Resolved

The controversy between Mount de Sales lacrosse coach Bill Held and the Baltimore Board of Officials for Women's Sports was resolved yesterday at a closed-door meeting between both parties and their attorneys.Board officials now will work the Association of Independent Schools A Division Tournament quarterfinal game between Mount de Sales and Seton Keough, according to a press release from Mount de Sales athletic director Tony Kurek. The game is scheduled for 3:45 this afternoon at Mount de Sales.

As Joe Flacco and his agent attempt to negotiate a new contract extension with the Ravens, who also have the option of using a franchise tag to keep the soon-to-be free-agent quarterback off the open market, Flacco's backup, Tyrod Taylor, is approaching this offseason no differently than he has the past two years. “I have to approach my job as if I'm the starter,” Taylor said Friday as he signed autographs at a memorabilia show presented by MAB Celebrity Services at the Pikesville DoubleTree.

BEIJING -- The United States and North Korea have resolved a standoff over North Korean funds frozen in a bank account in Macao, clearing the way for talks to focus on putting in place a nuclear disarmament accord, Chinese and American officials said yesterday. Christopher R. Hill, an assistant secretary of state who is the chief American envoy at the talks, said he met with representatives from the North Korean delegation over the weekend to explain the American position on $25 million in North Korea-related accounts in Macao's Banco Delta Asia.

Baltimore Catholic League and Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association officials met Tuesday at Loyola to discuss Friday's Archbishop Spalding at St. Frances boys basketball game. When the Cavaliers went to the visitors' locker room at halftime, several personal items were missing, including five iPhones and $500, according to Spalding coach Derrick Lewis. BCL commissioner Jack Degele said "everything got resolved" during Tuesday's meeting and there will be "no repercussions" for St. Frances.

State, Annapolis city and public housing officials, and residents appear close to resolving their disputes over the new Bloomsbury Square complex, which could clear the way for public housing residents to move into the state-built waterfront community. Just when remains a question, though. The latest tentative mid-August move-in date passed without residents budging from their 62-year-old public housing complex, which sits next door and is due to be razed for a $26 million expansion of the Lowe House Office Building.

Thirty-four of 52 problems brought to watchdog's attention were resolved, 11 are not fixed, and repairs are pending for seven. PG 2b

An article in Friday's Howard County edition of The Sun incorrectly described the conviction rate of the Howard County state's attorney's office. About 60 percent of the defendants whose cases go to trial are convicted. Other cases, which account for the majority of criminal cases, are typically resolved through plea bargains.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 10/03/98

Two investment companies have resolved a lawsuit over Baltimore County regulations intended to discourage hyperinflated bids for properties at tax auctions, an issue in several Maryland counties.Harry L. Chase, lawyer for Fundco Inc. and Heartwood '88 Inc., said the suit was resolved last week after Baltimore County agreed not to require proof that his clients had the money to buy the properties on which they successfully bid.He said his clients were only required to give the county general financial information about their companies.

"We expect merit will determine who will play and who will lead. But coaches and athletics administrators themselves are not always selected, it would appear, entirely on their merits." Myles Brand NCAA president, on the lack of blacks in college coaching and sports administrative positions "I didn't call my kids goons, or nobody else goons. I said every coach in the world sent kids in to take hard fouls and ... the media went crazy on it. I thought we resolved it. Phil and I resolved it. We sent money to Katrina and that's what we did to resolve it. But you want to sing that song?

In the past week, the Eutsler family has celebrated a year's worth of holidays. They decorated a Christmas tree, nestled Easter eggs in their garden and cooked a full Thanksgiving feast. They hung decorations for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day alongside birthday banners. And the boys - ages 3 and 5 - gave their dad a present for each occasion they were celebrating. "I wanted Jeff to have every holiday he'll miss," Lori Eutsler said tearfully. "We crammed a lot into one week." Her husband, Jeff Eutsler, is a captain in the Army Reserve's 1398th Deployment Support Brigade - a transportation unit that left yesterday for a month of training in Indiana before beginning a yearlong deployment to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Towson Rehabilitation Center LLC, a Towson physical, occupational and speech therapy provider, must restore more than $29,000 in interest to the company's 401(k) retirement plan, according to a consent judgment obtained in federal court by the U.S. Labor Department. In a lawsuit filed last January, the labor department alleged that since January 2006, Towson Rehabilitation and CEO Howard Neels failed to pay employee contributions to the plan, paid some employee contributions late without interest and failed to segregate the plan's assets from the company's assets.

