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Up to half of sexually active young people will get a sexually transmitted disease by the time they are 25, yet many don't seek testing because it may be difficult, costly or embarrassing. Public health officials nationally and in particularly affected cities like Baltimore, however, say they've found a method that seems to address the major hurdles — a website that supplies free in-home testing kits for three of the most commonly reported STDs. "The highest prevalence is in young adults, and we knew we had to reach these kids," said Charlotte A. Gaydos, a professor of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Graduates of the Johns Hopkins University's master's program in science writing have explained the prospects of life on Mars, the promise of neuroscience research and the ethics of animal testing on the pages of Scientific American, Nature and Popular Science, on the airwaves of NPR and in books. But after 30 years among a small tier of similar programs across the country, the tiny one-year program has trained its last writers in the art of translating science for the layman. Hopkins officials discontinued it this month, citing a decline in applications that rendered it not selective enough.

On Thursday, the day the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, a 47-year-old Baltimore woman went to the drugstore, and pulled out her debit card to pay for a prescription refill. But she didn't have enough money in the account to cover the $425 charge. So she asked the pharmacist and staff for a favor. "I asked them to break up the prescription to give me one-third," says the woman, who would not allow her name to be published because she didn't want to disclose her medical conditions.

In her column "An Annapolis tradition, grounded" (May 13) Susan Reimer laments the fact that the Blue Angels flyover at the graduation ceremonies for cadets was canceled, and she thinks Congress should be ashamed for cutting funds for such a trivial "carnival act. " Meanwhile, the Obama administration has apparently sicced the IRS on tea party groups for political reasons, the very groups who are fighting to keep such frivolous expenditures off...

MARYLAND'S LOW-INCOME housing market is headed into a crisis: Nearly half of 35,000 low-income units statewide may be lost in the next four years because their owners are thinking of quitting subsidy programs. Owners can make more money by charging market-rate rents, which are soaring, or by selling the buildings. The result can be seen in Baltimore City: 43 percent of tenants with Section 8 vouchers cannot find qualifying apartments or landlords willing to accept them. In coming months, the situation is only likely to grow worse as the pool of low- income housing shrinks.

Button up. The forecast calls for near-record cold tonight, with lows in the mid-20s, and continued cold through Saturday.Yesterday's high of 42 degrees at Baltimore-Washington International Airport was the coldest maximum temperature ever for a Nov. 4. The reading, taken just after midnight, broke the old record of 48 degrees, set in 1966 and 1983.The overnight low today was 26 degrees at BWI, reached at 4:25 a.m. That was 1 degree colder than the old record set in 1952.

The Calverton, a four-story, 13-unit rehabilitated building on East 25th Street, opened its doors this week to women who cannot afford market-rate housing. It's about time.Sponsors of the $630,000 project expect a diverse mix of tenants, ranging from women with physical or mental disabilities to battered wives, the homeless and minimum-wage workers. All will earn less than $7,900 a year. Temporary housing options exist for such individuals, but many find themselves back on the streets when the time limit runs out. Some are even less fortunate: In a random sampling last November, Action for the Homeless found that 43 women were turned away for emergency shelters.

Research on low-carbohydrate diets has yet to produce a conclusive medical recommendation. Scientific literature supplies material that affirms advocates and opponents, although the preponderance of evidence doesn't support low-carb diets. The Journal of the American Medical Association, for instance, last April published a review of more than 30 years of relatively short-term studies of low-carbohydrate diets. Low-carb advocates like to talk about how the report seems to answer the criticism that the relatively high-fat regimen poses a risk of cardiovascular disease.

A 35-degree low at Baltimore-Washington International Airport yesterday morning set a record - the fourth in as many days at BWI this week. The old record for the date was 42 degrees, set in 1968. Only one other four-day stretch of record cold survives in the official records for Baltimore, which began in 1871. That was a chilly four days from Aug. 28 to Aug. 31, 1986, when the lows ranged from 45 to 49 degrees. The current span of record cool mornings began Sunday, when the 40-degree low tied a record set in 1956.

