Security

Orb's path to the finish line in the second leg of the Triple Crown remains uncrowded. Normandy Invasion, the fourth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, dropped from contention for Saturday's 138th running of the Preakness on Sunday. Trainer Chad Brown and owner Rick Porter decided to stick with their original plan and point the horse toward prestigous races for 3-year-olds later in the summer. That leaves Orb, the colt co-owned by Baltimore County resident Stuart Janney III and Ogden Mills "Dinny" Pipps' stable, with only seven confirmed challengers at this point.

In the next few weeks, Marriotts Ridge midfielder Zoe Stukenberg might just get a graduation card from Century girls lacrosse coach Becky Groves. After Tuesday night's Class 3A-2A state championship, Groves will be extremely happy to see Stukenberg depart for Maryland. The All-Metro midfielder scored three goals and dished out six assists to lead the No. 6 Mustangs to a 15-5 victory over the defending champion and No. 2 Knights at UMBC Stadium. “It's unbelievable,” Stukenberg said.

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

Salisbury transfer Eric Law picked up a rebound on the edge of the crease and scored with 13.4 seconds left to cap a historic comeback and give No. 4 seed Denver a 12-11 win over fifth-seeded North Carolina in the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament quarterfinals at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Sunday afternoon. The game, played before an announced 7,749, was the first men's lacrosse quarterfinal held at a venue not on the East Coast. Denver, the first team in men's quarterfinal history to win after trailing by five goals or more, will face No. 1 seed Syracuse in the semifinals Saturday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

There are 875,000 on the terrorist watch list ("U.S. launches internal review," May 1). Unbelievable! This speaks out against the effectiveness of our immigration screening system and homeland security apparatus. Do I feel unsafe as I travel about my country? You bet I do, and it is a heavy topic of conversation. What are we to do about this? Just wait for the next 9/11 or Boston calamity? Even the dummies who voted in the past election are getting scared. However, we can all rest assured that Washington has the answer.

Et tu, Dutch? Count Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger -- senior Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, one of just eight lawmakers briefed on the nation's biggest security secrets -- among those who keep saying "Obama" when they mean "Osama. " He made the slip twice in the space of an hour Friday during an appearance at the Oak Crest Retirement Community in Baltimore County, The Sun's Yeganeh June Torbati reports. "If Obama only knew how much he has affected our country -- he has cost us billions of dollars," Ruppersberger said at one point, referring to the economic impact of the war on terrorism.

Two public opinion polls show Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker with a lead of three and six percentage points heading into Tuesday's election to recall him because of a new law reducing the power of public sector unions. Public Policy Polling, a Democratic polling firm, said Sunday that Walker was leading 50 percent to 47 percent over Democratic challenger Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in its final survey. Angus Reid polling had Walker ahead 53 percent to 47 percent. Both findings were within the margin of error so the results could be even tighter.

Paasing the health care reform legislation isn't just a victory for all American families but is especially important to me as a cancer survivor and to my spouse who is a stroke survivor. We can feel that we now have the security that we don't risk losing the American dream if we get sick or in an accident. I am hopeful that all Americans will begin to see the value of this legislation and will see the perils of life we were facing every day until the passage of this reform. To those who want to repeal the bill, I wish they could have walked just one day in my life or in the life of someone else in similiar circumstances.

President Barack Obama reacted a few months ago to a question aboutIran's deliberate efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. His reply and how he was going to prevent it was "all options are on the table. " That's sort of like imagining General George Custer threatening Crazy Horse at the Little Bighorn with, "Surrender! I've got you surrounded!" The only option he failed to include was the upcoming sequestration (read elimination) of $500 billion in defense spending which will begin in earnest next January and will progress into deeper cuts well past 2014.

In the aftermath of losing two fumbles on kick returns in the Ravens' 22-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Nov. 13, David Reed was instructed to work with running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery on addressing his issues with ball security. On Thursday, special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg provided an update of Reed's progress in that department. “The drills have been really productive,” Rosburg said during his weekly media briefing Thursday. “Wilbert is really good at this, and he's been grinding on David.

Maryland Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas said Saturday that the Preakness brand “has changed dramatically” in the last few years, citing an attendance bump in the infield celebration and increased security all around the racetrack.   “The crowd in the infield is up, and the wagers are coming in,” Chuckas said. “All in all, it's pretty much what we expected, and we'll continue to fine-tune it.”   Speaking with reporters just after the seventh race Saturday at Pimlico Race Cource, Chuckas acknowledged that the Jockey Club has sought to find a balance between catering to old-school horse racing fans and drawing in new crowds who could become racing enthusiasts.

