Turtle

Maryland's threatened little bog turtles may be getting some extra help from the state's farmers, under a new federal conservation initiative. Obama adminstration officials are slated to unveil today (3/8) a $33 million bid to make more farmers and other landowners partners - instead of potential adversaries - in efforts to save seven rare and endangered critters, including North America's smallest turtle, which in Maryland is found here and there in marshy spots in Carroll, Baltimore, Harford and Cecil counties.

The Greene Turtle continues its rapid expansion. The McHenry Row location opens Tuesday at 11 a.m. and another location has been announced for White Marsh Mall in the fall. Read Eric Maza's Midnight Sun story on the addition of the Greene Turtle to McHenry Row , the 31st for the surging Edgewater-based franchise. White Marsh Mall management also announced the addition this summer of Buca di Beppo, a casual  restaurant saturated in the Italian-American experience.

The new Greene Turtle at McHenry Row is set to open February 14. It'll become the Maryland company's 31st location, the result of an aggressive expansion strategy. The opening is a day before another high profile bar-restaurant opening: Heavy Seas Ale House in Little Italy.  The bar is one of the biggest in Locust Point - about 7,000-square-feet and with a capacity for 270 people indoors - said general manager Kevin Day. It is Greene Turtle's second new opening of the year, following a location in Arlington, Virginia.

A Chestertown man pleaded guilty this week in a New York federal court to trafficking live snapping turtles that he processed in Queen Anne's County and then sold as turtle meat. Michael V. Johnson, 57, faces a maximum of one year in prison for turning the wildlife into food at his business in Millington called Turtle Deluxe Inc., according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York in Buffalo. During 2007 and 2008, the statement said, Johnson purchased common snapping turtles — considered protected wildlife under New York law — from sellers in several states, brought them back to the Turtle Deluxe facility to sort and weigh and then paid the vendors based on weight.

The Greene Turtle keeps reproducing. The McHenry Row location in Locust Point will be opening in a matter of weeks, and a Pasadena location opened quietly at the end of October on Magothy Beach Road. The Pasadena location is operated by James King, a former member of the Maryland General Assembly, who owns both Kaufmann's Tavern and King Catering in Gambrills. Including McHenry Row, that makes, by my count, 30 Greene Turtles. Pretty impressive for the Md.-based sports-bar franchise, which first opened in Ocean City 1976.

They said it couldn't be done, but Doug Ellin and his crew finally did it. They put together an episode of "Entourage" with actual purpose and direction. Is it sad it took them until the penultimate episode of the entire series to do it? Probably, but at this point, we should take what we can get. Let's get the least interesting storyline out of the way first: Vince is still smitten with the beautiful and intelligent journalist Sophia, and he had the vain idea of making a home video comprised of his ex-girlfriends talking about how great he is. In the end, it's the urging of Vince's best friends (which plays off the overall central theme to the show -- bonds between boys)

  On Vixen! On Prancer! On .... Oceana? They're probably not heading to the north pole, but the three sea turtles the National Aquarium released into the wild on Friday might just be heading in that general direction. The aquarium and Oceana, an ocean protection organization, released three endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles into the Chesapeake Bay at Point Lookout State Park last week. The turtles had been recuperating at the aquqarium since last winter, when they were founded stranded in Cape Cod. Kemp's ridley's are the most endangered and smallest of all sea turtle species, Aquarium officials say. The wintertime Massachusett's water temperature was especially dangerous for the sensitive turtles.

Baltimore County Police have released photographs of six unidentified people, three men and three women, in connection with the investigation of a June 13 robbery of a Greene Turtle employee, according to a statement released Wednesday. At about midnight, the male employee was leaving work on Restaurant Park Drive near the Owings Mills Mall, police said. The employee told police that he was cutting across the mall's parking lot when two people approached and displayed a handgun, the statement said.

Phil Fiore's party didn't bother sitting down for dinner Thursday, because sitting just slows you down. Instead, the five guys stood inside the College Park eatery Ratsie's as five 14-inch cheese pizzas, five dozen hot wings and five cups of water were brought out of the kitchen. "It's going down!" somebody yelled as the food was placed in front of the five contestants in a face-stuffing race organized by the University of Maryland's competitive eating club team. Yes, there is now a Terrapin eating team, with a constitution, a staff adviser and more than 40 members, along with a motto: "Feed the Turtle.

The Thirsty Turtle bar has been open for three years, but that's long enough to develop a reputation and following among University of Maryland students. The Turtle, as students call it, is known for its packed dance floor, loud music, sticky floors, cheap drinks and, as the bar has been charged, often lax carding at the door. "They call it the freshman bar," said Brian Hearn, 21, a senior communications major. "It was a joke getting in there. I guess it still is. " Last week, police were called to a fight-turned-stabbing on U.S. 1, involving five intoxicated men who had been kicked out of the College Park bar. Three of the victims were underage UM students.