Prime

This weekend's Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn bout is going to be a tremendous fight, one of the biggest the sport has seen. It's rare that we get fights like this that match two superior fighters, both in their prime. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/mmablog)

Good morning--Ravens--Temper tantrums and trash-talking might play well on prime-time TV, but they don't win football games.

Black women, identity and freedom are the shared threads running through three original pieces being performed under the combined title "A Voice I Will Send" at the Theatre Project.Passionate and often deeply personal, this trio of poetic playlets features some strong writing and performances. But the evening as a whole could stand some pruning, and the didactic passages should be the first to go.The most effective of the one-acts is "Truth Behind Quiet Veils," an autobiographical work, written and performed by Ieasha Prime.

ROME -- Burdened by an unnecessary and irresponsible government crisis, Italy is losing ground after the brilliant national effort that a year ago made it a founding member of the European single currency, the euro, thereby reaffirming the country's role as one of the three leading nations in the European Union.There is popular disillusionment with the costs of euro membership. A comprehensive report on social trends, issued by the Censis institute last month, said that Italians are in a period of psychological unease.

JERUSALEM -- After more than 40 days and 40 nights of marathon negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak yesterday succeeded in forming a diverse government with a comfortable enough parliamentary majority to revive the stalled Arab-Israeli peace process.Barak, the self-proclaimed "prime minister of everyone," informed the acting speaker of Israel's parliament that he would present his government next week; he is required to do so by July 9.Once the Knesset approves Barak's appointments, the 57-year-old former military chief of staff will begin his 4-year term with an unusually comfortable majority in the 120-member parliament, eight more than the required 61. That's an advantage enjoyed neither by outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Barak's mentor, the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

IMAGINE that the cast of "Friends," the hit television show, was standing at your front door.These are five maladjusted white twentysomethings who sleep with one another, talk much stuff, agonize over their nonexistent careers and generally behave like undisciplined brats.Living in New York City, they are a group of white Generation Xers who seem not to have let the city's diversity puncture their smug cocoons.So one of them comes knocking on your door and asking for entry. Do you welcome him or her, ask for identification or chase the character from your property?

Sub-prime lenders give credit where credit is overdueThe Sun's article "Curran to widen housing inquiry" (Oct. 22) reported the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now's (ACORN) "accusation" that sub-prime lenders lend more in minority and low-income communities than prime lenders.That's not a charge my industry disputes -- in fact, we're proud of it.Sub-prime lenders have brought reasonably priced credit to millions -- people of all races, nationalities and economic backgrounds who in the past have been locked out of mainstream credit markets.

Father rarely knows best on prime-time TV anymore.Fathers are central, recurring figures on only 15 of 102 prime-time network comedies or dramas, and only four of these programs portray the dad as both competent and caring, the National Fatherhood Initiative reported earlier this month."

Citing what he called an insurmountable $7.2 million deficit, state Insurance Commissioner Steven B. Larsen put on the auction block yesterday the Lanham health care firm that figured prominently in the political demise of former state Sen. Larry Young.The commissioner, in a two-page announcement, said the Maryland Insurance Administration will accept bids for Prime-Health Corp. until Sept. 10.If a suitable bid is not submitted by then, Larsen said, the company will be liquidated and its 14,763 patients will be forced to pick another HMO participating in the state and federally funded HealthChoice program.

NEW YORK -- To Sandy Grossman's way of thinking, the less the viewer knows, the better.That is to say, if the home audience has a feel for how many cameras Grossman, Fox's lead NFL director, has at his disposal during a telecast, he feels he's not doing his job properly."

One in eight Maryland borrowers were behind on their mortgages this spring, a new report shows, a record caused by job losses and foreclosures feeding on each other in a vicious cycle. That adds up to about 132,000 homeowners who were at least 30 days late, according to a survey released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. That's up nearly 60 percent from a year ago and includes people whose lenders were trying to foreclose as of June. The country fell into recession after homeowners with risky "subprime" loans began defaulting in large numbers two years ago, sending financial institutions into a tailspin.

Do you agree with President Barack Obama and most Democrats in Congress that reform of the nation's health care system should include what's known as a "public option" - the opportunity for citizens to choose a government-sponsored insurance plan along with competing private plans? Yes 46% No 48% Not sure 6% (1,962 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Will Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement that he accepts the idea of a Palestinian state help move the Middle East toward peace?

No. 25 of the WrestleMania stars, Jake Roberts: never main-evented a WrestleMania but was one of the stars in the WWF in his prime and consistently worked with top guys. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/ ringposts)

Two weeks after one of the worst weeks of televised wrestling in recent memory, I think we just completed a pretty good one. Friday night's episode of Smackdown capped a week in which all four prime-time shows were entertaining for the most part. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/ringposts)

This weekend's Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn bout is going to be a tremendous fight, one of the biggest the sport has seen. It's rare that we get fights like this that match two superior fighters, both in their prime. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/mmablog)

CBS anchorwoman Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News come to prime time tonight, and if you haven't been watching the broadcast the past six months or so, I urge you to take this opportunity to check Couric and her newscast out. Here's the cynical explanation as to why the evening news for the first time will be shown in prime time: Fox has American Idol scheduled in the same time slot, so what has CBS to lose by throwing Couric up against it? In fact, CBS will save money by not having to put an expensive entertainment show on only to see it clobbered in the ratings.

There was linebacker Bart Scott throwing the official's flag into the stands. There was Steve McNair setting an NFL record for futility. And there was the worst loss in the nine-year Brian Billick era. When it comes to playing before a national television audience, the Ravens' history is an unbecoming one. Their prime-time losing streak has grown to seven games, a skid that dates to 2006. The Ravens will get another shot to prove they are prime-time players Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium, when they host the Washington Redskins at 8:15 p.m. "That's the past," cornerback Samari Rolle said of the prime-time problems.

1 Keep an eye on it: Sure, we mentioned the Twins-White Sox (8:10 tonight) series yesterday, but this is the only head-to-head postseason-race matchup of the final week. 2 Feeling punchy: They're serving punch at Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie tonight - Ballroom Boxing with eight scheduled bouts (8:15, doors open at 6:30). Call 410-766-7474. 3 Eager Beavers?: One prime-time team (Southern California), one not so ready for prime time (Oregon State) tonight at 9 on ESPN. More in the TV tip on the opposite page.

The share of Maryland homeowners behind on their prime mortgages shot past 4 percent for the first time this spring, a sign that loan troubles are spreading beyond borrowers with shaky credit. More than 36,000 prime loans in Maryland were delinquent or in the foreclosure process in the three-month period that ended in June, up from 19,000 a year earlier, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association survey released yesterday. About 4.3 percent of all prime borrowers were behind this spring, including people at imminent risk of losing their homes.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A former Thai prime minister and his wife jumped bail yesterday and returned to exile in Britain to escape prosecution on corruption charges. In a statement read on Thai television, Thaksin Shinawatra said from London that unnamed political opponents were out to get him and that he was the victim of "judicial interference." "What happened to me and my family and my close relations resulted from efforts to get rid of me from politics," Thaksin said. "These are my political enemies.