Business Owners

Palestinians want a prosperous nation. Israel wants a permanent peace ("Israelis debate ground invasion," Nov. 20). Non-government sponsored businesses make profit from peace and free trade, regardless of the ideology of their owners. The owners will therefore tend to vote for peace and free trade, which will increase profit for their businesses. Israeli and Palestinian business owners and leaders should vote first, based on number of employees and tax revenue. Pass this vote to the people in the general elections, pointing out that these are the experts on creating jobs and prosperity.

Two women left a Reisterstown jewelry shop with hundreds of dollars after hawking a shoebox full of gold and silver, much of it allegedly linked to a string of nearly 30 area burglaries. They might never have been arrested, police said, because the store produced no legal record of the transaction. But in this case, Baltimore County detectives were watching. They had suspicions about Crown Jewelry because the store hadn't documented buying anything of value since it opened in August.

The Carroll County Department of Economic Development is working with the Maryland Department of Economic Development to assess the county's business losses related to Hurricane Sandy, late last month. Carroll County business owners who suffered any losses in the storm are asked to call the Carroll County Department of Economic Development to report the loss as soon as possible. The department is gathering contact information and type of loss, along with a cost estimate, and will forward the data to the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, as well as the Maryland Emergency Management Association (MEMA)

There's a famous scene in Robert Penn Warren's political novel, "All the Kings Men," where Willie Stark delivers a fiery speech telling the people that they have been lied to and that the political establishment was counting on them being a bunch of uninformed hicks. In my mind, Question 7, the gambling initiative on the November ballot, is a clear attempt by the political establishment to pull a fast one on the citizens of Maryland. Let's look at the facts. In May, despite my and many of my colleagues' best efforts, the Democratic leadership decided that those with an annual income of $100,000 were now considered "wealthy" in Maryland.

Albert Perlow, a former owner of one of the city's oldest auto-body repair businesses, died of pneumonia Oct. 13 at Sinai Hospital. The Pikesville resident was 87. Born in Baltimore and raised on Appleton Street, he was the son of David Perlow and Bertha Perlow, Russian immigrants. He was a 1943 graduate of City College and belonged to Sigma Alpha Rho, a service fraternity, in which he remained active. He enlisted in the Navy after graduation and attended Midshipmen's School at Notre Dame University and took courses at Duke University and George Washington University.

Ed Williams, the apron-wearing proprietor of the Mumble and Squeak Toy Shoppe on Ellicott City's Main Street, has for decades heard arguments about downtown parking. It's a multiheaded beast - studied often, discussed ad nauseam and yet unsettled - but he figures he can point out what he considers the essence of the problem quickly by stepping out of his store on a bright October weekday afternoon. Note the white Chevy parked in front of his shop, he says, and across the street the white van and another car up the street - all belonging not to customers but to the owners of local businesses.

A Landover business owner pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to failing to account for and pay employment taxes, leading to a more than $2.2 million tax loss, federal authorities said. Alphonso Tillman, 44, of Fort Washington, had been president and owner of Remote Surveillance Technology Solutions Inc. and a successor business, Remote Surveillance Technology Services LLC, both of which provided commercial and residential security guards, the plea agreement said. Tillman failed to file quarterly forms showing the amount of wages and compensation subject to withholding, income tax withheld and taxes due, said the announcement by Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney for Maryland, and Rick A. Raven, special agent in charge for the Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation field office in Washington.

- Let's talk about the other speech. No, not Bill Clinton's 48-minute stemwinder to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night that was so mesmerizing even Republicans praised it. Instead, let's offer a little nod of affirmation for Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, a Roman Catholic social justice group. She did not speak long - about seven minutes. Her delivery was not particularly powerful. But with the moral authority of her calling, she did something that has sorely needed doing for some weeks now. She rebuked "I built that.

This letter is in response to Mr. Carnahan's Sept. 6 letter, about the sign in Laurel reading "built this company with no help from the government," where Mr. Carnahan says the sign is a "misguided act of boasting. " First, I would be curious whether Mr. Carnahan owns his own business? Second, it is true that the government, in some important ways, assists businesses, but they also get in the way with too much "assistance. " And who pays for this assistance? Us! Third: I have watched my husband for the last 20 years build his business, six days a week, 10-12 hours a day, literally with blood, sweat and tears!

With the selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney forces the Democrats to produce a budget of their own. It's too hot of a topic not to. They can't bury their collective heads in the sand any longer, they have to cough it up. We all know President Barack Obama doesn't like to do the figures, but now he's going to have to. This forces his hand. My tea party group is thrilled with the selection of Mr. Ryan. We love people who can crunch the numbers. Many of us now believe this election is a showdown of the Obama vision versus the Ryan vision.