Yields

The letter in the Dec. 28 Catonsville Times about traffic at the Old Frederick Road circle ("Too little speed and too little courtesy at Old Frederick circle,") indicates the confusion drivers have with traffic circles. The signs say to yield to traffic in the circle. Unless I'm mistaken, that means always yielding to your left because that is the direction of the traffic flow. When I approach the circle, I yield to my left and follow after the last car to my left or when an opening occurs to my left.

As a connoisseur of the wide open spaces between what politicians say and what politicians do, I saw promise in Gov. Martin O'Malley years ago. "Taking on BGE to stop the rate hikes" was his main 2006 campaign message, an assignment that was doomed from the first, stirring television ad. The Baltimore Gas and Electric price increase of that year was cemented in law and history, a fait accompli engineered in no small degree by O'Malley's Democratic...

Which candidate running for president in 2012 has drawn the most negative coverage in the press over the last five months? Here's a hint: The results aren't even close. If you said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, congratulations, you had it exactly wrong. Mr. Perry actually has enjoyed the most positive coverage of all the candidates, according to the latest study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. For all the criticism of Mr. Perry's policies regarding HPV vaccinations and immigrant tuition rates and his recent stumbles in Republican debates, positive press coverage has outweighed negative coverage by a 32 percent to 20 percent margin (with the balance being judged neutral)

NASCAR has been trying for a long time to change the complexion in the garage. For all those efforts, you don't see a lot of black or brown faces in the pits or behind the wheel. But you have to credit the organization for its continued push to change those dynamics. Witness NASCAR's Drive for Diversity combine at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va., on Wednesday and Thursday. The combine will include 24 drivers ages 16 to 24 vying for a spot with Revolution Racing in 2012. This will be the third season that Revolution Racing has participated in the program, with strong results.

Last year, when a man was killed after going down a trash chute in downtown Baltimore's Park Charles apartment building, residents grudgingly accepted the police conclusion that the death was a bizarre accident. But after a recent Loyola University Maryland graduate — identified by police as 23-year-old Emily Hauze — died in a similar way Sunday, people who live in the Charles Center high-rise are not sure whether to believe that the deaths could be a tragic coincidence. "You wouldn't think that it could happen again," said Phillip Flanders, a 26-year-old graduate engineering student at the Johns Hopkins University who has lived on the building's ninth floor through both deaths.

The sun is just peeking over the treetops as Billy Rice steers his 24-foot boat, Miss Jill, out into the Potomac River. Six days a week, in all kinds of weather, except lightning and high winds, the Charles County waterman and his helper and wife, Melinda, spend their mornings pulling crab pots from the water. Crabbing has been that way for decades. But watermen across the bay are starting to acknowledge things need to change if their traditional livelihood is to survive. And this fiercely independent bunch — full of distrust of officials, and even at times of each other — is trying to band together to control their destiny.

The Ravens, one of the NFL's top drafting teams, have struggled in one area: Selecting wide receivers. Of the 16 wide receivers drafted by the Ravens, none have eclipsed 70 catches in a season or 1,000 yards for the team. They have tried to find targets that can stretch the field everywhere from the first round (Travis Taylor and Mark Clayton) to the seventh (Derek Abney and Justin Harper). They've selected big receivers (Clarence Moore at 6 feet 6) and smaller ones (Patrick Johnson at 5 feet 11)

As the desperate search for missing honors student Phylicia Barnes came to a heartbreaking end Thursday, police said the discovery of her body in the Susquehanna River could be "instrumental" in hunting down new leads in a 4-month-old case that has yielded painfully few clues. "We're at stage one of a new phase of the investigation," said Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. "Finding her body is really going to be instrumental in giving us an opportunity to bring closure to the family.

The gift that a notorious gangster made to Union Memorial Hospital 72 years ago is still giving. The weeping cherry, known to all in the hospital community as the Capone tree, is showing its age but remains resplendent and fertile with its glorious spring blossoms, abundant seedlings and rich wood. The tree donated by Al Capone lost a hefty limb in the 2010 snow storms. The toppled branch left a gaping hole halfway up the trunk and raised concerns for the longstanding landmark on East 33rd Street.

Winter had not loosed its icy grip when I boarded a plane for St. Petersburg, Fla., and a weekend with Connie and Nancy, my best friends since the seventh grade. "My best friends since the seventh grade" is how we introduce each other. It is a point we like to emphasize. Most marriages don't last as long as we have. We've been trying to get together once a year since the kids stopped requiring our undivided attention, but it has been hit or miss. We are all still working, each of us has a busy season, and they never seem to coincide.