Risk

Living fast and dying young has long been part of rock 'n' roll lore. And now there are statistics that affirm the image, according to a study released Tuesday. Researchers at Liverpool John Moores University, whose report appeared in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, studied a sample of North American and British rock and pop stars and concluded they are more than twice as likely to die prematurely as ordinary citizens of the same age. The team studied 1,064 stars from the rock, punk, rap, R&B, electronic and New Age genres in the All Time Top 1,000 albums published in 2000.

The number of Maryland elementary and middle schools on the state's list of poor performers grew slightly last year -- in part, officials said, because the standards are getting tougher every year. The list A compilation of those area schools at risk - and those that are on the mend. pg 7b

Investment firm Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc. lowered its rating on Prime Retail Inc.'s common stock yesterday, a day after the Baltimore-based outlet center owner reported third-quarter earnings.Legg Mason said the change in its recommendation from "buy" -- its highest rating -- to "market perform" -- its next to lowest -- stemmed from the company's "balance sheet and sector risk."In another ranking, the Baltimore investment firm continued to characterize Prime Retail's shares as "speculative," the lowest of four risk categories.

Flouting rules on schools is risk to taxpayersIn The Sun's article of March 16 ("Rein on Carroll school projects sought") regarding the construction of the sewage plant at Francis Scott Key High School without the required permits, Kathy Sanner, a school official, is quoted as saying: "We were moving ahead at our own risk." That remark in a nutshell illustrates what's wrong with the school system.It's not "your" risk, Ms. Sanner. It's our risk, the taxpayers. If you want to risk $824,000, take your own money to Las Vegas.

SEATTLE -- Great news for those who want strong hearts but not badly enough to sweat much: Walking or gardening for at least an hour a week will lower your heart-attack risk just as much as running, aerobics and other heavy-duty exercise.That's the central finding of a new University of Washington study, which examined the activities of heart-attack patients and healthy people.Compared with those who don't exercise, people who walk regularly can reduce the risk of cardiac arrest by 73 percent; those who garden regularly can lower the risk by 66 percent.

CIENA CORP., a Linthicum telecommunications equipment company, announced last week that it is buying two small firms, Lightera Networks Inc. and Omnia Communications Inc., in separate stock deals initially valued at a combined $981 million.Ciena is only beginning to recover from a streak of severe financial setbacks, and was itself rumored to be a takeover target.How risky is Ciena's purchase of Lightera and Omnia? What does Ciena stand to gain from owning these young, untried companies?David ToungAnalyst, Argus Research Corp.

Alcohol education training for human resources professionals and counselors working with youths, high school and college students is being offered Monday through Aug. 6 at Western Maryland College.A few spaces are available for the intensive program co-sponsored by Junction Inc. and the Baltimore County Department of Health Bureau of Substance Abuse through a grant from the State Highway Administration.The workshop will feature four of the programs developed by Prevention Research Institute (PRI)

Don't discuss lawsuit in helicopter crash that killed officerThe Nov. 4 accident near the B & O Museum was indeed a tragedy. The race to find blame and reporting that panders to the legal community is unfortunate ("Helicopter company sued over '92 police crash," Nov. 7).We do not have the technical ability to eliminate all risk to people who fly, drive or cross the street.Flying helicopters, particularly at low altitude, represents some risk. Recovery from engine failures at low altitude is almost sure to negate chances of making a safe "dead stick" landing.

All Deborah D'Domenicus knew as a little girl about the doctor's procedure is that it made her ears hurt. She developed such terrible earaches that her parents had to hold her sobbing in bed.Yesterday, she told Maryland legislators about the pain that came later in life -- a tumor in her right ear, chronic sinus infections, migraine headaches and hearing loss that she blames on the nasal radium treatments she received as a 9-year-old.D'Domenicus came to Annapolis with a half-dozen men and women who underwent the same treatment as children to urge that a state task force be established to examine the health risks.

In the next few weeks, 300 volunteers in the Baltimore-Washington area are going to be enlisted to take an experimental AIDS vaccine, part of the vaccine's first large-scale human test, which began Tuesday across the country.That's just one clinical trial at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Right now, there are 362 clinical trials of medicines, therapies or products taking place there. At the University of Maryland Medical Center, 201 trials are under way. And that's just at two medical centers in the Baltimore area.

