Sting

EFFI BARRY, 63 Former first lady of D.C. Effi Barry, the District of Columbia's stoic former first lady who endured her husband's drug abuse and unfaithfulness during his years as the city's mayor, died Thursday. Ms. Barry died of leukemia at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, said Justin Paquette, a spokesman for the hospital. Ms. Barry separated from Marion Barry in 1990, shortly after he was caught on videotape at a downtown hotel smoking crack cocaine with a former model and asking her to have sex with him. Throughout her husband's three-month trial -- during which federal prosecutors played the grainy 83-minute tape of the FBI sting -- Ms. Barry sat in the front row of the courtroom with a hook and yarn.

Three local liquor purveyors charged with selling alcohol to minors could have their licenses suspended if the Anne Arundel County Liquor Board finds them guilty.The board has scheduled a hearing at 6: 30 p.m. tomorrow in the Arundel Center on charges that Odenton Liquors, Whitey's Supermarket in Linthicum and Corridor Wine and Spirits in Laurel sold liquor to minors during county police sting operations in September and October.The alleged violations were the first for each store, said Richard Bittner, liquor board chairman.

Despite a prosecutor's protest that the sentence was unjustifiably light, a federal judge ordered yesterday that a German businessman be released after serving 2 1/2 months for crossing state lines to have sex with a minor in Maryland.Bodo Erwin Mueller, 33, was facing a possible 12 to 18 months under federal sentencing guidelines. He pleaded guilty last month in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to using the Internet to arrange a liaison with a 14-year-old boy.The "boy" was an undercover federal agent working online as part of "Innocent Images," the FBI's Internet sting operation that investigates sex crimes against children.

Howard County police ran their second sting operation this year, targeting convicted drunken drivers who continue to get behind the wheel though their licenses have been revoked.By 5 p.m. yesterday, police had caught 16 illegal drivers as they left appointments with their probation monitors, said police spokesman Sgt. John Superson.About 165 people were sent notices to come to District Court for appointments between noon and 5: 45 p.m. yesterday. Police stopped those who got into their cars after their appointments and started to drive away.

MIAMI -- The smugglers moved with ease through Miami International Airport and made their way onto American Airlines planes parked at the gates, stashing heroin in coffee containers in the planes' galleys and hiding cocaine and marijuana in suitcases in the baggage holds, a federal indictment filed yesterday charged.Once, they agreed to stash three hand grenades in carry-on baggage.As they went about their illegal business, in plain sight of passengers and airport security officers, federal investigators said, the smugglers did not worry about being caught by the airline.

WASHINGTON -- When is the result of a basketball game superfluous? When it comes in the middle of a coronation, that's when.For the record, the Washington Mystics lost their WNBA season opener, 83-73, to the Charlotte Sting last night, the 28th loss in the franchise's 31 games, but it just didn't matter.Chamique Holdsclaw had come to stake her claim as the basketball queen of the "most important city in the world," as the public address announcer describes it, and her subjects were all too happy to let her reign begin.

NEW YORK -- For the fans, Sting has always been a musician's musician, the kind of player whose confidence and ability seemed worlds away from the garage-band amateurism of many rock stars. It isn't just that the former Police-man is a multi-instrumentalist, handling not only bass and guitar but also keyboards and (for a while) saxophone; he's also a jack of all styles, being as well-versed in jazz and classical music as he is in rock.But for his own part, the 48-year-old pop star takes a much more modest view of his abilities.

When the American Basketball League decided to close shop on Dec. 22, the Women's National Basketball Association received a two-fold, early Christmas present. The move meant no competitor bidding for Chamique Holdsclaw and the availability of talented and seasoned ABL players.For a glimpse of the impact as the league's third season begins tonight, please check out the opponent of Holdsclaw's Washington Mystics, the Charlotte Sting -- the most immediate beneficiary of the ABL influx.The WNBA's Eastern Conference runner-up in 1998, Charlotte is a legitimate championship contender after nabbing a desperately needed point guard in ABL refugee Dawn Staley.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Asked how many hours he works as an independent limousine driver, Ray Vinole, 35, says, matter-of-factly, "Sixty to 80 hours a week, when I'm not scared." Come through the looking glass and see a small entrepreneur's experience in Nevada.What scares Mr. Vinole is abuse that has driven out of business virtually all 65 other members of the Independent Limousine Owner/Operator Association. The coercion has been accomplished by contemptible hurdles to licensing, crude sting operations for the unlicensed, bankruptcy brought on by seizure of the $70,000-plus vehicles in which drivers have sunk their savings, and occasional physical abuse.

Darrell Dale drove to a seemingly routine appointment yesterday with his probation monitor in Ellicott City.Instead, he drove into a trap.Authorities waited for him to leave the meeting, get into his Jeep Wrangler and begin to head home with his 8-year-old daughter. Then, they arrested him on charges of driving with a revoked license.Howard County police and state officials made 28 arrests in a sting targeting drivers barred from driving after being convicted of drunken driving in Howard County.

