Cash

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.

The owner of a downtown 7-Eleven that was attacked by a mob of youths drawn by a free Slurpee promotion says an envelope filled with the day's receipts — $6,600 in cash — went missing during the melee, according to Baltimore police. Salman Iqbal told police that the money was in his front right shirt pocket while he was being attacked Wednesday afternoon after he confronted up to 40 youths wearing yellow school shirts and khaki pants. He reported that some youths had stolen candy from the store on Light Street, near the Inner Harbor.

The Orioles made two minor trades today, sending former first-round pick Brandon Snyder to the Texas Rangers for cash while acquiring outfielder Jai Miller from the Oakland A's, also for cash. Miller, 26, was designated for assignment by the A's in December after appearing in seven games with the team in 2011, when he was 3-for-12 with a homer. At Triple-A Sacramento in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, Miller batted .276 with a .368 on-base percentage, 32 homers and 16 stolen bases without being caught last season.

An Odenton man who tricked a mentally disabled Glen Burnie postal worker into giving him more than $250,000 over the course of three years pleaded guilty Wednesday to exploiting a vulnerable adult, according to Anne Arundel County prosecutors. Eugene Allen Hinson, Jr., 59, of the 1300 block of Tab St. in Odenton was sentenced by Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Paul Hackner to serve 18 months of a 10-year prison term, prosecutors said in a news release. Hackner also required Hinson to pay full restitution to Thomas "Tommy" Newberger, 50, who is mentally retarded and has worked various jobs at the U.S. Post Office in Glen Burnie for about 30 years, prosecutors said.

I was a passenger in a car on Thursday morning, and we stopped for a fill-up at a gas station on North Charles Street in Baltimore, a block up from North Avenue. I was on the phone while the driver purchased and pumped the gasoline. A young, male panhandler tried to make eye contact with me through the passenger's side window, but I avoided being drawn into his tractor beam. Some panhandlers appear broken and docile, some seem impatient and even angry; some have yellow heroin eyes or some other form of medicated stare.

Apple today announced what many were expecting, given its huge war chest of around $100 billion in cash: future stock dividends and a stock repurchasing program. The company released the news in a conference call early Monday. It's amassed a huge pile of cash in recent years thanks to the runaway successes of its iPhone and iPad, a smartphone and a tablet, respectively, that are dominant in their categories. Apple said it plans a quarterly dividend of $2.65 a share sometime in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, which begins in July.

Lots of websites and stores have gotten into the electronics trade-in and recycling game: enter your product's model number and condition online and get an estimate for how much it's worth. But Kodak's new trade-in program includes some unique categories, including consumer-grade printers, film cameras and lenses and other equipment. You have to create an account to see how much any of those old items stuck in your basement might bring you, but if you are deemed

House beautiful, this isn't: The yard is overgrown, the windows are boarded up, there's a big gash in the first-floor ceiling and the roof has holes. Mark Whitten was delighted. The real estate investor, who looks for homes he can flip to landlords and rehabbers, figured he could immediately find a buyer for the vacant North Baltimore rowhouse, probably someone who would fix it up and rent it out. "I'm going to make an offer and try to get this property under contract today," Whitten, 29, said as he walked through the derelict home last week.

On July 10, 2008, ELNORA R. CASH; beloved mother of Eileen R. Tyler; devoted mother in-law of Charles Tyler, Sr.; loving grandmother of Charles Tyler, Jr. She is also survived by a host of other relatives and friends. On Monday, friends may call at VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (RANDALLSTOWN), 8728 Liberty Road from 4 to 8 P.M. On Tuesday, Mrs. Cash will lie in-state at St. Veronica's Catholic Church, 806 Cherry Hill Rd., where the family will receive friends from 10 to 10:30 A.M. with services to follow.

On May 2, 2006, CURTIS A.; beloved husband of the late Fannie B. Cash (nee Vaughan); devoted father of Janice Maynor and her husband James and Martha J. Smith; dear brother of Becky and Bunnie Cash; loving pop of three grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and one great great great-grandchild. Services at the family owned David J. Weber Funeral Home, P.A., 401 S. Chester Street, on Saturday at 10 A.M. Interment following in Oak Lawn Cemetery. Friends may call on Friday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M.

