Aids

What! I can't believe it. The Sun reports that Secretary of State John Kerry promises to give Egypt $190 million to help the government pay its bills ("Egypt deal with IMF of paramount importance: Kerry," Mar. 2). Last week I heard it was $60 million. That was bad enough. They shouldn't get anything since Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has formed an alliance with Hamas who is supported by al-Qaida and Iran. We can't buy their loyalty when a majority of them advocate that Sharia law is their goal, not democracy.

A female colleague of Johns Hopkins gynecologist Dr. Nikita Levy became suspicious about a pen the doctor wore around his neck and alerted officials at the medical institution, touching off an investigation into whether he secretly recorded patients. When confronted with the woman's concerns, the doctor handed over several recording devices, including a similar pen camera, to investigators, according to a letter to victim advocates from the institution's top medical official that provided new details about how the allegations came to light.

The Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway presented the Town of Perryville with a check for $32,678 earlier this month to help with the renovation of the historic Rodgers Tavern on the town's waterfront. The check, presented to Mayor Jim Eberhardt on Feb. 5, is from a Neighborhood Business Works Grant that the organization collaborated on and received from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. The purpose of the grant is to help with the restoration of the Rodgers Tavern for future public use as a focal point of downtown Perryville business development, according to a news release from the Lower Susquehanna Heritage Greenway announcing the grant.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration asked lawmakers Thursday to expand the state's early voting program, allow absentee voters to mark their ballots online and offer same-day registration during early voting. The governor pushed for additional early voting sites, more early voting days and extended hours after many locations saw lines of an hour or more during last fall's election, an O'Malley aide told the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee. Rebecca Mules, the governor's deputy legislative officer, said the idea to move some of the absentee-voting process online arose after the success of online balloting for Maryland utility workers sent to the Northeast to help with Hurricane Sandy cleanup on Election Day. And allowing voters to register and vote the same day — along with requiring the appropriate technology to execute the program — would increase turnout, Mules said.

Laid-off Hostess Brands workers, including 192 in Maryland, are eligible for federal trade assistance benefits, the U.S. Department of Labor said Tuesday. The Trade Adjustment Assistance program offers retraining help and other aid, coordinated by state workforce agencies, to people who lost their jobs as a result of foreign trade. The Labor Department said its investigation showed "increased imports of baked products contributed importantly to the company's sales declines and worker separations.

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, widely considered to be eyeing a race for governor in 2014, has hired the Democratic campaign aide credited with turning around John Delaney's successful run for Congress last year. Justin Schall, who served as Delaney's campaign manager and worked as an aide to the congressman as he took office, will join Brown as a senior political advisor. The hire is a clear indication Brown is staffing up his political operation in anticipation of a statewide run. Schall, 39, who previously managed campaigns in New York, Indiana, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, splashed on to the Maryland political scene during last year's Democratic primary race in the 6th Congressional District.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's Super Bowl tickets went to a pair of top aides and a city delegate, the administration said this week.  As governor, O'Malley has a state skybox at Ravens stadium, which allows him to purchase up to eight Super Bowl tickets, ranging in price from $950 to $1,250 apiece. O'Malley and his wife, Baltimore District Judge Catherine "Katie" Curran O'Malley, used two of those tickets and paid for them with personal funds. Three other pairs of tickets were purchased at face-value by the governor's public affairs director, Stephen Neuman; state budget director T. Eloise Foster; and State Del. Shawn Z. Tarrant, a Baltimore Democrat.   O'Malley spokeswoman Raquel Guillory has said no taxpayer funds were used for the trip.

Harford County Executive David Craig recently helped officially kick off this year's AARP Tax-Aide Program, which provides free tax assistance for senior citizens and people of any age with low to moderate income. Clients do not have to be AARP members to participate. Appointments may be scheduled by calling 410-638-3425 or 410-322-2735. The appointment office is staffed by AARP volunteers and will be open from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Appointments must be made in advance through the above numbers.

Robert Prettyman walked along the uneven ground surrounding Anne Arundel Community College's resource management building and pointed to soil erosion, storm runoff and other evidence that the area is losing its battle against the elements. "You can see the erosion. It's a mess," said Prettyman, 51, a student at the college. He then ventured down a series of weather-beaten steps in the woods to a small waterway known as Divided Creek. Runoff from the resource management building flows through underground pipes and spills into the creek before heading to the Magothy River and Chesapeake Bay. Prettyman, a Glen Burnie resident studying ecosystem restoration and environmental monitoring, wants to stem that tide of erosion, and he recently came up with a project to reduce and naturally filter some of the runoff from the building.

Maryland communities affected by Super Storm Sandy will receive $8.6 million in federal funding under an emergency spending measure approved by Congress last month. The money, which is in addition to the roughly $1.5 million in assistance the federal government has provided to individuals affected by flooding on the Eastern Shore, has few strings attached. The state must submit a plan within 90 days to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for how they intend to use it. State and federal officials in Maryland were outraged by an initial White House decision to deny individual aid to Eastern Shore residents affected by the storm -- a decision that was later reversed.