Retaliation

Punters don't usually create a lot of waves, but Sam Koch rocked the boat a little bit with his successful two-point conversion in the Ravens' season-opening thrashing of the Pittsburgh Steelers. After quarterback Joe Flacco connected with tight end Ed Dickson on an 18-yard touchdown strike on their first offensive play of the third quarter, Koch, who was holding for kicker Billy Cundiff, took the snap and ran through a hole created by the left side of the offensive line into the end zone.

The attorney for Ray Rice suggested that the Ravens running back retaliated after being struck first by his then-fiancee during a domestic-violence incident in February. Philadelphia lawyer Michael Diamondstein, who helped Rice obtain approval for a diversionary program that will allow him to avoid jail time and offer the chance to have his record cleared in a year, appeared to give a detailed "hypothetical" account of what transpired at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., during a radio interview with Matthew Hammond of 97.3 ESPN-FM in New Jersey.

Despite U.S. pleas for restraint, key Israeli military and political leaders attended an emergency meeting to discuss retaliation for Iraqi missile attacks, according to reports yesterday. Most Evening Sun readers and other callers to Sundial yesterday said they thought that Israel would retaliate.Of 460 callers, 390 (85 percent) said they believed that Israel would strike back, while 70 (15 percent) said Israel would not. Of 463 callers, 293 (63 percent) said they believed Israel should retaliate for the attacks, while 170 (37 percent)

Baltimore County police say a Middle River resident acted quickly to stop a gunman during a recent home invasion. Police said four people forced open a door to the house, in the 100 block of Alberge Lane, at around 12:30 a.m. Feb. 21. One would-be robber armed with a single-barrel rifle, confronted an occupant, police said. The resident disarmed the suspect by throwing cold cooking oil on him. Two other residents came to aide of the first, and together they were able to detain two of the suspects, police said.

A Baltimore jury convicted a man of attempted first degree murder and eight other charges for a retaliation shooting that missed the intended target but struck a 10-year-old boy, prosecutors said Friday. The state's attorney's office announced that Dafon Canty, who was 18 at the time of the August 2010 shooting, approached Terrell Singleton, who he had argued with previously. Canty opened fire on Singleton as he sat on the front steps of a home in the 1100 block of North Lakewood Avenue, according to the announcement.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court strengthened the enforcement of civil rights laws in the workplace, ruling yesterday that it is illegal for employers to punish workers who file discrimination complaints by shifting them to a less appealing job or changing their work hours. The 9-0 ruling upheld a $43,000 jury verdict in favor of a female railroad worker who was removed from her job as a forklift operator and reassigned to more arduous work on a track-repair crew after she complained of sexual harassment.

WASHINGTON -- The White House threatened yesterday retaliation against Libya, including possible military strikes, after two Libyan intelligence officials were indicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people.Administration officials charged that the jetliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, was the result of terrorism sanctioned by the government of Libyan leader Muammar el Kadafi and said President Bush was consulting with world leaders to fashion an international response.

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Moving to head off a trade war, negotiators from the United States and the European Community lengthened the fuse on one of their most explosive disputes yesterday and began exploring the possibility of deep, worldwide tariff reductions.Mickey Kantor, in his first visit to EC headquarters as U.S. trade representative, said the United States would delay for three weeks its threatened retaliation over an EC policy that favors European bidders on some government procurement contracts.

Evonnie Gbadebo didn't think twice.She was so frustrated -- moreangered than anything else -- that she marched right down to the Board of Education in Ellicott City to talk to Superintendent Michael E.Hickey about her 14-year-old daughter, who had been sprayed with disinfectant by a white classmate on a school bus."My daughter's been called nigger, black slave, African monkey," she said. "While she was at Glenwood Middle School, that was pretty much the norm to some students. She heard other students being called these kinds of names.

A regular riding champion at Charles Town in recent years, Travis Dunkelberger is acutely aware of how to navigate the tight turns on a short thoroughbred racetrack. That knowledge came in handy yesterday when Dunkelberger steered Retaliation to a ground-saving trip that resulted in a 1 3/4 -length victory over Lucky Clone in Timonium's opening-day feature, the $42,300 Linkage Stakes. "Travis rides these type of races all the time," said winning trainer Dale Capuano. "He knows what to do on these tracks."

