Bait

I keep hearing about the jobs that will be created if referendum Question 7 passes, but can we be sure that the jobs will go to Marylanders? As reader Dave Daughters pointed out, there is no guarantee that will happen, yet the ads suggest it will ("How many casino jobs would go to Marylanders?" Oct. 22). I am sure the construction jobs will go to the company with the lowest bid, which could be a company from another state. Will they bring in their own people? I'm pretty sure that they will.

Could "The Bachelorette" go for a Bawlamer boy? Could be... When the ABC show has its season premiere Monday, May 27, one of the contenders for the hand of bachelorette Desiree Hartsock will be introduced as Brian, a 29-year-old financial adviser from Baltimore. Brian is, in fact, Brian Jarosinski, a financial services representative for Gateway Capital Financial, an office of MetLife (although the website misspells Brian's name as "Jaronsinski," it's him). According to his bio on ABC.com, Jarosinski was born in Olney; is 6'-2", wears size 13 shoes and has no tattoos; lists his three favorite movies as "The Rock," "'The Notebook" and "The Count of Monte Cristo"; and professes to be "very neat.

Late summer fishing and hot weather require a different approach. This is time of the year for slowly fished live bait. My choice for ponds and stream fishing is the live grasshopper. Hooked through the collar just behind the head with the point of the hook facing rear the bait will float naturally. To fish the bait under the surface, add a small split shot about 6 inches above the bait. Let the bait slowly bounce along the bottom in the current. When the fish takes the bait give the fish time to inhale the bait fully before you set the hook.

Money's a good motivator, Anne Arundel County Sheriff Bateman said Friday. A state law that just took effect has the Comptroller's Office withholding Maryland tax refunds of residents of Anne Arundel County or people who have an outstanding warrant in the county. In the first week, 110 letters were mailed, and 10 people turned themselves in or otherwise cleared up their warrant situation, the sheriff said. "It's easy fishing,” said Bateman,  who had approached Comptroller Peter Franchot with the idea.

Money's a good motivator, Anne Arundel County Sheriff Bateman said Friday. A state law that just took effect has the Comptroller's Office withholding Maryland tax refunds of residents of Anne Arundel County or people who have an outstanding warrant in the county. In the first week, 110 letters were mailed, and 10 people turned themselves in or otherwise cleared up their warrant situation, the sheriff said. "It's easy fishing,” said Bateman,  who had approached Comptroller Peter Franchot with the idea.

There was a time when I could easily lure my three young children in from their summer-night street games with the bait of the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week. " We would all gather on the family room couch to watch the frighteningly close-up, spectacular shots of feeding frenzies — fins and teeth chopping the water into a Bass-o-matic froth filmed by a brave diver in an underwater cage. A narrator — with all the inflection and dynamism of Dick Cheney — would relate key facts about the class Chondrichthyes as well as salient environmental and habitat issues.

"Bait" tries hard to be two movies, a comedy and a thriller. With the former it does a good job, thanks to the efforts of leading man Jamie Foxx, but pretty much fails at the latter. Foxx is a petty thief named Alvin Sanders. Picked up one night for burglary, he shares a cell with John Jaster (Robert Pastorelli), whose heart problems frighten him into giving Foxx some cryptic hints as to the whereabouts of a load of stolen gold. Foxx is eager to recover it. So are the feds, and they effect a jail-yard injury that enables them to install a high-tech tracking and listening device inside Foxx's jaw, then turn him loose.

FOR AS LONG as sportsmen and women have been trying to gain an edge over critters, there have been companies peddling the next gimmick to give humans supremacy over members of the animal kingdom. As a member of Homo sapiens with a college degree who owns two rather large house cats with an agenda, I can only repeat the immortal words of Aerosmith: "Dream on." Yet, every season battery-powered gizmos and genetically jiggered bait flood the market. The latest must-have in our market is the "Black Salty," a live bait so powerful, we're told, that the whale would spit up Jonah to make room.

