Life

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.

It was April 1978, and singer Judy Collins hadn't had an inspirational thought in four years. She'd been an alcoholic for 23 years — "and I was proud of it. " She'd toured and made records, but she knew the ride she was on — her father had been an alcoholic — and "as long as I was on it, I was going to enjoy every minute. " But in those last four years, she'd been drinking around the clock. Three-black-outs-a-day drinking. Jelly-jars-full-of-booze drinking. So her accountant and her assistant, the only people who would have anything to do with this version of Judy Collins, put her on a plane to a rehab facility.

The story of a 24-year-old Georgia graduate student fighting a flesh-eating disease has prompted a microbiologist with the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System to speak out about the infection. Aimee Copeland lost most of her left leg after the flesh-eating bacteria necrotizing faciitis is believed to have entered a cut on her leg, according to the Associated Press, which reports she may also have to have her fingers amputated. The waterborne bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila is believed to have caused the infection.

In what parents and health organizations called a life-saving measure, Gov. Martin O' Malley signed into a law Tuesday a bill that will require all Maryland schools to maintain an emergency supply of epinephrine in order to respond to a growing trend of severe allergic reactions among school-aged children.  “Receiving a dose of epinephrine in the critical minutes following exposure to a food allergen can mean the difference between life and...

Roberto Pagan-Franco didn't have a bank account for decades. His employer paid him in cash or with a check that the Baltimore resident took to a check-cashing store. A few years ago he lost his job after a severe illness and for a time was homeless. Not exactly the type of customer you'd expect a big bank to court. But Pagan-Franco enrolled in a PNC Bank program that targets consumers who otherwise might be shut out of the banking system. And today, the 54-year-old has checking and savings accounts at PNC and is in the process of getting a credit card.

If the Black Eyed Susan were a race horse, it would be a sprinter. It makes one strong move, then fades quickly. The strong move occurs this weekend when the cocktail will be in demand at Pamlico Race Track, during both the running of the Black Eyed Susan Stakes on Friday and the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Over these two days, about 25,000 servings of the libation, poured into commemorative glasses, will be sold at $8 apiece, track officials say. But as soon as Preakness weekend ends, so does the does the local thirst for the Susan.

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.

This episode begins with Emily meeting for “girl talk” with her best “gal pals.” She mentions that all her friends are the mothers of her daughter's playmates. Can't Emily form meaning relationships by herself? While she hangs out at the park these friends that are twice her age, the guys indulge in a pool party reminiscent of a Schmitts Gay commercial . Only two of the 19 bachelors have chest hair! Ryan Gets the First Date Card Sarah: Ryan “Fluff Head” spent a lot of time getting ready for the date - except he forgot to comb his hair.

The windows are wide open in the messy apartment, the afternoon sky darkening fast. Chrissy Polis can't stand the Essex neighborhood outside, where everyone knows who she is. But she doesn't know how to get out, or where she'd go if she did. "I just want to move because I want to see other things," she says. There was a time when it seemed people from all over the country were talking about the 24-year-old. Many wanted to help her; others condemned her. Polis became an unwitting symbol of the transgender community and the struggle for transgender rights when she stepped into a Rosedale McDonald's one April evening.

Jonathan Phillip "Sugarfoot" Moffett can practically hear the King of Pop's voice in his head as he practices his drum licks for the Cirque du Soleil show based on the music of Michael Jackson. "Make it bigger than life," Moffett hears the Gloved One telling him, as he bears down on the beat in "Billie Jean" or "Heartbreak Hotel. " "My fans know my music. That's what they want to hear. Add some color, but don't stray too far. " In putting together "Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour," the creative team behind Cirque du Soleil drew upon the expertise of several musicians and dancers who worked closely with Jackson, including Moffett, Jackson's longtime drummer, and choreographer Travis Payne.

A Baltimore judge on Wednesday sentenced serial robber William Carr to life in prison plus 30 years, the maximum terms allowed, for the armed robbery and murder last year of a Korean businessman at the Erdman Shopping Center in Belair-Edison. “Had he not been arrested… he would have continued his violent conduct,” said Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, who prosecuted the case alongside Assistant State's Attorney Josh Felsen. Carr, who was released from a 20-year prison term in 2010, was convicted of at least two other armed robberies before he was incarcerated and is facing trial next month in a separate incident that occurred just days before he killed Chong Wan Yim on June 28th.

