Inaccurate

I would like to say that I kept my mouth shut because, after all, the three teen-age girls trying on prom dresses at the mall were total strangers to me. But after 20 minutes of watching them debate the merits of the green silk vs. the deep red taffeta, I became so involved I could stand it no longer:"Buy the white silk crepe with the spaghetti straps and get a pair of high-heeled, white satin sandals!" I blurted out to one of the startled girls. "Wear long, crystal earrings and pile your hair up on top of your head like Brigitte Bardot," I advised another.

Walk down a pharmacy aisle and you'll see these words on almost every home pregnancy kit -- "ready to use first day of missed period" and "more than 99 percent accurate." But it turns out the vast majority of brands detect only 16 percent or fewer of pregnancies if they are used as early as recommended, according to new research. Only one test is sensitive enough to detect 95 percent or more of pregnancies when used so early. "There is no incentive for the manufacturers to make them more accurate," said Lawrence Cole, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and author of the study, which appeared in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

According to a league source, Ravens coach John Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron spent all day Tuesday questioning quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn about his teaching methods with Joe Flacco and were concerned about Zorn being insubordinate. Zorn was fired by the Ravens on Thursday. Harbaugh disputed that report, saying it is "inaccurate and unfair to Jim Zorn" and "in no way does it describe Jim's relationship with the Ravens, and that includes with his fellow coaches while here and our players.

The American Muslim community continues to experience numbness and is in deep shock following the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim psychiatrist who was born in Virginia to Jordanian parents, is accused of opening fire on his colleagues, killing 13 and wounding 38. The officer, who was commissioned in 2001, provided counseling to help alleviate psychological stressors that servicemen and woman experience. The Muslim community has worked faithfully since the tragic events of Sept.

Chris Forsberg of Baltimore read a recent column I wrote on bleeding radiators and had some specific questions about his own system. Forsberg wrote that none of his third-floor radiators seemed to work last winter. He bled all the radiators recently, but when he got to the third floor, no water came out at any of the radiators after the air was bled. When he ran the heat, the pipes to the third floor were hot, but the radiators there were warm only at the bottom. Recognizing that these could be symptoms that there wasn't enough water in the system, he checked the pressure gauge on the boiler.

A NEW national study on credit scoring has documented widespread problems that could affect the mortgage rates paid by millions of homebuyers and refinancers. The new report, released Tuesday by the Consumer Federation of America, found that inaccurate and incomplete information in consumers' credit files can depress their credit scores enough to raise their mortgage rate quotes substantially. "We conservatively estimate that 40 million consumers are at risk of being misclassified into the subprime [higher-rate]

WHEN YOU discovered an error on your credit report in connection with a mortgage application, was it easy to get it corrected? Or did you, like Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, the New York Democrat, get a multimonth runaround from both the creditor who made the mistake and the credit bureau that failed to promptly amend your credit file? Ackerman's complaint was just one of dozens that that surfaced last week in Capitol Hill hearings that have huge potential significance to anyone who applies for a home loan.

WHEN the appraisal for a home purchase is off the mark by thousands of dollars, who is responsible? When an appraiser totally misses - or ignores - readily apparent structural defects in a house that depress the property's true market value, who is to blame? Obviously the appraiser. But under what could turn out to be a controversial new consumer-protection plan by the Bush administration, the government wants to hold the mortgage lender equally responsible with the appraiser for such errors.

WASHINGTON - Halliburton, the big contractor that has won a big share of government contracts to rebuild Iraq, significantly and systematically violated federal contracting rules by providing inaccurate and incomplete information about its costs, according to a Dec. 31 report by Defense Department auditors. But 16 days after the report and after a second warning by Pentagon auditors, the Army Corps of Engineers gave Halliburton, formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, a new $1.2 billion contract.

ANNAPOLIS -- The state prosecutor has filed a misdemeanor charge against the daughter of Councilman Theodore J. Sophocleus, the Democratic nominee for Anne Arundel County executive, for submitting an inaccurate campaign finance report on behalf of her father.Evangeline Taylor, 25, a part-time real estate agent from Glen Burnie who serves as Mr. Sophocleus' campaign treasurer, faces a possible $1,000 fine and/or one-year imprisonment if convicted of the crime.The charge filed yesterday morning in District Court in Annapolis stems from a complaint brought by Mr. Sophocleus' opponent, Republican Robert R. Neall, who claimed the Democrat was attempting to "launder" cash contributions.