National Rate

Who says we can't control our spending? Virtually every state, including Maryland, saw a drop in the second quarter in their credit card delinquencies. According to credit bureau TransUnion, the delinquency rate - bills past due by 90 or more days - fell to 0.6 percent from 0.74 percent in the first quarter. That's the lowest level since 1994. Maryland's delinquency rate is near the national average at 0.61 percent. (TransUnion didn't say what our rate was in the first quarter.)

For the second time this summer, Ellicott City has been selected by a national publication as one of the nation's top communities. The Howard County suburb was named this time as one of the top 10 places to raise a family by Kiplinger.com. Along with Columbia, Ellicott City in July was ranked second in the nation as a place to live by Money Magazine, a rating County Executive Ken Ulman jokes that he tells people at least a dozen times every day as he runs for re-election. County Councilwoman Courtney Watson, a fellow Democrat also seeking re-election, was happy about the latest news.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said Sunday that his department would work to improve how it categorizes and resolves rape investigations, responding to a newspaper report that found Baltimore has the nation's highest rate of cases that officers conclude are false or baseless. The Baltimore Sun story prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to order an audit of the department's procedures and statistics. The mayor met with Bealefeld on Friday to discuss the issue.

Sometime in the near future, members of the Annapolis Police Department will have detailed crime-mapping data at their fingertips, allowing the department to analyze trends and re-evaluate its strategies. A new crime study for the city unveiled last week gave a first glimpse of the kinds of information that number-crunching will be able to provide. Using satellite images and crime statistics, the consulting group ICMA confirmed that violent crime last year was clustered around public housing and private, low-income housing, along with the downtown area.

Under a compromise approved yesterday by state rate-setters, Maryland hospital charges will rise by more than 5 percent a year for the next three years - about four-tenths of 1 percent a year below the expected national rate increase. The Health Services Cost Review Commission set a target for the average Maryland hospital bill to be 3.1 percent below the national average by July 2009. Currently, Maryland costs are 2 percent below the national average. Under yesterday's action, the average charge per case in Maryland would increase from $9,710 now to about $11,350 in three years.

Diane Chesley was listening to the radio in her car and heard mention of a new book. The Columbia resident decided to make a detour to the east Columbia Branch Library before heading home. "At first I thought about going to the bookstore," Chesley said. "Then I remembered I can go to the library and I don't have to pay for it." Free access to books is only one of the draws for Chesley and other residents that use the Howard County library system, which this year was rated first in the country by Hennen's American Public Library Ratings among libraries serving communities of 250,000 to 499,999.

In the Region Average cost of hospital stay up 9% in Md. The cost of the average hospital stay in Maryland rose 9 percent in the fiscal year ending in June 2004, the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission reported yesterday. That's a faster rate of increase than the national rate, which was about 6 percent over the same period, according to the commission. Maryland's rate-controlled system has beaten the national rate most years, and the average Maryland charge, $8,403 in fiscal 2004, remains about 4 percent below the national average of about $8,750.

Five years ago to this day, Irv Naylor's life abruptly changed. In the 97th Grand National Steeplechase at Butler, Naylor, then 63, was aboard Emerald Action and approaching the next-to-last fence in the 3 1/4 -mile timber race. With eventual winner Welter Weight coming up alongside, Naylor's horse never rose, flipped and pinned his rider beneath him. Naylor was in the Maryland Shock Trauma Center for 10 days and hospitalized for three more months. He has no use of his legs and hands.

HOW HOT can home values get? The latest federal housing price survey suggests that they can get hotter than anyone predicted for an economy with scant job creation and a sluggish overall recovery. The average home nationwide gained 8 percent in resale value from the final quarter of 2002 through the end of last year, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which tracks resale and refinance home prices nationwide. Houses in 14 states and the District of Columbia appreciated at double-digit rates, and 12 metropolitan markets racked up rates exceeding 15 percent.

Former NCAA wrestling champion Kelly Ward doesn't mince words when discussing the potential of Mount St. Joseph sophomore Mack Lewnes. "He knows more wrestling than I did at his age, has more talent, heck, he's better than I was at his age," said Ward, who coached Lewnes alongside Wayne Hicks in the Navy Juniors recreation league program. "He's driven to be the best, and he's got so much natural talent. If he keeps improving at the pace he is, he's definitely going to be an NCAA champion."