Atlantic

Sixty years ago this week, the world's attention was riveted on one man's dream as the liner United States, designed by William Francis Gibbs, steamed eastward across the Atlantic on its maiden voyage. Known as "The Big U," the liner sailed from New York's Ambrose Light to Bishop's Rock, off the English coast, the official Blue Riband course, in three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes, establishing a record that remains unbroken for a trans-Atlantic crossing. Gibbs, who was known during his lifetime as America's greatest naval designer, was consumed with the design and building of the United States, the fastest, most powerful and luxurious superliner ever built, which became his enduring legacy.

As of midday Friday, forecasters at the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., were uncertain that the Baltimore area would see any thunderstorms at all later in the evening. Without a cold front or a low-pressure system in place, they lacked the markers that would guarantee violent weather. If a disturbance did occur, however, all the heat and humidity in the lower atmosphere would serve as fuel. "We knew that any thunderstorm that did develop could become severe," said Stephen Konarik, a meteorologist with the weather service.

The celebrated crab cake sandwich at Baltimore's Faidley Seafood  gets some national TV love Wednesday night at 9 on the Travel Channel. Faidley's crab cake on white bread with lettuce and tomato is featured on "Adam Richman's Best Sandwich in America," with the host stopping in Baltimore on this week's hunt for the top sandwich in the Mid-Atlantic. Be there at the start of the show, because Faidley's is up first in the opening 10 minutes. The idea is that Richman takes a different region of the country each week for 10 weeks.

Sea levels are rising faster along the Atlantic coast - including in the Chesapeake Bay - than elsewhere around the world, and the increase appears to be accelerating, according to federal scientists. In a paper published online in Nature Climate Change , the U.S. Geological Survey reports that sea level rise is increasing three to four times faster than globally along a heavily-populated 600-mile stretch of coast from Cape  Hatteras, NC to north of Boston.  Since 1990, the rise has increased 2 to 3.7 millimeters per year in the "hotspot," as the federal scientists call it, compared with a global increase of 0.6 to 1 millimeter per year.  That hotspot includes the Chesapeake Bay, according to USGS oceanographer Asbury H. Sallenger, lead author of the report.

Single-A Delmarva infielder Nicky Delmonico was named the Most Valuable Player of tonight's South Atlantic League All-Star Game in Charleston, S.C. Delmonico, the Orioles' No. 6-ranked prospect by Baseball America, played a key role in the North's 3-2 win, going 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored. The 19-year-old Delmonico hit a one-out infield single to shortstop in the fifth inning, then scored two batters later on Kevan Smith's RBI double to left. Delmonico then laced a one-out double to right, moving to third on an error by South second baseman Delino DeShields.

Manekin LLC, a Columbia-based real estate firm, has formed a partnership with Chicago-based Brennan Investment Group to acquire, develop and manage industrial properties in the Mid-Atlantic region. Manekin, a commercial real estate company with expertise in the Mid-Atlantic, will find and evaluate potential deals, while Brennan will provide capital, the companies said Tuesday. The alliance allows Manekin to work with a nationally focused company with access to capital at a time when a "wealth of opportunities" exists in the mid-Atlantic region, said Owen Rouse, Manekin senior vice president.

Last month, David Tewell gathered a group of friends and headed north to Atlantic City's new Golden Nugget casino and resort for two nights of eating well, club-hopping and, of course, gambling. For the 27-year-old Annapolis resident, hitting the poker tables makes the three-hour trip up I-95 worth it. "A successful Atlantic City trip is going out at night and playing poker during the day," Tewell said. "Nothing around Baltimore rivals it. " That may change tonight, with the grand opening of the roughly $500 million Maryland Live Casino at Arundel Mills Mall.

With no table games, will Maryland Live casino draw young gamblers? Last month, David Tewell gathered a group of friends and headed north to Atlantic City's new Golden Nugget casino and resort for two nights of eating well, club-hopping and, of course, gambling. For the 27-year-old Annapolis resident, hitting the poker tables makes the three-hour trip up I-95 worth it. "A successful Atlantic City trip is going out at night and playing poker during the day," Tewell said.

Catonsville home care business named to top 100 in region Linda Cromwell, president and CEO of Catonsville-based Being There Senior Care, was among those selected for the 2012 Top Minority Business Enterprise Award. Cromwell was among the 100 women and minority business owners in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the District of Columbia honored during a May 4 ceremony at the University of Maryland University College. She was also among the top 100 women and minority business owners in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the District of Columbia for 2009.

Someone once described the ambition of getting a novel published as "a slender keyhole through which few have passed. " Rodgers Forge resident Eric Goodman has passed through that keyhole, and has found rewards on the other side - on Monday, June 4, he was in New York picking up the 2012 Gold Medal for Best Fiction in the Mid-Atlantic Region in the Independent Publishers Book Awards for his book, "Tracks: A Novel in Stories. " Goodman, 41, wrote his first short story when he was in third grade, and hasn't stopped since.