Two Months

Angie Miller and her steely-eyed focus transmitted into the homes of 10-plus million American Idol viewers won her 50,000 followers in the Twitterverse the week of the show's Top 10 reveal -- nearly 18,000 more social media fans than her next highest competitor. More than two months later, the 18-year-old  Beverly, Mass., native tripled her followers, effectively blowing away the other wannabes on the cyberspace portal. Why then didn't the magic of the 140-character phenomenon carry her into Thursday's finale?

In the third week of February, two separate killings of couples alarmed Baltimore police and contributed to a spike in the city's homicide numbers that prompted the department to shift strategies, deploy more officers on foot patrols and hold community meetings in neighborhoods feeling the wave of violence. This month, police arrested one of the men they believe is responsible for one of the double homicides. On May 6, court records show, Perry Alexander, 19, of the 1700 block of Holbrook St. was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and gun charges in the shooting death of Shantese Evans, 26, on Feb. 24 in the 1700 block of Montpelier St. in the Coldstream-Homestead-Montebello neighborhood.

Only five weeks ago, Rod Langway handed the captain's "C", which he had worn on his uniform for 10 years, to teammate Kevin Hatcher. Yesterday, he said he was taking an early vacation and announced he "will no longer be a playing member" of the Washington Capitals.Of course, Langway attached a rider to the statement. He will take the next two months to access his physical condition and determine if he still can contribute on the ice -- either for the Capitals or another team."I just look at it as my playing career is over right now," Langway said.

In Washington, as in any seat of power, most acts of folly begin with hubris. Government leaders, elected or appointed, usually don't intend to do the wrong thing, to overstep or cause harm, but they become so convinced, so certain of their purpose, that they are blinded by their pride. Perhaps that's the root of the problem infecting the Justice Department, where officials secretly obtained months of telephone records of journalists working for the Associated Press. That Attorney General Eric Holder or anyone else there could find that action acceptable is frightening, to say the least.

The battle begins anew each morning, as the sun peeks over the horizon, casting its light on a pockmarked terrain of rubble, machines and spent iron.Here, hundreds of men and women mass with battered helmets on their heads, goggles dangling from their necks. In their hands are the weapons of their trades: drills, saws, hammers and torches.They are in the final, frenzied two months of a battle with a rigorous deadline. They will have gone from drawing board to football stadium in two years and two months.

NEW YORK -- Lennox Lewis says he was sucker punched -- by his doctor.Lewis, the WBC heavyweight champion, underwent surgery yesterday on his right hand and will be unable to spar for up to two months.Dr. Robert Hotchkiss, chief of hand surgery, performed the 1-hour, 17-minute operation at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, repairing a torn tendon capsule in a knuckle on the little finger of the right hand, as well as a split of the extensor tendon.Hotchkiss said the operation went smoothly and recommended that Lewis not use the hand for six weeks to two months.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - James Carter is to return tonight to Baltimore, where he will be embraced by family and friends as an Olympian. Two days ago, the 22-year-old graduate of Mervo High added the brightest detail to his meteoric rise in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. He finished third at the U.S. Olympic trials and earned a trip to Sydney, Australia, where he could be a medal candidate if he continues the improvement he has made the past two months. Carter has stories to tell his mother, Marilyn Knight, and his prep coach, Fred Hendricks.

A former Bata Shoe Co. purchasing agent was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to five months confinement for his role in a kickback scheme related to a $4.8 million military contract.Alvin Grieninger, 58, of Havre de Grace, also was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and $3,700 in restitution by Judge Marvin J. Garbis.The sentence includes one month in prison, two months in a work-release community center and two months in home confinement. Grieninger also must complete two years of supervised probation.

Jim Poole didn't have to wait until New Year's Day to make a resolution. It was about this time a year ago that he realized a change would have to be made for 1993.When he showed up for the Orioles' first day of informal off-season workouts yesterday, it created a flashback to last year. The left-hander had felt the timing was right to make a change in his preparation for spring training.Instead of a winter tuneup, Poole gave his arm what he thought was a needed rest. It turned out to be a disastrous choice.

WASHINGTON -- While President Clinton has been wrestling with other issues and fending off attacks by Republicans and Ross Perot, public support for his long-range economic package has dropped dramatically.A poll released yesterday shows support dwindling in the past two months, from 58 percent favoring the president's plan for economic revitalization and 27 percent opposed to only 46 percent supporting the plan and 36 percent against it now. Americans' optimism that the program would help them in the long run has also fallen sharply, from 50 percent hopeful and 32 percent skeptical to an almost-even split between optimists and pessimists -- 39 percent and 37 percent, respectively.

