Berman

As the stock market fell and concerns grew yesterday, all was quiet at many financial planning offices. "I'm the loneliest guy in town," said Kenneth R. Solow, chief investment officer at Pinnacle Advisory Group in Columbia. Solow's office helps 500 families invest their money, but as the news screamed of stock plunges and worst single-day performances since 2001, just two of his clients bothered to call in for reassurance. "The fact is that a one-day move tends to be smoothed out over a four-week period," said Solow, who has been counseling clients to expect a drop.

THE VILLAS AT Wildwood Park officially welcomed the newest addition to the senior housing village at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.Presiding at the event were Mount Airy Mayor Gerald R. Johnson and Canterbury Homes developer Michael Berman.About 5: 15 p.m., the mayor cut the ribbon at the entrance to Merry-Go-Round Way, the future site for 27 single-family houses and duplexes nestled on a cul-de-sac in Wildwood Park. The community is off Merridale Boulevard behind the library and the senior center.

Just like a lot of Baltimoreans, ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman will probably stand in line at some area newsstand today, trying to get a piece of history."

Wilde Lake's Amanda Berman, The Sun's Howard County girls soccer co-Player of the Year, has accepted a scholarship offer from Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C."I loved my visit. It was a beautiful campus," said Berman, who took her official visit during the football team's homecoming weekend in November. "Once I got there, I felt this was somewhere I could see myself being."Berman, who had 19 goals and 13 assists last season, will face some former local players next fall when Wofford plays Southern Conference rivals Furman (Sara Tollick, 1997 graduate of Seton Keough)

When ABC officials told Frank Gifford about their plans to take the new "Monday Night Football" pre-game show to Baltimore, he was a bit skeptical, mostly because he had finally managed to get out of the grind of weekly travel from one city to the other.But it only took last night's visit to the ESPN Zone for last night's premiere of "Monday Night Blast" to sell Gifford on the show, the city and the restaurant.Thinking back to his playing days with the New York football Giants, Gifford said: "Baltimore hasn't been a great place for me, but it's an easy trip [from his Connecticut home]

Every time you turn around these days, it seems as though somebody is throwing together an awards show. If it isn't actors or comedians getting together in a self-congratulatory party, it's the recording artists.It's enough to drive you crazy, and Chris Berman feels your pain."I would agree. That being said, I think these are different," said Berman, referring to tonight's second annual Players Choice Awards (ESPN, 9 p.m.)."I was skeptical at first about the ESPYs, and the ESPYs are a good night, and this is a good night."

A RE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?!Hey, bud, settle down. The game doesn't start for another four hours. And let's get something straight: You're not ready for some football. You're not close to ready. You don't know the rules.That's right, the rules. Don't think you can just stroll into the ESPN Zone and grab a front-row table. This is "Monday Night Blast," the pre-game and halftime show for ABC's "Monday Night Football," broadcast live from the Inner Harbor. And this is serious prime-time television.

Co-players of the yearAmanda Berman, Wilde Lake, senior, forward: She did it all, and so well. Berman was used all over the field -- up top, in the middle, and for a couple games, at sweeper -- and still managed to lead the county in scoring with 19 goals and 13 assists. "She played a lot of roles for us," said Wilde Lake coach Anita Andersch. "She was a very good leader." Berman worked hard to score, and she earned the reputation of one of the state's top finishers. But she also was an unselfish player who could deliver outstanding passes.

A Baltimore County man who operated a sports information service has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison after being convicted of wire fraud and money laundering in defrauding his clients.U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis also ordered Marc Neal Robert Berman, 36, of the 8500 block of Arborwood Road in Stevenson to pay $100,000 in restitution and forfeit property in Randallstown and $189,000 at Friday's sentencing hearing.Berman pleaded guilty in November to using interstate wire transfers to commit a scheme to defraud, and laundering the proceeds, the U.S. attorney's office said.

A Baltimore County man who operated a sports information service has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison after being convicted of wire fraud and money laundering in defrauding his clients.U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis also ordered Marc Neal Robert Berman, 36, of the 8500 block of Arborwood Road in Stevenson to pay $100,000 in restitution and forfeit property in Randallstown and $189,000 at Friday's sentencing hearing.Berman pleaded guilty in November to using interstate wire transfers to commit a scheme to defraud, and laundering the proceeds, the U.S. attorney's office said.

