Upfront

So this is the Ravens' new "profile": Control the clock. Have the quarterback manage the game. Play defense. Force turnovers. Make plays on special teams (particularly 44-yard field goals in overtime). And if at all possible, get the other team to use its third-string quarterback. The Ravens have put just about all those pieces together twice this season - including that last piece - and have won both times. Talk about taking what a team gives you. The Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday gave them Tommy Maddox, instead of Ben Roethlisberger or Charlie Batch, or, for that matter, Antwaan Randle-El or Hines Ward, two ex-quarterbacks who couldn't have done any worse behind center than their overmatched teammate.

IT IS MORE of Rafael Palmeiro's bad luck that Jamal Lewis picked yesterday to face the public, again. Well, "luck" isn't the right word. After all, Palmeiro will have you believe that bad luck got him into the mess he's in, that of all the nutritional supplements in all the packages in all the GNCs in all the world, Winstrol got inadvertently slipped into his. No, Palmeiro's problem was bad timing. As the stench surrounding his failed steroid test spreads, the disgraced Orioles slugger didn't need to have the disgraced Ravens running back step before the cameras and explain himself.

Voters in this week's election between Julia McCready and Alex Hekimian to represent Oakland Mills on the CA Board need to know a very important fact: a clear majority of the current OM Village Board members support Julia McCready, as do three former Board chairs. The reason is a matter of trust. Julia McCready is honest, upfront, and respectful. She works toward consensus and cooperative problem-solving. She is a creative, hardworking person who supports her community with her positive outreach and hands-on work.

Starting in May, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. will begin installing "smart meters" in a huge undertaking intended to modernize Central Maryland's electricity grid and save customers money by helping them control energy use. The three-year, $482 million rollout is scheduled to begin in Pasadena and continue in stages until 1.3 million analog electric meters are replaced with digital ones and 700,000 gas meters are upgraded by the end of 2014....

Maryland officials are working behind the scenes to lure the FBI's headquarters to the state from its longtime home base in downtown Washington as the agency seeks an updated building to carry out its expanded counterterrorism and cyber crime missions. If successful, the effort would land nearly 12,000 jobs and a 2.1 million square-foot office complex in Prince George's County, making it one of the largest economic development coups in years. Its impact would rival the immense footprint in the state of the Social Security Administration, which has its headquarters in Woodlawn.

For the Washington Bullets, it was about as good as it gets on the road -- for one half. They played hard as long as they could and even had the Cleveland Cavaliers admiring their work.But all a 59-58 Washington halftime lead did was wake up the Cavs. Especially their big men. Asserting their dominance in the frontcourt, the Cavs won going away, 114-95, before 19,383 at the Richfield Coliseum."It's an understatement to say we wore down," said forward Harvey Grant, who led the Bullets with 16 points.

Some folks buy or already own an unimproved lot and hire a builder to construct a custom home. Often the builder will present the lot owner with a form contract prepared by the builder's attorney. Maryland's Custom Home Protection Act is designed to protect consumers by requiring any custom home contract to include certain disclosures. It also requires builders to use money received from an owner to pay for labor and materials in accordance with the draw schedule in the custom home contract.

The signs shout advertisements from the sidewalks: $1 crabs, day care open until midnight, cherry wood furniture and fresh starts after bankruptcy. They cover telephone poles and sprout up in medians, sometimes getting swept away by wind. And they really get under some people's skin. "It irritates me to no end," said Ed Bard, president of the Rockdale Civic & Improvement Association, who called fighting illegal signs "one of my passions. " Baltimore County code enforcement officials say they are cracking down on the common nuisance.

An advocacy group filed a complaint Friday with the federal government alleging that a Baltimore-based company put hundreds of employees at risk by failing to protect them against asbestos. Alexandra Rosenblatt and Jonathan F. Harris, staff lawyers with the Public Justice Center, said WMS Solutions LLC required its employees, who typically earn from $11 to $14 an hour, to pay for medical exams, training and protective equipment such as gloves, goggles and respirators. If workers didn't pay upfront, the costs were deducted from their paychecks, according to the complaint.

More than 10 years ago, when Ira D. Greene looked for an assisted-living home for his grandmother, he found that no place would accept the Northwest Baltimore woman without at least $150,000 just to get in the door.Even if his immigrant grandmother from Kiev had that kind of money, he said, "she would have had a coronary" signing the check.Out of Greene's frustration grew his decision to develop a rental assisted-living facility for the elderly -- without an upfront fee.Yesterday, Greene, a nursing-home owner in Rodgers Forge, along with executives of Genesis ElderCare of Pennsylvania, broke ground on Atrium Village, a $28.5 million, 230,000-square-foot project in Owings Mills for 278 residences.