Incorrectly

To hard-driving athletes and weekend warriors, the mentholated fumes and the hurts-so-good burn of sports creams and adhesive pads seem a harmless balm for overworked muscles. But for a teenage athlete in New York, the pain-relieving gels, patches and ointments proved to be deadly poison in April. This month, the New York City medical examiner concluded that 17-year-old Arielle Newman effectively died of an overdose of muscle-soothing balms. To a new generation of users - and an older generation of athletic overdoers - it was a sobering reminder that these popular products contain real medicine, even though they're applied to the skin rather than swallowed.

ST. LOUIS From his customary open-air perch high above the Busch Stadium playing field, Mike Shannon was putting his own folksy finishing touch on another St. Louis Cardinals broadcast Thursday afternoon. It was a beautiful day at the ballpark, full of high skies, gentle breezes and good baseball, and you could hear Shannon's unmistakable voice cackling throughout every loudspeaker in the stadium's broad corridors. He sprinkled that familiar "Heh, hehh, hehhh," into every segment of the radio broadcast, then finished the day with a big and satisfied grin as the Cardinals completed a series sweep of the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates.

Homeowners whose property was just reassessed have until Feb. 12 to appeal. Information and an online application can be found at sdatcert1.resiusa.org/Appeals2007. You can also call your local assessment office for more information. The state Department of Assessments and Taxation says the key is showing why the home is incorrectly valued, not arguing that the taxes are too high. Residents who appeal are entitled to see the assessor's worksheet for their home and, for $1 each, worksheets for similar homes.

He smiled when he saw the house. "He likes it," she thought. Then the smile faded, and a string of other thoughts flitted through her mind. "Oh, he thinks it's too modern." "Maybe he hates this part of town." "This is awful. We never agree." "The relationship isn't working." Such reactions - triggered by a simple change of expression - might seem bizarre to the secure and well-adjusted. But overinterpretation of a slight shift in expression can be all too familiar to the hypersensitive.

The Baltimore City government, seeking to "manage the confusion" about BGE electricity rates -- and perhaps do a little political spinning -- has created a Web page where consumers can enter the amount of their current bills and see how much the figures will go up if they opt in or stay out of a plan to defer an impending increase. But it appears consumers weren't the only ones confused. The city's initial version got the math wrong, but BGE isn't so sure about the corrected one either.

The discord over the proposed expansion of Turf Valley has been at fever pitch for months, but it is intensifying with each side accusing the other of improper tactics and skewing the facts. The attacks come in response to formal, written summations filed a week and a half ago after six months of quasi-legal hearings on the project. "Unfortunately, the opposition is attempting ... to challenge the entire Turf Valley project and to reverse decisions made years ago," Richard B. Talkin, an attorney representing the developer, writes in a response to the summation filed by critics.

Nine of Howard County's 76 registered sex offenders remained at large yesterday after police visited their homes to verify their addresses in the statewide registry of child molesters, rapists and other violators, Chief Wayne Livesay said. Howard County police began the investigation July 26 when the search for a convicted rapist accused of killing his teenage stepdaughter in Essex highlighted statewide gaps in the voluntary reporting system that tracks about 4,300 sex offenders. Carl Preston Evans Jr., 35, remained a fugitive as of yesterday.

CHICAGO - Morningstar Inc., a U.S. research firm used by 3 million investors to decide what mutual funds to buy, said yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the company for publishing incorrect performance data for a fund. The SEC may sue the firm, founded 20 years ago by Joseph Mansueto, for violating securities laws, Morningstar said. The company said it overstated the returns of the Rock Canyon Top Flight Fund from March 12 to March 23. Morningstar said the regulator may be concerned with how long it took to correct the information.

WASHINGTON - With the U.S. military death toll passing 1,000, one of the Bush administration's central assumptions about the invasion of Iraq now seems more obviously flawed than before. This was the expectation that a U.S. victory would be relatively swift and certain, without many casualties. Less than a week before the invasion, Vice President Dick Cheney was asked whether the American people were prepared for a war that might be long and costly, with significant U.S. casualties. "Well, I don't think it's likely to unfold that way," the vice president said on Meet the Press, "because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators."

Attorneys for convicted killer Steven H. Oken filed a motion in Baltimore County Circuit Court yesterday asking that a judge postpone their client's execution - scheduled for the week of June 14 - because of what they say are problems with Maryland's lethal injection process. Across the country, there have been a number of recent challenges to the drug combination used in most lethal injections, with defense lawyers and death penalty opponents saying the drugs cause then mask excruciating pain.