Resolved

After a 24-hour delay, 240 students from St. Mary's College of Maryland were cleared to move onto a cruise ship Tuesday afternoon, a college spokeswoman said. The students, displaced from two residence halls by pervasive mold growth, have spent the last 10 days living in hotel rooms as far as 45 minutes from campus. They were set to move onto the Sea Voyager on Monday only to be delayed by the U.S. Coast Guard, which found that the cruise ship was listing to one side during a safety check.

Back in the summer, plans were made for Howard County Courthouse offices and operations to temporarily relocate while the 170-year-old building was renovated. They were supposed to move around Labor Day. But nobody has budged yet. Telephone and security issues had delayed the Circuit Court's change of venue, but now all that remains is to work out the switch of telephone service to the temporary site in Columbia, officials said. A new date for the move has not been set, but county officials said they expect it will take place within a few months.

Winners of the state court system's sixth conflict-resolution bookmark-art contest will receive awards Thursday at a reception in Annapolis for the more than 450 pupils across the state who participated. First-place winners, who receive a $75 prize, are: Matthew Campbell, a second-grader at Prettyboy Elementary School in Baltimore County, in the kindergarten to second-grade group; Molly Twigg ,a fifth-grader at Bishop Walsh School in Allegany County, in the grades three to five group; and Lily Fu, an eighth-grader at Urbana Middle School in Frederick County in the grades six to eight group.

The new owner of the Sparrows Point steel mill has agreed to pay a $135,000 penalty and resolve alleged violations of state pollution control laws that occurred in 2009 when part of a blast furnace ignited, state officials said Thursday. RG Steel Sparrows LLC, which purchased Sparrows Point in April, has signed an agreement with the Maryland Department of the Environment, or MDE, and the Maryland office of the attorney general to reduce emissions from the blast furnace. The money will go to the Maryland Clean Air Fund.

Rosecroft Raceway and members of the state's thoroughbred industry, including the Maryland Jockey Club, are expected to enter into binding arbitration to resolve a dispute over simulcasting fees. The parties failed to reach an agreement by the Oct. 1 deadline during a mediation led by Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation Secretary Alexander M. Sanchez. Sanchez said in a statement Monday that he was disappointed no agreement could be reached among the parties that would allow Rosecroft to broadcast thoroughbred races.

The surgery on Don Hayden's son was successful. The only lingering complication: a bill for $23,000. The Gaithersburg family, surprised that insurance didn't cover the cost, spent about a year fighting the charge from the medical clinic — even after it was reduced to $16,000. The clinic turned the bill over to a collection agency, and the Haydens prepared to hire a lawyer. That's when an administrative worker at the clinic advised the family in a whisper to contact Maryland's Health Education and Advocacy Unit, which mediates such disputes on behalf of consumers.

The Baltimore County Council is scheduled to vote next week on a measure that could help a Sparks farmer resolve a long-standing fight to run a stand out of a barn, though lawyers for the farmer and for his opponents have different views on what the bill would allow. The measure proposed by Councilman Todd Huff to amend the county's legal definition of a "farmer's roadside stand" would allow the owners of Springfield Farm in Sparks to build the stand they have been fighting for since 2007, said Michael McCann, theTowson lawyer who represents a group of neighbors who oppose the project.

Lawmakers reached deals Monday on the thorniest issues left in the $14.6 billion state budget, finding common ground on state workers' pensions and health care benefits and education funding. House Speaker Michael E. Busch said the pension and health care compromises reached by delegates and senators working to reconcile the spending plans passed by each chamber would preserve benefits for state workers while keeping the budget affordable for the taxpayers. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said that "breakthroughs" in the negotiations forestalled the double sessions that had been planned for this week.

It's February — do you know where your New Year's resolutions are? For some, they're right there next to the pile of already broken new toys that have barely survived the first month of the year. But at Port Discovery Children's Museum on Saturday, there was help for those who need to get back on track with one of the most popular but also most easily broken resolutions: To eat healthier. "We all know what we need to do; it's just hard to do it: less salt, less cholesterol, more fruit, more whole grains, less processed foods," said Jack Smith, 63, a psychotherapist from Chambersburg, Pa., who watched as his four grandchildren participated in a "Cook and Tell" class to learn how to make a healthy snack.