Maryland to build one on his land. After Mr. Robinson made the rounds to neighbors, the community embraced his idea. "Only slightly taller than a flag pole," the 33-foot turbine produces 30 percent to 40 percent of Mr. Robinson's power.

Major League Soccer D.C. United renews contract with Comcast SportsNet D.C. United has reached a long-awaited - and long-term - agreement with Comcast SportsNet, but coverage will not begin until May 8 and no matches are currently on the outlet's schedule after Sept. 15. The three-year deal calls for at least 16matches annually. Every other U.S.-based Major League Soccer club, except Chivas USA, will have 21 or more games on local channels this season. More United: Captain Dwayne De Rosario will miss tonight's match at Sporting Kansas City with an adductor strain.

When it comes to spring color, Washington knows how to put on a show. The National Cherry Blossom Festival blossoms each year to commemorate the gift of some 3,000 cherry trees from Tokyo to the nation's capital in 1912. While the festival had modest beginnings, the event has since evolved into a springtime celebration that attracts millions of visitors from around the world. "It's truly amazing how a gift from over 100 years ago has now reached so many people," says Diana Mayhew, the festival's president.

After six years battling Salisbury as members of the Capital Athletic Conference, Stevenson moved to the Middle Atlantic Conference for the current 2013 campaign. But the conference switch hasn't dulled the emotion that the rivalry has generated in 14 meetings between these two teams. “I don't think the tenor of the rivalry has changed,” Mustangs coach Paul Cantabene said Monday morning. “I still think both teams don't like each other very much, and I still think it's a very big game on the national landscape, and it always has been.

A phase-out of renewable energy subsidies for paper mills has cleared the Maryland Senate, though with a provision that guarantees the state's only paper plant in Allegany County would continue to receive payments underwritten by taxpayers. Environmentalists hailed the 33-13 vote Thursday for SB684 , which they said would close what they considered a major loophole in Maryland's renewable energy law. Currently, mostly out-of-state paper mills receive millions of dollars annually for powering their operations by burning "black liquor," a tarry byproduct of the pulping process, and other wood waste.

Today, I present to you a recap of the "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" season 3 finale/reunion special (part 1). It's like a super RHOBH recap. And I am nothing if not immensely proud of myself for getting through this entire thing without throwing my Mac across the room. Why? Because of good ol' Adrienne, as freaking usual. My parents taught me to have compassion, but I just can't with Adrienne, apparently. Even as I was watching the preview, I didn't feel anything besides annoyance.

Easter's message of hope and new life is a universal and much-needed one throughout the world, but particularly for Marylanders this year as we celebrate the passage of the offshore wind bill by the Maryland General Assembly. I'm filled with thanks to The Sun's reporter Tim Wheeler for covering the story over the past three years and to all of our leaders who made this hopeful decision in 2013. My thanks to Gov. Martin O'Malley, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, House Speaker Michael E. Busch, original co-sponsors Sen. Paul Pinsky and Del. Thomas Hucker as well as the Senate Finance Committee (including Baltimore City Sen. Catherine Pugh)

Baltimore City Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts is still relatively new on his job, so it's probably unfair to make too much of his unfortunate response to a question last week about the recent spate of gun violence that left nine people dead on the city's west side. "Though we're having a spike in homicides," Mr. Batts said, "our organization is working better, faster and smoother, and you can see it in the overall stats. " There was nothing factually wrong in Mr. Batts' answer; department statistics show an 8 percent drop in crimes of all types over this time last year.

A Towson law firm plans to challenge the renewal of the Recher Theatre 's liquor license in an effort to stop the establishment's plan to become a nightclub. The Charles E. Brooks Law Offices will file a petition with the county liquor board within the next week on behalf of residents and property owners, according to Jean Kosloski, an attorney with the firm. Liquor licenses in Baltimore County expire April 30. "We object to them becoming a nightclub," Kosloski said. "That type of usage in the center of Towson is kind of a disaster waiting to happen.

I love Columbia. Unabashedly. No apologies. It has allotted me with a sense of purposeful design for living. It is a place I chose to invest in, grow roots and family and volunteer heavily in. It is a place where boats and cardboard things compete in song, and races pedaling marathons and cherry blooming blossoms eloquent in simplicity message hope and change. A place I have unabashedly relished coming home to for 40 years. With its crazy street mapping, impeccable open spaces doled with aging trees and weathered canopies, and propagated lakes staging liquid sunsets surrender to eroding feeder stream beds and oh the gawking feathered wildlife manufacturing poop decks of another kind.