Uphill Battle

Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has made another foray into Maryland politics, endorsing GOP candidate Dan Bongino in what she calls his "uphill battle" for the Senate, his campaign announced Monday. In 2010, the former Alaska governor backed Republican Brian Murphy in his unsuccessful GOP primary bid against former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Bongino, a retired Secret Service agent, is challenging first-term Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin. "Dan has seen what politicians have done to our country, and he's decided, 'If I'm not part of the solution, I'm part of the problem,'" Palin said in a statement released by the Bongino campaign.

Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has made another foray into Maryland politics, endorsing GOP candidate Dan Bongino in what she calls his "uphill battle" for the Senate, his campaign announced Monday. In 2010, the former Alaska governor backed Republican Brian Murphy in his unsuccessful GOP primary bid against former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Bongino, a retired Secret Service agent, is challenging first-term Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin. "Dan has seen what politicians have done to our country, and he's decided, 'If I'm not part of the solution, I'm part of the problem,'" Palin said in a statement released by the Bongino campaign.

WITH REP. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. still on the fence about running for governor, dozens of Maryland Republicans are lining up behind Prince George's County Councilwoman Audrey E. Scott as their alternate choice in next year's election. Scott, the lone Republican on the Prince George's council, released a list last week of about 100 people who had agreed to serve on her exploratory committee, chaired by former Sen. Charles McC. Mathias. In an interview, Scott indicated that she had little to explore.

Walt Williams isn't one to shy away from a challenge. The former NBA veteran, after all, is perhaps best known for playing under the most trying circumstances in the history of Maryland basketball. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the Terps were in the midst of major NCAA sanctions after the death of forward Len Bias, Williams honored his commitment to his home-state school and starred under new coach Gary Williams. It was a decision that forever endeared Walt Williams to Maryland fans, one many believe helped save the program.

BARCELONA, Spain -- The last two miles of the women's Olympic marathon yesterday were uphill, a fitting metaphor for the 26.2-mile race run in fiendish heat and humidity. The survivors said they felt triumphant even if they had not won medals.For gold medalist Valentina Yegorova of the Unified Team, representing the Commonwealth of Independent States, the uphill finish was a fitting climax to what had been an uphill battle with Yuko Arimori of Japan. Those two provided a riveting finish to a race that had begun in the heat of Barcelona's twilight.

A state social services counselor from Bolton Hill is running as a write-in candidate for state delegate from the city's 44th District -- though election officials cannot remember a write-in winner in the city in decades. Sarah Matthews, an eight-year member of the city Democratic Central Committee, said she would push for better services for senior citizens, better treatment for AIDS patients and more funding for public safety if she is elected to the district from the central and western sections of the city.

Republican Susan J. Cook, a former school board chairwoman, says she will challenge Democratic incumbent C. Vernon Gray in the race for the Howard County Council seat representing east Columbia.Local Republican Party leaders introduced Cook as a candidate Sunday at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner, a $40-a-plate affair at the Turf Valley Country Club in Ellicott City."She comes to the race with a lot more name recognition than most," said Carol Arscott, a former Howard GOP chairwoman and consultant for Cook.

Del. Maggie L. McIntosh is fighting for her political life, and she hopes to save it by knocking on 20,000 doors before the Sept. 10 primary. McIntosh's re-election would have been a virtual slam dunk before the state Court of Appeals redrew the political map. She is majority leader of the House of Delegates and has represented Northwest Baltimore for 10 years. But after June 21, she found herself in the 43rd District, which takes in a swath of Northeast Baltimore between Charles Street and Harford Road and runs down York Road to North and Greenmount avenues.

DERRY, N.H. -- Here in Robert Frost country, Phil Gramm is stopping by a Chamber of Commerce breakfast on a snowy morning.At no less than the Promises to Keep restaurant, the bareknuckle presidential candidate takes a seat before the handful of residents who've come to see him -- and launches into soft, velvety verse:"Whose woods these are I think I know," he begins, reciting one of the classic Frost poems. "His house is in the village though;/He will not see me stopping here/To watch his woods fill up with snow."

It's hard to get good answers unless you ask good questions. But without good answers, it's impossible to craft sound public policies. Even with them, it's often an uphill battle.Sara Engram is editorial-page director of The Evening Sun.

