Reprieve

The NCAA has given Maryland and Texas a one-year reprieve from a new rule that limits off-campus football recruiting by a coach designated as the head coach-in-waiting. That will allow Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin and Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp to fully participate in the spring evaluation period in April and May. The new rule says coaches "publicly designated" to be the next head coach are bound by the same recruiting rules as the current head coach.

Oscar Alfaro holds a steady job, pays taxes, is active in his church and is raising two young daughters in Maryland. Yet he spends much of his time worrying about deportation. The 36-year-old Honduran native lives in the United States illegally. "You're always scared that at any moment you could be separated from your family," Alfaro, a Langley Park resident awaiting a hearing on his immigration status, said through a translator. "You live in fear. " Alfaro is among the first in the nation whose immigration case will be reviewed under a new Obama administration policy that directs federal prosecutors to focus attention on people who have committed crimes since arriving in the United States while freezing the cases of some who have not. Baltimore is one of two cities where the policy is to be tested next month.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer will issue a reprieve today for Marylanders who forgot Valentine's Day -- or were too hemmed in by ice to deal with hearts and flowers.Citing severe weather that has wreaked havoc on floral deliveries and gift-buying efforts, Mr. Schaefer said he will issue a Valentine's Day proclamation extending the holiday through next Sunday."We should help Maryland's florists . . . and any romantics who might not have been able to do their Valentine shopping," the governor said.

Cam Cameron emerged from the coaches' lockers looking like something out of GQ, resplendent in a gray sports coat, black shirt, jeans and cowboy boots. The man looked sharp. And he felt sharp, too. You could tell. And why not? A half-hour earlier, the Ravens had pulled out a gutty — and ugly — 30-27 win over the lowly Arizona Cardinals in the chilled air of M&T Bank Stadium. On one hand, it was the greatest comeback in team history. Down 24-6 at halftime, with the offense seemingly in the throes of narcolepsy, Joe Flacco and Anquan Boldin had combined to put on a passing clinic that led to Billy Cundiff's winnng 25-yard field goal as time ran out. On the other hand, it was fair to wonder why the Ravens offense got off to another horrible start, the kind of start that would doom them if they play like that against the Steelers Sunday night at Heinz Field.

IT LOOKED LIKE the alumni association of our youth. Two by two the old buffaloes marched out Tuesday night, listening to the cheers on Memorial Stadium Night in a suburban country club dining room the way they'd once heard them at an old, vanished ballpark on 33rd Street. "Mike Flanagan and Scott McGregor," said Fred Manfra, the Orioles radio announcer, his voice instantly drowned out by several hundred folks who'd ducked in out of the evening's rain and gathered to benefit the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum.

The U.S. women's softball team lost the gold-medal game to Japan, 3-1, after it hadn't lost an Olympic softball game since the 2000 Games. In fact, in running up an 8-0 record on their way to yesterday's game against Japan, the Americans had actually beaten Japan, 4-1, in extra innings Wednesday in a semifinal game that forced the Japanese to play Australia, with the winner advancing to the final and the loser getting the bronze medal. Japan prevailed against Australia, which gave the team new life in what amounted to a rematch with the U.S. Unfortunately for the Americans, there was no reprieve for them after their first loss.

The city's rat eradication program won a last-minute reprieve today, as the city Board of Estimates voted to eliminate fewer than half of the jobs originally slated to be cut from the program.The board today voted to eliminate 19 housing inspector jobs from the Department of Housing and Community Development, the result of a $1.1 million state budget cut ordered in December.While city officials bemoaned that reduction, they said the loss is far better than the 45 inspector jobs that originally were expected to be eliminated because of the state cuts.

SEATTLE -- The rapacious California sea lions of Seattle's Ballard Locks have slipped the noose.The five animals, which have been under a federal death sentence for almost a month, may find themselves in sunny Florida, where they will be the object of adoring tourists at Sea World in Orlando.In a deal that involved Vice President Al Gore, Sea World says it will put the five male sea lions in an exhibit with similar animals.All that remains for the reprieved sea lions is to be captured. One sea lion has not been seen all year and another for weeks.

A family in Baltimore's witness protection program avoided homelessness yesterday after city prosecutors decided to pay for them to stay another night at a motel so they could look for a new house, officials said. Toyquan Matthews, her husband and their six children were told around midday yesterday that prosecutors would pick up the tab for another night. Matthews looked for a place to rent in Baltimore yesterday afternoon. Matthews, whose family was twice threatened by friends of a man facing an attempted murder trial, has been staying in the motel for 2 1/2 months.

