BUSINESS
By Eileen Ambrose, The Baltimore Sun | December 11, 2012
T. Rowe Price had reduced its stake in daily deal website Groupon, while increasing its ownership in Kayak Software Corp., the travel comparison site, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Baltimore-based investment company owned 14.2 million shares, or 2.1 percent, of Groupon at the end of November, according to a document filed Monday. That's down from an 11.6 percent stake at the end of July. Groupon's stock, which traded as high as $25.83 per share in February, closed Tuesday at $4.41 per share.
HEALTH
By Andrea K. Walker, The Baltimore Sun | November 18, 2012
The state board that regulates Maryland pharmacies like the Massachusetts firm under investigation in a national fungal meningitis outbreak said it can adequately oversee so-called compounding pharmacies, despite cries from critics that the federal government should have more authority. The Maryland Board of Pharmacy said last week that in the last four years it has beefed up oversight of compounding pharmacies, which make drugs not sold commercially. New safeguards including random, annual inspections would make it hard for a Maryland facility to reach the level of contamination problems found at the New England Compounding Center, said Laverne Naesea, the board's executive director.
ENTERTAINMENT
By Lauren McEwen | November 13, 2012
Let me start off this week's recap by saying, Kyle Richards knows how to throw a party. Portia's birthday party had balloon animals, cotton candy, amusement park rides, a llama and UNICORNS. Sure, they were brown unicorns, and I'm not sure that's actually a thing, but whatever, it looked like a good time. Kyle doesn't have her friends to thank for that, though. For some reason, a group of grown women seemed determined to hash out all of their petty drama at a child's birthday party.
NEWS
By Jean Marbella, The Baltimore Sun | October 20, 2012
Someone pass the popcorn, there's a new legal drama unfolding at City Hall — Law & Order: Special Municipal Unit. You might have seen the news that Joan Pratt, comptroller, is suing Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, mayor, or at least, her technology office. Not to be outdone — because he never is when it comes to governmental hijinks — Baltimore City Circuit Court Clerk Frank Conaway has filed notice that he will sue the city over bad charges on water bills. And who knows, by the time you read this, maybe the trend will have spread to Annapolis, where Mayor Joshua Cohen recently busted a man allegedly relieving himself from the third floor of a parking garage.
NEWS
By Kevin Rector, The Baltimore Sun | September 6, 2012
State troopers on Friday will begin a new enforcement effort targeting truckers and other commercial vehicle drivers who illegally park along Interstate 83 in Baltimore County, according to the Maryland State Police. The practice, which has increased in recent years, creates "extremely dangerous conditions" for other drivers on the road, police said. Troopers will be enforcing the new "zero tolerance" policy by issuing a citation to any commercial driver parked on the highway's shoulders for a non-emergency reason, police said.
NEWS
September 5, 2012
Your editorial "We built that" (Sept. 3), while recognizing the important role of the federal government in large infrastructure projects such as New Orleans' levee system, left readers with the mistaken impression that Hurricane Katrina scored a direct hit on New Orleans and its surrounding metropolitan area in 2005. Hurricane Katrina's landfall was on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, about 90 miles east of New Orleans. Our city and its area got the greatest impact from Hurricane Katrina's winds and storm surge, which overpowered the poorly-designed and built (with federal funding)