Setback

Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups will miss two games to give his strained left groin time to heal. Billups, averaging 17.1 points and 5.7 assists, injured the groin Dec. 16 against the Rockets and sat out three straight games. The All-Star point guard returned on Christmas Day in Portland but didn't play in the second half of a 107-96 loss. The Nuggets said in an injury update that the move was "not a setback" and the goal was to avoid a "lingering problem." The Nuggets lost to the Mavericks at home on Sunday and will travel to Sacramento on Monday.

No. 11 Maryland will not skate through Saturday's regular-season finale against visiting Colgate — the Terps must win to cement a seed and a home game in the first round of the NCAA tournament. They will also have another motivation: history. The Raiders have ended Maryland's regular season with losses in 2011 and 2012, forcing the Terps to open the NCAA tournament on the road. It did not terribly damage them as they advanced to the national title game in both years, but coach John Tillman said he has not had to remind Maryland (9-3)

The Washington Nationals had taken the slow approach with Michael Morse's rehabilitation from a strained right lat muscle, and they felt optimistic the final step would come Monday night. Nine full innings in left field at Single-A Hagerstown would prepare Morse for his return Thursday in the home opener at Nationals Park. "He couldn't do that," manager Davey Johnson said. "That really distresses me. " Morse took himself out of his rehab appearance Monday night after seven innings.

I am ashamed to find out that the U.S. Senate has voted to oppose minimal, common-sense gun control legislation ("Defeat leaves gun control backers at a loss for strategy," April 19). Thankfully, both of our Maryland senators supported these measures, while 46 senators, including 90 percent of Republicans, opposed requiring criminal background checks on sales at gun shows and online. Even more elected officials opposed banning assault weapons or large-scale ammunition magazines.

A loss tends to turn coaches into surgeons, dissecting what went wrong and trying to make repairs. Stevenson coach Paul Cantabene doesn't like losing, but he chose to look at the silver lining from Saturday's 13-9 loss to No. 3 Cortland. “We know we can make plays, and we know we can play with the best teams in the country,” he said Monday. “And we have to. No other team is playing three of the top five teams in the country in nine days [Cantabene was referring to a March 10 loss to then-No.

Dick Horne, now the sole proprietor of Baltimore's American Dime Museum, suffered a setback yesterday when he was outbid for the buildings that house the museum on Maryland Avenue. The winning bid for the block of three rowhouses near Lafayette Avenue - two of which are occupied by the museum - was $255,000 (plus a 10 percent auctioneer's fee). Horne, who opened the museum of oddities four years ago, said he was forced to pull out at $250,000. The winner, Javed Nasir, who described himself as an "investor," said he does not know what he will do with the buildings, or whether he would want the dime museum to continue there as a tenant.

Salisbury's Jim Berkman, the all-time winningest lacrosse coach in NCAA history, is in the hospital, recovering from what he called a “minor setback.” Berkman, who has compiled a record of 395-42 in 24 seasons as a head coach with the Sea Gulls and Potsdam State, confirmed Monday morning via text of his status, writing, “In hospital minor setback can't talk for a few days sorry.” Senior attackman Matt Cannone said one of the assistant...

TAMPA, Fla -- After showing minor progress in his rehabilitation, New York Yankees left-hander Jimmy Key suffered a major setback at the Yankees' complex yesterday.Key was scheduled to throw three simulated innings of 20 pitches each, and did not even make it through the first frame before pain in his shoulder forced him to stop. He slammed down his glove after throwing only five pitches.Coach Nardi Contreras said Key may throw again today, depending on how his shoulder feels this morning.

LIMA, Peru -- Former President Alan Garcia won the presidential runoff election here yesterday against nationalist challenger and ex-Army officer Ollanta Humala. Garcia, 57, whose 1985-1990 presidential term left the country on the verge of economic and political collapse, had garnered 55.5 percent of the vote, compared to 44.5 percent for Humala, according to an official count of 77.3 percent of ballots. The lead was insurmountable, said the head of the electoral agency, Magdalena Chu. The margin could shrink, however, as Humala's support is strongest in rural areas where vote reporting is slower.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush marched into the conference room where Cabinet aides were promoting immigration reform last week and, with cameras rolling, pledged his administration would "get the job done." Days later, with Bush thousands of miles away for a summit of industrialized nations, the immigration legislation suffered an abrupt collapse, at least temporarily done in by frustrated Republican and Democratic lawmakers left out of closed-door negotiations, media critics and average citizens upset at the plan.

