Surrender

On the last day of a program for people wanted for nonviolent crimes to turn themselves in, more than 80 people were already in line at 9 a.m. The program, which kicked off Wednesday at the New Metropolitan Baptist Church on McCulloh Street in West Baltimore, provided a chance for 985 people with outstanding warrants to turn themselves in and aimed to reduce some of the 40,000 outstanding warrants in the city. "It's been an overwhelming success," said Deputy U.S. Marshal David Lutz, spokesman for the agency.

Loyola will enjoy its first berth in the Final Four since 1998, but an unenviable task awaits the top-seeded Greyhounds (16-1) when they meet No. 4 seed Notre Dame in an NCAA tournament semifinal on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The offense will try to become only the third opponent this season to decipher the Fighting Irish's bewildering defense, a unit so fundamentally sound that it has allowed only one team to reach double digits in goals this spring.

I agree with the Safe Surrender program ("Hundreds seek Safe Surrender," June 20). First of all, it provided a comfortable environment for the people with nonviolent crimes to get their lives back on track. Second of a, it provides a safe haven for people. Finally, everybody who turned themselves in received " favorable consideration." The program gave everyone a chance to do what is right and make better lives for themselves. People will have a second chance. One of the people mentioned in The Sun, Nakia Parrine, was wanted on drug charges for about four years and finally decided to turn herself in so she could get a job to support her family.

No. 4 Stevenson is 14-4 and despite falling to No. 1 and nine-time reigning national champion Salisbury in Saturday's Capital Athletic Conference tournament final, the Mustangs are virtually assured of a berth in the NCAA tournament. But each of their four losses have been marked by runs made by opponents. No. 3 Lynchburg scored all four goals in the second half en route to a 6-3 win on March 10, and No. 2 Cortland embarked on a 4-0 run in the first 4 minutes, 28 seconds of the third quarter for a 13-9 victory.

Initially it was simply amusing that those proudly sporting the slogan 'Freedom isn't Free' could, at the same time, want to restrict others' freedom of religion: witness the furor over the Muslim community center in New York. But now it's simply absurd; many of your readers seem willfully bent on miseducating themselves and anyone who will listen. Protesting against the community center/mosque because it is initiated by Muslims makes about as much sense as not flying the airline which carried the terrorists that fateful 9/11.

For nearly four years, Nakia Parrine had difficulty getting a job to support her family. Wanted on minor drug charges, she said she constantly looked over her shoulder, aware that any interaction with police might result in her arrest and hours at Central Booking. But in less than a few hours Wednesday, that was all behind her. As part of a program called Safe Surrender, she turned herself in, got booked, faced a judge, had the charges dropped, and began the expungement process.

It had to be a military first.News reports out of the Persian Gulf war zone told of an Iraqi soldier spinning around and around with his hands in the air trying to attract the attention of the pilot of a small plane flying above him.Only it wasn't a plane. It was a pilotless drone, called an RPV (remotely piloted vehicle), with a television camera mounted in its belly.That story -- and a second one about 40 Iraqis trying to surrender to another RPV -- made its way back to AAI Corp. in Cockeysville, where the craft is made.

Five of the six former counselors at Bowling Brook Preparatory School who were indicted last week on charges stemming from the death of an East Baltimore teenager were processed at Carroll County Central Booking yesterday and released on their own recognizance, officials said. Each has been charged with a single count of reckless endangerment in connection with the death Jan. 23 of Isaiah Simmons, 17, at the privately run school for juvenile offenders. The charge is a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

City police negotiators and family members worked for almost four hours yesterday before finally convincing a 27-year-old man, apparently distraught about his family life, to surrender and put down his .22-caliber, 18-shot rifle.Shortly after noon yesterday, police said, Joseph Hartlove of the 2500 block of Ashton St. in southwest Baltimore barricaded himself in a rear basement bathroom."He was threatening to shoot any police officer who came near and himself," said Southwestern District Sgt. Robert Ackerman.

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Fabio Ochoa Vasquez, a top member of the Medellin cartel wanted for extradition to the United States, surrendered to Colombian authorities yesterday, after two government decrees that guarantee he will be tried in Colombia. He is the first of several hundred drug traffickers expected to surrender in the next few weeks.Mr. Ochoa, 33, is the youngest of the three Ochoa brothers, who along with Pablo Escobar are considered the top drug barons in the Medellin cartel.Mr. Ochoa is accused in the United States of drug trafficking and of involvement in the 1986 killing of Barry Seal, a Drug Enforcement Agency informant.

