Downfall

So this is how Constellation Energy Group's crafty new ownership is going to play it. Appearing before the state Senate Finance Committee this week, a top executive with MidAmerican Energy Holdings was asked whether the company was open to reregulation of electricity in Maryland. His answer? He's willing to discuss it. Perhaps it should come as no shock that an Iowa-based power company known for its low-key approach and progressive management is not letting the sparks fly in Annapolis.

In his first television interview since leaving CBS News abruptly last month after working there for 44 years, Dan Rather said last night that he had not ruled out suing the network. "I can't say that I never thought about that," Rather told CNN's Larry King in a live broadcast in which he, nevertheless, made clear that he was moving on with his career and spent little time looking backward. But he conceded that the manner of his parting had been "painful." Rather, 74, announced June 20 that he was leaving the network after it became clear, he said, that CBS had no further use for him. His departure came 15 months after he stepped down as anchor of the CBS Evening News in the aftermath of a controversy over the authenticity of documents used in a story about President Bush's military career.

About this time last season, the Blast was 14-9, had seven games remaining and probably was two wins away from clinching a position in the Major Indoor Soccer League playoffs. The team won its next game, but a nose-dive soon followed. Six consecutive defeats, including a morale-crushing one at home to the Philadelphia KiXX in the penultimate match, left the Blast out of the playoffs by one game. This season, the Blast is 14-9 with seven games remaining and perhaps only one win from the playoffs, which will include six teams this season because of the addition of three expansion teams.

WINSTON Churchill once said, "mastery itself was the prize." He was describing his 1911 gamble in converting the Royal Navy from safe Welsh coal to the dicey oil of Persia.Oil has been synonymous with mastery ever since, writes Daniel Yergin in a monumental new book, "The Prize" (Simon & Schuster). An energy economist, Yergin traces the saga of petroleum from the seeding of industrial capitalism through the wars of the 20th century to today's post-Cold War standoff. Saddam Hussein comes across as a rather ordinary player in his bizarre cast of transient heroes, villains and screwballs.

Henry A. Berliner Jr. used to talk about integrity in banking. He spoke of bankers assuming responsibility for the problems they caused. And he talked about prudence, including staying close to your market, and sticking with the products you know.The former president and chief executive officer of Second National Federal Savings Bank, one of three East Coast thrifts federal regulators seized Friday for operating in an unsafe condition, still stands by his integrity. And he acknowledges a share of, though not a monopoly in, the responsibility for his thrift's downfall.

Kim Miller and her teammates at North County High led Prophet Pat's downfall last week. Man, did they make the rage of a sage look bad.Miscalculating twice on North County girls basketball games, the renowned Prophet went an embarrassing 2-4 last week. The poor showing dropped the Prophet's overall average below .700 for the first time since way back in the fall.The Prophet goes into this week's six-pack with an overall 110-49record, which on the calculator comes out to a .692 percentage.

Why are we drawn to celebrity? Our attraction probably dates to prehistoric times and it's probably in our DNA, experts say - a combination of our instinctual needs for (a) something to worship and (b) something to gossip about. When cavemen sitting around a fire first singled out another caveman for discussion - perhaps "Grok," maybe because he could throw a rock farther than anyone else - they found both a common bond and the kind of vicarious thrill that their descendants would continue to relish thousands of years later, as they dissected American Idol contestants around the office water cooler.

SEATTLE - What began as a positive start for Orioles pitcher Sidney Ponson, one worth talking about if he hadn't gone mute with the media, dissolved into another loss yesterday. Cheap hits, mental lapses from his defense, rotten luck. That's usually enough to make anyone bite his tongue. Taking a shutout into the sixth inning, Ponson allowed five runs and never got the last out. He dropped below .500 as the Orioles were tumbling into third place in the American League East with an 8-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field.

I predict Barry Bonds, or someone just like him, will end baseball's labor dispute.He will end it in favor of the owners.I'm not suggesting Bonds will become a scab. I wouldn't tag him with that onerous distinction.I'm saying he, and others like him, are the most likely points of vulnerability in the players' heretofore iron resolve.Think about it. Bonds is one of the game's premier stars. He is somewhat arrogant and self-centered. He is the kind of guy who doesn't give a damn what anybody thinks.

JERUSALEM - After four wars, a generation of terrorism and a bitter military occupation, the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is breathtakingly close. But overcoming the last differences may require a leap of faith. Considering their positions of a decade ago, each side has made huge strides toward the other: A majority of Israelis now acknowledge the Palestinians as a people with roots in land west of the Jordan River and not just as part of an Arab whole. Contact with the Palestine Liberation Organization, a group previously outlawed, is a normal government activity.