When push came to shove, Republicans and Democrats came together for a last-minute bi-partisan compromise on the so-called fiscal cliff, a combination of automatic spending cuts and tax increases that would have plunged the nation back into recession. The deal passed the Senate overwhelmingly after marathon negotiations between Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden. Just eight senators voted against it, and although it technically came after the midnight deadline, the New Year's holiday afforded Congress the chance to finalize the deal before the markets - or the general public - had time to react.

Activists gathered in front of a downtown Baltimore courthouse Monday, calling for State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein to bring charges against officers being investigated in the death of an East Baltimore man during an arrest. It has been more than a month since prosecutors were handed the police investigation into the death of 46-year-old Anthony Anderson, who was thrown to the ground during a drug arrest on Sept. 21. Police initially said it was believed Anderson died after ingesting or choking on drugs, but an autopsy ruled that the death was a homicide caused by blunt force trauma.

Renovation work at Clyde's of Columbia will displace 195 employees for about two months next year, but the restaurant's management said Wednesday that it will find jobs for the workers at other Clyde's locations - or at local competitors. "We're going to help everybody out," said Claude Andersen, corporate operations manager for the Clyde's Restaurant Group in Washington. "We did this once before, and we placed 200 people. … We're going to do the same thing this time around and take care of our folks so they'll come back.

On Sunday, The Sun revealed that a dozen area businesses, nonprofits and federal government organizations owe the city of Baltimore more than $10.5 million on water bills that are past due by at least six months. In some cases, the businesses haven't made any payments on their accounts in years. It was the latest in a series of articles that Sun colleague Julie Scharper and I have written since February about Baltimore's problems issuing and collecting bills associated with its aging water system.  We've reported on the city refunding $4.2 million to customers after an audit found widespread problems with water bills; and uncovered voluminous problems of our own , including a $100,000 overbilling of Cockeysville Middle School and a Randallstown woman who's been receiving her neighbor's bills for seven years -- both of which were fixed after our inquires.

Morgan State University officials said Saturday they have promoted campus police Chief Adrian J. Wiggins to the new post of chief public safety officer, in which he will explore changes to campus safety and emergency management systems. The move comes two months after a student was accused of dismembering a family friend and eating his heart and some of his brain. University President David Wilson said the new post will involve issues such as security of university laboratories, pedestrian traffic on the campus and relations with nearby neighborhoods.

Motorists making their way downtown Monday through either a narrowed Jones Falls Expressway or crowded city streets may have felt a pang of envy as they watched walkers and cyclists easily outpacing them. Reports varied on Monday's morning commute — the first rush hour since transportation officials closed two lanes of the JFX for two months — but the consensus appeared to be: Whatever route you take, you're going to need more time. Among the observations: •A seven-mile trip down North Charles Street starting at Bellona Avenue took 90 minutes.

THESE ARE SPECIAL times around here. Sports fans have waited vainly for years, even decades, for a return on their emotional investments, and now, suddenly, it's all coming down at once. First, the Ravens dominated the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV in January, bringing Baltimore its first taste of pro football glory since Cal Ripken was in elementary school. Now, less than two months later, the Maryland Terrapins have reached the Final Four for the first time. One was enough. Two in less than two months is outrageous, an unthinkable abundance of riches.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Mike Smith, the leading rider at Saratoga Park this summer and the regular jockey on the star colt Coronado's Quest, fractured two vertebrae in his upper back in a spill he took on Monday. He will not ride for three or four months.The 33-year-old jockey remained at Albany Medical Center yesterday. He was transferred there Monday night from Saratoga Hospital, and was resting comfortably with no neurological damage, according to his doctors. But Dr. Allen Carl, an orthopedic surgeon and specialist in spinal injuries, reported that Smith, who walked away from the spill unaided only to check himself into the hospital later, would be kept in a body cast for two months.

Baltimore City police were investigating three shootings that occurred Friday night and Saturday morning, including one that took the life of a 27-year-old East Baltimore man. Police said Doral Hinton was leaving a store on Montford Street at about 7 p.m. when he was approached by an unknown man in the 2400 block of Ashland Ave. Hinton was shot multiple times in the upper and lower body, and was pronounced dead at 7:48 p.m. Investigators did...

The first laboratory-confirmed case of seasonal flu was reported Friday by state health officials, who are using the milestone to remind residents to get vaccinated for the virus. The case involves an adult in the Baltimore region, and comes two months later than the first case reported last season. The flu is spread from person to person through coughing or sneezing or contact with an infected person. Symptoms usually begin a few days later and include fever, body aches, fatigue, coughing and sore throat.