Housing officials have sold more of the city's vacant homes in the first seven months of the budget year than in all of the previous year — but the sales still represent fewer than 3 percent of the 4,000 empty houses owned by the city. As housing advocates, community leaders and developers gather today for a day-long summit on Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's "Vacants to Value" program, data from the city housing department indicate that despite incremental gains, officials are far from making a dent in the city's 30,000 vacant properties.

Shortly after Tyrone Hall was sentenced last Wednesday to five years in prison, the family of the 20-year-old man whom Hall shot and killed during a late night confrontation of Frostburg State University students made an interesting observation about Hall's father. Having heard Hall's father, also Tyrone, speak on behalf of his son during sentencing, Brandon Carroll's father, mother and stepfather all used the same word — rage — in describing the elder Hall's emotions on the witness stand.

WASHINGTON - -Stiff challenges for a pair of congressional incumbents and a re-election run by the state's senior senator will headline a competitive 2010 election season for federal lawmakers from Maryland, according to politicians in both parties and independent analysts. Republicans started gunning for Rep. Frank Kratovil before he took office in 2009 in the district that straddles the Chesapeake Bay, composed of the Eastern Shore and parts of Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Harford counties.

These are especially trying times for Maryland Republicans. They suffered crushing defeats in the most recent election. They are outnumbered and often sidelined in Annapolis. They are having trouble raising campaign cash. And internal tensions are simmering at the state party's headquarters. But they also see an opportunity in this General Assembly session. There the GOP is honing a critique of Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley's fiscal stewardship, and they are hammering topics such as rising electricity rates, driver's licenses for illegal immigrants and a proposed death penalty repeal, issues on which they see themselves as aligned with mainstream Marylanders.

In the beginning, the Maryland Christian Saints were woeful. They had no field, hardly any equipment and barely enough players. They won one game and lost 10, and most of the games were blowouts, in which the Saints were overrun by more powerful teams. What a difference four years makes. Last year, the Saints - a high school football team made up of home-schooled boys, most of them from Harford County - won six games and lost five, and won their league championship. On Aug. 30, they played their first game on their new home field, beating Elkton Christian Academy 29 to 26. The Saints now have enough players to form a junior varsity team, and last year they introduced their own squad of cheerleaders (21 home-schooled girls)

In the front yard of a small white house in eastern Baltimore County, a monument stands to a young man who gave his life defending the country. It is a few hundred yards from a show bar called Dreamers where a neon sign in the window proclaims "girls girls girls." Not far away, across the street from a garden shop, bushes choked with poison ivy obscure a stone that marks where wounded Americans and their enemies were treated side by side during the battle, which occurred during the War of 1812.

1 The Ravens established a running game, getting 132 yards from Priest Holmes, who passed the 1,000 mark for the season.2 The Ravens' defense held Lions superstar Barry Sanders to 41 yards rushing on 19 carries.3 The Ravens had only one sack but put a lot of pressure on Detroit quarterback Frank Reich, who is immobile in the pocket.Quotable"It's been an uphill battle for three years and sometimes the battle defeats you. I didn't finish the job, I really didn't. It looks like this one has ended, but I haven't given any thought to what I'm going to do from here on in."

Q. My son is encouraging me to buy shares of Fidelity Capital Appreciation Fund. Does it have a good reputation? B.V., via the Internet A. It got a big-time reputation from rising 51.68 percent in 2003. But it barely outperformed the Standard & Poor's 500 in 2004 and trails it slightly this year. The $6.5 billion Fidelity Capital Appreciation Fund (FDCAX) rose 17.73 percent over the past 12 months to rank in the upper half of large-growth funds. Its three-year annualized return of 21.6 percent placed it in the top 3 percent of its peers.

Who is Walter Gray, and where is he? All that's known are his name and hometown, Baltimore, written on the back of a watercolor portrait of him as a young soldier during World War II. It was painted about 1944 in a hospital in New Guinea, where, presumably, Gray was recovering from battle wounds. Six decades later, Diane Pirzada is looking for him. Her search has unearthed three other Walter Grays in Maryland who served their country in that war - but not the one in the portrait. Pirzada, a 42-year-old mother of three in Lockwood, Calif.