Rating System

No mark of distinction is more sought after in the mutual fund business than a five-star rating by Morningstar, the Chicago-based mutual fund research firm.Although Morningstar officials continually insist that their rating system of one to five stars is not intended to predict future performance, the prominent use in mutual fund advertising clearly carries that implication.The success of the Morningstar system in becoming an investor guide to buying mutual funds naturally has drawn critics, who over the years have faulted the system for various reasons.

A new information box will accompany this Sunday's review of Family Meal, Bryan Volaggio's new Frederick restaurant. At a glance, you'll be able to see, along with the information we've always provided about hours of operation, prices and location, some additional context that readers have been encouraging us to provide. We are now including notes about parking and reservations as well as, when applicable, about dietary considerations and accommodations for children. We'll also let you know about the noise level.

Jack Valenti, the urbane Washington lobbyist who served as Hollywood's public face for nearly four decades and was best known for creating the film rating system, died yesterday afternoon at age 85, according to Warren Cowan, his longtime friend and publicist for the MPAA. Mr. Valenti had been in ill health since suffering a stroke in March. He was treated for several weeks at the Johns Hopkins Hospital but was released Tuesday and returned to his home in Washington, where he died. For 38 years until retiring in 2004, Mr. Valenti headed the Motion Picture Association of America, guiding the trade organization from a clubby group of movie studios led by autocratic moguls into a collection of global media conglomerates involved in television, the Internet and an array of other media businesses.

For 35 years, Maryland has enjoyed a unique exemption from the federal government that allowed it to regulate hospital rates so that patients are charged the same no matter where they seek care. But the system that state health officials say has created an egalitarian way of charging for health care now faces an unprecedented challenge. The state has come dangerously close to failing a test it must meet every three months to keep the exemption, under which the federal government gives Maryland larger Medicare payments than other states.

WASHINGTON -- Hoping to stave off a federally imposed system of ratings for violence on television, the nation's four broadcast networks have agreed to provide a warning to parents just before shows laden with mayhem are shown.The warning would also be made available to newspapers and magazines that publish television listings, allowing them to establish what would amount to a special coding for violent shows.The agreement, which will be announced by top officials of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox in Washington today and could take effect during the next programming season, comes amid a growing outcry in Congress about the depiction of violence in entertainment programming and its possible harmful effects on some viewers.

For years, parents at older schools in poorer areas hav complained that the Harford school system ignores their pleas for long-overdue repairs and renovations.Now, stung by intense criticism, the school system has made public a 30-point rating system used to decide which schools are renovated when.The rating system evaluates older schools, using a point system to measure the need for repairs of everything from plumbing to the school's parking lot. Necessary repairs to some major parts of a school, like the heating and cooling system, receive more points than others, such as windows or floor tiles.

Amelie ** 1/2 Page 2e Grateful Dawg ***Page 6e Haiku Tunnel *** Page 6e Heist ** 1/2 Page 6e The Man Who Wasn't There * 1/2 Page 3e Shallow Hal * 1/2 Waking Life **** Rating system: Excellent: ****; Good: ***; Fair: ***; Poor: *

The Fox network -- in what appeared to be a pre-emptive strike against ABC, CBS and NBC -- became the first major television network to embrace a ratings system for violence and sex.In a statement Thursday, Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch (above) said, "We have decided to implement the MPAA-like [Motion Picture Association of America] rating system for the TV programs on Fox."The three other major networks also indicated that they will consider adopting a rating system for the so-called V-chip that will alert viewers to whether TV shows contain explicit violence or sex.Until this week, the networks had vowed to fight any imposed ratings system, arguing that it violates their First Amendment rights.

The Motion Picture Association of America announced Wednesday the creation of a new rating category -- "NC-17" (No Children Under 17 Admitted) -- to replace the "X" rating. The MPAA also said it would begin providing a brief explanation of why films get "R" ratings. Yesterday, Jack Valenti, MPAA president, talked with Sun reporter Eric Siegel about the changes.Question: What does "NC-17" stand for?Answer: It stands for an adult only picture. It has the same criteria that populated the "X" rating.

A new "report card" would rate county teachers in part by how well their students perform, but school board members said last night they would like that link made even stronger.A committee developing the rating system wants to try it in one group of schools this fall, then expand it to all schools for the 1997-1998 school year.The new teacher rating system would be like the one now in use in that it would measure a variety of teaching skills.But it would include only one measure of performance directly tied to how well students perform.

