Acceleration

Jasper R. Clay Jr.'s deck furniture now includes an Acura Legend, the back wall of his garage and a kitchen sink.Mr. Clay of Columbia's Wilde Lake village plowed through his garage -- which also doubled as a kitchen storage area -- Sunday evening when his 1990 Legend suddenly accelerated as he pulled into his driveway, he said.He was on his way to the supermarket when he remembered he forgot something in the house and returned home."It's one of those freak things," said Mr. Clay, a 62-year-old federal executive.

Over the next several weeks in Aberdeen, a dozen and a half homes along Route 22 will be demolished to make way for the road to be widened. No doubt more than a few lives were disrupted when the Maryland State Highway Administration began acquiring property to make way for a wider roadway, but protections are in place to ensure property owners are adequately compensated even as the interests of taxpayers – those of us paying for those houses –...

Toyota Motor Corp. has taken the unprecedented step of halting sales and production of eight models, including the top-selling Camry and Corolla, because their accelerator pedals can stick and cause runaway acceleration. Toyota sent an e-mail to its roughly 1,200 U.S. dealers late Tuesday, asking them to immediately stop selling the vehicles. In addition, it told them to refrain from selling certain used versions of the same models. At the same time, Toyota said it is halting production of the models in five assembly lines in the U.S. and Canada, effective Monday.

What a sad time for Marylanders. They are going to be subjected to a regressive gas tax that will have an automatic tax accelerator tied to the Consumer Price Index. It is unfair to the gas station owners who are operating along the borders of our state. They will lose business as people will migrate to pay less at the pump in surrounding states. The Transportation Trust Fund was created in 1971 to provide funding for a transportation network from the 23.5 cents per gallon tax. Over the years, the trust fund has been raided by the governor by over $1 billion dollars from the Highway User funds earmarked for local governments to improve roads.Those funds will never be repaid.

Federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into Toyota's safety troubles, the Japanese automaker confirmed Monday, as the company's leadership braces for tough questions in congressional hearings this week about its recent spate of recalls. Toyota officials said the company on Feb. 8 received a subpoena from a federal grand jury in New York requesting documents related to unintended acceleration of some Toyota vehicles and the braking system of its popular Prius hybrid.

Sinai Health System announced yesterday that it will open athletic training and fitness centers to be called Cal Ripken, Jr. Sport Acceleration.The first of the centers is to open in the spring at the Columbia 100 Center in Howard County. Another is planned for Fairfax County in Northern Virginia in early 1999, with a third likely to follow in a few years.The centers are not usual health clubs but designed to offer six- to eight-week programs to athletes -- most often, those in high school or middle school -- designed to make them run faster, jump higher and throw harder.

The road-racing course at Pocono Raceway resembles a writhing snake in freeze frame as it wends its way through the infield of the oval track. Then, it suddenly dumps you out onto the racetrack, at the entrance to a big, banked back turn.You've got your hands full in that reptilian infield section. It is a course that makes it clear just how nimble and athletic the 1991 Infiniti G20 is, and shows off the new, active suspension in the Infiniti's Q45.The G20 is the all-new entry-level car for Nissan's Infiniti luxury division.

Orioles All-Star Cal Ripken Jr. has assumed ownership from partner LifeBridge Health of a Columbia athletic training center that bears his name, the Cal Ripken Jr. Sports Acceleration Center.Ripken intends to expand the center, change its name and add programs and outlets. Eventually the operation, which provides advanced training for amateur and professional athletes, could expand nationwide, said Ira Rainess, president of the center and head of Ripken's commercial operations."People throughout the country have tried to find a formula that works in this niche market; I think we have found the right model," Rainess said.

After three years of training athletes to run faster and jump higher, the Cal Ripken Jr. Sports Acceleration Center will close this month, a spokesman for Ripken and the center said. Ripken, who owns the center, likely will re-deploy elsewhere, possibly in the baseball complex he is building in Aberdeen, the spokesman said. "We made the decision to pull in the concept," John C. Maroon said. "We wanted to do it so we can apply certain aspects of it down the road. Cal very much liked the acceleration program and how it worked with kids, and how it fit in with our youth focus."

NBC analyst O.J. Simpson absorbed sharp criticism last January when he warned that Bo Jackson's career was in jeopardy after Jackson was injured in the Raiders-Bengals playoff game. Simpson was vindicated yesterday when the Kansas City Royals said they were waiving the two-sport star.What did Simpson alone know?"People said it was a hip pointer, but I had had those; they only come from a real jolt, such as a helmet hitting the spot," Simpson said last night. "I saw him go down, and saw the film.

