Baltimore

Baltimore Sun reporters Jeff Barker and Don Markus and editor Matt Bracken weigh in on the three biggest topics of the past week in Maryland sports. With Mark Turgeon's team starting summer workouts, which Terps have the most to gain and the most to lose? Don Markus: This is a critical summer for Turgeon's program. Though many, including Turgeon, see progress in going from 17-15 in his first season in College Park to finishing his second year with a 25-13 record after a trip to the NIT semifinals, most Terp fans (and Turgeon)

The "Bizarre Foods America with Andrew Zimmern" episode featuring Baltimore will air on Monday, March 25 at 9 p.m. on the Travel Channel. Here is the episode synopsis from the Travel Channel: " There's a long line of tradition on the menu when Andrew Zimmern visits Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay.  From learning how to skin a muskrat from a local champion, to hauling in pots of fresh eels, to selling produce from a horse-drawn carriage,...

"Have I ever got a house for you!" The call came a few months ago from Matt Knoepfle, co-owner with his brother, Mike Knoepfle, of the construction company Building Character LLC. That remark is always an invitation to be amazed at a challenging project that has come to fruition. The brothers are in the business of buying up Baltimore's old and crumbling properties (often in the most sought-after downtown neighborhoods) and adaptively reusing them. This particular property, the subject of Matt Knoepfle's call, was the conversion of a late 19th-century carriage repair shop in Federal Hill into a single-family home on two levels, with over 3,000 square feet of living space.

WHEN IT comes to news reporting, the old city-room edict is always: first, get the story; and second, get it right. When the writer gets it wrong, it's a mess. It gets the reader who knows better all upset, confuses history and puts an error in the record books. I know; I've had my share of errors.Recently, the New York Times, which is known for its excellence, included what some of us around Baltimore consider a glaring error. On Sunday, July 9, the Times published an article about Baltimore in its travel section, called "What's Doing in Baltimore," by writer Melinda Henneberger.

A Wednesday bankruptcy filing by Synagro Technologies Inc. means growth and new jobs for the Baltimore area as the waste recycler consolidates its headquarters in White Marsh. The Carlyle Group LP-owned company, which had been co-headquartered in Baltimore and Houston, said Wednesday that it would use bankruptcy to restructure debt and sell its assets to EQT Infrastructure in a $455 million deal. The company filed for a Chapter 11 reorganization of its debts in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and said it expects the sale to be completed in two to three months.

Could JaMarcus Russell, he of purple drank fame, soon be vying for a chance to throw passes in purple? According to ESPN, Russell told the Chicago Bears last week that he will try out for the Ravens. But league sources told our Aaron Wilson that no workout is currently scheduled between Russell, who is considered one of the biggest draft busts in NFL history (both figuratively and literally), and the Ravens. The Ravens always say they will at least consider every possible avenue to improving their football team, so it is not totally surprising to hear that they could kick the sizable tires on Russell, the first overall pick from 2007.

Roberto Pagan-Franco didn't have a bank account for decades. His employer paid him in cash or with a check that the Baltimore resident took to a check-cashing store. A few years ago he lost his job after a severe illness and for a time was homeless. Not exactly the type of customer you'd expect a big bank to court. But Pagan-Franco enrolled in a PNC Bank program that targets consumers who otherwise might be shut out of the banking system. And today, the 54-year-old has checking and savings accounts at PNC and is in the process of getting a credit card.

It's a full weekend of dining events.  The Soft-Shell Crab Celebration concludes on Sunday. Some two dozen Baltimore restaurants are adding special soft-shell crab specials to their menus for Baltimore's fifth annual dining promotion. A packed weekend festival schedule kicks off on Friday night with the regular Friday night food-truck rally known as the Gathering, which returns to McHenry Row. The musical guest is Shook. But that's just a prelude to Saturday's big food-truck event, the second annual Taste of Two Cities . Baltimore's and Washington's fleets of food trucks will be squaring off this time on Rash Field, competing for the coveted Mayor's Trophy, presented to the best food truck as decided by a panel of judges.

FORT CARROLL, four miles downstream from Fort McHenry, is one of Baltimore's best-kept secrets. The 150-year-old privately owned hexagonal stronghold is still in relatively good shape -- even though it has been abandoned for decades. Most Baltimoreans have never seen the 3.45-acre artificial island, which lies underneath the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge. Nor is any interest encouraged. "We would prefer no publicity," says Alan Eisenberg, one of the Patapsco River fort's owners. His father, the late Benjamin N. Eisenberg, bought the fort for $10,000 in 1958.

A businessman and competitive sailor, Frank Savage has benefited from following seas and been battered on rocky shoals. Born in North Carolina and raised by a single mother in segregated Washington, Savage rose to prominence in the world of international banking and investment at Citibank and Alliance Capital Management, a subsidiary of AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co. that managed more than $450 billion in assets. He served on prestigious boards, was a trustee at both Howard University and the Johns Hopkins University, and jetted around the world, making deals and money.