Competition

We're at the finale already (didn't this season seem short?). I'll say it right here at the top of the episode - unless William falls repeatedly on his keister, requiring the judges to give him 5's across the board, there's no way he's not winning this thing. That being said, I'd be OK with any of the three finalists winning, even though I'm personally Team Driver. Tonight's show will have each couple dancing two dances:  1. Judge's pick, which are new routines danced to new music, but in a style the couple has previously danced and in which the judges would like to see them improve.  2. Freestyle Tomorrow night, the couples will be doing some sort of third scored dance, details about which we'll learn later.

Many of the eyes Wednesday at the Ravens' first organized team activities (OTA) workout that was open to the media were fixated for a decent chunk of practice on the team's offensive line. Team officials had identified that area as one they would like to improve this offseason, and they have attempted to do so by spending a pair of draft picks on linemen, Kelechi Osemele (second round) and Gino Gradkowski(fourth). The Ravens rotated several linemen with the first-team offense, including second-year players Jah Reid and Justin Boren.

The last man to take a horse to Belmont with a chance to snag the elusive final gem in the Triple Crown has some advice for Doug O'Neill. Stay true to the horse. "I think trainers going around asking other people what they should do, looking for how to handle it, that's stupid," Rick Dutrow, trainer of Big Brown in 2008, said in a phone interview Sunday. "It's got to be about your horse. Whatever anybody else did doesn't matter. You know your horse. " O'Neill, trainer of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I'll Have Another, has already disregarded common wisdom over the past three weeks.

Kentucky has the Derby. Maryland, of course, is home to the Preakness Stakes. And Pennsylvania boasts the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair, an annual celebration of all things equestrian that dates back well over a century. "It started as a one-day horse show in 1896," says Leonard A. King, Jr., 80, a longtime leader in the equestrian community who chairs the event. "We're now in the 116th year, and we'll go for 11 days. Over the years, we've had presidents, celebrities and visitors from across the country, and foreign countries, in attendance.

Sometimes the small things make all the difference in professional wrestling. Too often, critics -- especially those on the Internet -- nitpick every decision WWE makes and find the logical or creative flaws. Many times, this creates an unnecessary sense or allegation of failure. But on tonight's Raw, WWE (or, more specifically, general manager John Laurinaitis) made a mistake that is almost unforgivable. While I personally wasn't offended by Sunday's match between John Cena and Laurinaitis at Over the Limit , many people have lashed out against the match.

Four trucks laden with 100 slot machines arrived early Wednesday morning at the nearly completed casino at Arundel Mills mall. For the next two hours, workers wheeled banks of the gleaming new machines, one by one, inside on hand trucks. Installation of the first set of slots moved Maryland Live! Casino, the state's largest, another step closer to its scheduled opening in three months. That's progress for Maryland's lackluster gambling program, which has yet to be fully implemented more than three years after voters approved five slots locations statewide.

Here are our picks for what horses to bet in the 2011 Preakness Stakes: Race 1 10:45 a.m. Analysis: Expect Boreal Forest to set the early fractions, as he has in his previous starts. He will have less competition on the lead than in previous efforts. As a result, he could carry his speed a long way. He is tested at this level, so the class is no problem. Issues and Answers comes in off just a maiden win, but he did win at a good level and should compete well here.

In a civil case that highlights growing competition in the health care industry, a Baltimore County jury has levied a $5 million judgment against Midatlantic Cardiovascular Associates, the area's largest cardiology practice, finding that two of its doctors committed fraud when they steered a patient to a surgeon employed by the practice rather than his own surgeon, who belongs to a rival group. In its verdict, the jury found that Dr. Mark G. Midei, a cardiologist who is also the director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, and Dr. Jeffrey E. Sell, a cardiac surgeon, had deliberately misled a patient to believe his heart surgeon was not available to perform a bypass operation.

There's a method to the maki madness. One past champion eats two sushi rolls at a time with quick sips of water in between. Last year's champ builds up an appetite by taking a long swim and bike ride before arriving at the competition. For others who have not developed a method — or a strong stomach — for the Maki Madness competition at RA Sushi, the restaurant has several garbage pails on hand. Just in case. In its third season, the brackets-style sushi-roll eating contest — based on the NCAA basketball championships — has grown in popularity and regularly attracts competitive eaters from around the region.

Lansdowne High School's state champion team traveled far and came close in the recent National Personal Finance Challenge in St. Louis. The local squad returned home May 18 after finishing sixth out of 13 teams in the second annual event, which was presented by the Missouri Council on Economic Education, with funding from Wells Fargo Advisers. At the end of the five-hour competition, Mike Martin, who coached the team with Greg Karpes, said an official informed him afterward that the point differential between first and seventh was “tiny.” “We can hold our own with anybody,” said Martin of Lansdowne students Mike Delair, Mandela Jones, Jordan Thomas and Evan Richards.