Hundreds of Maryland residents targeted to lose their disability and medical assistance payments have won a temporary reprieve in federal court in Baltimore, where lawyers for the poor and the government have settled a class action lawsuit.The settlement, reached late last week, requires the Social Security Administration to re-examine the cases of 842 Maryland residents that were scheduled to lose their benefits under a tough new federal law passed by Congress last year.The settlement is not expected to have an impact on cases pending outside the state.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake came to the rescue of Baltimore's fledgling food truck scene Wednesday after a city official targeted a few of the mobile businesses because he said they lacked proper permits. Alvin O. Gillard — chairman of the city's street vendors board — informed two trucks that they now must have a street vendors license, commonly used by small sidewalk carts. Although the permit costs only $25, Gillard told the truck operators that they would have to wait until June to have them approved.

Gov. Martin O'Malley may well have saved the Preakness by orchestrating a last-minute deal between Maryland's horsemen and the owners of the state's thoroughbred tracks to maintain a 146-day racing schedule next year. We've heard so many threats over the years that the second jewel of the Triple Crown might be at risk that it's hard to take them seriously, but after Tuesday's Racing Commission meeting demonstrated a deepening rift between the horsemen and the track owners, the danger seemed very real.

The NCAA has given Maryland and Texas a one-year reprieve from a new rule that limits off-campus football recruiting by a coach designated as the head coach-in-waiting. That will allow Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin and Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp to fully participate in the spring evaluation period in April and May. The new rule says coaches "publicly designated" to be the next head coach are bound by the same recruiting rules as the current head coach.

The Harford Senior Center in Baltimore will remain open after a letter-writing campaign by its regulars led city and state officials to maintain funding for the building, officials from the center said. The building was scheduled to close at the end of October because of financial cutbacks resulting from the economic downturn. But Russ Snyder, president of Volunteers of America Chesapeake Inc., one of the organizations responsible for working with the senior center, said the center received only slight cuts in its funding from the city after many of the seniors contacted City Council members and the mayor's office.

Bravo for Deborah Batts. Last week, the federal judge barred U.S. distribution of an unauthorized sequel to The Catcher in the Rye. Her ruling was a victory for 90-year-old author J.D. Salinger, who for decades has jealously guarded his privacy - and his words. The courthouse battle in Manhattan focused on 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, which tells the story of Holden Caulfield as a senior citizen. The book, written by a Swedish author, is available in Europe and was scheduled for a summer release here.

They've become a rarity in Maryland bars, but on Tuesday afternoon they filled the Crossroads Inn in Keymar: smokers, lighting up and puffing away without shame or trepidation. What's more, seated or standing alongside were nonsmokers, enjoying themselves without fanning away the fumes or complaining about the hazards of secondhand smoke. "It doesn't bother me," said Robert Howard. The Taneytown resident surveyed the place to distinguish smokers and nonsmokers before spotting regular patron James Brown of Keysville at the other end of the bar. "Hey Jim, do you smoke?"

The debt-ridden City Life Museums won a conditional cash reprieve from the mayor yesterday that will prevent the institution from closing.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said he will give the museum $1 million over the next two years but only after the museum can raise an equal amount from private and business donors.The news comes a week after the museum officials laid off seven employees, drastically reduced operating hours and closed some exhibits to stem a growing $2.5 million debt."City Life is on the road to a very healthy recovery," Schmoke said yesterday.

The world's most influential commercial and investment banks -- working with the regulators that oversee them -- gave South Korea a one-month reprieve yesterday on up to $15 billion of troubled loans due by year's end to help strengthen the country's precarious financial position.The agreement, which essentially bent the rules for large borrowers near default, was the only realistic alternative for these banks. They would have faced the prospect of losing much more and perhaps causing a far greater crisis by demanding repayment.

In brushing aside the concerns of congressional Republicans and reluctantly tossing a $17.4 billion government lifeline to General Motors and Chrysler yesterday, President George W. Bush ensured that the automakers would not fail in coming weeks - sparing both the economy and his own legacy another potentially devastating blow. But the ultimate effect of Bush's action was to leave most of the tough decisions about the future of the U.S. auto industry to President-elect Barack Obama. The conditions Bush attached to the desperately needed money, such as requiring unions to accept wages and benefits comparable to those at U.S. factories run by foreign automakers, were largely nonbinding and thus subject to change by the next president.