1st Mariner

Several executives at 1st Mariner Bancorp, including Chairman and CEO Edwin F. Hale Sr., took pay cuts of as much as 10 percent last year as the financial company suffered significant losses from bad loans. Hale, who started 1st Mariner in 1995, earned a base salary of $522,000 last year, compared with $580,000 the year before, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company's chief operating officer and the executive vice president and chief financial officer also reported 10 percent pay reductions, while another executive vice president took a 3 percent pay cut. The pay reductions come as the company's banking arm, 1st Mariner Bank, has continued to suffer from soured real estate loans and is operating under an informal supervisory agreement with federal regulators.

In the latest sign of trouble, 1st Mariner Bank said Monday that it has been placed under more intense federal supervision as Baltimore's largest independent bank continues to struggle with soured real estate loans and its inability to raise cash. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Maryland Division of Financial Regulation issued a "cease and desist" order Friday, according to documents filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, requiring 1st Mariner to devise a plan to improve its capital, liquidity and earnings and deal with problem loans.

Senator Theatre owner Tom Kiefaber is "months" behind in loan payments to 1st Mariner Bank, the bank's chairman and chief executive confirmed yesterday. And with federal regulators pressuring the bank to get its own fiscal house in order, officials there had little choice but to call the loan and schedule a foreclosure auction. "The guy's in arrears big-time," Ed Hale said. "He hasn't paid for months." With the likelihood of a mid-April foreclosure auction looming, potential bidders for the Senator, a North Baltimore landmark since 1939, have started to surface.

The billboard ad for milk reads "Beauty in every glass." That may be so, but not everyone thinks there is beauty in every billboard. The Caroline Street billboard with the milk ad, and a second one nearby for Comcast cable, were scheduled to come down early this morning. They will be the first of 14 billboards removed from city neighborhoods before 14 more are allowed on 1st Mariner Arena downtown in a swap approved by the city for media giant Clear Channel Inc. and Edwin F. Hale, the banker who owns the arena's naming rights.

Ringling Bros. at 1st Mariner Arena Go see the Greatest Show on Earth in Ringling Bros. and Bar num & Bailey's Circus of Dreams at the 1st Mariner Are na, 201 W. Baltimore St. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show are $14 to $24. Call 410-547-SEAT or go to ticketmaster.com or ring ling.com. FYI J. Wynn Rousuck's weekly theater column does not appear to day.

Country music singer-songwriter Toby Keith brings the music of his newest album, 2007's Big Dog Daddy, to 1st Mariner Arena at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The outspoken artist's release has a rock edge, incorporating a Southern blues style into his country sound. Big Dog is Keith's first self-produced record. 1st Mariner is at 201 W. Baltimore St. Tickets are $43.75-$60.75. Call 410-547-7328 or go to tick etmaster.com.

Little Feat / Birchmere Little Feat brings its rollicking blues-rock fusion to the Birchmere Monday and Tuesday nights. Both shows start at 7:30, and tickets, available through Ticketmaster, are $35. An Acoustic Evening / Meyerhoff It will be a night of delicate melodies and folksy rhythms as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin and Dar Williams perform together at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall Monday night at 8. Tickets are $42-$72 and...

Matchup -- Monterrey La Raza (5-9) at Blast (6-7) Site -- 1st Mariner Arena Time -- 7:35 Radio -- 680 AM Outlook -- Under .500 for the first time all season, the Blast seeks to end a two-game losing streak against the team just behind it in the MISL standings. Coach Danny Kelly thought the team played decently despite 4-0 and 13-12 setbacks at Philadelphia and New Jersey, respectively, but the results dropped the Blast into seventh place. Monterrey, an expansion squad, has split two meetings, winning 16-13 in Mexico after losing 12-9 at 1st Mariner.

The Senator Theatre will go on the auction block July 21. The date was set at Thursday's monthly meeting of the Baltimore Development Corp., which will be overseeing the sale; the minimum bid will be $1 million. No location or starting time for the auction has been set. "If someone is willing to come and bid the million dollars, that's acceptable, and they'll own a theater," BDC executive director Kimberly Clark said. "We'll work with those folks on an outcome that's best for the community."