Make Decisions

Concealed Identity, winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes on May 7 at Pimlico, is “80-20” to run in Saturday’s Preakness, said Linda Gaudet, who co-owns the horse with Morris Bailey. With Ruler On Ice passing on the Preakness this morning, Concealed Identity moved into the prospective Preakness field, which is limited to 14 horses. Based at Bowie Training Center, Concealed Identity is the son of 2004 Derby and Preakness winner Smarty Jones.  “We’re very realistic.

"What are we going to do about mother?" If you haven't had that conversation with your siblings, you will, and it will be one of the toughest conversations you ever have. Then you will have to have that conversation with your mother, or father, and that will certainly be the toughest of them all. It makes sense not to wait for a crisis — a bad fall, an auto accident, a wandering off. The best decisions aren't made when everyone is in a tizzy. So? When? Home Instead, which provides nonmedical home care and companionship services for seniors, has put together a booklet titled "The 40-70 Rule.

Right tackle Jared Gaither lasted one practice this week before the Ravens decided to send him back to a Los Angeles physician for another opinion on the mysterious injury that has derailed his season. For the first time, Coach John Harbaugh acknowledged Friday that there was a limit to how long the Ravens could wait for Gaither to get healthy before putting him on injured reserve for the season. "There's … always a clock running on that because you've got to make decisions based on injuries," Harbaugh said.

If you're going to an outdoors function with a group of nature-type scientists, do not assume they have any influence over the conditions in the immediate area. That was a take-away message Thursday morning as about 100 members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and 50 volunteers from Harford County and the Department of Natural Resources gathered for some do-gooding at the Anita C. Leight Estuary Center in Abingdon. Slabs of clouds the color of fireplace ashes had dumped buckets of rain in the pre-dawn hours.

On attempts to ban the book 'Twilight' Kathy: That is disturbing. I never restricted our son's reading choices and he usually made good decisions. I just don't understand the people who try to legislate morality. Mobtown Matt: The restriction of resources should come in the home, not the library. More examples of lazy parenting. What's next - banning National Geographic because it depicts bare-breasted tribeswomen? sloagm : The removal of the Twilight series from Deseret Book was not a condemnation of the series, the author or the genre.

WASHINGTON - President Bush, delivering a televised farewell to the nation last night, attempted to summon a collective sense of "gratitude" for years of safety following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that shaped his presidency. In a measure of the impact the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon had on his administration, Bush touted one signal success during his time in office: No further attacks occurred. The president acknowledged that his anti-terror policies had prompted "legitimate debate."

The notion of a standard retirement age may be fading, but there's still one age - 70 1/2 - you really can't ignore. At that age, owners of most workplace retirement savings plans and traditional individual retirement accounts must begin drawing down those accounts and paying taxes. You can delay the first withdrawal until April 1 of the next year, but subsequent withdrawals must come out by year's end. Still working? You can delay taking required minimum distributions in your workplace plan but not in your IRAs.

On a cool, breezy afternoon, freshman Leah Hartley wandered the quad at Anne Arundel Community College searching for her future. The 18-year-old North County High School graduate approached a table with engineers, saw the guts of a computer microchip and turned away quickly, convinced that electrical engineering was not her cup of tea. She passed by a group of teachers, ignoring their spiel, but taking them up on their offer of a free post-it pad. But...

Since we got to be here, let's live. - Marvin Gaye If I am ever diagnosed with cancer, I already know what I'm going to do: laugh my fool head off. I will ensconce myself in front of the big screen with a stack of DVDs - the "Vitameatavegamin" episode of I Love Lucy will be at the top, but Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby and Bob Newhart will also be in there, along with Frasier, Albert Brooks, Borat, The Daily Show - anything that has ever made me giggle will...

Lawrence Banks, a man convicted in two 1991 murders and questioned in two recent killings, was sent back to prison yesterday, his parole revoked by a commissioner who called his 30-year criminal record "horrendous." Banks, 53, a Baltimore native who has spent half of his life in prison, had been held since Dec. 13 on two possible parole violations. A day earlier, his girlfriend's 22-year-old daughter and 9-month-old granddaughter were fatally shot in a house in Laurel that they all shared.