Thousands

By writing "Thousands" attended the Glenn Beck rally ("Thousands attend Beck rally," Aug. 29), rather than the hundreds of thousands ( I know it is only a few zeros to you liberals/progressives) as reported on even NBC TV, The Baltimore Sun now ranks right up there with the New York Times and MSNBC in the race for disingenuous reporting honors. Lyle Rescott, Marriottsville

More than 16,000 Anne Arundel County homeowners who pay for unmetered sewer service but not public water probably will see their wastewater bills drop by about one-third, after the county auditor's office said they were paying too much. "They have been overcharged because their consumption was overstated by 50 percent," county auditor Teresa Sutherland said. Those customers probably will see wastewater bills decrease by more than $160 a year, as the county agreed with a recent audit recommendation to reduce the usage estimate at the root of the audit's findings.

The Sun recently reported 50 people were marching to Washington to protest economic inequality. Yet on Jan. 23, tens of thousands of people marched in Washington during the annual March for Life protesting the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision - and The Sun ignored it. Why? Rick Williams, Baltimore

It takes incredible courage for a victim of domestic violence to apply for a protective order. Victims must make their way to the courthouse, often while they are still experiencing the effects of their abuse. At the courthouse, they must write a description of how they were abused, and then describe their abuse again to a judge, often in front of a courtroom filled with strangers. If the judge determines that there has been abuse, the judge will issue a temporary protective order that must be served by a law enforcement officer on the alleged abuser.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. " Our Second Amendment is experiencing the "death by a thousand cuts. " Perhaps no single gun law will take away our guns, but many such laws regarding magazine size, weapon types and ammunition will collectively accomplish that end, whether intended or not. This is the very reason our Founding Fathers included the last four words "shall not be infringed" in the Second Amendment.

Pillowy cumulus clouds and temperatures around 80 degrees delighted the thousands of visitors and hundreds of vendors during the 38th annual Arbutus Arts Festival on May 15. The warm spring weather stayed with the event, which started at 10 a.m., until it closed at 5 p.m. About 90 minutes later, the skies opened. "The weather's been a great surprise," said Susan-Marie Stedman, as she showed off some of the inventory of Rainbow Moon Tie-Dye, a company that sells bags, shirts and other psychedelic items.

J ean-Michel Frederick lives at the Petionville Club, near the golf course's ninth tee, with a grand view of the valley and the harbor. That would have meant prestige a few weeks ago. Today it means sleeping with his family on the side of a hill inside a patchwork tent made of sticks and bed linens, wedged into a human collage of 30,000 fellow Haitians displaced by the earthquake. "Of course, we do not choose to live here, but it is safe from the earthquake and the Americans are here," said Frederick, as he stood in line with his mother and a thousand others, clutching the green Catholic Relief Services ticket that promised his family a two-week supply of food.

The international community has to be terminally naive to believe that words and threats that aren't backed up by force will deter Syrian President Bashar Assad from murdering his own people ("Killings intensify Syria crisis," May 31). Even at 10,000 civilians massacred by Syrian government forces, this catastrophe pales in comparison to his father's vendetta, when more than 30,000 Syrians were slaughtered. Both men ruled by the sword; in light of Mr. Assad's continuing support from Iran and Russia, only a military response will lead to the overthrow of this dictator.

The handsome, dark-haired young man smiled for the camera on a sunny day in October 1990, although he already knew.Less than a year later, Bob Fabiszak was dead of AIDS at 31. Yesterday he, too, joined the crowd of thousands in the sixth annual AIDSWALK in North Baltimore as his mother carried his photograph on a sign along the route."

MIAMI -- A federal judge blocked yesterday efforts by the government to deport as many as 40,000 legal immigrants -- most of whom came from Nicaragua years ago -- clearing the way for them to seek permanent U.S. residency.In issuing a preliminary injunction against the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Justice Department, District Judge James Lawrence King said he had rarely seen such a "dramatic, heart-rending and powerfully persuasive case of irreparable harm to literally tens of thousands of people."

What is now billed as the "world's largest rockfish tournament" began 30 years ago with a different catch in mind - bluefish - and pretty much remained that way until a decade ago. That's when the once-plentiful bluefish population became scarce around the Chesapeake Bay and rockfish, which began to repopulate during a three-year moratorium in the early 1990s, became the event's focal point. And so was born "The Championship on the Chesapeake. " Part of a branding move by the Maryland Saltwater Sportfishing Association, the event was expected to attract 500 boats and 3,500 anglers this weekend.

