Review

The University of Maryland Medical Center will send layoff notices to employees at the end of the month as it looks to cut costs in the wake of federal budget cuts and what it and other state hospitals have called inadequate rate increases. Jeffrey Rivest, president and CEO of the Baltimore hospital, sent an email to managers Tuesday that said individual letters regarding layoffs would be given out June 25, 26 and 27. The number of people who will lose their jobs still is being finalized, said spokeswoman Mary Lynn Carver said.

Here is the second installment of a series that checks in with the eight Division III programs in the state to give a glimpse into the past and the future. Teams are scheduled to appear according to the chronological order in which their seasons ended. Thursday's visit was with Frostburg State. Friday's visit is with Hood. REVIEW The good: The Blazers slogged their way through a 3-14 overall record and a 0-8 mark in the Middle Atlantic Conference, and the lackluster campaign was exacerbated by the dismissal of head coach Jeremy Mattoon prior to the team's regular-season finale against Widener on April 27. But assistant coach Brad Barber said he continued to see some positives.

One might be tempted to give the clip some sort of catchy "Zapruder" label, except there's nothing grainy about Padraig Harrington's position on the Abu Dhabi green — which is precisely why it could be the catalyst for change. Harrington nudges his ball while picking up the coin used to mark it. The ball rocks ever-so-slightly away from the contact point, then back again ever so slightly — just a touch less slightly as the first wobble. Harrington's ball clearly didn't return to its original spot.

Here is the opening installment of a series that checks in with the eight Division III programs in the state to give a glimpse into the past and the future. Teams are scheduled to appear according to the chronological order in which their seasons ended. So Thursday begins with a visit with Frostburg State. REVIEW The good: After compiling eight total victories in their first two seasons in Division III, the Bobcats established a program record this past spring with 11 wins in 17 contests in the regular season.

Here's the part where you tell me how wrong (or how right!) I was on a review. This week's bar review is on the legendary, enormous, impossible-to-dislike Blob's Park in Jessup. Blob's Park has been in Maryland since 1933, and claims to be the first place in America to celebrate Oktoberfest. As the Bavarian celebration winds down, it might be the spot in town for oompah music and German beer. From the review , "Blob's is Maryland's very own Valhalla, a beer hall as big as an airport hangar where German culture is celebrated year-round, though with especially distinguished gusto during these few weeks in the fall.

The recent developments in the Middle East, the statements of the U.S. President on necessity to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian issues, and the many articles published in The Baltimore Sun have urged me to speak up. I have been personally involved in some of these issues; I was in Israel during the 1967 war and later too. I have seen and participated in the life of many Israeli people. I have also seen the misery of the Palestinians caused by people like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Compassionate care for everybody is St. Joseph Medical Center's mission. You can decide whether the hospital's decision to suppress its own finding that its patients suffered "substantial likelihood of harm" is compassionate. Last year, a committee of St. Joseph doctors determined that Dr. Mark Midei implanted cardiac stents in dozens of cases where they weren't needed, resulting in "the substantial likelihood of harm to his patients" and "the potential for serious complications," according to an internal document published in a Senate Finance Committee report last week.

Here is the fifth installment of a series that checks in with the seven Division I programs in the state to give a glimpse into the past and the future. Teams are scheduled to appear according to the chronological order in which their seasons ended. Thursday's visit was with Mount St. Mary's. Friday's visit is with Johns Hopkins. REVIEW The good: The Blue Jays opened the season with eight consecutive wins, accruing their first 8-0 start since 2005. Eventually, the team finished the regular season with an 11-3 record and the No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Here is the sixth installment of a series that checks in with the seven Division I programs in the state to give a glimpse into the past and the future. Teams are scheduled to appear according to the chronological order in which their seasons ended. Friday's visit was with Johns Hopkins. Monday's visit is with Maryland. REVIEW The good: The Terps became the first unseeded team to reach the NCAA tournament final in back-to-back campaigns - a noteworthy achievement considering that last year's squad graduated two starting attackmen and three starting defensemen and this spring's team did not have the services of senior midfielder Jake Bernhardt (broken collarbone)