When Maryland utilities replace their gas pipelines, customers have had to fork out extra money afterward — not during. But that's poised to change. Both chambers of Maryland's General Assembly, citing safety concerns, approved measures this month that would make it easier for utilities to add infrastructure surcharges of up to $2 a month to natural-gas customers' bills. It's the latest push in a tug of war over the best and fairest way to replace the nation's aging utility infrastructure, the price tag for which has been estimated in the trillions of dollars.

Dave Pietramala couldn't remember the last time Johns Hopkins had taken 58 shots in a game as the team did in Friday night's 15-6 rout of Siena. When informed that it was 2004 when the Blue Jays attempted 61 shots in a 17-6 thumping of Albany, the head coach quipped, “Was I there?” Jokes aside, Pietramala, Johns Hopkins fans and media may have caught a glimpse of what the current squad is capable of courtesy of the new rules in place to help accelerate the pace of play. With new policies limiting substitutions on the fly and calling for faster restarts, the Blue Jays scored the most goals in a season opener since March 4, 1995 when that squad edged Princeton, 15-14.

Legg Mason Inc. announced Wednesday that it would accelerate a quarterly dividend that was to be paid out in January. The cash dividend of 11 cents per share will be paid out on Dec. 28, instead of Jan. 7. The Baltimore-based investment company becomes the latest to rush to make dividend payments before the end of the year, while the tax rate on this income is still 15 percent. Unless a deal is reached between Congress and the White House, dividend income next year will once more be taxed as regular income, which could be as high as 39.6 percent.

I am not a Democrat nor Republican. I'm what my voter registration calls "unaffiliated. " I like to think that it allows me to accept and consider anything political, from all sides. In addition, I have a very pragmatic outlook on all things. Plus, my wife considers me a "rigger," one who has the attitude that any problem at home can be solved with whatever works. With this I am able, in my mind, to digest problems without any agenda, by looking at what works and what doesn't.

Baltimore County police have ruled a house fire in Towson Monday an arson and have also determined the residence in the 7000 block of Bellona Ave. was robbed. Investigators have discovered evidence that the suspect used an accelerant to start the fire in two separate locations in the home. A 2006 Porsche Cayenne, with Maryland tags 584M126, is missing from the residence, as are a TV and DVD player and several other items. Anyone with information about this crime should call the Police Arson Squad at 410-887-4870.

Big news today for startup dreamers: The Accelerate Baltimore program , run out of the Emerging Technology Center in Baltimore, is going to launch its second program next year, and will over spots to six companies. The first Accelerate Baltimore class of four companies graduated this past summer , and they're all bumping and grinding trying to get to the next level. Those interested in applying to the program, to help launch their own companies, will see an application process begin in October.

CAUGHT BETWEEN salary cap purgatory and a running back he can't satisfy, Indianapolis Colts president Bill Polian last week acknowledged that he would listen to trade offers for three-time Pro Bowl player Edgerrin James. The Seattle Seahawks followed suit by placing their Pro Bowl running back, Shaun Alexander, on the trading block as well. It's becoming a crowded place, that trading block. Already dangling are cornerbacks Patrick Surtain (Miami Dolphins) and Charles Woodson (Oakland Raiders)

Carl Cyrus Clark, an internationally known expert on human acceleration and crash protection whose research contributed significantly to the development of air bags for automobiles and airplanes, died of a heart attack Thursday at his summer home in Thetford, Vt. The longtime Catonsville resident was 82. "The bottom line in discussing Carl Clark is that people are safer because of his work. He did more for humanity than 99.9 percent of the world's scientists," consumer advocate Ralph Nader said yesterday.

Did he or didn't he? That was the question that dominated the post-race conversation after Ryan Hunter-Reay jumped into the lead during a restart with five laps to go and sped to victory in the Grand Prix of Baltimore on Sunday afternoon. Well, Hunter-Reay certainly did take advantage of a late caution to dash past Ryan Briscoe and keep the IZOD/IndyCar points championship in doubt going into the final race of the season in Fontana, Calif., on Sept. 15. But some of the drivers that finished behind him - including Briscoe and overall points leader Will Power - seemed convinced that he illegally "jumped the restart.

Youths detained at the Baltimore City Detention Center were moved over the weekend into a building that has air conditioning, state officials confirmed. The move comes amid increasing concerns over conditions for juveniles charged as adults at the city jail. While state officials who oversee the facility said it was planned as part of renovations at an annex building where juveniles were held, they also said those plans were accelerated based on what was best for the youths. The living quarters will continue to be a dorm-style arrangement in a 50-bed housing unit in the Wyatt Building, formerly used for an adult drug treatment program.