Reveal

John Harbaugh is well-renowned for keeping his cards close to the vest. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Ravens coach was coy about revealing his plan for the team's preseason opener against the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night.   “The game plan for Atlanta, we don't have one,” he said after Friday's practice at the team's training complex in Owings Mills. “We will not have one. The game plan will be to run our offense, defense and special teams - pretty basic - and evaluate guys and try to execute.

The criminal trial of Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold, was rescheduled Friday for January, after his defense attorney said this week that more time is needed to gather information on how other elected officials in Maryland use their security teams. The two-week trial on charges that the Republican county executive, in the midst of his second term, used his police protection detail for personal and political gain, is now set to begin Jan. 16. This was the second trial postponement.

There has always been something truly unseemly about the desire of conservatives in Congress to assert their control over the residents of the District of Columbia. Not only because it represents a white and male-dominated culture forcing its values on a city of more than 617,000 (more than half of whom are black and an even higher percentage female), but it runs so blatantly counter to the GOP's alleged preference for a hands-off federal government. Tuesday's vote by the House of Representatives over a proposed ban on abortion for all District women after 20 weeks of pregnancy, even those who are the victims of rape and incest, surely represents a new low for this plantation mentality.

In Anne Arundel County, public relations appear to go hand-in-hand with police work. Arrested the nephew of an Annapolis mayoral candidate? Run that up the ranks to the chief. A television producer wants to interview a detective about gangs? “HIGHLY” recommend a public information officer sits in and “ensure he stays on course.” Make sure the chief signs off on that, too. The Anne Arundel County Police Department released hundreds of emails this month detailing interactions with the media.

" Snow Cone Maker " by Tiny Toys Inc., is in the top 30 of free gaming apps on the Apple store, which is not surprising since half of the country is experiencing oven-like conditions this summer. Snow cones (or "snow balls," or "shaved ice" depending on your region) represent Americana in July like few other traditions. As an enterprising 16 year-old desperate to buy a used car, I toiled one summer at my local snow cone stand to earn a few (under the table) dollars.

In one of the most ideal settings in the county for such an exercise, high school students in the Baltimore County Summer Visual Arts Enrichment Camp spent Friday, July 13, working on landscapes at Hampton Mansion in Towson. "It's something new," said Daniel Flinchbaugh, 16. "That's what this program is all about: expanding our experiences. " Flinchbaugh, a Lutherville resident and rising junior at the Carver Center for Arts and Technology, was part of a small group of advanced artists working on landscape painting.

With all the recent press over the proposed redevelopment of the Solo Cup site in Owings Mills, the casual reader would think this is an isolated issue that boils down to one community that will see new traffic patterns or new places to shop. But Solo Cup is just one piece of a conversation that will affect neighborhoods across Baltimore County. A conversation that is expressed in upzoning (to allow more intense development on a property) and downzoning (to allow less). A conservation that is expressed in community desires and developer dollars.

OMAHA -- While the advance buzz over the Olympic swimming trials has been over whether Michael Phelps will swim the 400-meter individual medley, the women's 400 IM has a bit of intrigue of its own. Katie Hoff, who trained at North Baltimore Aquatic Club in the years leading to the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, let drop Saturday that she's not swimming the notoriously taxing medley -- a race for which she holds the American record and one that showcases...

The political world is a-twitter about the president's recent statements on the condition of the economy. You know, the one where President Barack Obama said the private sector is "doing fine. " Well, that one was not received in the way it was intended. In fact, it generated so much ridicule that a few hours later the president again took to the public stage in order to correct his initial assessment. The subsequent damage control statement did little to calm the political waters, however.

The Orioles received good and bad news on the ever-puzzling health of left fielder Nolan Reimold, who has been out of all baseball activites for nearly seven weeks with a bulging disk in his neck. An MRI showed that the disk has shrunen and the inflammation is gone - the good news - but the club now has no reason why Reimold is still experiencing spots of tingling in his left arm and hasn't been able to regain his strength. So Reimold - who has spent his DL time in and out of doctors offices - will now see a neurosurgeon to see if his problems are nerve-related.