John Houser III reviews the new Joe Squared at Power Plant Live. Houser loved the crunchy Vidalia onions, the sparing use of bacon and the clean and smoky flavors of the bacon and clam pizza but the did not like the limp and slimy basil in his mojito. I don't like limp and slimy anything, I reckon. Also, they should sell slice pizza on weeknights, Houser says. Here's that review of Joe Squared at Power Plant Live .

If you've simply been too busy to read all of the world's great literature, the Columbia Festival of the Arts has got a time-saving program for you. When the three-member Reduced Shakespeare Company performs "All the Great Books (abridged)" on Saturday, June 22 at 8 p.m. at Rouse Theatre, it promises to cram dozens of famous novels into what company member Brent Tubbs describes as a "fast and furious" 98 minutes. Here's your chance to hear pocket versions of "The Brothers Karamazov," "Little Women," "Don Quixote," "The Odyssey," "Frankenstein," "Oliver Twist" and many more.

The past four days have featured a premature attempt at the preseason rankings for 2014. Wednesday's entry includes three teams that did not finish above .500 and missed the tournament this past season. But what they do have is intrigue in either the form of a significant amount of returning experience, a potentially explosive offense or a strong presence in the middle of the field. In alphabetical order, the teams flying under the radar are: Air Force (2013 record: 7-7) Outlook: The Falcons finished in sixth place in the Eastern College Athletic Conference standings, which kept them out of the league tournament.

An attorney for a teenager who said his jaw was broken in an encounter with Baltimore police dismissed the city's civilian review board as a "proxy" for police after nearly three years have passed without a ruling on the case. In July 2010, Yardell Henderson, then 16, filed a complaint with internal affairs in which he said he was beaten by police in Northwest Baltimore during an incident that did not result in his arrest or criminal charges. He also contacted the civilian review board, a volunteer panel formed to great fanfare in the late 1990s, to provide a check on police.

Here is the fourth installment of an attempt at a premature poll for next season. The Top 20 will be broken up into four installments with Tuesday's post involving teams ranked from Nos. 5 to 1. Thursday featured Nos. 20 to 16 , Friday Nos. 15 to 11 , and Monday Nos. 10 to 6 . Wednesday will include three schools not mentioned in the poll that could make some waves. Unless there are confirmed reports about certain players planning to use fifth years of eligibility, this space will assume that seniors in 2013 will not return next year.

A professors' group at Coppin State University said Monday that it shared a review committee's improvement goals for the traditionally black college, but questioned why the reviewers didn't address certain funding issues nor a perceived lack of oversight by university system leaders. Last month, a committee appointed by the university system's Board of Regents recommended significant changes to the struggling institution, including a greater selectivity in admissions. The recommendations are meant to reverse Coppin's poor graduation rate - the worst in the state at 15 percent - and enrollment shortfall, among other problems.

Moody's Investor Services said Monday that it was reviewing for a possible downgrade the A1 credit rating of St. Mary's College of Maryland, which last week announced the resignation of its president amid news that the liberal arts school expects to fall significantly short of its freshmen admissions target. The Southern Maryland honors college is 100 students shy of its 470 freshman goal as of last week, but for budgeting purposes, officials are estimating a deficit of up to 150 students and $3.5 million in tuition fees.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler called Monday for an independent investigation into the scandal at the Baltimore City Detention Center, saying the public needs to know which government employees allowed corruption to flourish. "Public confidence in the prison system can only be restored after a full, transparent and independent review with an eye toward holding accountable the responsible public officials," Gansler wrote. Gov. Martin O'Malley immediately rebuffed the request, saying in a letter that the federal indictments of corrections officials and inquiries by two new task forces were response enough.