Texas

We're at the finale already (didn't this season seem short?). I'll say it right here at the top of the episode - unless William falls repeatedly on his keister, requiring the judges to give him 5's across the board, there's no way he's not winning this thing. That being said, I'd be OK with any of the three finalists winning, even though I'm personally Team Driver. Tonight's show will have each couple dancing two dances:  1. Judge's pick, which are new routines danced to new music, but in a style the couple has previously danced and in which the judges would like to see them improve.  2. Freestyle Tomorrow night, the couples will be doing some sort of third scored dance, details about which we'll learn later.

Towson University will receive $2 million in state and private grant funds to start a new program designed to increase production of math and science teachers. The initiative will be based on the 15-year-old UTeach program, which more than doubled the output of math and science teachers at the University of Texas in Austin and is widely regarded as a model for training teachers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. UTeach offers financial incentives for math, science and computer science majors to train and enter the workforce as teachers.

Roberto Pagan-Franco didn't have a bank account for decades. His employer paid him in cash or with a check that the Baltimore resident took to a check-cashing store. A few years ago he lost his job after a severe illness and for a time was homeless. Not exactly the type of customer you'd expect a big bank to court. But Pagan-Franco enrolled in a PNC Bank program that targets consumers who otherwise might be shut out of the banking system. And today, the 54-year-old has checking and savings accounts at PNC and is in the process of getting a credit card.

Naji Hibbert   has never been to Gardner-Webb, and he didn't know much about the small Division I school in Boiling Springs, N.C., until a few weeks ago. But despite his relative lack of familiarity with the university, Hibbert quickly discovered that Gardner-Webb was a “good fit academically and on the floor.” Hibbert, an East Baltimore native who played three years at Texas A&M, announced his intentions to transfer to the Big South school...

Two of college football's most storied programs vie for the Bowl Championship Series national title tonight at 8:38 on channels 2 and 7. For the No. 1 Crimson Tide, led by Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, right, it would be the first championship since 1992; the No. 2 Longhorns, led by two-time Heisman finalist Colt McCoy, last won in 2005. For matchups and X-factors, see PG 10

Maryland has agreed to a home-and-home football series with Texas, the school announced today. The Terps will travel to Austin on Sept. 2, 2017, while the Longhorns will head to College Park for a Sept. 1, 2018 date. Both games will be season openers. Texas holds a 3-0 series advantage over the Terps. The last meeting between the programs was in the 1978 Sun Bowl.

Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group has agreed to sell a natural gas plant in west Texas to a municipal utility company in the state, contingent on the purchaser obtaining financing through the sale of municipal bonds, the company announced late Thursday. High Plains Diversified Energy Corporation, the utility of the West Texas Municipal Power Agency, would pay $185.3 million for the 550-megawatt Quail Run plant near Odessa if the sale goes through. The Quail Run plant was one of two Texas plants acquired by Constellation in May but the facility's location is far from the company's retail and wholesale customers and growth opportunities, said Kathleen W. Hyle, the company's senior vice president.

The NCAA has given Maryland and Texas a one-year reprieve from a new rule that limits off-campus football recruiting by a coach designated as the head coach-in-waiting. That will allow Maryland offensive coordinator James Franklin and Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp to fully participate in the spring evaluation period in April and May. The new rule says coaches "publicly designated" to be the next head coach are bound by the same recruiting rules as the current head coach.

Constellation Energy Group has completed the $365 million purchase of two natural gas generation facilities in Texas, the company announced Tuesday. The Colorado Bend Energy Center, a 550-megawatt facility near Wharton, Texas, and the Quail Run Energy Center, a 550-megawatt facility near Odessa, gives Constellation a physical presence in Texas, where the Baltimore-based corporation sells power in wholesale and retail markets. Company executives had announced in February plans to use $1 billion in cash balances to purchase additional generation facilities in areas where it sells more load than it produces.

No team has been able to cling to No. 1 very long this season. But no team has fallen harder since being ranked at the top than Texas. The No. 9 Longhorns entered Monday's game against Oklahoma State having dropped three of their last four after starting the season 17-0. Thud. Or maybe it's more of a whiff. The Longhorns might be modeling themselves after the NCAA runner-up Memphis team from two seasons ago that never could make a free throw. Texas owns the top scoring offense in the Big 12, averaging 85.3 points, is the top rebounding team with 44.3 per game and has the third-best shooting defense, holding opponents to 38.5 percent shooting.

