Make A Decision

A former Randallstown football star who was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty in 2007 to first-degree assault was back in court Thursday, saying he had been duped into making the plea by a "deficient" defense attorney — Kevin B. Kamenetz, now a Baltimore County Council member who is running for county executive. Wearing leg shackles and a pinstriped suit, Melvin Alaeze, 23, once the nation's top defensive lineman recruit, sat quietly as his new attorney asked Baltimore County Circuit Judge Ruth A. Jakubowski to vacate his plea and grant him a trial.

Before you turn on tonight's premiere of “So You Think You Can Dance” there are a few things you should know. The format and rules, which have stayed pretty much the same for the past eight seasons, have been changed drastically.  First, the show will no longer be on two nights per week. It's a strategic manuever that will look to increase the suspense in each episode. Essentially, the eliminations will be done in a two-week rotation. During the first week, the dancers will perform and on the second week they will perform again.

Raymond "Chip" Mason first met Joseph A. Sullivan over dinner at a Chicago restaurant, where the founder of Legg Mason Inc. interviewed the young bond trading manager for a job with the Baltimore company. A lot of the conversation, Mason recalled, was about whether Sullivan and his family were prepared to uproot themselves and move to the Charm City. Mason had seen such moves not work out before. "He admitted it would not be simple," said Mason, who retired after nearly 40 years at Legg's helm and now spends much of his time in Naples, Fla. But "he thought he could do more with us than anyone else.

As Maryland contemplates passing one of the nation's strictest gun laws, at least seven other states have courted its gun manufacturers, offering tax incentives and open arms elsewhere. The governor of Texas, West Virginia's House speaker and an Illinois congressman have written to Beretta USA officials, inviting a move and promising a better business climate if the 400-year-old Italian company chooses to abandon its U.S. headquarters on the Potomac. Another arms manufacturer and defense contractor on the Eastern Shore, LWRC International, received offers, some including tax incentives, from elected or government officials in Nebraska, Mississippi, North Dakota, Nevada, Texas and West Virginia, a company executive said.

Princeton, N.J. -- Edward Witten, who may be the smartest man in the world, seems slightly puzzled by the question put to him: How, his interrogator wants to know, would he describe a typical day in the life of a theoretical physicist? The question is followed by a long silence, one that threatens to turn uncomfortable. It fills his large, corner office at the Institute for Advanced Study, a theoretical research center that is home to a small group of the world's finest thinkers.Which is what Dr. Witten is doing right now: thinking before he answers the question.

A new study of more than 500,000 cardiac patients who underwent recent cardiac stent or angioplasty procedures in the United States has found that up to 15 percent were either unnecessary or appeared to be of uncertain medical benefit. However, nearly all of the procedures performed on cardiac patients experiencing acute symptoms such as a heart attacks appeared to have been medically appropriate, the study found. About 75,000 cases were labeled as "inappropriate" or "uncertain" - almost entirely among the 144,700 patients with nonacute symptoms who underwent the procedures on an elective basis.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- With most of the racing world and a significant number of others watching either here or on TV, the great filly Go For Wand fell and lost her life yesterday, as she approached the finish line of what would have been her finest triumph.Winner of 10 races in 12 starts and headed for No. 11 in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Distaff, the filly from Mrs. Jane Lunger's Christiana Stable had reached the 16th pole at Belmont Park when tragedy struck.With the crowd of 51,236 roaring its approval of a battle with Bayakoa, Go For Wand, perhaps a head in front, suddenly fell as the result of a breakdown in her right front ankle.

Editor: Thank you Mr. Craig, not only for providing the men and women of Harford County Government a bonus, but for standing out as a LEADER. Once again, you have shown what a true Leader does; make a decision, stand behind the decision, see it through and move on. Unfortunately, the teacher's union, like our current state and federal government, chose to make a poor decision, try to explain their decision, give excuses for their decision and then when all else fails; blame it on someone else.

It's as hard to talk your 20-somethings about money as it is talk to them about sex. Maybe harder. "They are probably having the sex," said Eleanor Blayney, a certified financial planner who often talks to the young adult children of her clients. She was laughing. "But they don't have the money. " Our 20-somethings - perhaps starting out in their first real jobs - don't want to hear us say they are spending too much on the clothes and the car and not saving enough. And they'd rather live on Ramen noodles Monday through Friday than give up going out on weekends with friends.

Exelon Corp.'s new headquarters in Baltimore is designed to be a glassy, 22-story skyscraper, similar in style to the Legg Mason tower, which would be a neighbor on the Harbor East waterfront, according to preliminary designs revealed Wednesday. The building would be part of the $250 million first phase of the 27-acre Harbor Point development, which would also include a central plaza, a headquarters for U.S. Lacrosse, a six-acre waterfront park and an apartment tower, said Michael Beatty, president of Harbor East Development Corp.