Featured Articles from the Baltimore Sun

When patients are in the throes of a heart attack, there's no question that stents save lives. But for heart patients with few symptoms and less than severe artery blockage, whether to use a stent is a question with no clear-cut answer, say cardiologists. In fact, these days some heart experts say the mesh metal tubes used to keep narrowed or weakened arteries propped open are overused for blockages that can be treated just as well with medicine, a healthy diet and exercise. A recent internal review of heart patients at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson found 369 patients received the coronary implants unnecessarily.

The 19-year-old man charged with fatally stabbing Dennis Lane allegedly told investigators that his girlfriend had instructed him to kill her father and his fiancee, specifying the number of times each was to be stabbed in the throat - 10 for him and 15 for her. Jason Anthony Bulmer charging documents In a conversation at school hours before the Ellicott City blogger and businessman was killed, Jason Anthony Bulmer said, 14-year-old Morgan...

Johns Hopkins scientists have found a way to screen for hard-to-detect endometrial and ovarian cancers in women using a routine Pap smear, a discovery they hope eventually could reduce the number of deaths caused by the deadly malignancies. The researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center hope the Pap smear, a procedure in which cells are scraped from the cervix and examined under a microscope, can catch the two cancers in early stages and allow for earlier treatment. The Pap test has dramatically improved detection of cervical cancer over the years, curbing deaths by 75 percent among those who are screened.

National Rifle Association President David Keene said Tuesday that the organization intends to challenge the constitutionality of Maryland's newly passed gun law, as a conservative group readied plans to try to overturn the law through voter referendum. Keene said during a radio interview the group will “absolutely” go to the courts. “We are already in court in New York and we will be in court and aiding those in Maryland - and I am myself a Maryland resident - who want to challenge the constitutionality of this and other provisions here in Maryland,” Keene said to the Washington, D.C., station WTOP.

Maryland is poised to become the only state on the East Coast to issue driver's licenses to immigrants here illegally under a bill passed by state lawmakers Friday. The legislation, which Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to sign, would revive a two-tier licensing system that was set to expire in 2015. It would grant new licenses to more than 100,000 people, legislative analysts said. "We've changed the conversation on how we deal with residents in Maryland, and that includes everyone, including immigrants," said Sen. Victor Ramirez, a Prince George's County Democrat who introduced the bill.

After visiting Maryland last week, it appeared as if Memphis transfer Antonio Barton was headed home. The senior point guard from Baltimore, who should be eligible to play right away next season after graduating this summer, said that he got a good feel from the coaches, players and athletic director Kevin Anderson. It appears now that the Terps have some new competition for Barton from Tennessee. Barton was in Knoxville "Wednesday or Thursday," according to a source.  Another source close to Barton told me last week that the decision could come “very soon” and all signs pointed toward College Park.

Stuart Janney III, the co-owner of even-money Preakness favorite Orb, arrived at Pimlico Race Course on Thursday morning to watch the colt once again have an easy trip around the track and then go through his morning routine. Janney, the chairman of the Bessemer Trust, traveled earlier in the week and came back to Baltimore from New York, where the company is headquartered, last night. He said he's pleased with how Orb has progressed after winning the Kentucky Derby, and has warm memories of spending mornings during Preakness week at the track 20 minutes from his Butler home.

Always, there were those lovely old country estates and gracious manor taverns with roaring fireplaces, but in the old days fine dining was associated with the city. Not so anymore. Now, there are more compelling reasons than ever for diners to cross county lines for a good meal. The 50 best county restaurants in Howard County, Anne Arundel County and Baltimore County is a mix of the old and the new, destinations for special occasions and joints for Monday night suppers, the chef-driven and crowd-pleasing.

At 1,992 pounds, the projected front seven of the Baltimore defense will weigh just under a ton, which is about the same as a tiny smart car, a large walrus or the Johnny Unitas statue outside M&T Bank Stadium. It could also be the heaviest front seven in the NFL next season. The folks over at Blogging the Beast recently took the projected depth charts from Ourlads, a reliable source, and totaled the weights of all the front sevens . I'm not sure why they did this, but it is interesting nonetheless.

Q: I am planning to build a large deck on my house. I want it to be attractive and possibly help lower my air-conditioning and heating bills. Are there any special design characteristics to consider?A: A well-designed deck can not only be an attractive and valuable addition to your house, it can reduce your utility bills both summer and winter. Although a deck can be designed for any side of your house, building it on the west side is most effective for year-round savings.In the summer, a deck can shade your house from the afternoon sun. It also can reduce the indirect heat that is reflected from sidewalks, patios or driveways.

Handlers used special massage techniques to soothe Goldencents' muscular frame and sudsy sponges to stimulate the shine and bloom on the Preakness competitor's chocolate-colored coat - while a sizable entourage seemed transfixed. Outside the Pimlico stables, a green oasis tucked inside urban Northwest Baltimore, a crowd had gathered around Goldencents. Photographers took pictures. A cluster of men, women and children from a sunrise tour stopped to stare. Security guards looked on. The list of helpers, assistants and advisers for Goldencents and the other Preakness all-stars is longer than Stacy Keibler's prep team on Oscar night - grooms, exercise riders, hot walkers, trainers, jockeys, veterinarians, stall muckers, chiropractors, ultrasound technicians and nutritionists.

A half-century after his untimely death at the age of 38, celebrated tenor and movie star Mario Lanza is receiving fresh medical attention from a Baltimore doctor who takes a dim view of one of the singer's weight-loss treatments - injections of the urine of pregnant women, a controversial therapy with new followers today. Dr. Philip A. Mackowiak, vice chairman of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of the Medical Care Clinical Center at the Veterans Administration Hospital downtown, teamed up with Armando Cesari, Lanza's Australia-based biographer, for an article about the singer's health issues just out in The Pharos, the journal of the medical honorary society Alpha Omega Alpha.

A simple telephone inquiry about a stolen credit card opened a trail big enough for detectives to track down a suspect in the carjacking-murder 14 months ago of wealthy Baltimore businessman J. Schuyler "Sky" Alland.Mr. Alland apparently was not the victim of a random crime, but targeted specifically by the killer -- who authorities believe to be a former employee of Mr. Alland's market-research company, and to have planned ahead of time to sell the victim's $80,000 car.The suspect, John Graham Bridges, 29, of Norfolk, was arrested last week in Norfolk and charged by the United States Park Police with committing the murder on federal property -- the grounds of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center -- on Feb. 18, 1992.

Meet Samwell Tarly, the zombie slayer. In a horror-movie-style closing scene in Sunday's 'Thrones' episode, Sam came face-to-face with a seemingly unbeatable foe: A White Walker. With Gilly's baby in danger, Sam wielded his broadsword, which the frozen-zombie easily shattered, casting the overweight, cowardly Night's Watchman to the snow-covered ground.  But then Sam pulled out his obsidian blade, the dragonglass knife he found on the Fist of the First Men. Gathering his courage, Sam charged The Other, stabbing him in the back.

Just months after Erickson Retirement Communities filed for bankruptcy, the company's new owners say they are poised for expansion with the same business model that seized up along with the housing and credit markets last year. Local entrepreneur Jim Davis, whose Redwood Capital Investments LLC bought Erickson for $365 million this month, said the Catonsville-based company is more financially sound than ever after wiping out most of its debt through the bankruptcy. That will enable Erickson to move forward in the next year with new housing at about a dozen of its existing communities that are not fully developed, he said.