Danger

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently received a gag gift of protective headgear after she suffered a concussion and blood clot near her brain after a fall. While Clinton can now make light of the injuries, a blood clot can be a serious health risk that can lead to death. Dr. James L. Frazier, III, a neurosurgeon at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, talks about the dangers. What causes a blood clot to form in the brain? A blood clot or thrombus can form in the arteries that supply blood to the brain.

Every day, Marylanders are exposed to pesticides in our drinking water, on our food and through chemicals in our homes, lawns and public spaces. We also encounter pesticides in our rivers and streams and the Chesapeake Bay. While these exposures are often in small doses, growing evidence suggests they can add up to great harm. Unfortunately, the very public health officials responsible for protecting us are denied basic information about when and where dangerous pesticides are used. In Maryland, it is almost impossible for health care providers, public health experts and biomedical researchers to accurately understand the risks pesticides pose.

The announcement that House Speaker John Boehner has offered to take the debt ceiling off the table in the current "fiscal cliff" negotiations is, in one sense, a welcome development. If the Senate agrees, we will temporarily be spared the sort of embarrassing brinkmanship that accompanied the last increase, in August 2011. But a year from now, we will likely be back in the same place, where the debt ceiling is being held hostage by people who have no qualms about using the good credit of the United States as a negotiating ploy.

And now comes a whole new problem: drivers who obey the speed limits cause accidents! That habit, according to the writer from Perry Hall ("Raise the speed limit by 10 mph, then make it stick," Dec. 12), forces other people to change lanes trying to get around them. He goes on further to suggest increasing most speed limits by 10 mph. Of course this would solve the problem - oops, maybe not. Wouldn't he still be "forced to change lanes" because of drivers obeying the speed limits? Does he really think that doing so will cause everyone to obey that limit?

The "fiscal cliff" isn't nearly the biggest cliff we face -- if we're talking about dangerous precipices looming on the horizon. Here are three: The child poverty cliff . A staggering number of our children are impoverished. Between 2007 and 2011, the percentage of American school-age children living in poor households grew from 17 percent to 21 percent. Last year, according to the Agriculture Department, nearly 1 in 4 young children lived in a family that had difficulty affording sufficient food at some point in the year.

Health officials still aren't certain what is causing the alarming uptick in heroin overdoses that has occurred across Maryland recently. But it would be especially disturbing if the trend turns out to be an unintended consequence of state efforts to crack down on prescription drug abuse and fraud. The concern is that people addicted to prescription drugs are now finding them harder to get, and as a result may be turning to illegal narcotics like heroin, which are cheap and relatively easy to obtain on the street but which pose even greater public health and safety risks.

Baltimore police named a 19-year-old man Tuesday as the suspect in an early-November killing in Northeast Baltimore, warning the public that he remains on the loose, "armed and extremely dangerous. " Police detectives and the U.S. Marshals Service are looking for Tavon Barnett, who they say fatally shot 29-year-old Terrance Seale on Nov. 3 in his apartment in the New Northwood neighborhood. Seale's wife, Marie, and sons, ages 3 and 5, were in the home and witnessed the shooting, Marie Seale said.

Continuous rumble strips and a vividly painted buffer will be added to the Bay Bridge to protect motorists when the westbound span is running with two-way traffic. The Maryland Transportation Authority board voted unanimously to accept the recommendations of a safety committee that evaluated the conditions surrounding five fatal crashes over the last 12 years and looked at modifications — from permanent barriers to temporary markers — to protect the public. The rumble strip installation and paint job, expected to cost less than $500,000, will be carried out next spring in time for summer traffic, officials said.

It was broad daylight as the 17-year-old community college student left her bus near busy Edmondson Avenue in Catonsville. Two men in a gold SUV pulled up and forced her at gunpoint into the back seat, where police said one raped her, then stole her phone and wallet. Later that day, a young couple was stopped by a similar truck. The two men inside offered a ride, but refused to let the man and woman out until they relinquished their cash. The incidents came just about a week after an 18-year-old had told police she was abducted, robbed and sexually assaulted in what authorities believe was the same Ford Explorer.

The fourth annual Heather L. Hurd 5K Run and 1 Mile Fun Walk will take place at Harford Community College this Saturday, Nov. 10. The race, on a USA Track and Field certified course, honors the memory of Heather L. Hurd, a history major at Harford Community College from 1999 to 2003, who was killed in 2008 by a distracted driver who was texting. On-site race registration takes place in the newly renovated Susquehanna Center auxiliary gymnasium from 8 to 8:45 a.m., with the race starting at 9 a.m. Approximately 300 community members, from Ms. Hurd's family and friends to HCC students to general community members, plus Poe, the Ravens mascot; Ferrous, the IronBirds mascot; and Screech, the Harford Community College mascot; will be cheering on participants at the finish line.