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If the Black Eyed Susan were a race horse, it would be a sprinter. It makes one strong move, then fades quickly. The strong move occurs this weekend when the cocktail will be in demand at Pamlico Race Track, during both the running of the Black Eyed Susan Stakes on Friday and the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Over these two days, about 25,000 servings of the libation, poured into commemorative glasses, will be sold at $8 apiece, track officials say. But as soon as Preakness weekend ends, so does the does the local thirst for the Susan.

At first-year program Richmond, sources said that Dan Chemotti has hired Loyola director of lacrosse operations Steve Layne . Layne, who was a defender for the Greyhounds during Chemotti's tenure, held the DOO position for the 2013 season. He's also the older brother of Chris Layne , a midfielder who just finished his career at Loyola. Chemotti, who was hired to lead the Spiders in October, ran the national champion Greyhounds' offense that averaged 12.05 goals per game and finished sixth in offensive efficiency in 2012.

The University of Maryland's planned departure from the Atlantic Coast Conference has raised questions about the league's long-term survival, a sobering prospect for fans that grew up on games between the Terps and their Tobacco Road rivals. The first notes of panic emerged Monday, after Maryland announced plans to leave for the Big Ten and its far greater television riches in 2014. "I think the ACC is vulnerable right now," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski in taping his show Basketball and Beyond for Sirius XM Radio.

Just last week, Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said pitching prospect Kevin Gausman was a starting rotation option for the future, but not the immediate present. But the 22-year-old right-hander will join the Orioles this week and is expected to make his major league debut Thursday night against the Toronto Blue Jays, according to multiple industry sources. The Orioles' first-round draft pick last June - the fourth-overall selection out of LSU - will make the jump from Double-A Bowie, where he is 2-4 with a 3.11 ERA in eight starts.

Erica L. Green's article, "City gets 'C' on school reform" (Aug. 25) cites a study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, identifying that organization as a "nonprofit organization that conducts research in elementary and secondary education reform…". That's like saying a report by the Republican Party, a non-profit organization, has been critical of Governor Martin O'Malley. The article should have said that the Fordham Institute is a right-wing organization tied to charter schools and anti-union activities.

Searching for a power bat to upgrade the major leagues' worst offense, the Washington Nationals yesterday acquired heavy-hitting Alfonso Soriano from the Texas Rangers for outfielders Brad Wilkerson, Terrmel Sledge and a minor leaguer, according to an industry source. The deal is pending Wilkerson's physical, the source said. Soriano, Sledge and minor league pitcher Armando Galarraga passed their physicals, the source said. Nationals general manager Jim Bowden would neither confirm nor deny the report.

As the Orioles head into the All-Star break, they do so with a managerial situation that remains in flux and rumors that continue to swirl about their leading candidate soon taking over. Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail and ESPN analyst Buck Showalter met again this weekend, at least the third time they have discussed the managerial opening, an industry source confirmed. But there has not been a formal offer, and there likely won't be one until the end of the week at the earliest.

BOB WOODWARD'S book about W. Mark Felt, perhaps the most famous source in the history of journalism, is a text for our democracy. Like his Watergate book, All The President's Men, it's a good yarn even if you know the plot. The characters are compelling, even heroic. And the real world stakes were as high as they get - then and now. The secret man stuff ought to be just the come-on. The book should be read as a procedural on the interplay between sources and the press - a partnership the press has neglected, at its peril, to discuss until recently.

Lawyers who know how the Supreme Court works say that it is very hard to win a case there if the facts put the client in a bad light, deserving of little or no sympathy. The problem is obvious, of course, when the case involves a client convicted of a gruesome murder. But it can be a problem in other kinds of cases, too; a new appeal illustrates that very well.Ordinarily, one expects the court to focus heavily, if not exclusively, on the legal issues in a case. As an appeals court, the court has to take the facts as they come from lower courts and has authority to decide only law issues.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, stepping into a celebrated controversy over the ethics of the press, agreed yesterday to spell out when -- or whether -- news organizations may be sued for breaking promises to their news sources.The case, from Minneapolis, involves a vow of confidentiality given by two newspaper reporters to a political source and then a decision by their editors to override that promise and publish the source's name as part of an article. The source sued the two newspapers over the broken vow and won $200,000 in damages.

