Capita

The Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations became the first state organization of its kind yesterday to certify that a select group of its member charities are particularly well-run and worthy of public trust -- stamping each with a newly developed seal of approval.The certification program, called "Standards for Excellence," requires organizations to go through a rigorous application process in which fellow nonprofit executives scrutinize financial records, seek documentation of difficult-to-define results, and examine how much information charities provide to the public.

The good news, such as it is, from the American Civil Liberties Union's report on racial bias in marijuana enforcement is that blacks in Maryland are only about 2.9 times more likely to be arrested for possession of the drug than whites. That's actually somewhat better than the national average. The bad news: Maryland was No. 3 among the states in per-capita arrests for marijuana possession in 2010, the last year for which data are available. Baltimore City had the fifth-highest number of arrests of African-Americans on marijuana possession charges among large counties (or in our case, county equivalents)

The Baltimore area had the third-highest income growth among the nation's largest metro areas over the past 25 years, in both the short term and the long term, a study released Wednesday showed. Portfolio.com, a business news website, ranked income growth in 100 U.S. cities using a quarter-century's worth of federal income data. The analysis put El Paso, Texas, in first place and placed Baton Rouge, La., second, followed by Baltimore, the Virginia Beach-Norfolk, Va., area and New Orleans.

The number of per-capita murders in Baltimore in 2012 ranked sixth in the country among cities with 100,000 people or more, according to data submitted by cities and released by the FBI on Monday.  After dipping below 200 homicides in 2011 for the first time since 1978 - when Baltimore had nearly 200,000 more residents than today - the homicide count jumped to 219* last year. It was still the second-lowest population-adjusted murder rate since the late 1980s, and the city ranked the same as it did the year before.

BEDFORD, Va. - When researcher Carol Tuckwiller called the Army's grave registration unit at Fort Lee, Va., to request help identifying every fatality in the D-Day invasion, a skeptical sergeant told her: "There's no single source for this. No one's ever put a list together. It can't be done." "I told him that's precisely why we were doing it - because it hadn't been done," Tuckwiller recalled the other day as she sat at her computer in the office of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation located in this country town midway between Lynchburg and Roanoke.

On a recent fall day, gardeners at Franz Burda's home were putting in 20,000 tulip bulbs. Once they've bloomed next spring, each bulb will be dug up and donated to charity.The German publisher's three full-time staff members clip and groom the impeccable gardens and emerald-green lawns, as well as tend the raised swimming pool on the $5.1 million estate.For formal dinners, Burda's starched damask cloths are ironed on the tables -- after they are sprinkled with Pellegrino, some say -- before the guests jet in.Palm Beach?

Tom Horton's recent commentary on nuclear energy is excellent and provides the beginning of a rational discussion of green energy in Maryland ("Embracing nukes," May 23). He includes data which shows that wind farms on average operate at 30 percent of design capacity versus 90 percent for nuclear power. Solar power systems operate on average at 15 percent of design capacity. Wind and sun power are erratic. Nuclear plants operate constantly, and the 90 percent utilization factor is due to planned maintenance.

A column by Michael Olesker in Tuesday's editions of The Sun said that a study by the Regional Economic Studies Institute in Towson found that Maryland's economy was the fifth most prosperous in the country. In fact, the May 1997 study said that Maryland had the fifth highest per capita income in the country.Pub Date: 2/05/98

Paramedic Kevin Hook's vehicle speeds up Lombard Street, weaving through traffic. His 7 a.m. shift as acting lieutenant at Baltimore's John F. Steadman Fire Station has just begun and Hook is monitoring dozens of calls scrolling down a monitor mounted on the dashboard of his SUV. There's an oil spill requiring a hazardous materials team to the east, a car crash to the west and a victim suffering from a stroke ahead on West Baltimore Street....

A professors' group at Coppin State University said Monday that it shared a review committee's improvement goals for the traditionally black college, but questioned why the reviewers didn't address certain funding issues nor a perceived lack of oversight by university system leaders. Last month, a committee appointed by the university system's Board of Regents recommended significant changes to the struggling institution, including a greater selectivity in admissions. The recommendations are meant to reverse Coppin's poor graduation rate - the worst in the state at 15 percent - and enrollment shortfall, among other problems.