Local homeland security officials in Baltimore and across the country are fighting a proposal to change how $2 billion in federal emergency management money is distributed — a change they say would jeopardize regional efforts to respond to terrorist attacks, major storms and other disasters. The proposal by the Obama administration would require local governments to compete more for homeland security money rather than receiving it based on population and risk. It also would shift oversight to states, taking control away from major cities and their surrounding counties.

If local pharmacists could write the regulations, Marylanders probably wouldn't ever have been allowed to get their prescriptions filled at chain stores like Walgreens and Rite-Aid. Independent video stores probably would have liked to outlaw Blockbuster, just as small bookstore owners probably would have been just as happy if the state had a ban on Barnes & Noble. (For that matter, Blockbuster might like an injunction against Netflix and Barnes & Noble on Amazon.com.) And most of all, Main Street merchants everywhere would probably love a world where Walmart was illegal.

A website that helps people rent their tools to make money and another that offers a low-cost way for diagnosing causes of fevers were the top two winners of the TowsonGlobal business plan competition yesterday, the university announced .  The first place winner ToolSpinner, designed by two brothers -- Daniel and Steven Cole -- who graduated from Towson, bills itself as an online rental marketplace for tools. People who have tools -- i.e. a circular saw, a palm sander -- can rent them out for several dollars a day. ToolSpinner charges a 20 percent fee for facilitating the transactions.

The agency that oversees the state's health plan for those uninsured because of preexisting conditions, paid a vendor nearly $367,000 for information technology services without proving that the contract was chosen through a competitive bidding process, a legislative audit has found. The audit also said The Maryland Health Insurance Plan did not perform routine reviews to make sure the insurer that manages the plan for the state, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, was complying with its contract.

Kara Marian Cook, an accomplished horsewoman and artist who was studying to become a hair stylist, died April 12 of injuries sustained in a Baltimore County automobile accident. The Reisterstown resident was 21. On April 12, Ms. Cook was driving north on Greenspring Avenue at 5:31 p.m., when her 2000 BMW struck a 2006 Mercedes-Benz that was stopped and making a left turn on Garrison Forest Road. Her car then collided with a guard rail. Ms. Cook was transported to Sinai Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, said a spokeswoman for the Baltimore County Police Department.

Actor Kevin Bacon brought his star power to a charity event Wednesday at the University of Maryland, College Park. But the cheers the actor received were not as loud as the hoots and hollers directed toward the six student groups competing for $5,000 toward their favorite causes. The competition — called the "Do Good" Challenge — is part of an effort by the school to make philanthropy more of a focus in academics and student life. The winner was The Food Recovery Network, which developed a system of collecting food from campus dining halls that would otherwise go to waste and distributing it to homeless shelters.

The Maryland Council on Economic Education last week honored Cromwell Valley Elementary School fifth-graders Abhinav Khushalani and Andy Yakim as national first and third place winners, respectively, in the fourth- and fifth-grade division of the Stock Market Game's InvestWrite Contest. At a ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Timonium, both students received mini-notebook computers, and their teacher, Flo Falatko, won a $750 professional development scholarship and a $250 gift card.

The nine young adult performers who participated in the Howard County Arts Council's Rising Star competition all deserve to be considered winners, but only one of them went home with the $5,000 first prize. It was awarded to Samantha McEwen at the 15th annual Celebration of the Arts in Howard County March 24 in the Peter and Elizabeth Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center at Howard Community College. The 500 audience members acknowledged all nine performances with enthusiastic applause and also filled out ballots that were tabulated at the end of the event.

The opportunity to share a bill with Bruce Springsteen, Soundgarden and Paul Simon is rare, especially for a band that only started a year ago in Howard County. Yet that is the position Dreamboat Armada finds itself in, fighting to earn a spot at Hard Rock Calling Festival 2012 at London's Hyde Park on July 13-15. Dreamboat Armada won the local round of the Hard Rock Rising 2012 Competition on March 29 at Hard Rock Cafe Baltimore. The quartet beat out Redwud and Jet City Vega, and moved on the global competition which features 86 different acts.

The top-ranked McDonogh girls have relied heavily on depth to grow into the area's dominant track and field team the past few years. But unranked Franklin surprised the Eagles with that same formula Saturday. Franklin didn't take first in a single event at the Pikesville Track Classic, but the Indians earned top-three finishes in nine of the 18 events to win with 84 points. McDonogh won seven times, but that wasn't enough, as the Eagles (72 points) settled for second. No. 8 Mount Hebron finished third with 70 points, as Michaela Wilkins won the 400 meters and 800 meters and the Vikings also took the 1,600 relay.