The live aquatic bait ban in effect at Baltimore City's three reservoirs will be modified to allow the use of state-certified, zebra mussel-free bait, Mayor Kurt. L. Schmoke announced yesterday.Live bait had been banned to protect the reservoirs from accidental introduction of zebra mussels, which can attach to live bait. The inch-long shellfish multiplies rapidly and has clogged large water intake structures.Now if you use live aquatic bait, you must have a receipt from a state-certified bait shop in your possession, dated no more than 48 hours from purchase.

"Bait and switch" is one of the oldest techniques in the book for disreputable merchants trying to lure customers to their stores. The merchant advertises an item at an unbelievably low price. That's the bait. It could be anything from a car to a TV set. But when the customer arrives in the store, the advertised item is no longer in stock, and the merchant sets about trying to persuade the customer to buy a more expensive model that just happens to be in stock. That's the switch. And it's illegal.

Recognize this pattern? Brag brag brag Bait for compliment Self-promote Promote someone else so as to be able to self-promote later Brag Wax indignant about political issue on which everyone you know agrees with you Bait again Brag brag That, dear readers, is the footprint of your Facebook feed. Unless you're some kind of outlier whose friends post nothing but links to worthy charitable organizations and lost-pet notices, that is what scrolls past your line of vision on a daily, perhaps hourly (minute-by-minute?

I keep hearing about the jobs that will be created if referendum Question 7 passes, but can we be sure that the jobs will go to Marylanders? As reader Dave Daughters pointed out, there is no guarantee that will happen, yet the ads suggest it will ("How many casino jobs would go to Marylanders?" Oct. 22). I am sure the construction jobs will go to the company with the lowest bid, which could be a company from another state. Will they bring in their own people? I'm pretty sure that they will.

Six alleged members of a robbery crew caught in a sting by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are expected to plead guilty to federal charges, according to a letter filed in the case Tuesday. The government claims that the men were armed drug traffickers who operated out of Waverly. They plotted to rob what they were told was another drug organization's stash house, and were taken into custody in June as they prepared for the raid, according to court filings.

Comptroller Peter Franchot on Wednesday denounced a revised deal that allowed the company licensed to operate a casino at the Rocky Gap resort in Allegany County to reduce the scale of the project as a "complete bait and switch" on the part of the company. Franchot had questioned why the modified deal, which cut the number of slot machines at the resort from 850 to 500, did not have to be brought back to the Board of Public Works for approval. "Don't you get the sense we're being played for fools here?"

For the first year in more than a decade, no rabies vaccine baits will be placed in Anne Arundel, after the county was cut from the federal program, according to county health officials. The project used a county police helicopter and volunteers to immunize thousands of raccoons and other small wild animals in an effort to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, dropping baits to be eaten by the animals in late summer and fall. The number of reported rabies cases has plummeted since the county began using the edible vaccine baits, starting with a small area in 1998.

How sad that Del. Patrick McDonough chooses to use his bully pulpit to frighten tourists away from Baltimore City ("Baltimore and bigotry," May 18) - and how said that the media lets him get away with it by using race-baiting headlines. Yes, a lot of teenagers came down to the harbor just like a hundreds of other people to enjoy the weather, and yes, the police need to be more prepared to handle the few troublemakers who show up. But those of us who live here and enjoy all of the wonderful things the city has to offer would appreciate it if those who want to destroy Baltimore would keep their negativity to themselves.

I've gotten several emails in the past few days about the Orioles and their trade possibilities. I've been asked why they haven't made a deal already for St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Kyle McClellan or the Texas Rangers' Koji Uehara or another fill-in-the-blank name. The reason is pretty simple. If the Orioles are going to get a big leaguer in return -- even in a potential salary dump -- they are probably going to have to give up a prospect. And, frankly, the Orioles don't have much to offer that they are willing to part with and that other teams covet.

Portions of the Deal Island WMA that was closed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resouces last month because of the illegal distribution of waterfowl bait will reopen Wednesday. Small grains discovered in a marshy dump area west of Riley Roberts Road and south of State Route 363 near Chance forced the temporary closure. The grains could have attracted wild waterfowl, according to the DNR. The signs announcing the closure, posted at known access points to the marsh area, will be removed prior to the reopening.