Online

If you want to use the Internet to view the inspection report on your aged parent's nursing home, Maryland's the place to be. But if you want to do an online check on the certification of your child's teacher, you're out of luck. A new report shows that Maryland's government is neither as transparent as Texas' nor as opaque as Mississippi's in the information offered on its Web sites. The Free State, tied for 18th place out of 50, can claim to be on the clear side of translucent government.

THE COUNT Homicides since Jan. 1: 262 LAST YEAR: Baltimore had recorded 240 homicides as of Nov. 20, 2006. ONLINE: Details and locations of this year's city homicides are at baltimoresun.com/homicidemap

E*Trade Financial Corp. Shares climbed $1.07 to close at $5.33. The struggling online brokerage is trying to negotiate a takeover or partial sale to a rival, according to media reports.

THE COUNT Homicides since Jan. 1: 213 LAST YEAR: Baltimore had recorded 187 homicides as of Sept. 9, 2006. ONLINE: Details and locations of this year's city homicides at baltimoresun.com/homicidemap

On the seventh floor of a generic building on Deereco Road in Timonium, a young company is trying to change the way people shop online by providing a payment alternative to the credit card. Called Bill Me Later, the seven-year-old business is taking on major competitors, including MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, which made its name as an online payment provider. So far, Bill Me Later is holding its own. It is the sixth-fastest-growing company in the country by revenue - on track to bring in more than $100 million this year - according to Inc. magazine's September issue.

The biggest difference in this and the kids 10 or 15 years ago who played fantasy role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and, later, the people who engaged in multiplayer online role-playing games is you can't really characterize current users as geeks or loners. These are people with lives, real friends." - BETH COLEMAN, a professor of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on the occupants of popular online fantasy worlds such as SecondLife.com, which has more than 6 million virtual residents

THE COUNT Homicides since Jan. 1: 231 LAST YEAR: Baltimore had recorded 208 homicides as of Sept. 30, 2006. ONLINE: Details and locations of this year's city homicides are at baltimoresun.com/homicidemap.

An outraged federal judge in Baltimore sentenced an Anne Arundel County man to 14 years in prison yesterday on charges that he hunted down young girls over the Internet and manipulated at least eight of them into sending him pornographic pictures of themselves. "You're not just every parent's nightmare," U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis said, his words measured but his tone furious at the end of a three-hour court hearing. "You are a horror to every sane adult in this community." Wearing a short-sleeve shirt and khaki shorts, Danny Fleck, a former postal worker and crack cocaine addict, apologized for spending years trolling online for underage girls across the country.

THE COUNT Homicides since Jan. 1: 182 THE VICTIMS ONLINE: Details and locations of this year's city homicides at baltimoresun.com/homicidemap

THE COUNT Homicides since Jan. 1: 262 LAST YEAR: Baltimore had recorded 240 homicides as of Nov. 19, 2006. ONLINE: Details and locations of this year's city homicides are at baltimoresun.com/homicidemap

The call about Michael Phelps' car accident on Calvert Street crackled over the newsroom police radio as I was about to leave work Thursday night. My first thought was, when I get home, I'll have to go online and see what happened. But then, a moment of clarity, a sense of the absurdity: I was going to get on my computer to see what was happening on a street corner just several blocks from where I was standing? When did the real world become a place for people who can't handle the Internet?

GM to test selling cars online through eBay General Motors is unloading its new cars online today in an experiment to see whether computers can replace car lots. The Detroit-automaker is partnering with eBay, the online auction site, to sell new Chevrolets, Buicks, Pontiacs and GMCs. The test, which runs through Sept. 8, is the latest attempt by the automaker to connect with consumers following its exit from bankruptcy protection. The trial is limited to California, said Susan Garontakos, a GM spokeswoman, but could be extended nationwide.

Online retailer Amazon will acquire shoe seller Zappos Retail giant Amazon.com Inc. said Wednesday that it would acquire Zappos.com Inc., an online footwear and apparel company, in a deal valued at $807 million in stock. The acquisition would expand Amazon's online empire by about 3 million products. Under the terms of the agreement, Amazon will exchange 10 million shares for all of Zappos' outstanding shares and assume all options and warrants. The stock transaction is worth about $807 million based on the average closing price for the 45 trading days ended July 17, Amazon said.

If you want to use the Internet to view the inspection report on your aged parent's nursing home, Maryland's the place to be. But if you want to do an online check on the certification of your child's teacher, you're out of luck. A new report shows that Maryland's government is neither as transparent as Texas' nor as opaque as Mississippi's in the information offered on its Web sites. The Free State, tied for 18th place out of 50, can claim to be on the clear side of translucent government.

It used to be that if you needed extra cash you could work overtime or find a part-time job. But these days, when companies are cutting back on workers' hours - and even Starbucks is laying off baristas - you might have to resort to nontraditional ways to raise money. Search engine Yahoo says many people are doing just that by going online. In the past month, searches for "make money online" have risen 1,725 percent, Yahoo says. "People are looking to do whatever they have to do to make ends meet," says Heather Cabot, Yahoo Web life editor.

TIP 33 Use Web to track price cuts after buying something Before you make a major purchase - a home appliance, or maybe a digital camera - you probably do lots of research to find the best product as well as the best price. Here are some tips to avoid missing a sale or discount. If you don't want to pay a penny more than a certain amount for an item, enter that limit at Deal Alerter ( www.dealalerter.com). The site will notify you when an online retailer's price falls below that target.

TIP 13 Online budgeting sites are bustling in this economy The recession has lots of people trying to live within a budget, and more of them are turning to online money-management sites to stay on track. These sites generally collect information from online bank and credit-card accounts. They update your account information regularly so you can see where your money goes. You can also get e-mail alerts when bills are coming due to help you avoid late fees. And better yet, the sites are free.

Would you believe this is the mother of a 3-month-old? And we thought Kerry Simpson was simply one of the most chic attendees at Silo Point's grand opening party. Family is first for this 33-year-old Columbia stay-at-home mom of new baby Jack and 21/2-year-old Luke. But she obviously knows how to maintain her style, too. This was going to be a night to shine for her husband, Silo Point sales manager Scott Simpson. So Simpson went on the hunt for the perfect outfit, and found almost all of it at one of her favorite stores, the discounter Loehmann's.

If you pay your Comcast bill via phone, you might have noticed something new this month. Comcast has started charging a $2 "convenience fee" for those using the company's automated voice system. When asked about the fee, Comcast spokeswoman Aimee Metrick noted that consumers still have other ways to pay their bills for little or no money. Those include online payments, automatic transfer of funds and traditional mail. She also added that Comcast recently started offering an "ecobill," a paperless online billing program that allows customers to view and pay their bills online at no charge.

It's easier for Peter Shankman to be the pied piper of new technology than it once was. A decade ago, he was one of the first news editors at AOL. He spent much of that time having to explain to others what he was doing. They knew they got their Internet service from AOL, but news? That's what TV, radio and newspapers were for. But one night last week Shankman held court at Luckie's Tavern at Power Plant Live downtown for a meeting of about 100 public relations executives. You could have heard a pin drop in the moments when the frenetic Shankman actually took a breath.