San Juan

Toni Horne brings new meaning to the term "cool chic" at the Minus5 Igloo at Power Plant Live. The 24-year-old artist describes her style as "quirky. It can be whimsical one day, the next day collegiate. I don't like to stay in a box." We "glimpsed" the Columbia resident in a strapless cobalt floral-print sundress from Abercrombie & Fitch that featured a ruched bodice and sweetheart neckline and a pair of butterscotch leather almond toe slouch boots from Ross, carrying a ruched and distressed natural leather Guess mini-hobo handbag.

The Puerto Rico Tip-Off is very much a made-for-TV event (what isn't these days?). Which makes it strange to actually be here live. Not that I'm complaining, but I feel like a prop. A stage set with a laptop. Here's what I mean: The Coliseo de Puerto Rico normally seats more than 14,000. Maybe it will attract that many for the coming Demi Lovato concert. But for college basketball? Here's what you could tell, even from watching on TV, about attendance, particularly at yesterday afternoon's games : there wasn't any!

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - When asked about the ubiquity of the thing called "pelota" in this island's life and culture, Puerto Rico's top justice official says she only has to glance out the windows of her home to catch the dazzling blue-white lights of Hiram Bithorn Stadium. Or to think back to when she was a schoolgirl. "My father and I, whoever had gotten up first, would go get the paper," says Anabelle Rodriguez, the secretary of justice in the Puerto Rican government. "We wanted to know what Roberto Clemente had done in his at-bats the night before."

Gwen Darwin McDade, a retired architect who worked on the Johns Hopkins medical campus and later designed structures for the State Highway Administration, died of heart disease Saturday at his Glen Arm home. He was 87. Born in Verona, Pa., he was the son of a contractor and a secretary. The family lived in New Kensington, Pa. Mr. McDade joined the Army immediately after graduating from New Kensington High School. He was assigned to an infantry unit fighting in Belgium during World War II. Family members said he was injured as he was loading heavy- armament shell casings during the Battle of the Bulge.

For 62 years, the U.S. Navy's hulking presence kept Vieques, a Puerto Rican tropical idyll, frozen in a Cold War time warp. During those decades when the military used Vieques' beaches for bombing practice, this serenely beautiful, 21-mile-long island off Puerto Rico's east coast saw only a few thousand visitors a year, mostly harried urbanites seeking a respite from noisy, crowded San Juan. Paradoxically, the Navy preserved the beauty of Vieques for posterity. Now the Navy is gone, driven away by protests after a fighter jet missed its target and a stray bomb killed a local civilian in 1999.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Nine players, three games, three days.The Puerto Rico Shootout was designed with depth like Maryland's in mind, but the Terps understand that they can't be thinking about a UCLA semifinal or a title game against Kentucky.Try this cautionary tale on for size: American University of Puerto Rico 64, Arkansas 59. Or this one: AUPR 88, Alabama 79.Those upsets occurred in holiday tournaments here last season, and the local heroes will try to notch another today at 1: 30 p.m., when they meet Maryland in the first round of the eight-team Puerto Rico Shootout.

WASHINGTON -- Through more than seven decades of Soviet oppression, freedom-loving Ukrainians never lost their will to achieve an independent Motherland. They finally achieved that goal in 1991 -- months after the fall of the Berlin Wall -- when Russian troops departed for points east. Now, nine years later, a Ukrainian tall ship appropriately named Bat'kivschchyna -- The Motherland, in English -- is about to leave its berth in the upper reaches of the Dneipper River. As crowds lining the Dniepper's banks cheer it on, the Bat'kivschchyna will emerge into the Black Sea, sail through the Bosporus, negotiate the myriad islands of the Aegean Sea, race through the Mediterranean and slip through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Atlantic.

Atlanta Braves Manager: Bobby Cox 2002 record: 101-59 (first) What's new: Most of the starting rotation. The Braves lost Tom Glavine to free agency and traded Kevin Millwood, but they pulled off a complicated, multi-club deal to get former 20-game winner Mike Hampton, acquired Russ Ortiz from the Giants and signed free agent Paul Byrd. It isn't the Big Three of the 1990s, but Greg Maddux still has some pretty good help. On the spot: Hampton is coming off another difficult season in Colorado, where he was 7-15 with a 6.15 ERA. The air will be heavier in Atlanta and so will his sinking fastball, which makes him a good bet for a big turnaround.

It's the height of tax season, the last weekend before April 15, and accountant Tim Dougherty should have been poring over forms and punching a calculator. But his son, Michael, was playing baseball this weekend against some of the best 11-year-olds in the country. So there Dougherty was yesterday, at a ball field in Jacksonville, keeping score instead of hunting for deductions in his Towson office. "I guess it's a matter of priorities, isn't it?" Dougherty said. The "Maryland Orioles 1999 Early Bird Tournament," which ends today, pits the youth league Maryland Orioles against five other teams from all over -- Connecticut, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Puerto Rico.

The Mount St. Mary's men's team lost to Akron, 74-61, in the opening round of the San Juan Shootout at Mario Morales Coliseum in Puerto Rico yesterday. The Zips (4-2) used a 10-2 run to open the second half and take control of the game. Senior Landy Thompson scored a season-high 20 points to pace the Mount (1-7) in the loss. A three-pointer by Kiel Butler with 6:03 left in the first half cut Akron's lead to 23-21 after the Zips opened the game with an 8-2 run. Akron scored the next eight points to take a 10-point lead.