York State

NEW YORK -- It was a game the Orioles needed, a game that could have legitimized them, a game that would have silenced any early talk about them being an $84 million flop.Alas, it was a game that good teams always win, and bad teams always lose.If this is Yankee Stadium, something crazy is bound to happen. If this is Yankee Stadium, the Orioles collapse in the late innings.It happened again last night, with Arthur Rhodes throwing a wild pitch to push across New York's go-ahead run in the eighth inning, then allowing a three-run homer by Jorge Posada on the next pitch.

When you exercise in hot weather, you sweat and lose a lot of salt. That doesn't mean that you need to take salt tablets. The use of salt tablets is recommended only if their benefits exceed their side effects.If you lose more salt than you take in, your muscles will start to hurt and cramp. You will feel tired and sick and develop a headache. You can even pass out. Taking salt tablets would replace the lost salt; however, they have side effects. They can irritate your stomach lining and make you throw up, and they can thicken your blood enough to cause clots in your arteries.

Westminster city officials have decided to take a few road trips to research how the city might create its arts and entertainment district. "We want to travel to some similarly-sized cities that have an arts district and see how it's done," said Damian L. Halstad, Common Council president. Earlier visits to Providence, R.I. - which has a successful arts district - though informative, weren't relevant, considering that that city's population is about 10 times the size of Westminster's.

Forget those decadent "Dallas" and "Dynasty" and "Falcon Crest" rich people of the 1970s and 1980s on television. Forget the never-never world of "Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" and "Charlie's Angels." What's hot now, at least in television, are the gritty streets and the grittier characters of New York City.Never before have so many television series been set in New York in a single season -- but with a twist. Most of these shows with New York settings are actually filmed on Los Angeles studio lots because New York (which really means Manhattan to TV executives)

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York state tax collections in the first two months of 2002 are falling 6.6 percent short, or $500 million below projections made just six weeks ago in Gov. George E. Pataki's proposed budget, state officials said. The January tax collection was $179 million lower than anticipated, state officials said. The February take was $321 million below the target. The decline surprised state officials because Pataki's budget proposal was based on post-Sept. 11 assessments, and its revenue estimates were supposed to reflect the lost jobs, relocations and business interruptions caused by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York bald eagles are soaring again.To the list of wildlife comeback successes in New York topped off by the white-tail deer, wild turkey and striped bass, add our national bird. But do so quietly, and still with fingers crossed.Bald eagles were close to extinction here 20 years ago. There was only one native adult breeding pair left in New York state in 1976, in the Montezuma refuge near Syracuse, when the state began an ambitious, $500,000 resettlement program of eaglets from Alaska.

CLEVELAND - Rob Hageman has no particular fondness for the New York Giants. Still, when Super Bowl Sunday arrives, his rooting sentiments will be clear. "I think I speak for a lot of other Clevelanders," Hageman, 25, said, "when I say, `Go, New York!' For four hours, anyway, I'm going to be a Giants fan." With a few exceptions, that seems to be the prevailing view here, where a Ravens victory would represent the final galling chapter in this city's recent football history. Not that Browns fans have anything against Baltimore residents.

NEW YORK -- It could only happen here.The New York Post ran an "exclusive" interview with New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in yesterday's editions. The subject -- on the occasion of the team's first home game of 1998 -- was manager Joe Torre's job security.The locals already are restless. The rival Orioles got off to a terrific start and the Yankees struggled through a West Coast trip that finally turned in their favor just before they returned to New York for yesterday's strange, 17-13 home-opening victory over the Oakland Athletics.

Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy boast that the only other place this game is played is prison.There are rules, but the main rule is: Kill the guy with the ball.It's called fieldball. Borrowing from rugby, football, soccer and lacrosse, it is widely regarded as the wackiest, most aggressive and dangerous intramural sport played here.The only protective equipment required is a mouthpiece. Injuries are to be expected. In their mud-caked sweat pants, young men -- no women -- shed blood for their team.