Additions

Derrick Mason played six seasons for the Ravens, and he also saw them just two weeks ago while he was with the New York Jets. That prompted the obvious question to Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak on whether the decision to acquire the veteran receiver Tuesday night was motivated partly by a desire to get more information on the Ravens, their opponent Sunday.   "Not at all. We're going through some issues right now as a football team," Kubiak said this morning on a conference call with Ravens reporters.

There haven't been a whole lot of moves to get you excited about baseball in Baltimore this offseason. I understand that. But I've got one for you. I have a new partner now joining me on The Sun's baseball beat -- a new person for you to read in the paper, on our website and at our Orioles Insider blog. Our new lead Orioles writer is Eduardo Encina, a Baltimore guy who spent a chunk of the past decade soaking up rays and covering Rays in the Tampa area. Ed, as we so creatively call him, grew up in Jessup, graduated from the University of Maryland and interned with the Sun in the late 1990s.

Compassionate care for everybody is St. Joseph Medical Center's mission. You can decide whether the hospital's decision to suppress its own finding that its patients suffered "substantial likelihood of harm" is compassionate. Last year, a committee of St. Joseph doctors determined that Dr. Mark Midei implanted cardiac stents in dozens of cases where they weren't needed, resulting in "the substantial likelihood of harm to his patients" and "the potential for serious complications," according to an internal document published in a Senate Finance Committee report last week.

Baltimore's Patterson Park Public Charter School plans to launch construction Monday of a $13.7 million addition, becoming the first charter school in the state to tap into money typically available to hospitals and colleges. The project, expected to be completed by November, will allow the school to build six classrooms for middle-school students, as well as a music center and an art facility. Several existing classrooms will be converted into technology and music laboratories. The addition will follow Baltimore City's Green Building Standards, and construction will include "green" features such as solar panels, storm-water irrigation and recycled content materials.

Recently, it has become en vogue for major league clubs to hire two hitting coaches. The Braves, Cardinals and Padres all employed assistant hitting coaches last season, while the Phillies last month hired former major leaguer Wally Joyner to assist newly hired hitting coach Steve Henderson. Last week, the Dodgers hired John Valentin as assistant hitting coach under new hitting coach Mark McGwire. New Red Sox manager John Farrell has said he's considering hiring two hitting coaches to his yet-to-be-completed staff.

Jim Zorn has already made an indelible mark as the Ravens' new quarterbacks coach by bringing a kid-at-heart enthusiasm, a proven record for improving mechanics and a mean game of dodgeball. Long before the Ravens begin their first official offseason minicamp today, Zorn lined up his quarterbacks and started hurling huge Pilates balls at them. The quarterbacks got hit. And they got hit again. They soon realized they couldn't just duck or take one step to get out of the way. Just as if a 280-pound pass rusher were bearing down on them, the quarterbacks had to make a sudden shift to one side, reset their feet and deliver the throw.

Government officials and hospital administrators marked the completion Wednesday of the $175 million, seven-story Patient Tower at Franklin Square Hospital Center in Rosedale. The 356,000 square-foot facility will begin accepting patients, who will be housed in private rooms, next month. The building includes an expanded emergency department, intensive care unit, and the Todd Heap Family Pediatric Center with its pediatric emergency and inpatient units. The Patient Tower will serve the growing needs of eastern Baltimore County as well as the hospital's service areas in Baltimore City and Harford County.

The Baltimore County school system will have to spend as much as $7 million more than expected for an addition at one of its high schools, after allowing a construction firm to pull out of the project over a dispute with the architect, leaving only a concrete foundation and 2-foot-high walls behind. Contractor James W. Ancel asked to leave the $20 million project at Milford Mill Academy last year, claiming the architectural drawings supplied by the county were flawed. The school system decided to pay him $7.6 million for the work he performed and for equipment and materials he brought to the site, and then to seek another contractor, calling it the most expedient and sensible resolution.

More than 500 Hampton Elementary students and teachers stretched the length and width of a grassy field Friday, roughly replicating the outline of a $19 million addition to the school in Lutherville. Principal Patricia Kaiser called the display during the groundbreaking a preview of what will be "our school of dreams. " "We are celebrating the start of a much-needed groundbreaking," Kaiser said. "These children are standing along the perimeter of our addition. By 2012, our students will be housed in a beautiful new building, a completely air-conditioned school.

After meeting for nearly two hours Friday with parents from Stoneleigh Elementary School, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz agreed to fund $2 million in architectural designs for upgrades to the 81-year-old school building. Securing the design money is a major goal for the parents, many of whom were concerned by Kamenetz's recent comments that school officials should consider moving students from overcrowded elementary schools to under-enrolled middle schools as an alternative to new construction.