GREENBELT - Jurors who are to decide the fate of former Prince George's County schools chief Andre J. Hornsby were virtually bombarded yesterday with facts, figures and entreaties by attorneys for the prosecution and the defense during closing arguments in the four-week-long corruption trial. Describing each of the 22 counts against Hornsby in federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart A. Berman said that Hornsby "defrauded the school system of his honest services" when he tried to enrich himself through surreptitious deals with a longtime business partner and with a saleswoman for an educational materials company who was his live-in girlfriend.

A veteran Baltimore real estate investor could serve up to 18 months in prison for conspiring to rig bids at Maryland tax sale auctions under a plea deal that obligates him to cooperate with a continuing criminal investigation of the auctions. Steven L. Berman, in a plea agreement filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, admitted to a single felony count of bid rigging. Berman, 50, also agreed to pay a $750,000 fine. "This is a very unusual case," said Berman's attorney, Geoffrey R. Garinther of Towson.

Federal investigators looking into Baltimore's tax-sale auctions have found their canary. Steven L. Berman, a veteran real estate investor from Pennsylvania, has agreed to cooperate with U.S. Justice Department prosecutors as part of a guilty plea in a bid rigging scheme. Mr. Berman is not just any canary. He has participated in tax-sale auctions in the city and five counties for several years and should be intimately familiar with the system, its vulnerabilities and payoffs. Tax sales remain a largely unnoticed, little understood process by which governments recoup unpaid property taxes and other municipal bills.

Good morning -- NFL -- Now that you've cut the time between draft picks, can you do something else about cutting the time Chris Berman talks?

ATLANTA -- Dear Mr. President: Somewhere in South Florida, in the dreary and close quarters of a federal prison, a die-hard Democrat is probably cheering you. So is his newest lawyer. Your decision to commute I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr.'s sentence is the best news Bill Campbell has had in a long time. You see, one of Mr. Campbell's attorneys, Ohio State law professor Douglas Berman, went to court just last month to argue that Mr. Campbell's sentence, too, is excessive. Mr. Campbell, like Mr. Libby, was sentenced to serve 30 months.

Sam Fribush, the owner of Berman's Jewelers in Ellicott City, was an old-school jeweler until an employee dragged him into the 21st century. Fribush started working at Berman's in 1964 and took over the family business in 1993. For decades, he followed a time-honored - and time consuming - method for custom-designing items for his customers, one that involved carving molds out of wax and painstakingly measuring by hand such details as the size of the stones and the spaces between them.

On Friday, May 4, 2007 STANLEYJACOBS, beloved husband of Donna Jacobs (nee Nelson), loving father of Ellen Musen of Holmdel, NJ, David Simon of Madison, WI, Ilene Berman of St. Louis, MO. and Karen Parsons of Leesburg, VA. Loving father-in-law of Robert Musen, Scott Berman and Daniel Parsons. Beloved grandfather of Noah and Gili Berman, Benjamin and Emma Parsons and Josie Musen. Services at Temple Emanuel, 909 Berrymans La., Reisterstown, MD. (21136) on Monday, May 7 at 12 noon. Interment Oheb Shalom Memorial Park, Berrymans La Please omit flowers.

On Friday, May 4, 2007, LENORA ELLEN BOOKOFF (nee Krausz); loving wife of the late Samuel Bookoff; beloved mother of Allen Bookoff of Baltimore and Geraldine Berman of Clearwater, Florida; loving mother in-law of Barbara "Bobbie" Bookoff and Dr. Geoffrey Berman; beloved grandmother of Rebecca and Robert Goldstein, Leslie and Jennifer Bookoff, Dr. David and Karen Berman and Andrea and Alan Brenner; beloved great-grandmother of nine great-grandchildren....

As the stock market fell and concerns grew yesterday, all was quiet at many financial planning offices. "I'm the loneliest guy in town," said Kenneth R. Solow, chief investment officer at Pinnacle Advisory Group in Columbia. Solow's office helps 500 families invest their money, but as the news screamed of stock plunges and worst single-day performances since 2001, just two of his clients bothered to call in for reassurance. "The fact is that a one-day move tends to be smoothed out over a four-week period," said Solow, who has been counseling clients to expect a drop.

Laureate Education Inc.'s third-largest institutional shareholder said yesterday that it will not support the Baltimore company's current $3.8 billion buyout agreement, saying that the price is "grossly inadequate" and that the deal is "flawed by clear conflicts of interest." John D. Britton and James R. Berman, principal and general counsel of Select Equity Group Inc., respectively, said in a letter to Laureate's independent directors that they would not support the transaction because the $60.50 per share offer is insufficient.