Rules

BOSTON -- The Orioles' trade of veteran right-hander reliever Luis Ayala allowed the team the get back to a conventional 12-pitcher staff and seven-man bullpen - and the move was also a show of confidence in Rule 5 pick T.J. McFarland. McFarland must stay on the roster all season or else the team will likely lose him back to the Cleveland Indians. “I still have to perform,” said McFarland, who tossed 3 1/3 scoreless innings in his major league debut on Saturday. “The security is there a little bit, but not really because I still have to get outs.

The scars across 16-year-old Dominic Solesky's face are faint, but that doesn't stop people from asking where he got them. The Towson High School junior and his family have told the story many times. Six years ago, Dominic was mauled by a pit bull named Clifford in the alley behind his red brick rowhouse in East Towson, an attack that resulted in trauma surgery at John Hopkins Hospital and a year of rehabilitation. The family's case seeking restitution resulted in last year's Maryland Court of Appeals decision labeling pit bulls "inherently dangerous" and broadening the liability of landlords.

Two U.S. Navy sailors who died diving in the Super Pond at Aberdeen Proving Ground in February accidentally drowned, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Monday. Further details about how the men died will not be released for two to three months while the medical examiner's office prepares its final report, said the office's spokesman, Bruce Goldfarb. The sailors were Diver 1st Class James Reyher, 28, of Caldwell, Ohio, and Diver 2nd Class Ryan Harris, 23, of Gladstone, Mo. They were based at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Va. Another person died at the Super Pond in January, less than a month before the deaths of the two divers, prompting the U.S. Army in early March to close the facility indefinitely.

The Baltimore County police union says county officials have ignored a ruling by the state's highest court to reimburse some 400 retired Police Department employees for overpaid insurance premiums. A Maryland Court of Appeals decision in November required the county to reimburse the employees for wrongful deductions, but in a motion filed Friday in county Circuit Court, the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 4, says it hasn't happened. The union estimates the county owes retirees $572,887.10 through May 2011.

Deciding to get a person with a serious mental illness into treatment is one of the most important steps families can take to protect a loved one's health and well-being. Unfortunately, it also can be one of the most difficult. Many mentally ill people don't realize they are sick and resist visiting a doctor, participating in therapy or taking medications, even to the point of becoming a danger to themselves or others. When that happens, families may have no choice but to try to commit them to an institution against their will.

In a victory for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the General Assembly gave final passage Tuesday to a bill easing restrictions on hiring of people with criminal records for jobs at Maryland casinos. The Senate voted XX-XX to approve the House-passed legislation, sending it to the governor. Under current law, an individual who has been convicted of crimes of moral turpiitude and gambling is subject to a lifetime ban on employment at a facility with slot machines. The legislation limits that ban to seven years after a conviction or after a person comes off parole or probabtion.

It isn't hard to recognize an example of false economy in the average household budget. The vegetable gardener who spends $500 on supplies to produce $12 in produce, the inexpensive home repair that falls apart in a month or the avid shopper who saves $5 online but pays an extra $20 in shipping and handling. Yet for some reason many of us are blind to the false economy of providing gasoline at the cheapest price possible regardless of its impact on our lives and society. To put it bluntly, humans have been subsidizing the cost of gas by accepting - without direct charge - the air pollution gas-burning vehicles generate.

This NFL offseason represents the 10-year anniversary of the inception of the "Rooney Rule. " The rule, named after Pittsburgh Steelers' Chairman Dan Rooney, requires teams to interview minority candidates for all head coaching and senior football operation positions. Initially, the rule showed some signs of success, but the coaching moves from this offseason have even Dan Rooney's son, Steelers' President Art Rooney II, wondering "whether we are really reviewing minority coaches in a satisfactory manner.

A woman and a Pitbull found dead in her Davidsonville home were both stabbed multiple times and her death has been ruled a homicide, Anne Arundel County police said. Two people found the body of Nicole C. Burgess, 37, in the 3300 block of Royale Glen Court around 11:30 a.m. on Mar. 22, police said. The medical examiner's office determined that Burgess and the dog both died of multiple stab wounds, according to police. Detectives believe the deaths are related but have no motive for the crimes and did not know whether it was a targeted or random attack, police said.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Orioles Rule 5 pick T.J. McFarland will make the team's Opening Day roster as a left-handed reliever who can pitch multiple innings out of the bullpen. The Orioles also will place right-hander Steve Johnson on the disabled list with strained right lat muscle on Sunday before rosters are finalized. McFarland, who pitched four scoreless innings in the Orioles' 6-1 exhibition win over the State College of Florida on Friday, was told he was making the team after the game by Orioles manager Buck Showalter.