The National Weather Service was calling for Wednesday to be mostly sunny in the Baltimore area, with a high near 86 degrees and winds becoming southeast about 5 miles per hour. Wednesday night was expected to be mostly cloudy, with a low around 65 and calm winds. Thursday was expected to be mostly sunny, with a high near 85 and winds becoming south between 4 to 7 miles per hour. Thursday night was expected to be mostly cloudy, with a low around 68 and south winds between 3 and 6 miles per hour.

High pressure is forecast to bring sunny skies and highs in the upper 60s Tuesday in the Baltimore area, according to the National Weather Service. The morning got off to to a nearly record-setting cold start. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport dropped to 34 degrees about 6 a.m. Tuesday, tying a mark set in 1996. Carroll, Harford, Howard and northern Baltimore counties were under a frost advisory through 8 a.m., with temperatures expected in the mid-30s.

Here's what Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, said three years ago as the nation's gap between rich and poor widened toward historic levels: "I think it's a very bad development. It's creating two societies. And it's based very much, I think, on educational differences. … It leads to an unequal society, and a society which doesn't have the cohesion that we'd like to see. " As college students complete final exams and the 2013 commencement season arrives, a look at the higher education landscape suggests that the nation still has a long way to go in closing the education gap at the root of the income gap - what we should call the opportunity gap. "Socioeconomic diversity" on campus remains elusive.

Results show! When they're down to this few couples, there's more time for filler. Yay! Filler! I don't even like DoubleStuf Oreos, y'all. What this means is we get a troupe performance right off the bat, that isn't even themed to anything, other than, "Hey, we need to fill time. " Highlights from last night -- let's see if they show us anything we didn't see last night. Ok, I don't remember seeing Zendaya's parents' reaction to her perfect score. They are up on their feet and cheering.

Critics of a federal program that provides free cellphones to thousands of Maryland residents who can't afford regular commercial service are right that some recipients who don't qualify for the benefit are taking advantage of the system. But there's no question the program serves an important need for the families it targets, and the solution to its problems lies in better oversight and management, not scrapping it altogether. The Lifeline program was created in 1984 to cushion the impact of telephone deregulation on poor families who otherwise might lose access to phone service.

Hunt Valley-based Tessco Technologies Inc. said Wednesday that revenue and profits both fell about 18 percent in its most recent quarter compared with a year earlier, driven by its exit from a high-revenue business it considered too low margin. The provider of products for wireless broadband systems produced $2.9 million in net income in its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended March 31. That's down from about $3.5 million in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue fell to about $158 million from almost $195 million a year earlier, while earnings fell to 35 cents a share from 43 cents.

The beautiful weekend weather just couldn't last. While clear, sunny skies remain over New England, a low-pressure system spinning up from the Southeast has brought clouds over the mid-Atlantic. An area of high pressure that dominated from late last week through the weekend is now centered near Maine, slipping off the coast. The area had blocked clouds from moving into the region. "ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END...AND SO WE SAY FAREWELL TO THE FINE WX OF THE PAST FIVE DAYS," National Weather Service meteorologists wrote in a morning forecast discussion.

Deadly industrial accidents in the developing world are tragically common, but the recent collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh that took the lives of more than 500 workers has captured the American public's attention, and no wonder. Knowingly or unknowingly, most Americans at some point have purchased clothing or other items made in Bangladesh, where factory workers labor under sweatshop conditions and employers keep manufacturing costs down by ignoring safety and building code violations.

Congratulations on another example of your extreme liberal bias when you commented on the opening of the Bush library ("Misoverestimating George W. Bush," April 28). Your hatred knows no bounds when you denigrate an individual who at the same time was being praised by two of your heroes, the former Philanderer in Chief and the current Spendthrift in Chief. What activities do you engage in when not employed by The Sun, a rapidly descending newspaper? Do you cheer at military funerals like that radical Baptist Church group or do you engage in more discreet activities like kicking the canes from under old ladies?