Reveal

It might have been a much more tense conversation: Carrie confronts Mike about his continued meddling in the CIA's terror investigation. She knows all about where he's been snooping. She even knows about the affair with his best friend's wife. That friend, of course, is Brody. And, you know, Brody and Carrie have something of a romantic entanglement themselves. Carrie opts for an emotional appeal, asking Mike to step back for the good of the woman he cares about, and he agrees. It's not easy to let go, she says, “not when you've chosen someone.” So whose relationship was the subject of this conversation again?

Description : People from the Carolinas to the Midwest to New England, including Maryland, knew the Aug. 23, 2011, 5.8 magnitude earthquake was rare as soon as they felt its rumblings. But U.S. Geological Survey research has show just how unusual – the quake triggered landslides over an area 20 times larger than previous research has shown to be possible or likely. Researchers : USGS scientist Randall Jibson was the lead author on the study, being published in the December issue of Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

It would be tempting to call the 2012 election the year of the woman - if only for the record number headed for the U.S. Senate and their instrumental role in re-electing President Barack Obama - but it was also the year of the Latino, the African-American and the young. That's the coalition that helped Mr. Obama, and that's the election result that ought to worry Republicans most. Once the GOP gets past some respectable period of mourning that comes from losing a national election to an incumbent president at a time of persistently high unemployment, they are going to have to do some serious soul-searching.

Among the thousands of "perversion files" kept by the Boy Scouts of America is a Maryland-based illustration of the system's failure. Five years after an Allegany County teacher pleaded guilty to 10 sex offenses involving 12- and 13-year-old boys in 1980, he "slipped through our system" and continued to work in the organization, a Boy Scout administrator wrote in paperwork assembled to flag Arthur D. Margulies as a danger to Scouts. The Boy Scouts had kicked Margulies out of an Allegany Scouting organization after his first criminal case, which was covered by newspapers, but he then infiltrated another, undetected until more allegations were reported to headquarters.

The veil was lifted Thursday on decades of confidential sexual-abuse allegations in the ranks of the Boy Scouts of America with the court-ordered release of more than 1,200 of the organization's "perversion files. " The files offer the public an unprecedented look at how suspected molestations were handled by one of the nation's leading youth organizations from the early 1960s through 1985, a time when awareness of sexual abuse was evolving rapidly. The files are from all over the country, including Baltimore and across Maryland.

Baltimore's new police commissioner wants to expand his agency's focus beyond gun violence to burglaries, car break-ins and other crimes that affect a broader swath of citizens, he told the City Council panel that signed off on his confirmation Wednesday. Anthony W. Batts, the former police chief in Long Beach and Oakland, Calif., breezed through his appearance before the City Council's executive nominations panel, receiving a 4-0 vote with one member absent. He'll face a final vote before the full council, likely next week.

The post-debate headlines highlighted the tension and the incumbent's vastly improved performance from their first encounter. The consensus from the polls and pundits is that President Barack Obama got the best of Mitt Romney at the town hall debate at Hofstra University on Tuesday night, and we are inclined to agree. But presidential debates aren't like scholastic competitions, where scores are added up by a bunch of teacher-advisers analyzing points and counter-points and the winner walks off with a trophy.

President Obama finally showed America, especially his base, his inability to grasp America's complex economic machine. When elected, everyone knew he lacked leadership experience, but we hoped he would learn quickly and hire seasoned advisors who understood America's middle-class dilemma - rising prices, declining wages and disappearing jobs. Well, we gave him four years to learn and the proof is in the pudding: Mr. Obama's economic policy is a disaster. It is bad enough that as president, Mr. Obama was unable to articulate a cogent economic recovery plan, let alone execute a successful economic stimulus policy that produced jobs and rising incomes.

A longtime coach at the Baltimore swim club that has turned out several Olympians — including Michael Phelps — resigned after an allegation of "inappropriate conduct" with a female athlete was revealed, officials of the sport's national governing body said Friday. The North Baltimore Aquatic Club reported the coach, who was not identified, to swimming authorities in October 2011, according to USA Swimming, the Colorado-based governing body. The coach was forced out of the position within 48 hours after club officials became aware of the allegation last fall, and the club contacted Baltimore County authorities, a source with knowledge of the situation said.

Tom Stoner made his fortune owning AM radio stations, where the weekly Top 40 was eagerly anticipated by devoted listeners. Would their favorite artists move up this week? Would that new release make it? "I remember how easy it was to decide who came on the list," recalls the Annapolis businessman and philanthropist, "but how hard it was to decide who went off the list. That was the part of the process that fascinated me. " At the Severn River home of Stoner and his wife, Kitty, "Top 40" takes on a new meaning.