One of the most horrific episodes of the Vietnam war was the plight of those South Vietnamese who were loyal to the United States throughout the war. Known as the "boat people," they desperately, and often fatally, tried to escape Communist retaliation after the fall of Saigon. With the imminent American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the total ineptitude of the central government, it is extremely likely that the Taliban will eventually regain control of the country and will reimpose their strict version of Islam ( "Karzai's blame game," Feb. 2)

After losing her bid to unseat Baltimore Sheriff John Anderson in 2010, Deborah Claridy said, she went from being the highest-ranking female sworn deputy in the sheriff's office to being responsible for checking the hand sanitizers in the city courthouses. On Sunday, Claridy sued Anderson in U.S. District Court, alleging he retaliated against her after she criticized his leadership during the campaign. She is suing Anderson as an individual and seeking at least $2.5 million in relief as well as the restoration of her original job duties.

Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland recently met with the family of Sergei Magnitsky. The reasons for the meeting: In 2009, Mr. Magnitsky was jailed in Russia for exposing governmental corruption. While in prison, he died after allegedly being tortured. In December, with the energetic legislative support of Senator Cardin, Congress passed a statute, the Magnitsky Act, forbidding those accused of human rights abuses in Russia from traveling to the U.S. This month, the Magnitsky family came to Washington to thank Senator Cardin for his efforts.

Anne Arundel County Executive Laura A. Neuman has launched an investigation into allegations that county Police Chief Larry Tolliver used homophobic slurs and retaliated against officers whose testimony led to her predecessor's criminal conviction for misconduct. County Councilman Jamie Benoit called for the investigation in a letter to Neuman in which he recounted allegations from officers that Tolliver moved the detectives to less desirable positions and used the anti-gay term "fag.

A bill introduced by a staunch backer of last year's casino expansion would strip signficant tax- collection and regulatory duties from the state's elected comptroller and shift them to a cabinet secretary appointed by the governor -- a move interpreted by Comptroller Peter Franchot as retaliation for his outspoken opposition to the gambling plan and other independent stands he has taken. The legislation, introduced by Del. Dereck Davis, would shift the Comptroller's Office's authority to regulate sales of alcohol, tobacco and motor fuel to the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

President Obama has done what Congress has not: Extend whistleblower protections to national security and intelligence employees. A new presidential policy directive says employees "who are eligible for access to classified information can effectively report waste, fraud, and abuse while protecting classified national security information. It prohibits retaliation against employees for reporting waste, fraud, and abuse. " With this directive, issued last week, Obama hands national security and intelligence community whistleblowers and their advocates an important victory in their frequently frustrating efforts to expand protection against retaliation for federal employees who expose agency misconduct.

Two city employees say they were shunned by colleagues and retaliated against by supervisors after criticizing a landfill repair contract. But as their civil trial opened yesterday, the whistle-blowers' former bosses said the two just didn't like tough management decisions and weren't team players. Jeanne Robinson and David Marc, both Baltimore Department of Public Works engineers, claim in a federal lawsuit that they were punished for exercising their First Amendment free speech rights.

The Anne Arundel official responsible for guarding county employees' rights has been accused by his former secretary of retaliation after she complained to him about his alleged close relationship with another female employee. Jacquelyn Edelen-Dyer, 51, claims that county Personnel Officer Randall J. Schultz punished her in May by making verbal threats and banishing her for about two months to a job without any purpose - essentially sorting job applications into piles - after she requested to move to a different department.

Rodney Pridget and his girlfriend were unaware they were being followed as they stopped at Build-A-Bear Workshop, Nordstrom and other stores at a crowded Towson Town Center Mall six days before Christmas. But as they left the mall, a man vying to become a member of the Black Guerrilla Family gang in North Baltimore fired six shots and killed the 19-year-old Pridget, according to prosecutors. The prosecution of the men accused in the shooting has shed light on an incident that shook holiday patrons in the Baltimore County seat and illustrated how violence from a city gang dispute can spill into a busy suburban mall.

Orioles second baseman Robert Andino said his war of words with New York Yankees catcher Russell Martin as Monday's game ended was simply miscommunication between two competitive people. "Just heat of the moment, boys being boys," Andino said. "We had a few words, but nothing big. " In the bottom of the ninth, Martin apparently accused Andino of tipping pitch locations from second base after he doubled against Yankees closer Mariano Rivera . "I guess so, but it was just a misunderstanding, I guess.