Baltimore's housing office has disbanded its security unit, laying off seven sworn police officers, the agency said Thursday. The duties of the Lease Enforcement Unit - which investigates criminal activity in public housing to determine if a resident has violated his or her lease - will be assumed by housing's Inspector General's office, which investigates fraud, waste and abuse, said Cheron Porter, a spokeswoman for Baltimore Housing. "The Housing Authority of Baltimore City budget has suffered cuts generally over the past couple of years and with sequestration, more cuts could be on the horizon," Porter said in an email.

In a pair of low-slung green stables manned by security guards and watched by 24-hour surveillance cameras, a pack of brawny young horses will be monitored, poked and assessed down to the blood in their veins. The horses set to race in the 138th Preakness are to be kept under a microscope from their arrival at Pimlico Race Course until they burst from their starting gates Saturday — not only to avoid injury but also scandal. "It's become more sophisticated," said David Zipf, 72, the Maryland Racing Commission's longtime chief veterinarian for thoroughbred racing.

Navy's women's lacrosse players made it clear that they are not in the NCAA tournament this time to enjoy the experience. After three years of first-round losses, the eighth-seeded Mids are in it to win. Monmouth, which lost in a play-in game last season, apparently had the same idea. The Hawks made 11th-ranked Navy work for everything it got Friday, especially in the first half. Monmouth scored first and was within one until the final 7.1 seconds of the first half, when Mids senior attacker Jasmine DePompeo dished out the first her five assists and sparked a five-goal run that carried Navy to a 12-6 victory at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium for its first NCAA tournament win in six years as a Division I program.

The Social Security Disability Insurance system is supposed to provide a financial safety net for workers and their families in the event that a serious medical impairment prevents them from working ("Judges sue Social Security over 'quotas' on disability decisions" April 29). But it's really a parachute that often fails to open in time, sending the individual into a financial free fall with years of uncertainty over whether or not they are going to hit the ground - and it only opens for about a third of applicants.

The Hollywood Diner will continue with its current operator, Richard T. White, at least for the immediate future. The Board of Estimates pulled the diner's lease termination from its agenda after Comptroller Joan M. Pratt agreed to give White more time to secure funding. The board was to decide at Wednesday morning's meeting whether to terminate White's 18-month lease early; the original lease wasn't set to expire until next spring. But in a side room prior to the Board of Estimates meeting, Pratt informed White that her office was granting him more time to right the diner's finances.

- The Obama administration pledged Thursday to close gaps in the intelligence system that enabled a man carrying a bomb to board a U.S.-bound plane and to create a better system for analyzing the clues and tips flooding the intelligence community to give analysts a better chance of foiling future plots. The White House based its assertions on the early findings of two separate inquiries into what it calls the "human and systemic failures" that took place before a Nigerian man's attempt to detonate a bomb aboard a plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day. The White House would not release the conclusions but announced that President Barack Obama will hold meetings next week in Washington aimed at getting the tangle of government agencies responsible for fighting terrorism to more diligently assess and share information.

New Orleans. -- Now I know how President Clinton and Yasser Arafat feel.I gave a talk at the Chicago Art Institute and they gave me security. Heavy security. They treated me, in fact, exactly as if I were a Modigliani on loan.First, a solid guy made out of bulging muscles in a suit two sizes too large walked ahead of me checking the hallways while his boss, an equally beefy killing machine, walked right by me, close enough to scorch my neck with his vigilant breath.After I gained the stage, the guy in the big suit sat at the bottom of the stairs, patting his hidden arsenal now and then, leading me to believe that what I had mistaken for muscles were actually armaments of varying size.

There are 875,000 on the terrorist watch list ("U.S. launches internal review," May 1). Unbelievable! This speaks out against the effectiveness of our immigration screening system and homeland security apparatus. Do I feel unsafe as I travel about my country? You bet I do, and it is a heavy topic of conversation. What are we to do about this? Just wait for the next 9/11 or Boston calamity? Even the dummies who voted in the past election are getting scared. However, we can all rest assured that Washington has the answer.

Towson became the second team in Division I (after Lehigh) to seal its path to the NCAA tournament when it knocked off No. 9 Penn State, 11-10, for the Colonial Athletic Association tournament championship last Friday. So unlike area neighbors like No. 5 Loyola, No. 11 Maryland and Johns Hopkins, the Tigers enjoyed last weekend. “It was actually pretty nice after being away for four days,” coach Shawn Nadelen said with a chuckle Sunday night. “It allowed our guys to catch up with some of their school work, and it gave us two days of a little extra rest.