Ton

In the Netflix miniseries "House of Cards," Kate Mara plays a young reporter deeply involved in the world of Washington politics. But the 30-year-old performer says she has no particular interest in journalism or political life. She's just acting the part under the tutelage of screenwriter Beau Willimon and director David Fincher. "I'm not interested in politics or being a part of them," she said in a teleconference this week. "I definitely do my homework and make sure I know what's going on and am responsible enough to be able vote for people I respect and that kind of thing...

Four years ago, doctors at Chesapeake Urology Associates started ordering the most expensive kind of prostate-cancer therapy for many more of their patients. Before 2007, the large, multi-office practice was prescribing the treatment, known as intensity modulated radiation therapy, for 12 percent of its prostate-cancer patients covered by Medicare, according to data compiled by a Georgetown University researcher. But starting in mid-2007, Chesapeake Urology's referral rate for IMRT more than tripled, rising to 43 percent of the Medicare cases.

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Former Dallas quarterback Steve Beuerlein once took the Cowboys' offensive line out for dinner. Total cost: $2,000.And they didn't get dessert."

There's a new exhibit waiting to greet summer visitors at Delaware's Cape Henlopen State Park. And it's big. It's a 16-inch gun barrel that once roared from the deck of the battleship Missouri during World War II, and it now rests — 120 tons, 68 feet long — at the Battery 519 Museum at Fort Miles, which is part of Cape Henlopen State Park. The gun — officially known as Barrel 371 — arrived at Fort Miles last month. It is similar to the two 16-inch Army guns that defended the coast and the Delaware Bay from German U-boats.

A man performing a skit with a two-story-tall robot in front of 8,000 fans at a "monster truck" show at the Baltimore Arena was killed Saturday night when a pyrotechnic device strapped to his chest exploded.Robert J. Murphy, 36, of Painesville, Ohio, was rushed to University of Maryland Medical Center, where he died on the operating table about 45 minutes after the 10 p.m. accident.Most of the crowd watching the show, which was nearly finished, was apparently unaware of the accident, said an event sponsor and a spokeswoman for the arena.

All things considered, the Blast couldn't have scripted a better home opener than last Friday's 21-20, roller-coaster win over the Kansas City Attack. Featured was a gut-check fourth quarter that had four lead-changes, two in the last 53 seconds that displayed the team's character and had the 8,103 in attendance on the edges of their seats. Lee Tschantret's deciding two-pointer with 30 seconds left helped give the Blast the all-important first win, and at 7:35 tonight, when the Detroit Rockers visit the Baltimore Arena, the team will look to build on that.

Throughout the day, shirtless, tattooed men push shopping carts filled with metal scrap to a junkyard in Curtis Bay. Inside the gate, a pair of German shepherds and 16 surveillance cameras keep watch as the men unload their treasure and leave with cash. Though small and tucked away, the scrap yard on Andard Avenue has prompted an outsized share of outrage. Neighbors complain that the business is encouraging thieves to steal metal from their homes at a time when the market for recycled metal is booming.

Federal authorities announced Tuesday that they had cracked a large suburban Maryland drug organization, arresting 18 people and charging 15 of them with conspiracy to distribute more than a ton of marijuana. According to a federal grand jury indictment, the drug trafficking organization, primarily based in Anne Arundel County, also dealt in cocaine, prescription drugs, steroids and other drugs. Law enforcement officials said they seized at least 30 cars, 60 pounds of marijuana, $300,000 in cash and 35 guns in the investigation.

A flurry of faxes, a few strokes of the pen in a Manhattan law office and the swift electronic shift of hundreds of millions of dollars yesterday ended the 99-year life of Bethlehem Steel Corp., an industrial giant emblematic of American economic power for much of the 20th century. At Sparrows Point in Baltimore County, in Burns Harbor, Ind., and in four other Bethlehem plants across the country, handfuls of survivors surrounded by banks of high-tech, automated steel-manufacturing equipment mourned the company's demise.

Employees at the Westinghouse electronics plant in Sykesville gave away a ton of food yesterday.It was more than a ton, in fact, counting the 11 turkeys that the Pittsburgh-based corporation threw in as a match for every 200 pounds of food raised by area employees.The turkeys and the 2,240 pounds of food and other basic groceries will go to Carroll County families who ask for help for Christmas through the Neighbors in Need program, a clearinghouse for community donations.Company spokesman Jack Martin said yesterday that the Westinghouse food drive set a record this year.