As Baltimore's Public Works Department issues more than $4.2 million in water bill refunds, Howard County officials say they will likely avoid similar issues because of recent upgrades to the county billing system. "We just finished a total upgrade of our water billing system in the last two years; we do not use the same system Baltimore uses," county spokesman Kevin Enright wrote in an email. He said the error rates are now at 1 percent. Water meters are read and transferred electronically using a radio interface.

A prominent credit-rating firm has placed Annapolis on notice that the city's rating might soon be downgraded. Annapolis Mayor Joshua J. Cohen announced Wednesday that Moody's Investors Service has placed the city on a watchlist for a possible downgrade of its credit rating of general obligation bonds. The downgrade would affect about $79.3 million in debt, said city officials, citing Moody's. The city's credit rating is currently Aa1 — the second-highest rating in Moody's rating system.

Maryland law should be changed so that hospitals are required to provide charity care to more people and give financial-assistance information to all patients, according to the state agency that sets hospital rates. In a report to Gov. Martin O'Malley that will be released today, the Health Services Cost Review Commission recommends several changes to the state's unique rate-setting system, which was designed in part to guarantee all Marylanders hospital care whether they could afford it or not. The commission also recommended that hospitals be required to provide written notice about the availability of financial assistance to all patients before or as they are discharged, and that hospitals and their collection agencies be barred from adding interest and penalties on bills to uninsured patients for periods before court judgments are entered against them.

Nursing homes will get a "star rating" from the federal government to help consumers pick the best facilities, a sweeping initiative that a Maryland regulator predicted will create "peer pressure" among owners to improve care. The ratings, from a low of one star to a high of five, will be posted starting in December on the Nursing Home Compare Web site of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the federal agency's acting administrator, Kerry Weems. "I don't think we'll see very many people who are going to be anxious to put a loved one into a one-star home," Weems told reporters yesterday during a conference call.

Jack Valenti, the urbane Washington lobbyist who served as Hollywood's public face for nearly four decades and was best known for creating the film rating system, died yesterday afternoon at age 85, according to Warren Cowan, his longtime friend and publicist for the MPAA. Mr. Valenti had been in ill health since suffering a stroke in March. He was treated for several weeks at the Johns Hopkins Hospital but was released Tuesday and returned to his home in Washington, where he died. For 38 years until retiring in 2004, Mr. Valenti headed the Motion Picture Association of America, guiding the trade organization from a clubby group of movie studios led by autocratic moguls into a collection of global media conglomerates involved in television, the Internet and an array of other media businesses.

A few weeks ago, a friend had a cable jack installed in his bedroom, then slowly went bananas trying to get his TV to work properly. No matter what he tried, it would always skip some channels. Naturally, he blamed the cable company, which responded by dispatching a young technician to check out the signal and the new wall jack. Nothing wrong with either one. Then the lad had an inspiration: He pressed the setup button on the remote control, inspected an on-screen menu and pronounced the problem solved.

State legislators have killed three bills to change the state's new, relatively laissez-faire system of regulating auto and homeowners' insurance rates, but a fourth bill that would give refunds to consumers of excessive rate increases is still alive.Members of the state Senate Finance Committee voted Tuesday against the three bills, each of which would have changed the state's market-driven "competitive rating" system to a more regulated system requiring state approval for any rate changes.

WASHINGTON -- On the eve of the first hearing on the television industry's voluntary age-based ratings, congressional critics moved yesterday to effectively require a system that shields children from programs that depict violence."

One month down, and five to go. April is about to be a memory, and that gives baseball fans just five short months left to enjoy the season. A lot of things can happen between now and the end of September. Albert Pujols could go in a slump; the Orioles could find a stable stable of middle relievers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays prospect Delmon Young could play again in 2006. Or not. Plenty of surprising story lines have emerged in the first month, as they always do. Whether teams and players will keep the momentum going, however, is what makes baseball fun all season long.

Meteorologists have invented a mathematical system for scoring Northeast snowstorms on a five-step scale -- like hurricanes. The system threatens to end generations of barstool debates over which half-remembered storms really were the worst. Someday, it might even give forecasters a way to telegraph the severity of storms before the snow flies. The new rankings -- Categories 1 through 5 -- could appear in post-storm assessments as early as this winter, according to Tom Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. That's the nation's repository for weather statistics.