Baltimore

A family friend is arrested in the murder of a 15-year-old gay teenager in Baltimore. ...

Broncos practice moves outdoors Mike Klis The Denver Post With piles of snow surrounding their rarely-used artificial turf field, the Bro...

— "Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women" (Henry Holt and Co., 384 pages, $26), by Harriet Reisen: In her new biography of the fiercely independent author of "Little Women," screenwriter Harriet Reisen draws a lively, engrossing portrait of Louisa May Alcott's life that will appeal to the legions of women who grew up worshipping the book.

Reisen takes us through Alcott's life from birth to death, which makes for some unwieldy storytelling in the early chapters as we follow the Alcott family through decades of shiftless wandering across the East coast. And with writing that is at times overly dramatic, we trod through territory that's been chronicled before: the poverty, the desperation, the alienation from genteel 19th-century society.

"Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women" does not quite do justice to the complicated relationship between Louisa and her father, Bronson Alcott, whose Transcendalist philosophizing and refusal to maintain steady employment often made the family destitute. John Matteson's masterful, Pulitzer Prize-winning "Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father," remains unequaled in that respect.

As Reisen recounts, Alcott's childhood sufferings drove her to relentlessly pursue a writing career that finally won her the financial stability that her father was never able to provide. She would later become the family breadwinner, a role that kept her from ever feeling truly free.

The book works best when Reisen allows Alcott to speak through her wonderfully witty and clear-eyed letters. They offer a glimpse of the kind of unsentimental prose that Alcott, who made her fortune in children's literature, often said she longed to write in an "adult novel" but died before she had the chance.

NEW YORK — Billionaire investor and activist shareholder Nelson Peltz is joining the board of directors of asset manager Legg Mason Inc.

Legg Mason, based in Baltimore, said Monday it was adding Peltz – known for his investments in consumer businesses like the Wendy's burger chain and foodmaker H.J. Heinz – after Peltz's company, Trian Fund Management LP, accumulated a 4.3 percent stake in Legg Mason.

Shares of Legg Mason jumped 76 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $32.66 in afternoon trading. Shares have traded between $10.35 and $33.70 during the past year.

Peltz is the CEO and a founding partner of Trian, which holds a stake in Wendy's. Peltz is on Heinz's board of directors.

He previously served as chairman and CEO of Triarc Cos., which owned Arby's Restaurant Group Inc. Triarc acquired Wendy's last year and the company was renamed Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. The company had previously also owned a stake in the Snapple Beverage Group as well.

— Where many NFL fans see hideous matchups, fantasy football players see opportunity.

Consider the worst of this week's schedule, the disastrous clash between the Rams and Jaguars. Or the slightly less heinous showdown between the Panthers and Buccaneers. While these games will prompt many viewers to reach for the remote, fantasy geeks will be drawn to the potential points offered up by the Rams (allowing 29 points a game), Bucs (28 points a game), Jags (30th-ranked pass defense) or Panthers (No. 30 run defense).

But before you get too carried away with those Donnie Avery and Torry Holt starts, remember this universal truth: Bad teams are bad because they do bad things.

Take last week's Browns-Bills game. The awful defenses lured some unfortunate souls to gamble and start Trent Edwards or Derek Anderson. Yet in the end there were no touchdowns and more field goals (3) than completions by Anderson (2). There was similar ugliness in earlier ineptitude contests, such as Washington's 9-7 win over the Rams and Oakland's 13-10 win over the Chiefs.

As you again wonder how Anderson can average one completion every 30 minutes, here are some players to start and some to avoid in Week 6:

INDIANAPOLIS — The Colts want Adam Vinatieri at full strength later this season, one to two months from now. Until then, they're content using another veteran kicker, Matt Stover.

Indianapolis signed Stover on Wednesday, one day after Vinatieri had arthroscopic surgery to remove a piece of cartilage in his right knee. To clear a roster spot, the Colts made a surprise move by waiving starting defensive tackle Ed Johnson.

"Last week, Adam felt his knee was giving him a little bit of a problem, so he had an MRI," coach Jim Caldwell said. "They saw some loose cartilage in there and we felt we wanted to get that done now with the bye week. In doing that, we had to look for someone to take his spot and we found Matt Stover."

