Good morning. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend.

The jury returns to deliberations today in the Sheila Dixon trial after having the holiday weekend off. Nobody knows what has kept them deliberating this long for sure, but I’m guessing if it keeps up much longer that we may end up with a hung jury, which I presume might mean a retrial.

In Howard County, a River Hill football player was killed in a car crash over the weekend. He was riding with one of his teammates in a vehicle driven by the teammate’s brother. The driver will be charged with “driving under the influence, homicide by motor vehicle while intoxicated and manslaughter by motor vehicle.”

The Ravens kept their playoff hopes alive by defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers 20-17 in overtime. The Steelers were without starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger but backup Dennis Dixon had a great debut to keep the game close.

Following this weekend’s loss to Boston College, University of Maryland Athletics Director Deborah Yow is now in talks with head coach Ralph Friedgen about his future with the program. Offensive coordinator James Franklin is the head coach in waiting. The loss gave the Terps the first 10-loss season in their history.

Stay tuned throughout the day for other news updates including pictures from this weekend’s Festival of Trees.

I will again start a news wave today on Google Wave for the discussion of these news items and other local topics of interest throughout the day. The information will be posted when it’s started.