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He’s a blue-collar baseball man through and through, with a work ethic and drive that has proven to be second-to-none. He is the pride of Harford County and the entire state of Maryland and on July 29, Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. will enter the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

UPDATED For the second time since May, St. Gregory the Great collected guns July 21 to get them off of the street in response to an escalating violent-crime rate in the city. The Baltimore City parish expects to hold two more firearm compilations before the year is out. It’s a growing trend for religious communities of many denominations throughout Baltimore to not only pray for an end to violence, but to be proactive in reducing a murder rate that is on course to surpass 300 by the end of 2007. “As a parish, we feel like we need to get involved to make our community and city safer,” said Monsignor Damien Nalepa, pastor of St. Gregory the Great, whose parish collected three handguns, four rifles and a sawed-off shotgun July 21. “The problems in the city are our problems.”

On his first day of school in the United States in December 1969, Dr. Andres Antonio Alonso got lost. Curiosity led the Cuban immigrant away from the safety of the schoolyard and into unfamiliar territory in his new Union City, N.J., neighborhood. Although he had no money and did not speak the language, the child was unafraid as he used an old water tower to navigate his way home. Decades later, some in Baltimore say the city’s public schools have lost their way. They are looking to Dr. Alonso, the newly appointed chief executive officer for the city public school system, to help guide them in turning around a system facing a laundry list of challenges.