Vast

The Locklears of the Lumbee are like a tribe within a tribe.They are a vast group of people united by a single surname, though not necessarily by blood. Anywhere there are Lumbees, there are Locklears.Archie Lynch, the cultural director at the American Indian Center in East Baltimore, estimates that "easily 20 to 30 percent" of Lumbees carry the Locklear surname.That's just his educated guess. Ruth Locklear, the keeper of the Lumbee tribal rolls in Pembroke, N.C., checked and came up with 19 percent Locklears.

A nation that hopes to lead the world into the next century with a high-skill, high-tech economy cannot afford to take the no-brain, low-wage road paved by the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement.A trade agreement should recognize economic disparities, anticipate the likely human impact and advance the well-being of citizens in each country. NAFTA does none of the above.The agreement would help U.S. companies invest more freely in Mexico, essentially to allow multinationals to exploit that country's cheap labor and lax environmental and safety enforcement.

The General Assembly is poised to pass legislation that would make Maryland the 19th state to legalize marijuana use for medical reasons - though how quickly the state's cancer patients and others might benefit remains in question. The state Senate gave the legislation preliminary approval Friday evening without debate. The bill, which has passed the House, would allow the legal distribution of marijuana by doctors and nurses through academic medical centers. A commission would be set up to spell out the terms under which it would be grown and dispensed.

The Hyatt Regency Baltimore has settled a federal complaint alleging unfair labor practices, the hotel and a local union said Thursday. The agreement, signed Wednesday, came nine days after a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge began hearing the case. The vast majority of cases before the board ultimately settle. The federal agency's general counsel alleged that Hyatt Regency managers "interrogated employees about their union activities," began "invoking harsh discipline" when employees arrived late to work and fired four workers last year in reaction to their efforts to unionize with labor union Unite Here.

U.S. counterterrorism efforts monitor and sort vast databases of information for clues on potential plots. Now a team of University of Maryland researchers have used data-mining techniques employed by online giants like Google and Amazon.com to aid in the fight against terror. In the same way corporate America uses algorithms to predict what consumers are most likely to buy or what ads they might click, the researchers analyzed two decades of data on Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Nathan "Bodie" Barksdale was among West Baltimore's better known and more violent heroin dealers in the 1980s and has the criminal record to prove it. When he was arrested last year, charged as a felon in possession of a gun, that notorious history presented Barksdale with a current-day problem: If he were convicted on the gun violation in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, Barksdale, now 43, could be classified as a career offender and face a mandatory minimum...

At Baltimore County's animal shelter this week, dozens of animals were waiting for someone to adopt them. Among them were Cisco, a year-old pit bull terrier, a bulldog named Ivan and Sugar Pie, a tricolor cat. But judging by shelter statistics, potential pets are more likely to be put down than placed in a home. Now, under pressure from animal advocates and some lawmakers, county officials are looking for an animal-oriented nonprofit to take over the shelter. "Much like most animal-control agencies, their focus is really on protecting people from animals," said Ron Lambert, a board member of the Maryland Feline Society.

Most gardeners have a weakness for flowerpots, and temptation is everywhere. Interest in container gardening has never been greater, and manufacturers and importers of pots of all kinds are scrambling for shares of a rapidly growing market. No other accessory fits so effortlessly into a garden in so many interesting situations. A couple of well-placed pots on the front steps bring the garden up to the door. Containers make it possible to grow flowers on a deck or balcony. Pots of flowers can be used like decorative punctuation marks in a garden, formally ornamenting the crossing of garden paths, emphasizing the corners of a flower bed or standing -- like great, blooming statues -- at the ends of perspectives.

Oh, what a night! Late December in 1963. What a very special time for me - I married the love of my life, John Mackey . My husband played for nine seasons with the Baltimore Colts. In the years following his retirement from the NFL, I noticed unusual changes in his behavior. My first reaction was to go through various stages of denial, because I didn't know what else to do. But finally I couldn't kid myself anymore. Many doctors' visits later, and nearly 30 years after John played his last NFL game, John was diagnosed with frontal temporal dementia, which meant that he had severe shrinkage of the left frontal lobe of his brain.

They're battling it out with hammers and chains saws in Glen Burnie.Home Depot, the nation's largest do-it-yourself retailer, and Hechinger, the regional hardware heavyweight, have been going head-to-head there since June. So far, they both appear to be winning. The losers, apparently, are everybody else in the business.Hechinger began mounting an aggressive defense of its turf even before the Atlanta-based behemoth moved into the Baltimore-Washington market.In March, Hechinger introduced its new Home Projects Center format -- a significant departure from the traditional Hechinger floor plan -- at its Glen Burnie store on Ritchie Highway, barely a mile from the gigantic Home Depot at Route 10 and New Ordnance Road.