Make Decisions

For years if consumers wanted to know their credit score, they had to buy it. But starting this year, potentially millions will be able to get their score for free thanks to new federal regulations. Moreover, the score will be the actual one used to determine a consumer's creditworthiness — not one of the knock-offs offered online that can be off by dozens of points. "Knowledge is power," says Ed Rice, general counsel for Zoot Enterprises, which provides software to help financial institutions make credit decisions.

U.S. counterterrorism efforts monitor and sort vast databases of information for clues on potential plots. Now a team of University of Maryland researchers have used data-mining techniques employed by online giants like Google and Amazon.com to aid in the fight against terror. In the same way corporate America uses algorithms to predict what consumers are most likely to buy or what ads they might click, the researchers analyzed two decades of data on Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"They say opposites attract, and I suppose they do," says Stephanie, 41, a tall blonde in an ankle-skimming skirt who works part-time at a community arts center. "But maybe they can't live together."Stephanie and John, an industrial engineer, have been married for 10 years. When they first met, she found his gentle, logical and stoic nature unbelievably attractive. But now, she says, they're slowly driving each other crazy. The fact that his company might be moving to Northern California, causing her to move far from friends and family, makes her wonder if she really wants to spend the rest of her life with him."

The Ravens made a good move by putting cornerback Domonique Foxworth on injured reserve. The knee injury and surgery Foxworth suffered at the beginning of the 2010 season basically takes two years to heal. Some players can come back early, but that's with the aid of offseason minicamps and being able to work with members of the medical staff.   Foxworth and defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano said Foxworth had made good progress in his recovery until the NFL owners lockout, and then he fell behind.

There has been a lot of discussion about turf fields at high school stadiums recently. As a parent of high school athletes, as well as one of the founders of the Warhawks Football Program, I enthusiastically support this idea, which will put Howard county high school sports on the same level as those of the surrounding counties. Since when is Howard county last to do anything? One answer might be that the tremendous Recreation and Parks fields in the area have provided a crutch from moving forward or at least keeping up with the rest of the state.

After the Ravens' 20-14 win against the Cleveland Browns on Saturday, Billy Cundiff said his balky left calf was much improved from the previous week. Coach John Harbaugh agreed with the kicker's assessment during his weekly news conference Monday, but he also said he wants to see Cundiff practice before declaring him ready to contribute against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. “Billy Cundiff is doing really well,” Harbaugh said. “So we'll have to see about this week.

Members of a state work group on expanding gambling met behind closed doors for about four hours Monday, agreeing to recommend that Maryland allow table games at its casinos and keep its current cap of 15,000 slot machines statewide, according to several people who attended the session. Still unresolved, according to three sources, are the thorny questions of whether to allow a casino in Prince George's County in addition to the five now approved and whether the state's 67 percent tax rate on slots revenue should be reduced.

It took a crisis in an intensive care unit at the University of Maryland Medical Center to force Lawrence J. Ledwig, a 57-year-old leukemia patient, to consider whether he would ever want a machine to keep him alive.Mr. Ledwig's wife, Elma, had left the hospital 20 minutes before he had a bad reaction to a powerful anti-fungal drug three weeks ago and suddenly couldn't get a deep breath. Immediately, his doctor told him, "We might have to put you on a respirator, is that all right?" Mr. Ledwig recalled.

Boston. -- Some years ago, I enrolled in the Founding Fathers School of Citizen Politics. Believing that it's a good idea to rotate people in and out of public life, I signed up for term limits.Well, maybe it's a perverse streak. But just as the whole country has come to favor this plan, I'm having second thoughts.I've begun to suspect that the term-limits law is just another entry on a growing list of mandatory items -- the balanced-budget amendment, the three-strikes-and-you're-out laws -- that are taking over public life.

A Tarot card might have foretold that Ellwood "Bunky" Bartlett would win $32.6 million in the 2007 lottery. Unfortunately, the spirit world provided no omens that might have helped the 45-year-old practicing Wiccan better manage his good fortune. This week, as much of the East Coast is waiting for the winners of the record $656 million jackpot to step forward, Bartlett of Westminster agreed to talk about the things that have gone wrong - and right - in his life during the past three years.