Make Decisions

WASHINGTON -- One of the things for which Bill Clinton's presidential campaign was most noted, and praised, was its political antenna -- the ability to spot opportunity or trouble and react quickly and effectively to it. The campaign in Little Rock created a "rapid-response" team to carry out decisions made in a campaign "war room" to apply either positive spin or damage control.The field general for the operation was James Carville who, along with his partner Paul Begala, kept the campaign on its toes to make hay out of any lapse by the Bush campaign or to pour water on any negative development that came up on the campaign trail or in the news.

Your Nov. 26 editorial, "A child's best interests," sets forth valid points with respect to children in neglectful and abusive family situations. The dilemma, as the editorial notes, revolves around the decision as to when the home environment is so unsafe that the child should be removed -- or, when conditions have become sufficiently stabilized as to warrant the child's return.According to the editorial, these judgments rest with the social worker. Not so. Actually, the decision to remove the child from or reunify him with the family rests with the court.

After indirect communication with the White House, the NFL announced yesterday that, barring later developments, its conference championship games would be played Sunday, as planned, and that Super Bowl XXV would take place in Tampa, Fla., on Jan. 27."We recognize that the American people will not be paralyzed by the events in the Middle East or allow the fabric of daily life to be destroyed," the league's commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, said in a written statement. "We will obviously follow events in the Middle East and take those into account as we approach kickoff."

Politicians, principally County Executive Ken Ulman, created a mess in pursuit of a deal to spend $2 million on artificial turf. These elected officials can now set the matter right. The trouble started when the state came into some extra money from a recently implemented increase in the alcohol tax. As Gov. Martin O'Malley, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp - collectively the state Board of Public Works, which holds enormous power over state expenditures - began to divvy up the proceeds, officials of the Howard County Public School System came to them with an outline of what they would do with the for $4 million that constitutes Howard's share.

Like Ed Reed, Matt Birk has a decision to make about his future with the Ravens. And like the free safety, the 15-year center declined to say whether he envisioned playing out the final two years of his contract. “I don't know,” he said. “I'm worried about what I'm going to eat at dinner tonight. I don't make any decision until I have to. That's my motto.” Birk, 36, made his 113th consecutive start in Sunday's 24-9 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Wildcard playoff round.

Maureen Skelly remembers her trip to the beach after she graduated from high school. She and her friends spent every last nickel and didn't have enough cash to pay the toll on their way home. They had to go into the toll office and fill out a form promising to pay the money at a later date. Now that her son, Sean, is a senior at River Hill High School, she is hoping he will make wiser decisions during his Senior Week in Ocean City. "I wanted Sean to come and hear and get educated about appropriate behavior," said Skelly, sitting in the auditorium at Reservoir High School on Wednesday before a two-hour talk.

Cybersecurity industry analysts expect the market to grow more than 50 percent in the next four years even as other types of defense spending are expected to flatten or decline, creating new opportunities for workers and businesses in Maryland. The analysts presented their findings last week at the CyberMaryland conference in Baltimore. Information security professionals have to wade through an overwhelming amount of digital data every day to monitor for cyber threats — an increasingly cumbersome workload that will create new opportunities for federal contractors and workers, said John Slye, a federal industry research analyst with GovWin, a market intelligence and software company.

When it comes to teens having babies, it's a matter of pay me now or pay me later. You can pay for the programs that help teens understand sex and make good decisions about it, and you can pay for the health care services that provide them with options for contraception. Or you can pay for the misfortunes that are more likely to befall the child of a teen mother: health problems, behavioral and educational issues, and a greater likelihood of criminal troubles in adolescence and young adulthood.

People who are sad are more likely to seek instant financial gratification, even though it means losing out on more money later if they had just waited. That's according to researchers at Harvard and Columbia universities, and the University of California Riverside's School of Business Administration. When sad, people have less patience and are more likely to seek immediate financial rewards. That's similar to when people go shopping to lift their spirits, something called retail therapy.

WHAT ARE FRIENDS for? Friends are for loving, caring about and for just plain being there, aren't they?But great friendships, I think, go deeper than that. They are for confidences and honesty, and other intrinsic qualities that are more than just a smile or a hand-hold.A friend called me from a nearby city, where she was visiting her daughter."I have something to ask you, something special," she said."Shoot, what is it? No bad news I hope.""No, I have to make a decision and because you've known me for so long . . . I need your advice."