Biggest comebacks

ŸState House dome: After a year under wraps, Maryland’s State House dome emerges repaired and repainted.

ŸNFL season: The July owners/players agreement saves fans from a winter deprived of the national anesthetic.

ŸJohn Hanson: Maryland’s most illustrious son defends his spot in Statuary Hall from legislative attempts to replace him with Harriet Tubman.

ŸGino’s: The once prevalent 1959 fast-food eatery, named for Colts star Gino Marchetti, returns to Baltimore.

ŸWashington Times: Reversing its fortunes with new owners and management, the Times restores its sports and metro sections.

ŸStephen Strasburg: Nationals’ pitching phenom recovers from “Tommy John” surgery, returns to mound.

ŸSagamore Farms: Sports clothing mogul Kevin Plank buys historic horse-breeding farm, restores its prominence.

ŸBill Jews: When the CareFirst CEO’s $18 million severance package was halved by state officials, Jews waged a three-year legal battle and won at The Court of Appeals.

ŸPreakness: Reversing its BYOB ban, racing officials revive infield bacchanal, attendance zooms.

ŸNegro Mountain: Western Maryland lawmakers successfully defend Negro Mountain from being renamed “Nemesis Mountain” by Baltimore lawmakers.

ŸACORN: The disgraced advocacy group, caught on video advising clients how to open a teen sex brothel, changes its name, remains in Baltimore offices.

ŸRead’s Drug Store: Site of 1955 Baltimore civil rights sit-ins is partially saved from developer’s wrecking ball.

Most bizarre

ŸBaltimore City Councilman Bob Curran advises residents who want speedy police response to lie that “there is a gun involved.”

ŸMultiple Baltimore motorists are pulled over by a fake cop car, with a flashing blue dashboard light, driven by a fake male cop in a wig, Harry Potter glasses, lipstick and makeup.

ŸDramatizing his septic ban bill, Gov. O’Malley wades into an Eastern Shore pond brimming with fecal matter.

ŸStriking a blow for the environment, the Takoma Park council prohibits its parks department from using “fossil fueled” leaf blowers.

ŸP.G. police believe that six January homicides were the result of drug dealers’ New Year’s resolutions to kill people who owe them money.

ŸA speed camera vehicle working the B.W. Parkway is attacked by a man wielding a shotgun and a hammer.

ŸThe P.G. County Council considers creating “prostitution free” zones. Does that mean prostitution is OK in the rest of P.G.?

ŸWhen mold is discovered in some St. Mary’s College of Maryland dorms, the school rents — at $20,000 a day — a 286-foot cruise ship for temporary student housing.

ŸSixty-one state workers fired by MDOT for “egregious misconduct” (theft, felonies, etc.) are hired by other state agencies.

ŸA group of blind people sues a paintball park under Maryland’s White Cane Law for not letting them play paintball.

ŸThree Montgomery County Ride-On buses burst into flames within 15 months, destroying the vehicles.

ŸWhen a car containing a man and a woman causes a wreck on the DC Beltway, the man tells police he wasn’t driving because he was in the back seat having sex with the woman.

ŸWhen Patrick Earl, a Takoma Park resident and an environmental science teacher, tries to remove a rotten tree to expose his home’s solar panels, the city makes him pay $4,000 into the tree replacement fund.

ŸBaltimore’s Abell Foundation recommends that the best way to bridge the racial education gap is to relocate city families to the suburbs using housing vouchers.

Biggest flip-flops

ŸBaltimore Sun: Once the bastion of Maryland’s anti-gambling sentiment, The Sun editorializes, “For most people who play, slots are harmless entertainment.”

ŸGov. O’Malley: When N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo leads N.Y.’s successful gay marriage effort, O’Malley switches from pro-civil unions to pro-gay marriage, takes flack from Archbishop O’Brien.

ŸMontgomery County Council: First it supports a $4 million grant to attract Costco to the county, then kills the grant, then revives it.

ŸSt. Luke’s Episcopal Church: The Bladensburg parish converts to Catholicism due, in part, to the Episcopal church’s same-sex doctrines.

ŸGov. O’Malley: Presents his budget making public employees pay more into the pension system, then tells a public employee protest rally, “I don’t’ like this budget either.”

ŸThe Maryland Register: When this state information publication charges readers an annual $190 access fee, a vigorous protest forces state officials to retract the fee.

Most disappointing

ŸStudent test scores fall when Baltimore city installs anti-cheating measures.

ŸWhen the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Westboro Church’s outrageous military funeral demonstrations as freedom of speech, Maryland’s Attorney General Doug Gansler abandons the Constitution, plays good politics, bad law and showboats against the court’s decision.

ŸAfter wasting federal anti-lead paint funds and losing a lawsuit by lead paint city housing victims, Baltimore officials refuse to pay the court’s award to the victims.

ŸWhen the state’s no-texting-while-driving law goes into effect Oct. 1, drivers ignore it.

ŸAfter a massive PR buildup, Baltimore’s Indycar Grand Prix Race over Labor Day weekend is a bust, leaving the city, state and others owed $12 million unlikely to be recovered. Dumb idea, poorly implemented.

ŸDespite politicians’ claims that Maryland schools are tops in the nation, Maryland’s Higher Education Commission reports that the state spends $90 million on remedial help for high school grads entering colleges who lack basic math and English skills.

Blair Lee is CEO of the Lee Development Group in Silver Spring and a regular commentator for WBAL radio. His column appears Fridays in The Gazette. His email address is blair@leedg.com.