Badger

When a national health care company considered setting up a customer service call center with 200 employees this year near Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the deal-breaker wasn't jet noise or traffic or a pricey lease. It was restaurants - the lack of them. "They told me they needed restaurants to feed three different shifts," said William A. Badger Jr., president and chief economic officer of the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp. "They asked me, `Where do they go to just get lunch or breakfast?

Newspaper boosts empty politicians The headlines in the Anne Arundel section [of Feb. 19] were contradictory; "School Crowding Remedy" and "Badger leaves Arundel poised for more growth." Two empty stories about political points of view on ways to say they are doing something but doing nothing. Right now the remedy for the school overcrowding has been hundreds of trailers, and the argument from the Keep Building at Any Cost building community has been to relocate the overflow of students from some place in east county to some place in the west where they are under capacity, or let's get the developers to kick in some money that probably won't be enough.

Back from Tribal Council, Brandon is terribly upset about the fact that Francesca went home. He calls himself a Honey Badger, but loses points with me because he doesn't then say "Brandon don't care, Brandon don't give a... " Dawn, because she's too nice and doesn't realize that it was the Crazy talking, and not Brandon, is very upset and hurt by what he said to her. I like Dawn, but I think she will end up leaving about mid-point in the game because...

Sylvia Badger, a former Baltimore Sun columnist who followed the party and people circuit for two decades, died of cancer Monday at the Avow Hospice in Naples, Fla. She was 72 and had homes in Centreville and Florida. "She knew everybody," said Baltimore advertising executive Bob Leffler. "She also knew how to handle information and was never mean-spirited." Born Sylvia Hayes in Spartanburg, S.C., she attended local schools. She married a Baltimorean, A. Gordon Boone Jr., an attorney who became a Baltimore County judge, but was then serving in the Air Force at Fort Fisher.

MADISON, Wis. -- The prevailing message at the University of Wisconsin's 140th commencement earlier this month was not aimed at the fall graduates.Instead, words from chancellor David Ward and Gov. Tommy Thompson were directed at the Wisconsin Badgers football team, which tomorrow will make its first appearance in the Rose Bowl in 31 years. References to the bowl game, to Pasadena, to miracles, were heard no less than eight times during the two-hour ceremony.Rose Bowl fever has struck the state.

INDIANAPOLIS -- It is over. Finally, mercifully, painfully, Wisconsin's run in the 2000 NCAA men's basketball tournament is over. We all admired the eighth-seeded Badgers, their defensive intensity, their gritty march to the Final Four, their throwback coach, Dick Bennett. But enough is enough. Last night, Michigan State saved CBS, the reputation of the Big Ten and college basketball as we know it, in no particular order of importance. The Spartans were so distraught over their 19-17 halftime lead, coach Tom Izzo said they needed a "kiss-and-hug" session.

By the end of last week, Ravens cornerback Lardarius Webb was hearing teammate Ed Reed's voice in his sleep. If it wasn't Reed critiquing Webb's technique or positioning, it was him giving pointers about dealing with Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson , Reed's college teammate at the University of Miami. "He was on me all week," Webb said. "Sometimes I'm mad and I want to curse him out, want to tell him, 'Get off my back.' But it all pays off during the week.

Whatever happens to Hans Morsbach, the Chicago restaurant owner being hounded by federal bureaucrats, he's now had his case brought to the attention of Congress.Rep. John Porter, normally one of our quieter legislators, stood up the other day and raised some hell about the way Morsbach is being treated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.Porter compared the methods used by the EEOC to those of the Spanish Inquisition.He said: "Chicagoans have been following the EEOC's work . . . and frankly they're mad, and they have a right to be mad."

The co-founder of a business advocacy group will step into Anne Arundel's top economic development job, filling the vacancy at a time of tremendous growth for the county. Aaron J. Greenfield, executive director of the Maryland Business Council and associate corporate counsel for First Mariner Bancorp, will take the helm of the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp. on March 1, county officials said yesterday. Greenfield will succeed Bill Badger, who accepted a job at M&T Bank Corp. after 11 years with the quasi-governmental agency.

INDIANAPOLIS -- It's a long way from Hollywood, but a short road for the Michigan State basketball team to end a year's worth of frustration. While the Spartans have remained focused on their unresolved goal since losing to Duke in last year's Final Four, Wisconsin has drawn on different motivation heading into today's NCAA tournament semifinal game at RCA Dome. The Badgers practiced two days ago at Hinkle Fieldhouse, the site that served as the backdrop for the movie "Hoosiers," which told the story of a 1950s small-town high school team overcoming the odds to win the Indiana state title.