The jockey had raced an Arabian horse only once before and had never met the trainer before. The trainer, a former jockey himself, has never actually mounted an Arabian. The owner is an 18-year-old Shiek who, according to the trainer, knows very little about horses, even Arabians. Experience seemed to be insignificant when it comes to T M Fred Texas, the 5-year-old Arabian who followed a world championship in Dubai in March with a victory Saturday in the first President of United Emirates Cup at Pimlico Race Course . T M Texas paid $4.40.

The last time Koji Uehara was around the Orioles, he was saying tearful goodbyes in the visitor's clubhouse at Yankee Stadium last July. This week, Uehara was back at Camden Yards, this time with the Texas Rangers, the club that acquired him from the Orioles for Chris Davis and Tommy Hunter at the nonwaiver trade deadline. There were some hugs and handshakes this week, but Uehara said, he is a Ranger now. Uehara, the former Japanese star who spent his first 21/2 big league seasons in Baltimore, didn't fare as well in two months in Texas.

The Orioles are now winless this season in games after they have played 17 innings. Call it the Great Boston Marathon Hangover. The Orioles came out manhole-cover-flat Monday, and were run over by the Texas Rangers, 14-3, in a game which they gave up 19 hits, got only six and suffered their most lopsided defeat of the young season. The sleepwalking wasn't surprising considering it came a day after beating the Boston Red Sox, 9-6, in a six-hour, seven-minute saga that completed an impressive sweep at Fenway Park.

A 27-year-old former U.S. Armysoldier was found dead in his Baltimore County apartment Saturday afternoon, police said. Timothy Allan Coyer, of Stevensville, was found dead by roomates in their apartment in the 7700 block of Greenview Terrace in Towson at about 2:30 p.m., according to a statement from Baltimore Coutny Police spokesman Lt. Robert McCullough. Homicide investigators have not been asked to investigate, although the cause of death is not yet know, McCullough said.

In his recent op-ed, "Sanctuary Baltimore, no questions asked" (March 26) Dan Rodricks wrongfully assumes that welcoming illegal immigrants will help increase Baltimore's tax base. But there is a consensus among nonpartisan economists that illegal immigrants are a fiscal drain on American taxpayers. A majority of illegal immigrants have less than a high school education and have well below average incomes. The National Research Council found that an illegal immigrant without a high school degree will impose a net cost on taxpayers of $89,000 over his or her lifetime.

The Maryland women's basketball team was forced to come back twice from double-digit deficits Sunday in its NCAA tournament Sweet 16 game against defending national champion Texas A&M at PNC Arena. The first comeback, after being down 18 points with 6:40 left in the first half, fell a little short, when a two-handed halfcourt heave by freshman guard Brene Moseley hit the backboard and then bounced off the front rim. It left the second-seeded Terps trailing the third-seeded Aggies by three points.

Long live the new king Don Markus Baltimore Sun Texas remained in the Big 12 for the same reason it considered jumping to the Pac-10. Money and greed were deep in the heart of this decision, evidenced by the fact that the country's most well-endowed public university stands to make between $20 million and $25 million in television revenue. In doing so, Texas showed that it, not Notre Dame, is the new king. It was a good move for the Longhorns but an even better move for college football.

In its first New Year's Eve game in 14 years, No. 13 Texas wanted to end 2010 on a high note. The Longhorns did just that. Jordan Hamilton hit five 3-pointers and scored 24 points to help host Texas beat Coppin State, 95-75, on Friday. Tristan Thompson scored a career-high 22 points and pulled down nine rebounds for the Longhorns (11-2). "I thought we broke out today, and we wanted to end 2010 right," Texas guard J'Covan Brown said. "We've got to bring that to the next part of the season.

Bernard Sadusky, the interim state school superintendent, sent a note to local school superintendents on Tuesday afternoon after the state police told him that schools should be on the look out for suspicious letters. Several schools in the northeast have been sent letters containing white powder in the mail with a Texas post mark. The letters were a hoax, and none were sent to Maryland schools that have been discovered. "We've not as yet heard of any instances, but we can't be too careful," said Bill Reinhard, a spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Education.

The South Plains men's basketball team — 29-0 and ranked No. 1 in the National Junior College Athletic Association poll — is the best college squad that you probably have never heard of. But you might have heard of three of its players. Stanton Kidd, Derrell Edwards and Corey Spence grew up 1,705 miles away from Levelland, Texas — in Baltimore. Kidd played at Edmondson and Edwards and Spence teamed up at Dunbar; together they've helped the Texans earn their 11th Western Junior College Athletic Conference championship.