A new marine terminal could bring 9,000 jobs to the Sparrows Point peninsula, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said Friday as he laid out the county's vision for remaking the land around its closed steel mill. A terminal in the peninsula's Coke Point area could take 10 to 12 years to become a reality, he said, and plans depend on the Maryland Port Administration's negotiations with the land's private owners, among other factors. The area has complicated environmental problems, but county leaders say the peninsula offers an exceptional location and the infrastructure to attract new investment.

The ingratiating display at the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas last week simulated reverence for a failed president who plunged us into massive debt, polarized Americans and made America the target of Muslim radicals and homegrown terrorists ("Bush family, Hillary Clinton flock to Texas," April 25). George W. Bush is and will ever be one of the darkest blotches on our country. No matter how much he has donated to world causes, he hasn't said he's sorry for the tens of thousands of lives lost, both American and others, around the world.

Caught with a couple of joints he didn't get the chance to light up, Eric Staton was ordered to appear before a Baltimore judge. Two weeks later, in a basement courtroom on North Avenue, prosecutors said they would drop the possession charge if Staton agreed to pick up trash for five hours. Staton, 42, hesitated before taking the deal. "Ten grams is nothing," he told a spectator during the hearing. "They should legalize that marijuana. " In recent years, Maryland has taken small steps to scale back laws against possession of marijuana.

An 8-year-old boy was among the three people killed and at least 176 people injured, many severely, by a pair of explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday. According to The Boston Globe, the boy, Martin Richard, was with his mother and sister, who were also seriously injured. Krystle Campbell, 29, a restaurant manager who was watching the race with a friend, was also killed. A pair of brothers each lost a leg. Doctors reported that dozens of others had been wounded by some kind of shrapnel - small nails and ball bearings or BBs - that had become embedded in their flesh.

The Senate Finance Committee voted unanimously Thursday for a proposed law that would require state licensing of medical staffing companies after a radiographer was accused of exposing hundreds of Marylanders to hepatitis C. In a telephone call after the vote, Sen. Thomas Middleton, a Charles County Democrat, said that chances are high it will pass the full Senate as well, given the case of David Kwiatkowski, who allegedly stole syringes of drugs...

A Baltimore public interest legal organization has sued a Pennsylvania fire prevention company, claiming that the company advertised $15-an-hour jobs as "bait" to defraud job seekers of thousands of dollars in bogus fees.Civil Justice Inc. is seeking unspecified damages from Global Security Inc. of Lancaster, Pa., on behalf of 10 plaintiffs in Central Maryland and Washington.According to the nonprofit organization's lawsuit filed last week in Prince George's Circuit Court, several hundred people were deceived.

If you've ever bought anything online, check your credit card statements. A ring of international hackers may have swindled you out of five or 10 bucks. Tens of thousands of shoppers worldwide have fallen victim to the thieves, believed to be operating out of Eastern Europe and Panama. Committing small-time fraud on a widespread scale, the scammers are stealing only a few dollars at a time - but they've become a giant headache for banks and credit card clearinghouses who are spending millions to cancel compromised cards and investigate security breaches.

Supervisors at a Maryland hospital weren't surprised when drugs were missing from a treatment room where contract radiology technician David Kwiatkowski was assigned. A manager had spotted him going through needle-disposal containers and he was among three employees under suspicion for taking vials of the narcotic fentanyl from the cardiac catheter lab, a state investigation found. But when a staffing agency later contacted the hospital about Kwiatkowski, a manager gave him a satisfactory review, writing: "David is very professional and worked very hard.

When 45,000 dogs and cats are tragically killed yearly in Maryland, costing taxpayers over $8 million, a remedy is long overdue. That's why Sen. Joanne Benson and I sponsored House Bill 767 and Senate Bill 820 in the 2013 General Assembly. It will establish a voluntary, low-cost spay-neuter program for dogs and cats owned by low-income Marylanders - and it will do this without raising your taxes. Each year, close to 100,000 dogs and cats are surrendered to Maryland animal shelters and control facilities, including boxes of puppies and kittens, and the public must pay for their care.