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If doctors were better informed about the cost of lab tests, they would request fewer of them for their patients or look for cheaper alternatives, Hopkins researchers have found. Researchers at The Johns Hopkins Hospital put the price on some blood tests for six months and found use of tests declined 9 percent. The hospital saved $400,000 over the six months. The results of the study were published online in JAMA Internal Medicine. Hospitals don't normally display the price of tests to doctors.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has lifted a cease and desist order that 1st Mariner Bank has operated under since April 2009, the bank announced Monday. The order required 1st Mariner to strengthen its fair lending practices because the FDIC suspected 1st Mariner of discriminating against Hispanic, black and female mortgage borrowers. The bank charged some of these borrowers more than "similarly-situated" white and male borrowers in 2005, 2006 and 2007, the regulator said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seems like a fictional character out of a satirical doomsday movie -- maybe a sequel to "Dr. Strangelove. " That fact that this immature brat and his gaggle of grim, aging generals actually rule a country and have the capacity to disturb the international order seems absurd in an era of global interdependence. In the 21st century, humankind should have moved beyond this, but apparently we need a few more centuries of progress before all countries are led by comparatively rational, democratically elected leaders -- or at least by boring, one-party bureaucrats whose main goal is to preserve stability and promote economic growth.

Even though Chris Davis and Adam Jones have carried the majority of the offensive load in the Orioles lineup through the first 11 games, right fielder Nick Markakis has quietly had a solid start to the season. Markakis' go-ahead solo homer in the third inning of yesterday's 5-3 win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium gave him hits in nine of the first 11 games. He's also homered in two of his past four games. "That's where I like to be,” Markakis said after Saturday's game. “I like to be under the radar.

Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts, who, when healthy, has been a staple atop the team's batting order for more than a decade, will bat in the No. 9 spot on Opening Day and beyond. Roberts said he wasn't sure how permanent the move would be, but said he'd be hitting ninth “moving forward.” Orioles manager Buck Showalter met with Roberts before Thursday night's game -- in which the Orioles were facing their Opening Day opponent, the Tampa Bay Rays, and ace David Price -- to tell him. “It could be 162 games for all I know,” Roberts said.

When a warrant for his arrest arrived at his mother's house, Bryan Bookman went to the district court in Essex to clear up the matter. "That's when I was handcuffed and shackled, right on the spot, like I was a common criminal," said Bookman, who didn't have the money to post bail and spent the night in the Baltimore County Jail in Towson. His crime? Failure to show up in court for a small claims case. Debtors' prison, where people are incarcerated for owing money, seems like something out of another century.

The Federal Aviation Administration plans to close five air traffic control towers in Maryland — among 149 nationwide — to comply with across-the-board budget cuts mandated by Congress, a move that could clog operations at BWI Marshall Airport. Even though the tower at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is not among the closings, the FAA decision to shut down one at Martin State Airport in Baltimore County could lead to more flights using the larger airport.

Shin Chon Garden is popular to the point of overflowing. Even on a drizzly weeknight, the tables at this Ellicott City restaurant are full of diners. A friend, arriving a few minutes before I did, texted: "place smells AMAZING. " When Andrew Zimmern, the host of the long-running Travel Channel show "Bizarre Foods," came to Shin Chon Garden last summer, he told the world, via Twitter, that Shin Chon "is one of top ten Korean BBQ experiences in America. A must for anyone who loves food.

Midwest is toughest Dom Amore Hartford Courant The toughest? Louisville's Midwest. The Cardinals have Duke at No. 2, Michigan State at No. 3, Missouri at No. 9. Memphis, which tore through Conference USA, is a No. 6. Next, I'd go with the East because Miami, the first team to win the ACC regular-season and tournament titles and not get a No. 1, is the No. 2 behind Indiana here. Big East team Marquette is at No. 3, and Syracuse is at No. 4. Kansas may be starting in Kansas City in the South, but it has Georgetown in its bracket at No. 2. Florida and Michigan, another former No. 1, are behind them.

If you are a native speaker of English, you have English grammar in your head, and it has been there since you were a very small child. Unfortunately, the process of translating that grammar into terms for discussion of writing has not gone well. Traditional schoolroom grammar borrowed terms from Latin that were not always a good fit with English, and it codified English grammar into a rigid set of rules (some of them bogus) that oversimplified the language for pedagogical purposes.