Wide receiver Jacoby Jones, who signed a two-year deal earlier this month, is excited to join a Ravens team that knocked his former team, the Houston Texans, out of the playoffs in January. “Who wouldn't take this opportunity to come play for this team?” the 27-year-old said. “It's always good for a breath of fresh air, something new, so I'm taking my breaths slowly but surely.” Jones has started in 21 of his 75 career games, making 127 receptions for 1,741 yards and 11 touchdowns.

It's 1943. First light colors the summer Chesapeake Bay off the fishing village of Rock Hall, revealing a 6-year-old boy rowing a wooden skiff, struggling to do it quietly, so not to scare the blue crabs his great-grandfather dips as they run their trotline. The crabs back then came up "thick as mosquitoes at dark," several at once attacking the eel baits tied along the trotline. As they work, the old man teaches the boy skills he'd need in the water business; he also speaks with sadness about how the state arbitrarily changed the fishing rules, ending his long career as a top bay captain.

A Baltimore man serving a 60-year murder sentence now faces life without parole in an unrelated homicide in Glen Burnie, after he was convicted Monday of the first-degree murder of Dr. Albert Woonho Ro. Dante Jeter, 25, is scheduled to be sentenced July 24 in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court for his role in the fatal beating, stabbing and robbery on Sept. 26, 2006, of Ro, 51, a dentist well-known in the area's Korean-American community. Prosecutor Anne Colt Leitess said she intends to seek life without parole for the murder, plus another life sentence for Jeter's conviction of conspiring with his cousin, Shontay Joyner Hickman, 37, also of Baltimore, and possibly additional time for a robbery conviction.

Five weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden publicly commanded his foot-soldiers to ramp up the violence against American civilians. But five weeks before his death, he privately instructed his lieutenants to refrain from killing any civilians. Did the world's most notorious terrorist have a moral awakening and grow soft? Hardly. His unheralded tactical shift was purely strategic. This month, the Combating Terrorism Center at the West Point Military Academy released 17 declassified documents that were seized from bin Laden's Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound in the targeted killing last year.

Two unidentified operators of a prescription drug clinic in Lutherville that was raided by Baltimore County narcotics officers and Drug Enforcement Administration agents Tuesday have been arrested, according to county police. One was arrested at the Healthy Life Medical Group clinic in the 1100 block of York Road, the other at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, police said. Both have been charged with conspiracy to distribute Schedule II narcotics, which include amphetamines, methamphetamines and other drugs that can be used in a medical setting but have "a high potential for abuse which may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence," according to the DEA website.

WASHINGTON -- Her voice is a surprise.First, because it is so deep and husky, older than her 41 years, the kind of voice that goes with a smoke and a Scotch, not a tailored, working-woman wardrobe and a perfect orb of camera-ready hair.But second, because it is so remarkably unfamiliar.After Bob Dole's four decades in public life, his repeated presidential campaigns and his just-capped career in Congress, his grown daughter, Robin, who has lived near him in the Washington area almost her entire life, has remained virtually unseen and unheard by the public.

Baltimore struggles to overcome homicides, and gun violence. The horrific death of Stephen Pitcairn, brilliant Hopkins student, with a knife to his chest ("A promising life is cut short," July 27), is an open wound in the heart of Baltimore. How many young lives cut short by brutal violence will it take before we, as citizens, parents, grandparents, city and state leaders, begin to teach the ethics that life is sacred, that violence to one is a reflection on us all? Theresa Reuter, Catonsville

The story of a 24-year-old Georgia graduate student fighting a flesh-eating disease has prompted a microbiologist with the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System to speak out about the infection. Aimee Copeland lost most of her left leg after the flesh-eating bacteria necrotizing faciitis is believed to have entered a cut on her leg, according to the Associated Press, which reports she may also have to have her fingers amputated. The waterborne bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila is believed to have caused the infection.

A 6-year-old boy was flown to a nearby hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries Wednesday morning after being hit by an SUV in Odenton. Justin Mulcahy, public information officer for the Anne Arundel County Police Department, said police responded to a call at 7:43 at the intersection of Blue Water Boulevard and Roff Point Drive, according to preliminary information. The child had been hit by a Chevrolet Avalanche, Mulcahy said. ywenger@baltsun.com Twitter.com/yvonnewenger