Question: : You recently wrote about rubbing a cut onion on a bee sting to ease the pain. Swiss farmers have practiced this for centuries. In 1949, when I was stung by a bee right near the kneecap and was hurting badly, my farmer grandmother gave me a freshly cut onion and told me to rub it on the sting site for five minutes. After that, I could not even feel the sting or any pain anymore. I have used this remedy many times since. Answer: : Thanks for this historical perspective. Onion contains compounds that can break down the proteins in bee venom.

Bob Dylan [Columbia Records] ** 1/2 (2 1/2 stars) cds Bob Dylan's got the blues. On Together Through Life, his new album in stores Tuesday, the pop legend goes for a blues-suffused, Tex-Mex sound that evokes bygone barroom nights of dancing and drinking. A guitar weeps, an accordion whines and wheezes as the drums shuffle. Dylan's tattered, croaking voice looms over the dusty grooves like a dark storm cloud. The peppery musical blend of folk, Tin Pan Alley-style pop, Americana and Southern blues is sometimes flavorful.

Two indicted in theft of stamps for resale Two men were indicted Tuesday in a scheme to steal more than a half-million dollars' worth of postage stamps and sell them at a discount, sometimes on eBay, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office announced. According to the indictment, Marvin Lamont Foster, a 54-year-old window clerk at the Elkridge post office, stole nearly $683,000 worth of stamps from June 2008 through last month and passed them to others to sell. Kyle Mathias, 23, of Joppa is accused of setting up an eBay account to sell the stamps.

19 guns seized; man, 62, arrested in raid on home Police seized 19 guns yesterday morning during a raid on a Southwest Baltimore home where a 62-year-old man is suspected of selling prescription drugs. Members of the Tri-District Initiative, which is made up of officers from the Police Department's Southwestern, Western and Southern Districts, received information that a house in the 1800 block of McHenry St. was storing drugs and guns and could potentially be targeted for a robbery. Police executed a search-and-seizure warrant just before 5 a.m. and recovered $4,500 in cash, more than 100 pills, including Percocet and Xanax, and 19 rifles and shotguns, said Lt. Donald Gerkin.

Pakistan confirms arrest in India attacks NEW DELHI : A senior Pakistani official confirmed yesterday the arrest of the suspected mastermind behind November's terrorist attacks in Mumbai as Indian authorities publicly identified all the known assailants as young men from Pakistan. After a day of contradictory news reports and official silence, Pakistani Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar acknowledged that Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi had "been picked up" during a raid on an alleged militant camp in the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir.

Sting finally broke his silence Thursday night on TNA Impact, but his promo left me more confused than ever. If that was supposed to be a heel promo, then Sting isn't very good at being bad. The fans at the Impact Zone sure didn't see Sting as a villain. They cheered everything he said, even when he ran down TNA's top babyfaces, Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles. I guess that's what happens when you book your top babyfaces to be whiners. (For more, go to baltimoresun.com/ringposts)

9 p.m. [Spike] Baltimoresun.com wrestling blogger Kevin Eck says: "Sting has been acting very strange lately." He's supposed to explain himself during this show. Sting, that is. Kevin never has fully explained why he likes wrestling. Just to be clear, this is the wrestling Sting (right) who's talking here. If that other Sting were going to explain himself, this would be a 10-part series.

A Baltimore police officer who was criminally charged with assault after he punched an undercover internal affairs detective during an "integrity test" was found not guilty in Circuit Court yesterday. Whether the officer, Jerome K. Hill, hit the detective was not in dispute in the trial. Instead, the verdict turned on whether Hill's action was justified. Circuit Judge John C. Themelis found yesterday that it was impossible for him to second-guess the instincts of the accused officer, saying that Hill might have had good reason to act aggressively.

With promises of phony tax refunds and Valentine's Day gift deliveries, Anne Arundel County Sheriff Ron Bateman has made good use of gimmicky stunts to track down suspected criminals. So when the local delegation decided to honor his efforts, a standard awards presentation wouldn't do. Bateman was lured to the Lowe House Office Building in Annapolis yesterday under the guise that he would provide input for a House bill dealing with law enforcement. Instead of a legislative work session, the delegates surprised Bateman with a citation recognizing his continuing efforts to reduce the number of outstanding criminal warrants in Anne Arundel County.

A Baltimore police officer was charged yesterday with assault after he allegedly punched an undercover detective who was posing as a man waiting to buy drugs - a sting set up by detectives investigating a citizen complaint against the officer, according to documents filed in court. The officer, Jerome K. Hill, 35, has been suspended without pay. Hill, a four-year veteran, was charged with second-degree assault, a misdemeanor. He posted $25,000 bail and was released from the Central Booking and Intake Center.