Spring

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.

If you've watched Orioles right-hander Freddy Garcia through the last few years, you know he doesn't have a lot of margin for error. He's around the plate a lot - and he doesn't throw hard. So when he gets hit, he really can get hit. The San Diego Padres, who cut Garcia this spring, really hit him Wednesday . In the first inning, Garcia did what he's made a career out of doing: getting out of jams. He had runners at first and second and one out and he induced an inning-ending double play.

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.

Wedding date: March 23, 2013 Her story: Nessa Klein, 33, grew up in Arbutus. She is a human resources consultant for St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore. Her mother, Linda, works for Baltimore County public schools and her father, Charles, is retired. His story: John Mimm, 35, grew up in Columbia. He works in sales and estimating at Eastern Waterproofing and Restoration in Jessup. His mother, Helga, is a stay-at-home mom, and his father, John, works in sales for Durrett Sheppard Steel.

Gardeners are forever looking for something to wrap a flower bed around. There has to be a bed along the front of the porch, and others might be carved out around a garden shed, a birdbath or the trunks of shade trees. For many people, there's another opportunity right out by the curb: the mailbox. A garden bed around a mailbox gives gardeners a chance to put their horticultural stamp where it's sure to show. In the midst of handsome shrubs, interesting ornamental grasses or hard-working annual and perennial flowers, a standard-issue mailbox on a post becomes a piece of functional art. When there's a flower bed to visit, the trip out to the mailbox is much more interesting, even if the postman brings nothing but bills.

Always, there were those lovely old country estates and gracious manor taverns with roaring fireplaces, but in the old days fine dining was associated with the city. Not so anymore. Now, there are more compelling reasons than ever for diners to cross county lines for a good meal. The 50 best county restaurants in Howard County, Anne Arundel County and Baltimore County is a mix of the old and the new, destinations for special occasions and joints for Monday night suppers, the chef-driven and crowd-pleasing.

On Thursday, my iPad said the temperature was 75.  Daffodils and crocuses all over Baltimore bloomed. Ditto Okame cherry trees. The buds on Yoshinos cherry trees swelled, but they did not open to create the pink ballerina tutus that make Yoshinos famous.   That is a good thing. The current warm-up continued a warmer than usual winter. Much warmer than usual. So warm that for the first time since I started using Dracaena plants at the center of my summer annual containers, they did not die back in winter.

The Longfellow Elementary School Springtastic Spring Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 1 at the school, 5470 Hesperus Drive in Columbia. There will be games, a silent auction, dunk tank, food and more. Admission is free. Information: 410-313-6879.

An afternoon of fun, featuring crafts, games, children's activities, food and more, will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. today at the Laurel Museum, 817 Main St. Cost is $5 per child, free for parents. Reservations required. Call 301-725-7975 or go to laurelhistoricalsociety.org.

To celebrate 40 years of service, Amtrak is letting kids ride free on trips booked before May 6th for travel through June 9th. Click here for all the details. Almost makes me wish I had kids; almost.

I was very happy to see that additional development was barred at Green Spring Station and that common sense prevailed in our county's decision making. Anyone who travels through this intersection during the week days, especially rush hours, can tell you this is a failing intersection that it fully deserves its "F" rating. To those legislators who upgraded it as a "D" rating, I would suggest that without major improvements in place beforehand, any further development at Green Spring Station would overnight decrease its rating to a "F". For this reason, I believe the restriction that prohibits development only near "F" rated intersections should be expanded to include "D" rated roadways and intersections; this is only common sense, guys.

Stevenson's 18-2 record and No. 4 ranking in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll has been aided by Division III's sixth-ranked offense and 14th-ranked defense. But another pillar of the program's success this season has been ground balls. The Mustangs entered the week ranked second in the nation in ground balls per game (47.4), and that number will improve after the team collected 70 loose balls in an 18-6 pummeling of Christopher Newport in the first round of the NCAA tournament Wednesday night.

After seven years running his own kitchen at Salt , his Upper Fells Point restaurant that put duck-fat fries, Wagyu sliders and changing menus on Baltimore's food map, Jason Ambrose is stepping aside. Ambrose is turning over Salt's day-to-day kitchen operations to Brian Lavin, who joined the Salt team in 2010 and has been the restaurant's sous-chef for about a year and a half, according to Ambrose. "I made a decision I was going to take a step out," said Ambrose. "Brian came to me as a line cook with a tremendous interest in food.

The activities room on the far side of Lutherville Laboratory Elementary School on York Road is full of jazz dancers dressed in black leggings and tank tops on a recent Wednesday afternoon. The room smells of team spirit, the beat of the music races through the floor up to my chest. The dancers are under the instruction of Brittany Brothers, graduate of Towson University, and her assistant, Morgan Colburn , a senior at Maryvale High School. Brothers and Coleburn are just two of about 15 dance staff with the Lutherville Timonium Recreation Council Tap/Jazz program.

Nutritionists from the University of Maryland Medical Center regularly contribute a guest post. The latest post is from Catherine Schroeder, dietetic intern. Spring showers inspire the growth of a colorful array of fruits and vegetables to decorate your dishes, tempt your taste buds and nourish yourself naturally. Vibrantly colored produce adds visual appeal to any dish without the use of synthetic dyes or additives. More importantly, these brightly colored foods pack a powerful nutrition punch.

NEW YORK -- Carnegie Hall put out the purple Monday night to welcome the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for the opening of Spring For Music, a week-long festival showcasing American orchestras playing adventurous programs. Ravens-colored cloths adorned the seat backs of the musicians' chairs and the conductor's podium; more cloths were handed out to audience members to wave on cue in a salute to Baltimore. That cue came before the music started when an announcer from local radio station  WQXR interviewed the BSO's high-profile booster, Gov. Martin O'Malley, onstage.

Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman wants to throw more strikes, he wants to pitch more scoreless innings and he wants to keep himself in contention for a spot in the rotation. After Friday's 3-1 exhibition victory against the Minnesota Twins at Hammond Stadium in which Tillman allowed one run in 3 1/3 innings, the 23-year-old right-hander called his spring a "work in progress. " But Orioles manager Buck Showalter was a little more effusive about Tillman, who has allowed just three runs in 8 1/3 innings in three spring games.

I recently got a letter from Jodi Navid of Ellicott City, whose new house, she discovered, was built on a natural spring. She noted that the spring pumps approximately 1,200 gallons of water every 24 hours, and she is concerned that water might get into her basement. She added that she has taken several precautions to keep her house dry. She has two sump pumps draining to back of the yard and two alarms if the pumps fail. Also she has two battery-backup sump pumps in case of power outage.

A vote by the Baltimore County Council on Monday will bar new development at Green Spring Station in Lutherville for the near future. Developers cannot build near intersections graded "F" under the county's "basic services maps," which identify deficiencies in public infrastructure throughout the county. The council approved the maps Monday. The intersection of West Joppa and Falls roads near Green Spring Station — which has shops, restaurants and offices — had been labeled failing for about a decade, and the planning board recommended "F" again this year.

How bad is traffic at Falls and Joppa roads in Baltimore County? It depends whom you ask, and the answer could determine whether the county allows additional growth near the intersection. A dispute over the intersection near Green Spring Station, a collection of shops, restaurants and offices in Lutherville, was the subject of a County Council discussion last week. Council members are scheduled to vote Monday on the county's "basic services maps," which identify deficiencies in the county's sewer, water and transportation infrastructure plans.