The beverage industry is claiming victory after a New York City judge on Monday overturned a ban on super-size sodas and sugary drinks Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had championed as a way to combat obesity among residents. But the battle is hardly over. Mr. Bloomberg, whose campaign against sales of such drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces became one of the signature public health initiatives of his administration, has garnered worldwide attention for his efforts and in the process amplified the conversation about the link between sweetened drinks and obesity that likely will go on long after he leaves office at the end of this year.

Both teams enter this contest smarting from unexpected losses. Mount St. Mary's dropped a 13-5 decision to a Towson team that had won just once in its previous four games. The Mountaineers (2-3) will be playing their fourth contest in 11 days and are 2-1 when the offense has scored at least 11 goals this season. Johns Hopkins absorbed an 11-8 upset loss at the hands of then-No. 14 Princeton that dropped the Blue Jays from No. 5 to No. 10. Johns Hopkins (3-1), which has won all four previous meetings with Mount St. Mary's, is 57-7 against teams from Maryland since Dave Pietramala became the head coach prior to the 2001 season.

WEATHER: Blustery, with wind chills making temperatures rarely feel warmer than the mid-20s.  TRAFFIC:   Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues. TOP NEWS Hopkins patients come forward as investigation into secret taping continues : Fearing that a Johns Hopkins gynecologist secretly videotaped and photographed them, nearly 100 women contacted police Tuesday, and some potential victims reached out to private attorneys contemplating legal action.

Mark Turgeon can barely bring himself to utter the words NCAA tournament these days. The superstitious Maryland basketball coach will begin shaking his head before a reporter can complete a question about Maryland's chances of advancing to what Turgeon has euphemistically referred to as the “four-letter word” tournament. While Turgeon considers it premature to speculate on Maryland's prospects, he knows that the team suffered a setback when it lost Tuesday night, 69-58, to a Boston College team that shut down Maryland center Alex Len. “I just don't get it,” Turgeon said afterward.

Tom Gravante was understandably concerned about how Mount St. Mary's would play after absorbing a humiliating 23-6 loss to No. 3 Maryland in the season opener for both teams a week ago. Thankfully, the head coach was delighted with what he witnessed during the Mountaineers' 12-11 upset of then-No. 18 Bucknell on Sunday. That victory helped assuage some of the aftertaste lingering from the setback to the Terps. “They responded in practice, they rebounded,” Gravante said Tuesday morning.

Only a few days into the new year, the Grand Old Party has a huge political hangover from the events that rang in the tidings of 2013. First came the escape from the fiscal cliff that saw its speaker of the House, John Boehner, embarrassed by his flock's failure to back his 11th-hour Plan B to avert it. Passing the ball to the Democratic-controlled Senate was an abdication of responsibility. Then Mr. Boehner was hit with surrender of the GOP's never-new-taxes pledge. Worse, the abandonment came with a violation of the party leadership's so-called Hastert rule allowing bills to pass only with a majority of Republican members of the House voting in favor.

Colleges Hopkins women's soccer team loses in D-III Elite Eight Johns Hopkins lost, 2-1, to Messiah in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division III women's soccer tournament Sunday in Grantham, Pa. The Falcons, who also eliminated the Blue Jays last year, scored twice Sunday night in the game's opening 11:37. Hopkins scored its goal in the 23rd minute, when Erica Suter (River Hill) played a cross from the left side into the center of the box, where a swarm of players were positioned and Paulina Goodman converted for the 10th time of the year.

PHILADELPHIA - It's not often in the NBA that a losing coach can muster a smile, albeit a wan one, in the face of a close road loss that knocks his team out of the postseason. But there was Washington Wizards coach Doug Collins looking through a window of hope in the midst of a 100-91 setback to the Philadelphia 76ers at the First Union Center. Collins' hope is that the Wizards' nucleus of young players carries the sting of fighting for a playoff berth down to the season's last weekend with them as they work out over the summer in preparation for next season.

A recent op-ed on the Guilford Elementary/Middle School vegetable garden focused on one project that didn't meet expectations ("Harvest of disappointment," Nov. 23). Yet discussions have already begun about how to incorporate the garden into the curriculum next spring, and we hope that this still can happen. The op-ed also failed to mention the many partnerships that are helping the long-struggling school improve. At the school, there are a number of great partnerships working under the auspices of the Greater Homewood Community Corporation.

Katie Sheahin had 14 points and eight rebounds to help the Loyola women's basketball team hand Towson its first loss of the season, 52-44, on Sunday at Reitz Arena. The Greyhounds (2-3) finished the game on a 10-2 run to pull away for their first home victory of the season after the Tigers' Tanisha McTiller tied the game at 42 with a jump shot with 7:29 remaining. McTiller led Towson (3-1) with 15 points and added five rebounds, two assists and two steals. Nyree Williams (Howard)