COSTA MESA, Calif. - - Federal regulators accused Countrywide Financial Corp. co-founder Angelo R. Mozilo of fraud and insider trading Thursday, saying he and two other executives failed to warn shareholders of the real risk of the mortgages the company was making at the height of the housing boom. A civil lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court also accuses David Sambol, Countrywide's former president, and Eric Sieracki, its former chief financial officer, of fraud.

Senate agrees to debate vote for D.C. WASHINGTON: The people of the District of Columbia were closer to gaining the voting rights they were deprived of more than two centuries ago after the Senate agreed yesterday to take up a bill giving them a fully vested representative in Congress. The Senate vote to debate the bill sets the stage for more legislative hurdles and a probable court challenge if the bill is enacted into law. But with the Senate action, the district's 600,000 residents have their best chance of securing a real voice in Congress since a proposed constitutional amendment to enfranchise the federal capital failed a quarter-century ago. The bill would give the district a vote in the House starting in January 2011.

After falling for more than a decade, the U.S. suicide rate has climbed steadily since 1999, driven by an alarming increase among middle-aged adults, researchers said yesterday. A new six-year analysis in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that U.S. suicide rate rose to 11 per 100,000 in 2005 from 10.5 per 100,000 in 1999, an increase of just under 5 percent. The report found that virtually all of the increase was attributable to a nearly 16 percent jump in suicides among people ages 40 to 64, a group not commonly seen as high risk.

Will Wall Street learn from its mistakes? Ten years ago, I asked a commodities trader in his early 30s, who had already made more money than I would in a lifetime in medicine, how he justified his enormous income. He told me that his business was "high-risk, high-reward; we reap big rewards because we are willing to take big financial risks." However, now that the financial markets have gone sour, in large part because the players in these markets took unwise risks, Wall Street firms seem unwilling to assume responsibility for their actions, instead going hat in hand to the federal government looking for taxpayer-funded bailouts.

Every piece of your financial life involves at least a bit of risk. What made last week extraordinarily rare, and so terribly frightening, was that all of the threats were on display at once. The stock market took the biggest one-day fall in seven years (though it bounced back). With thousands of financial services jobs gone or in jeopardy and the economy threatening to slow further, you had to wonder whether your job might be next. Then there was insurance. Maybe once a decade, a big insurance company is on the brink.

People who have spent most of their lives smoking may derive health benefits within five years of quitting - drastically reducing their chance of dying from a heart attack, stroke or lung cancer, according to a study published today. In just five years, quitters reduced their added risk of dying of a heart attack by 47 percent and of lung cancer by 21 percent. Over time, their risk declined to the level of nonsmokers. The message: There is hope for even the most inveterate smokers. "Many people think there's just nothing they can do," said Stacey A. Kenfield, an epidemiologist with the Harvard School of Public Health.

Amy carries the BRCA1 gene, which is associated with an elevated risk of breast cancer. Beth has an aunt and a sister who had breast cancer. Five years ago, Cindy had breast cancer, which is now in remission. What these three women have in common is a much higher risk than the average woman of one day developing breast cancer. Should a health insurer be allowed to charge them higher premiums, or deny them coverage altogether, as a result? Last week, the Senate passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)

Genetic counseling for cancer risk Anne Arundel Medical Center has begun offering genetic counseling services to patients with an elevated risk of cancer. This service, available through AAMC's affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine, will help patients evaluate their potential risk of cancer. During a preliminary assessment, patients detail their medical and family history, and in the process, construct a medical family tree. This is used to identify risk factors in the family that may signify hereditary risk.

A great deal is not yet known about the horrific quadruple murders in Cockeysville that have led police to charge a 15-year-old honor student with murdering his parents and two younger brothers. But this much is clear: The presence of a gun in the house did not protect the Browning family; it put them at a greater risk of violence. Baltimore County police say Nicholas W. Browning used his father's handgun to kill his family on Friday night. While such familicide is hardly common, numerous studies have shown that having a gun in the home can be exceedingly dangerous.

Conservative investors are becoming tangled in the lifeline the Federal Reserve threw to the economy last week. To try to prevent a serious recession, Fed policymakers have been cutting interest rates. The goal is to make it easier for businesses and consumers to borrow money so they will spend and help businesses profit, keeping employees in their jobs. But investors - especially retirees - who count on safe U.S. government bonds for income are not finding the cuts comforting. Interest on the safest bonds has been shrinking since the Fed started lowering rates in the fall.