One game into the 2012 campaign, Maryland's young defense is feeling a little better about itself after Saturday's 12-6 victory over No. 19 Hartford. Against an offense that returned more than 88 percent of its offensive output - including its entire starting attack and midfield - the No. 8 Terps allowed just 23 shots and blanked senior attackman Ryan Compitello, who recorded 22 goals and 27 assists last year. “We did pretty well, I thought,” said sophomore Michael Ehrhardt, who joined sophomore Brian Cooper and freshman Goran Murray in making their first career starts on close defense.

Pendarvis Williams scored 20 points and Kyle O'Quinn had 17 points and 11 rebounds as Norfolk State defeated host Navy, 71-65, on Sunday in the men's basketball teams' first meeting, sending the Mids to their seventh straight loss. Williams scored 11 points during a 61/2-minute stretch when the Spartans (10-5) rallied from a 39-30 deficit to lead 50-48 with 12:19 remaining. Norfolk State didn't trail again, but it never led by more than six and was ahead just 67-65 with 10 seconds left after Navy's Thurgood Wynn made one of two free throws.

You win some, you lose some. That appears to be the current state of affairs with federal funding for research. Congress recently passed legislation providing a modest increase in funding to the National Institutes of Health, which funds research at the Johns Hopkins University and other universities, academic medical centers, small businesses, and independent research institutions across the U.S. That's the good news. The bad news is that this increase doesn't make up for the $300 million-plus cut the NIH received in the last budget go-round; much less does it keep pace with the increasing cost of conducting medical research.

When Patrick Peterson returned a punt 82 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter of the Ravens' eventual 30-27 victory over the Arizona Cardinals Sunday, the current group of Ravens became the first squad to surrender kick and punt returns for scores in the same season since the 2002 team. That dubious honor doesn't sit well with special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg. “Giving up two touchdowns is never acceptable,” he said Thursday during his weekly briefing. “It's certainly not acceptable now nor will it be acceptable.

The Ravens' stirring 30-27 comeback over the Arizona Cardinals Sunday masked a few deficiencies. One of those is the play of the special teams, which surrendered an 82-yard punt return for a touchdown by Arizona rookie Patrick Peterson in the second quarter. Add the 107-yard kick return for a touchdown by the New York Jets' Joe McKnight on Oct. 2, and it's the first time the Ravens have surrendered touchdowns on kick and punt returns in the same season since 2002. “It's disappointing,” said linebacker Albert McClellan, who leads the team in special-teams stops with seven this year.

A North Carroll Middle School eighth-grader is being charged as a juvenile after he voluntarily surrendered a handgun he brought to the Hampstead school Wednesday, Oct. 26, to a school staff member he went to for help. Maryland State Police identified the student is a 15-year-old male. He is not being identified because he is being charged as a juvenile. According to police accounts, shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday, the student was in the school lunchroom for his lunch period when he approached an assistant principal in the room and said he was troubled with thoughts of harming himself.

WASHINGTON -- FBI officials overseeing negotiations with Branch Davidian leader David Koresh were convinced he would never surrender despite an offer to do so communicated by his lawyers days before the assault on Mount Carmel, a congressional hearing was told yesterday.Jeffrey Jamar, the FBI's on-site commander at Waco, testified that he viewed as "another delaying tactic" Koresh's offer to surrender once he finished writing a religious treatise."It was not a serious plan," said Mr. Jamar, the former special agent in charge of the FBI's San Antonio office.

The Ravens have been unkind to opposing running backs this season. The Ravens have allowed an average of 76.6 yards per game thus far, which ranks third in the league. Only the Dallas Cowboys (69.6) and the San Francisco 49ers (74.7) have been tougher against the run. “We play completely as a unit,” 12-time Pro Bowl inside linebacker Ray Lewis said Thursday. “We have a certain way that we play defense to where wherever the play breaks down, we don't believe in being blocked one-on-one.

Any momentum the Ravens had gained from their opening touchdown against the New York Jets nearly evaporated in a span of 15 seconds Sunday night. That's how long it took for Jets running back Joe McKnight to return a kickoff 107 yards just 3 minutes, 17 seconds into the first quarter at M&T Bank Stadium. The touchdown, which was the longest play in Jets history and the longest allowed by the Ravens in their history, was the first kickoff return against the Ravens since John Harbaugh became the head coach in 2008, but the third such kick return for a touchdown over that same span.