Major

April 1 is the official start to the blue crab harvest in Maryland. But don't reach for your mallet just yet. "It's not time for crabs," said Jessica Borowski, a manager at Midtown BBQ and Brew. "It's too cold out. " The crabs seem to agree. The Chesapeake Bay's water temperature hasn't risen enough for the crabs to become active - and catchable. Consumers set on Maryland crabs will see limited availability for now - and prices to match. Prices for Chesapeake Bay crabs are typically high at the start of the season, and people who want them in April will have to pay even more than usual.

Johns Hopkins scientists have found a way to screen for hard-to-detect endometrial and ovarian cancers in women using a routine Pap smear, a discovery they hope eventually could reduce the number of deaths caused by the deadly malignancies. The researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center hope the Pap smear, a procedure in which cells are scraped from the cervix and examined under a microscope, can catch the two cancers in early stages and allow for earlier treatment. The Pap test has dramatically improved detection of cervical cancer over the years, curbing deaths by 75 percent among those who are screened.

When patients are in the throes of a heart attack, there's no question that stents save lives. But for heart patients with few symptoms and less than severe artery blockage, whether to use a stent is a question with no clear-cut answer, say cardiologists. In fact, these days some heart experts say the mesh metal tubes used to keep narrowed or weakened arteries propped open are overused for blockages that can be treated just as well with medicine, a healthy diet and exercise. A recent internal review of heart patients at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson found 369 patients received the coronary implants unnecessarily.

There must be 109 million ways to ruin your life after finding out you won Powerball. But the most critical decision comes quickly, after about the fourth or fifth time you check the numbers. To go public or not? To grip a check the size of a Charlie Sheen poster for the cameras? Or to hide your good fortune from an admiring and envious world? "We've heard from a couple" who say they own the $109 million Powerball ticket sold in Abingdon last week, says Carole Everett, spokeswoman for the Maryland Lottery.

It was about this time last year - give or take a week - that it became apparent the Orioles had undergone some kind of karmic transformation. The exact date was May 6, 2012 and the team was at Fenway Park. Nobody has to tell a real fan the rest. Chris Davis came out of right field and shut out the Boston Red Sox for two innings. Adam Jones launched a three-run homer in the 17th to carry the Orioles back into first place in the American League East. That was the point in their turnaround season when everybody realized something really special was taking place.

While hundreds of thousands of federal workers brace for unpaid furloughs starting next month, Uncle Sam is still looking to hire. In one week alone this month, nearly 2,200 job listings available to the public were posted on USAJobs.gov, the federal government's recruiting site. Add in new postings open only to current or former federal workers , including those laid off, and the number of new openings jumps to more than 4,600. "One thing for sure about hiring freezes: They always begin to melt as soon as they are put into place," said Don Kettl, dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy at College Park.

I f you watch Spike TV's "Bar Rescue"you know how hard Jon Taffer's job is. Recruited by drinkeries, Taffer not only revamps bars' design, menus and business practices, but deals with bullheaded owners. He's already had to fix a pirate bar (!) in Silver Spring (!!) for the premiere of Season 2 last week. But for this Sunday's episode (9 p.m.), he attempts to fix Fells Point's J.A. Murphy's, which became Murphy's Law ... and then closed. What went down? We decided to awkwardly ask Taffer.

Many Americans would be surprised to learn that chimpanzees are still being used in biomedical research and that millions of other animals are utilized in consumer product and toxicity testing. Others may find a sense of security in knowing that this practice continues to provide information on which chemicals and products are deemed safe. The fact is that it doesn't have to be this way, and there are a number of public health, economic and animal welfare reasons to change our ways. The evolving process by which the U.S. regulates chemicals is important to every American household.

Is the sensation of pins and needles in the feet or hands a sign of something serious? Usually, no, but it can be. Most cases of that tingling sensation, which some lay people incorrectly call "numbness," occur when a foot or hand "falls asleep," said Dr. Ahmet Hoke, director of the neuromuscular division of neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. If you sit on your feet, for example, it puts so much pressure on the nerves that they temporarily become electrically unstable, sending off impulses to the brain when they shouldn't.

Tip No. 1 for a trip to Green Bank, W.Va.: Pack lots of CDs. If you hit the "scan" button on your car radio, all you will get is an endless display of numbers as the radio searches vainly for a station. There aren't any. There isn't much else out here in east-central West Virginia, either -- just an occasional farm, a logging truck or, scampering back into the Monongahela National Forest, a deer. The trip here, via routes 55 and 28, winds up into the clouds where snakes of mist curl around the road.