Bainum

Moving to regain majority control of Vitalink Pharmacy Services, Manor Care announced yesterday that it would buy up to 1.5 million shares of the institutional pharmacy company at $20 a share.Manor Care, a Gaithersburg company that operates nursing facilities and assisted living complexes, owned 82 percent of Vitalink until February. Vitalink issued 11.7 million shares of stock to buy the TeamCare pharmacy division of GranCare Inc. of Atlanta, another long-term care company. The deal was valued at $388 million, including the assumption of $107 million in debt.

A year after announcing a project to renovate or demolish 5,000 abandoned houses, Baltimore officials acknowledge that they need more help and are spending $1 million to hire 21 temporary employees. The new workers -- three lawyers and the rest paralegals, clerks and real estate agents -- will allow Mayor Martin O'Malley's "Project 5000" to start working at full speed, said Michael Bainum, director of the program. The goal is to breathe new life into about a third of the approximately 14,000 abandoned properties in the city.

Manor Care Inc., whose shares have slid along with other nursing home stocks in the past few months, was the target of competing takeover bids yesterday, causing the shares to jump 28.5 percent. Manor Care closed the day at $12.6875, up $2.8125. Trading volume was 3.2 million shares, about six times the daily average the past six months. Stewart Bainum Jr., the Maryland businessman who is chairman of Ohio-based Manor Care, said yesterday that he would buy the company at a price "significantly in excess" of the current stock valuation.

There's a new trend afoot in Maryland: buying elections. Only millionaires, many times over, need apply.Maryland has never had this kind of candidate, one who uses personal and family wealth to purchase political credibility. But it could happen this time, in two different races.In the run for governor, two erstwhile Democratic contenders are thinking about multi-million-dollar campaigns that would be largely self-financed. There are two more such contenders in the Republican contest for U.S. Senate.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening stepped up his attack on administration critics yesterday, saying that some business leaders who are expected to meet this week to discuss a 1998 challenge to him are angry because he refuses to support their pet projects.In an interview, Glendening criticized H. Furlong Baldwin, chairman and chief executive officer of Mercantile Bankshares Corp.; Calman "Buddy" Zamoiski, a Baltimore businessman and president of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; and Stewart Bainum Jr., chief operating officer of Manor Care Inc., a nursing home and hotel company.

Manor Care Inc. has spent the last quarter century building itself into one of the largest franchised hotel and nursing home chains in the world.Now, as it aims to become a $2 billion company, the Silver Spring-based giant is preparing to play catch-up in a marketplace marked by uncertainty in the face of national health reform.During its first two decades, Manor Care grew the old-fashioned way -- driven in one direction and then another by the instincts of its entrepreneurial founder and a handful of aides.

With nearly four months to go before the September primary, Prince George's County Executive Parris N. Glendening is now widelyregarded as the candidate to beat or the Democratic nomination for governor.Anything can happen over the course of a summer-long campaign, but at the moment, the 51-year-old former college professor appears to have positioned himself to break away from the crowded Democratic field.In interviews with state legislators, party activists, political contributors, pollsters and even supporters of rival candidates, Mr. Glendening is portrayed as the candidate with the money, the organization and the endorsements.

The circus doesn't come to town as often as it used to, but no matter: we still have Maryland's politicians to provide mirthful wintertime entertainment. This season's maneuvering for governor is turning into a regular two-ring circus.In the Democrats' ring, it's getting crowded. Gov. William Donald Schaefer, unable to succeed himself, continues to woo a bevy of beauty contestants. His latest quests: millionaire former Sen. Stewart Bainum Jr. and Orioles owner Peter Angelos. This is in addition to another Schaefer dark horse, Sen. American Joe Miedusiewski of East Baltimore.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening lashed out yesterday at "gubernatorial wannabes" and powerful forces who push private interests above those of the state.His remarks were aimed at businessmen and elected officials who are expected to meet Thursday night at the home of nursing home magnate Stewart Bainum Jr. in Montgomery County to discuss a challenge to the first-term governor in 1998.Their meeting comes at a time when the governor, buffeted by low poll ratings and a controversial fund-raising expedition to New York, had returned from what he thought was a unifying Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

On a recent fall day, gardeners at Franz Burda's home were putting in 20,000 tulip bulbs. Once they've bloomed next spring, each bulb will be dug up and donated to charity.The German publisher's three full-time staff members clip and groom the impeccable gardens and emerald-green lawns, as well as tend the raised swimming pool on the $5.1 million estate.For formal dinners, Burda's starched damask cloths are ironed on the tables -- after they are sprinkled with Pellegrino, some say -- before the guests jet in.Palm Beach?