Twilight Thursday and Friday reveals dazzling Venus low in the west with much fainter Spica less than two degrees below. Look for Saturn a dozen degrees above and to the left of this pairing.     In the half-hour following sunset Saturday, an ever-so-thin nascent crescent moon joins the party, hovering just above the western horizon to the lower right of Venus and Spica. To spot it, you will need good timing, an unimpeded view and maybe even binoculars.     ...

A suicide bombing reduces a bustling London market to smoldering ash, taking the lives of 120 people. When the police arrest the one surviving member of the terrorist cell responsible, the government heralds it as a triumph of justice. But as the trial begins, justice becomes a tricky subject.     The government seeks a closed court session in the interest of national security. The people want to see the trial and justice in open court. The government comes to a compromise: The...

"Oysters are a lost cause. You’re going to fail." Len Zuza heard those words again and again back in 2007, when he and five collaborators founded the Southern Maryland Oyster Cultivation Society.     Six years later he can say Told you so.     SMOCS will end its oyster restoration efforts in triumph at year’s end.     Native Chesapeake oysters now thrive in restoration zones totaling five acres in five creeks, including Back...

    Invited by Bowie Library to fill 18 empty planters that adorn the parking lot near the entrance to the library on Annapolis Road, the Bowie-Crofton Garden Club held a planting party.     Patuxent Nursery donated the plants. On an absolutely wonderful day for planting, Garden Club members Marsha Salzberg, Rich Buller, Susan Livera, Jackie Streeks, Bob and Joan Walker, Linda Snow, Barbara Eberstein and Jessie Smith set to organizing them.     We...