Losing Vinatieri, the league's best clutch kicker, for four to eight weeks is one thing. He missed training camp after having surgery on his right hip and right knee this summer and though Vinatieri was still hurting last weekend, he managed to make a short field goal in the fourth quarter of Sunday night's 31-9 rout over Tennessee.

Cutting Johnson is an entirely different matter.

BALTIMORE — A man with a history of mental illness pleaded guilty Wednesday to drowning his three young children one by one in a Baltimore hotel bathtub during a custody dispute with his former wife, who said she still cries every day over the deaths.

Mark A. Castillo, 43, told police and a fellow inmate that he wanted to cause anguish for his pediatrician ex-wife when he killed the children in March 2008.

Dr. Amy Castillo, a born-again Christian, said in court that she has compassion for her former husband and believes the family will be reunited after death, but she remains overwhelmed by grief.

"I have flashbacks, nightmares, chest pains – it's terrible – and some days I feel like I can't live," Amy Castillo said outside court. "Sometimes I get tired of the amount of time that it takes to get better."

In statements to police, Mark Castillo said he spent "a good day" with the children – Anthony, 6, Austin, 4, and Athena, 2 – at the Maryland Science Center before checking into a downtown hotel. He calmly described how he held them underwater for 10 minutes each, using a stopwatch, and laid their bodies on a bed.

CINCINNATI — If Limas Sweed holds onto the ball in the end zone or Joe Flacco hits his wide-open receiver down the sideline, nobody is talking about the Cincinnati Bengals as a surprise team. They'd be back in the pack, trying to catch up to the big boys.

Sweed dropped it. Flacco overthrew it. And everyone in the AFC North is chasing Cincinnati, a team that's sitting in first place because of a newfound knack for living on the edge.

The Bengals (4-1) have been the NFL's ultimate high-wire act. Every one of their games has come down to the final 22 seconds. All but once, the final ticks have gone their way. A 17-14 victory in Baltimore on Sunday left the Bengals in sole possession of first place with their best start in four years.

Real? Or mirage?

The Bengals acknowledge that there's luck involved. If Sweed catches the ball in the third quarter, the Steelers are in control and likely headed for another win. If Flacco gets the ball to Mark Clayton with less than three minutes left on Sunday, there's no room for Carson Palmer's brilliance.

BALTIMORE — A Delaware first-grader suspended for bringing his favorite camping utensil to school will likely get a reprieve, a school board member said Tuesday.

Zachary Christie, 6, was ordered to spend 45 days in his district's alternative school for troublemakers after he brought a combination folding fork, knife and spoon to eat his lunch at Downes Elementary School in Newark, Del., last month.

The knife is banned as a dangerous instrument under the Christina School District's zero-tolerance policy, which officials said required them to expel Zachary or send him to the equivalent of reform school regardless of his age or what he planned to do with the utensil.

Hundreds of people were expected to attend a school board meeting Tuesday night at which member John Mackenzie said the policy would likely be amended. Any change would be retroactive to the beginning of the school year.

"The policy, of course, needs some additional flexibility," Mackenzie told The Associated Press. "Politically, zero tolerance is what everybody clamors for, until we start to realize how harsh zero tolerance can be."

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Magna Entertainment Corp. says in bankruptcy court filings it won't consider auction bids that would move the Preakness Stakes horse race from Maryland, a decision cheered Tuesday by Gov. Martin O'Malley.

The Ontario, Canada-based company submitted auction plans Friday in federal bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Del.

Concerned about the future of the second leg of the Triple Crown, Maryland lawmakers had approved legislation in April giving Maryland eminent domain authority to buy the race, a centerpiece of Maryland's horse racing industry.

"Maryland has a rich tradition of horse racing and horse breeding, and these industries generate thousands of jobs and millions of dollars for the local economy," O'Malley said in a statement, adding that he was pleased at Magna's decision.

The race has been run each May since 1909 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The O'Malley administration has estimated that Maryland race tracks generate about 20,000 jobs and have an annual economic impact of $1.5 billion.

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