As a journalist, I'm a big believer in free speech, but also in the idea that bigotry and wrongdoing are fair game for scrutiny. Regardless of your political leanings, it's fair to say that publicly ridiculing others in a confrontational and unconstructive way deserves calling out. Today is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, a campaign to confront bigotry as it exists across the globe. According to its 2012 annual report, the campaign launched in 2004 and chose May 17 "to commemorate the World Health Organization's decision in 1990 to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders.

The Ravens have finalized a one-year contract with veteran quarterback Caleb Hanie, according to a league source. Hanie is in Baltimore today and will immediately join the Ravens' offseason conditioning program. The Ravens later announced the deal. In Hanie, the Ravens have added another quarterback for training camp and provided Tyrod Taylor with competition for the backup job. "He's a talented guy," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "He's played in games and maybe hasn't been in the ideal situation for him yet. Based on the evaluation of our pro personnel department and our coaches, they felt like he fit us pretty well.

Four Baltimore police officers have been suspended as part of an investigation stemming from the conviction of an officer for conspiring with a drug informant to orchestrate arrests, according to sources with knowledge of the case. Anthony Guglielmi, the agency's chief spokesman, confirmed that the four officers were suspended from the Northwest District, where Richburg had worked in a special plainclothes unit. He declined to identify the officers or say why they were suspended.

Loyola men's basketball coach Jimmy Patsos, who has led the program to its first back-to-back seasons with more than 20 wins as a Division I team, has emerged as one of the top candidates for the opening at Siena. The 46-year-old coach will be in upstate New York on Monday to interview with longtime Siena athletic director John D'Argenio, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Dargenio fired Mitch Buonaguro after the Saints finished their third straight losing season with an 8-24 record.

A longtime Towson University professor has resigned his post as the head of the city school system's ethics panel amid allegations that his published academic articles contain content from dozens of sources without proper - or in some cases any - attribution. University officials and journal publishers say they are reviewing several articles submitted by Benjamin A. Neil, a legal affairs professor, after a librarian at another university alerted them to the issue. A Baltimore Sun review of five papers published by Neil shows passages with identical language and others with close similarities to scholarly journals, news publications, congressional testimony, blogs and websites.

When senior midfielder Ryan Clarke was lost for the remainder of the season because of a ruptured spleen during a 7-5 win against Widener on Feb. 23, the thought was that Salisbury's already-beleaguered offense was in more trouble. But the absence of Clarke - who was on the Tewaaraton Award watch list last month - has spurred the development of his teammates and spread the wealth around the Sea Gulls (9-2), who have moved up to No. 7 in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll.

WASHINGTON -- A news reporter's promise to keep secret the identity of a source for a story can be legally binding, and the reporter and news organization may be sued for breaking such a promise, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 yesterday.The Constitution, the court majority declared, allows the states to give individuals or firms the right to sue for broken promises and it does not give the press any special protection from the duty to keep promises.So long as state law permitting damage lawsuits for broken agreements does not single out the press as a target, the court said in an opinion by Justice Byron R. White, the First Amendment's free press clause does not insulate news organizations or their staffs when they get sued under such a law.Since every state has some version of law allowing damage lawsuits for "breach of contract" or a similar claim for a violated promise, the ruling appears to raise the prospects of many lawsuits against the press when dealings with sources break down in misunderstanding or outright broken promises.

With a final decision now expected in the next 48 hours, free agent Reggie White is now "leaning" toward signing with the Washington Redskins, a source close to the negotiations said last night.White, the Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman who is the most coveted prize in this year's free agent market, has been struggling for several days with the decision of whether to play for either the Redskins or the San Francisco 49ers.The Redskins, who earlier balked at paying White more than $3.5 million a year, made the decision a little easier yesterday when they moved "very close" to the four-year, $16 million deal White wants, a source said.

In a recent commentary, former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. described several examples of what he saw as over-the-top political correctness on college and university campuses ("Campus liberals run amok," Feb. 24). However, one does not need to resort to such extreme examples. An undercurrent of liberal thought runs through day-to-day life on every public college and university campus. There seem to be at least two reasons for this dreadful problem. First, professors are trained to think through issues, and they are charged with teaching students to do so as well.

Health officials continue to investigate how contaminated hot water sickened nearly two dozen people at the Johns Hopkins at Keswick complex Monday, but the case is similar to previous ones involving faulty water-heating systems that let chemicals mix into drinking water. Twenty-three people at the Hopkins facility - home to about 600 health system and university administrative workers - fell ill with headaches, breathing difficulty and dizziness. The investigation confirmed that chemicals known as nitrates and nitrites in the water supply were responsible for the illnesses, but officials still are exploring their origin.