Baltimore And Maryland

Trump to Baltimore: You're hired! Celebrity entrepreneur Donald Trump, who gives employees the heave-ho on television's The Apprentice, is giving Charm City a gig: host of his Miss USA pageant. The 2005 contest will take place in April at the Hippodrome Theatre, officials will announce today, offering 51 women the chance to walk away with tiara and sash - and giving the city and state national television exposure that could translate into big tourism and economic development bucks. So, while the contestants hike up their cleavage with duct tape and smear Vaseline on their teeth to keep their smiles fresh, Baltimore and Maryland expect to be the ones sitting pretty.

From Alex. Brown Inc. to the Cleveland Browns, it has come to be commonplace for city and state governments to offer financial incentives to keep businesses from leaving or to lure new ones.But should Baltimore and Maryland pay millions of dollars to an apparently thriving business that has made no noises about moving elsewhere?That is a key question that has emerged in the wake of a request by the Rouse Co. to have the city and state pick up two-thirds of the cost of a $20 million project to refurbish its 15-year-old Harborplace pavilions.

The experience of Africian-Americans are a rich vein in the history of Baltimore and Maryland, from slavery to the struggle for freedom in the 19th century to the battle for economic and social equality in the 20th century. From Baltimore to the Eastern Shore, people and places remeind us of the variety of the roles blacks have played in the social, political and cultural life of our state. Since Baltimore's founding in the early 1700s, the large black population has been making contributions to its growth and development both physically and spiritually.

Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and School Superintendent Walter G. Amprey warmly welcomed yesterday a proposed change in state education funding that would give the city about $40 million more every year.During a public hearing at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, the mayor praised the plan for addressing the needs of the state's poorer students -- even if that means wealthier jurisdictions like Montgomery County don't get as much as they are scheduled to under current law."Your draft report goes farther than any prior effort in Maryland to grapple with the need for adequate resources," Mr. Schmoke said.

Backyard Treasure2 Then we will be not only bigger -- but better!Thomas KenneyBaltimore____________Losing the NFL bid could be a lucky break for Baltimore.If the enthusiasm for short-season football, the planning, imagination and the funds are now put to work on alternate plans for the Howard Street "Avenue of the Arts" and a Middle Branch Center for the Arts on the waterfront, the scattered offerings of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walters, Peabody, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, dance and drama could all have attractive, intimate center-city places for program extensions that would be more practical for our thousands of visitors.

Institute to help China fight AIDS Already a force in the fight against AIDS in Africa, the Institute of Human Virology is expanding its reach to Asia. The organization, part of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, signed an agreement at a conference in Baltimore to help China control its emerging AIDS epidemic. Orioles release pitcher Ponson The Orioles placed pitcher Sidney Ponson on unconditional release waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract, ending a relationship that began in 1993.

That day in London a few weeks ago was depressing, cold and wet. I was to meet up with an old friend, who suggested that we run indoors to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. And there, hanging on the wall of this marvelous museum, there was no escaping the touch of Baltimore. The museum was packed with visitors, many of whom sought out an exhibition of paintings titled Americans in Paris. My eye soon caught a compelling painting of a Victorian woman stylishly dressed in jet black, seated on a slipcovered chair.

Two recent travel guides highlight not only places we wish to visit, but the very places where we live: Baltimore and Maryland. Here's our take on the books: 'Moon Handbooks: Baltimore' Avalon, $17.95: Baltimore often is called an underrated city. As the former Colonial trading port continues to evolve, it has begun attracting more visitors. Local author Geoff Brown nicely describes it as a Southern city in character but a Northern city in geography. "It's a town of society teas and horse races," he writes, "raucous street festivals and experimental music, and oddball characters and living legends."

Wesley H. GrahnRetired exterminatorWesley H. Grahn, a retired supervisor for a pest control firm in Baltimore, died Tuesday of heart disease at a hospital in Martinsburg, W.Va.He was 90 and had moved from Baltimore to Martinsburg about 10 years ago.He retired in 1977 from the Home Exterminating Co., now the Home Paramount Pest Control Cos. He had earlier worked for the Pied Piper Pest Control Co. and, after coming to Baltimore in 1940, he managed the Baltimore and Washington offices of the Meyer Pest Control Co.Before moving to Baltimore, he worked in Doylestown, Pa., doing research on a scentless marigold and a super double nasturtium for the W. Atlee Burpee Co.Born and reared in the Philadelphia area, he studied horticulture at Kent State University in Ohio.

Baltimore's long-delayed visitor center has gone under cover - now cloaked in a floor-to-ceiling drape designed to heighten local excitement in the days leading up to its May 7 opening. Installation of the aqua-colored, vinyl "shroud of mystery" was completed yesterday to conceal displays being assembled within the $4.5 million center at the north end of the Inner Harbor, off Light Street. "This is the beginning of the countdown to the opening," said Leslie R. Doggett, president and chief executive of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association.