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The state's hospitals would absorb all of the 2 percent Medicare cuts required by federal sequestration under a proposal released Thursday by the state panel that sets hospital rates. The recommendation by the staff of the Health Services Cost Review Commission would mean that state hospitals would not get rate increases for the last three months of fiscal year 2013, a decision that prompted intense criticism from medical institutions that say they already operate on slim margins.

Denver's Jill Remenapp had no idea she was on her way to a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation record when she handed out nine assists in the No. 15 Pioneers' 20-9 win over St. Mary's (Cal.) on Sunday afternoon. “I didn't realize I was on such a roll,” the Century graduate said. “At halftime, Josie Owen, our grad assistant coach, said, 'Jill, you have six assists.' I was like, 'What?' because when I'm in the game I'm not thinking, 'Oh I had another assist.' Plus, you don't know whether you're going to get recorded for it. But [the St. Mary's defenders]

The tip came from a Towson student almost finished her sophomore year. A former sorority member who decided Greek Life wasn't for her, the student said Towson could be boring because parties seemed like they were filled with "all of the same people. " But recently, her friends were raving about Voltage Nightclub, the 12,000-square-foot club peculiarly located next to the Baltimore Travel Plaza right outside of Canton. It didn't matter to these students that Voltage, which opened in October, was once a Greyhound terminal or that it's located away from the city's hopping nightlife scenes.

For decades in Maryland many things have been done in the name of saving the Chesapeake Bay, but the degree to which tangible progress has been made is something of a disappointment. To be sure, there have been some successes. The mid-1980s ban on catching rockfish in an effort to allow the Chesapeake stock of the state fish to make a recovery has resulted in reasonably healthy stocks of the fish being available for watermen and sport anglers alike these days. Substantially stricter regulation of blue crab harvests seem to have helped avert a rockfish-like population collapse in Maryland's signature table fare.

Imagine the football field as a chess board, its synthetic green grass replaced with two-toned squares. Picture wideouts as rooks rocketing up and down the edges of the board and backs as bishops slashing through a front line of pawns. Tight ends and slot receivers are knights, slipping out to seize smaller chunks of ground. The quarterback, of course, is king, often times stationary but absolutely invaluable. Where does Tavon Austin fit into the NFL's weekly high-speed, hard-hitting chess matches?

It was Dirty Finger Club Day at Linton Springs Elementary School, near Eldersburg. Out in the vegetable garden - one of a dozen "outdoor classrooms" in the meadows, wetlands and woodlands of school's spacious grounds - Anna Letaw, a volunteer who has been the dynamo behind Linton Springs' Environmental Education Program, was giving a kindergarten class a primer on gardening. "Oh, look what I found!" Letaw called out as she knelt. "An earthworm .... Can anybody tell me what earthworms do?"

Sam Snow scored the game-winner with 56 seconds left in overtime as the visiting Fairfield men's lacrosse team upset top-ranked Denver, 10-9, Saturday in front of an announced 2,520 at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The Stags (8-5, 4-2 Eastern College Athletic Conference) recorded the program's first win over a No. 1 team. The victory gives the Stags a spot in the ECAC championship May 2-4 at Hobart. Denver fell to 10-3 overall and 5-1 in league play. Michael Roe won the opening faceoff of overtime and Fairfield called a timeout.

No. 19 Connecticut took a 6-4 lead into halftime and never relinquished it, upsetting No. 7 Notre Dame at home, 10-7, in women's lacrosse Sunday. The Huskies (13-1, 5-1 Big East) won all their home games in a season for the first time in program history. The Fighting Irish (11-3, 5-3) scored just three goals in the second half, two by Lauren Sullivan. Morgan O'Reilly had four goals on senior day to lead UConn, Carly Palmucci added a pair of first-half goals and Lauren Kahn scored her team-leading 32nd goal of the season.

The most famous, roof-rattling passage in Giuseppe Verdi's "Requiem" describes the "day of wrath" for the guilty as they face their eternal fate: "How great will be the terror when the Judge comes who will smash everything completely … Whatever is hidden will be revealed. Nothing shall remain unavenged. " To hear, let alone sing, those words in ordinary concert halls can be a pretty shattering experience. It is difficult to grasp what it must have been like for the Jewish prisoners at the Terezin concentration camp who performed the Verdi work 16 times in 1943-1944, having learned the music by heart - there was only one score for 150 singers.

On occasion, Orioles manager Buck Showalter will wax poetic about certain baseball subjects as if he were sitting on a country porch, telling stories and sipping lemonade. Thursday afternoon was one of those times - when Showalter was asked about managing this weekend against Los Angeles Dodgers skipper Don Mattingly, whom Showalter played with in the minors, managed in the majors and has remained close to over the years. "You know how people say friends are people that know all about you and still like you?