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Thousands of Americans in debt over their heads are turning to nonprofit credit counseling agencies to help them avoid bankruptcy and return to solvency. But for many, that move is leading to more financial woes. A new breed of credit counseling agencies is more interested in making a buck off troubled consumers than in helping to rescue them from financial distress, consumer advocates say. These agencies are charging exorbitant fees, failing to disclose who is profiting and how from rescue plans and, in some instances, failing to pass debtors' payments on to creditors on time, experts say. At the same time, some of these nonprofit agencies are acting more like for-profits by paying executives lavish salaries or steering millions of dollars in business to for-profit companies run by friends or relatives, critics say. "The IRS has given out tax-exempt status to these companies without really checking whether they are filling their tax-exempt purpose," said Joseph Rooney, deputy commissioner of the Division of Financial Regulation, which regulates the groups in Maryland.

I've had it. Enough is enough. Thanks to the Supreme Court, any fat cat can now pour unlimited funds to political candidates through so called "super pacs. " And now this corrupting practice has happened here in the 1st Congressional District where, as reported in the Baltimore Sun of October 19th, two wealthy individuals, a construction company owner and a New York hedge fund executive, have entered the Congressional race between Frank Kratovil and Andy Harris by donating a total of $500,000 to Mr. Harris, including more than $149,000 for TV ads attacking Mr. Kratovil ("Firm's $300,000 backs Harris")

To cover the incision from Dale Borgman's recent bac surgery, his doctor needed only a Band-Aid. That's because the incision consisted of a single needle puncture.Yet that needle -- as skinny as a plastic coffee-stirrer -- contained a miniature laser and fiber optic lens that made it possible for Sacramento orthopedic surgeon Paul Lim to operate on the ruptured disk that had plagued Mr. Borgman for several months. The procedure was done in a half hour.Dr. Lim and other doctors believe the laser surgery, which has been used on a small scale around the country, may revolutionize back surgery, allowing those who suffer from debilitating back and leg pain to be cured relatively easily.

After 25 Preaknesses, Annette Thomas has her routine, and recipes, down pat. Thirty pounds of ribs, both pork and beef, marinated overnight in vinegar and soy sauce, then grilled in front of her house on Saturday. Fifty pounds of red-skin potatoes — "Never russets, oh no, no, no!" — boiled in her crab pots for dill whipped potato salad. "Half-and-half," or homemade sweet tea — not the bought tea, she explains — and lemonade to wash it down. For the hungry hordes heading into or out of Pimlico Race Course , sidewalk chefs like Thomas serve up a home-cooked alternative to the concessions inside.

Borrowers overwhelmed by private student loan debt often discover an ugly truth too late — these loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy like other types of consumer loans. A new report on private student loans by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Department of Education suggests it may be time to change that. The agencies say these loans offer so little flexibility to struggling borrowers that Congress might consider revising the bankruptcy law given today's tough economy.

If you want to be a Baltimore County police officer, you'll have to start at the bottom.County officers fresh out of the academy earn $26,656 -- less than any rookie state trooper between Virginia and New York. But they also make less money than their counterparts in Washington, D.C., Baltimore City, and Howard, Anne Arundel, Montgomery, Fairfax and Arlington counties.In short, Baltimore County's newest earn less than everybody else listed in the Maryland State Police's 1998 salary survey.

Nanette Ritter never envisioned herself in the big time when she began working as a waitress 10 years ago, at a time when she was just trying to make extra money for her nursing school tuition.Now she's one of the best waitresses in Maryland, where business owners and professionals have begun to recognize restaurant service as a skilled trade -- one with no shortage of competition for the top jobs.Ritter, 34, of Columbia, competed as a finalist Wednesday in Maryland's first annual "Service Classic," a competition created to test the best of the state's waiters and waitresses in the "theory and in the practice of quality food service."

Virtue has been rewarding to Parnassus Fund investors this year.That San Francisco-based fund gained 36.17 percent in the first half of 1991, topping the nation's so-called "socially responsible" stock mutual funds. Parnassus was down 20 percent last year, due mostly to weakness in the small- to medium-capitalization stocks it emphasizes.This fund managed by Jerome Dodson abstains from investing in companies that manufacture tobacco or alcohol, are in the gambling business, have dealings with South Africa or are weapons contractors.

Apparently pay-phone owners make money when certain toll-free numbers are called. So this guy programmed his phones to repeatedly call the numbers. Similar to robo-clicking on blog sites, only a little more direct. And more lucrative. Pay phones are a dying business, but Mr. Kantartzis seems to have found a way to revive them. Temporarily. From the Associated Press, via the Daily Record :  Nicolaos Kantartzis pleaded guilty in September to using more than 100 pay phones to make phantom calls to toll-free numbers, some 8 million calls in all. Because the calls are free to legitimate users, the party getting the call must pay costs that include a cut for the pay phone operator.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to require handgun licenses would make the state more than twice as much as it would cost to administer the program, according to a Department of Legislative Services analysis released Monday night. The analysis is the first independent look the costs of licensing, which advocates call the most effective and the most controversial piece of O'Malley's sweeping gun proposal.  Requiring a license to buy a handgun in Maryland would generate $3.8 million for Maryland in its first year, after the Maryland State Police hires 22 people to help implement the program.