A man barricaded himself in a Northeast Baltimore apartment building Friday night after confronting a police officer there with what authorities described as a makeshift blowtorch, city police said. Around 11 p.m., police said they had taken a man into custody. City police were called to an apartment building housing elderly residents in the 6400 block Loch Raven Boulevard about 8:30 p.m. for a report of breaking and entering, according to city police spokespeople. The officer encountered a man in the lobby carrying a blowtorch, police say. The suspect directed a flame at the officer, who returned fire with his weapon, police say, and then the suspect ran into the building, barricading himself on an upper floor.

It began as many confrontations between students do: with a hard stare between two passing strangers, according to Toni Holmes, a senior at an Ellicott City alternative school. One of the girls told a friend, "I don't like her. " Snide remarks about clothing and appearance went back and forth, and then other girls chimed in. Soon, unexplained yet simmering enmity exploded into a series of face-to-face confrontations among about 20 girls at the Homewood Center. Teachers got hurt preventing the arguments from becoming physical, and hallways were often deemed unsafe.

We noticed over the holidays, much to her chagrin, that the Labragator is getting a wee bit chunky 'round the middle. Just like us, she's getting older and her weight is becoming an issue; our last lab had joint problems that weren't helped at all by excess pounds, and I don't want Molly to suffer unnecessarily.   So right along with my "eat less, move more" resolution is one for her. Thankfully, it runs along the same lines: less in the mouth, more with the feet. But it's not as simple as it seems, because it's hard to judge how much your pet needs to eat or exercise, and it's not always easy to fit in physical activity.

A year ago, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake gave an inaugural address that was both lofty in vision and grounded in reality - the poetry of growing Baltimore by 10,000 residents in the next decade tempered by the prose of how to get there. "We must focus on the fundamentals and do them well," the newly elected mayor said, "or face the prospect of trying to do everything - most of it poorly. " But as Rawlings-Blake concludes her first year as elected mayor, having previously served the final two years of her predecessor's term, her administration has faltered on some of those fundamentals.

A weekend strike by dockworkers from Maine to Texas was averted Friday after union and management negotiators settled a major sticking point and extended the contract deadline until Feb. 6 to hammer out the rest of a long-term deal. The announcement came from federal mediator George Cohen, who entered talks between the International Longshoremen's Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance in the fall. "While some significant issues remain in contention, I am cautiously optimistic that they can be resolved," he said.

Bret BarberieWhat he would be doing if there were no strike: Barberie, acquired from Florida in a trade in the off-season, would be in his first camp with the Orioles. Barberie, a switch-hitter who batted .301 with 20 doubles and five homers for the Marlins last year, likely will be the Orioles' regular second baseman when the strike is resolved. New manager Phil Regan has talked about using Barberie to bat second, behind Curtis Goodwin or Brady Anderson, to break up the succession of left-handed hitters at the top of the lineup.

Several flights were delayed at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport Sunday morning when a false fire alarm automatically shut down the baggage area for Southwest Airlines, one of the airport's largest carriers, officials said. While authorities ultimately determined there was no fire on the conveyor belt system that transports baggage, the delay from the alarm and investigation caused some complications for travelers during the busy year-end holiday season. "It did cause a little bit of the delay.

Hazel Sanders and her Rottweiler service dog, Jurnee, are preparing to move into an apartment she can afford after the management company agreed to drop objections based on the Maryland Court of Appeals decision earlier this year defining pit bulls as inherently dangerous animals. Sanders reached agreement in mediation last week through the Howard County Office of Human Rights, where she had filed a complaint against Equity Management II for refusing to make an exception to its no-pets policy for a service dog, as federal law requires.