If money is the mother's milk of politics, then America's big corporations are Big Mama, and Big Baby is the Republican Party suckling at the enormous bosom of business. Democrats, meanwhile, are abandoned brats scrounging for nourishment wherever they can find it. During the long decades the Democrats held a solid majority in Congress, campaign donations from the corporate world were spread around between incumbents in both parties -- not evenly, but at least the D's got their share.

North Calvert Street 3400 block, between noon and 3 p.m. May 10. Handicap placard stolen from vehicle. 3300 block, between 6:45 a.m. and 3:38 p.m. May 7. Credit cards, driver's license, Social Security card stolen from purse at work. Cator Avenue 700 block, between 9:30 p.m. May 8 and 8:30 a.m. May 9. Tan wicker furniture stolen from front porch. Cedarcroft Road 1100 block, between 9:30 p.m. May 10 and 12:08 a.m. May 11. White, 1997 Mercedes S420 with Maryland tags 8FZD89 stolen.

The two well-dressed men arrived at the elderly man's Southwest Baltimore home in the morning, armed with a clipboard and searching for a woman who they said was wanted by authorities.  Police say it was a scam, and the two suspects quietly made off with an undisclosed amount of cash.  The incident occurred April 23, in the 1100 block of Cooks Lane in the West Hills neighborhood near the Baltimore County line. The suspects, described as black men between the ages of 40 and 50 and wearing blue blazers, had a clipboard with pictures of people and said they were searching for a woman, police said.

A man was attacked last week in Towson by two men who assaulted him with a handgun, according to Baltimore County Police reports. The was walking home from work at Hillsway Avenue and Halstead Road, at 11:30 p.m. April 30. He was confronted by two men with handgun, according to the police report. The victim tried to flee but was assaulted by a suspect with the gun. According to the report, the assailants stole a bag containing a hat, two pairs of eyeglasses, a pocket knife and cell phone.

The thrill of potentially winning big bucks gets people to spend millions of dollars regularly on lottery tickets. Can this same concept excite Marylanders to become better savers? We'll find out. A new law that kicks in next month will allow banks and credit unions here to offer raffles with cash prizes as a way to promote savings. Michigan's credit unions launched a similar campaign a few years ago, and thousands of depositors have managed so far to save tens of millions of dollars.

Even if the rumors about the next-generation consoles not supporting used games are false, we appear to be entering a problematic stage in physical videogame media. The growing ease of digital distribution as well as mandatory online passes and DRM have made it increasingly challenging for the secondary games market. While buying and selling used games is still a perfectly viable option, it looks like publishers and consumers will begin to face a lot of the same challenges that music and movies have over the last decade and half.

State legislators are playing a dangerous game of "chicken" with the Schaefer administration that could harm the state enormously if they turn out to be wrong. And so far, it appears that they are.Lawmakers, particularly House Speaker R. Clayton Mitchell, adamantly refuse to yield to pleas from the administration to hike motor vehicle fees and consider a higher gasoline tax to finance the state's unmet transportation needs. Without a new infusion of funds, the state Department of Transportation will be dead broke by the end of the year.

Two men, one armed with a knife, robbed a Glen Burnie 7-Eleven store Friday of an undetermined amount of cash and three packs of cigarettes, county police reported yesterday.The men entered the 7-Eleven in the 700 block of Greenway Road at 11:50 p.m., approached the clerk and demanded cash. One assailant brandished a knife and forced the clerk to place cash from the register in a paper bag. Before leaving, the armed assailant grabbed three packs of cigarettes.

The parent companies of Bay Bank and Carrollton Bank said Monday that they planned to merge in a deal worth nearly $25 million in cash and stock. Jefferson Bancorp Inc., the Lutherville-based owner of Bay Bank, will pay $15.4 million to Carrollton Bancorp shareholders. It will also repay $9.1 million in Troubled Asset Relief Program funding to the U.S. Treasury. Jefferson Bancorp formed Bay Bank after buying the assets and liabilities of Bay National Bank, which failed two years ago and was taken over by regulators.

A man, armed with a handgun, robbed a Glen Burnie restaurant Wednesday evening. Employees of the Kentucky Fried Chicken in the 6700 block of Ritchie Highway told police a man, in a black ski mask, entered the business at about 9:30 p.m., displayed the gun and demanded money. He left with an undisclosed amount of cash and was last seen running toward Furnace Branch Road, police said. Officers canvassed the area, but did not locate the suspect. Mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts