Checkbook

Annapolis. -- Think what a challenge it can be to balance your checkbook at the end of each month -- to match income and outgo. Then imagine trying to balance an $11 billion checkbook 18 months in advance -- when your most reliable sources of income and the demands on your budget seem to have gone haywire.That's the challenge that has faced Maryland's Board of Estimates, of which I am chairman. For years, we have estimated billions of dollars in revenue within 1 percent -- an outstanding accuracy record.

Gambling giant Penn National Gaming Inc. has spent $5.5 million to limit gambling in Maryland — the latest move in a casino-vs.-casino battle that could saturate the airwaves and overwhelm other ballot initiatives this fall. The Penn National spending came days after MGM Resorts Inc. put $2.4 million into a campaign to support an expansion of gambling. MGM plans to debut its second pro-gambling television commercial Wednesday. The spending brings the total committed on both sides to $7.9 million, a stunning figure given that referendum campaigns are just beginning.

* Hickory Ridge: 6400 block of Freetown Road: Someone stole a checkbook with 10 Maryland National Bank checks from a grocery cart about 9 p.m. Wednesday.

I come today not to bury the Orioles, but to praise them. In fact, if I wasn't so worried about getting tossed by security, I'd head over to the Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos and give the big guy a hug. Getting Vladimir Guerrero could be that huge. Give the Orioles credit. After all their offseason wheeling and dealing, they still had a gaping hole in their lineup. They needed a bona-fide clean-up hitter. And now they have one. Even though this deal has Angelos' fingerprints all over it, give Andy MacPhail credit, too. The Orioles president of baseball operations took major heat for his team's train-wreck of a start in 2010.

William H. Krehnbrink, a 44-year-old diesel truck mechanic from Baltimore County, has filed for the U.S. Senate seat now occupied by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat.The Republican said he has entered the race because "we have allowed some terrible things to occur, and changes need to be made."Some areas Krehnbrink wants to focus on are education as a means of fighting poverty and the possible elimination of the Department of Probation and Parole."We find criminals, try and convict them and put them in jail, only to release them on parole so that they can commit new crimes while being 'supervised,' " he said.

On the First Day, the Personal Computer was born.On the Second Day, someone wrote a checkbook-balancing program for it.Software publishers have been at it ever since, in a never-ending battle to get disorganized slobs like me to entrust their finances to a computer instead of tossing their check stubs and receipts into a shoe box and waiting till April 14 to sort them out.For years, the most popular of these programs has been Intuit's Quicken, which skyrocketed...

Shortly after our marriage, I committed a cardinal sin: I bounced a check. My bride was mortified, and rightly so, because she worked for a bank in those days, and spent a fair amount of time showing little old ladies how to balance their checkbooks and avoid the very embarrassment that I had caused. The result: She assumed control of the family finances, and for the past 30 years I've been allowed access to the checkbook only under strict supervision. Which has worked out just fine. While this beautiful and capable woman spends Sunday afternoons negotiating the invoices and bank statements, I get to watch football, interrupted only by an occasional outburst of salty language when her numbers don't add up. Our bills get paid on time and our bank account is in the black.

Like many other consumers, David Gomberg sits down at least once a month to pay his bills. But instead of whipping out a checkbook, the 59-year-old Laurel resident logs onto his banks Web page and tells the bank what bills to pay and when to pay them. Ten minutes later hes done without addressing an envelope, writing a check or licking a stamp. Like millions of consumers, Gomberg has turned to the Internet for help with one of lifes more monotonous and depressing little chores. "The bank sends paper statements, which at this stage of the game I dont even look at anymore," Gomberg said.

Bob is cute.Bob is friendly.See Bob run.Very slowly.And that's it in a nutshell for Microsoft's earnest attempt to create a new computing environment for people who don't like computers.Bob isn't a person. He's a program, or actually eight simple but well-integrated programs designed for home computer users, wrapped up in a homey little shell that sits on top of Microsoft Windows.Microsoft chose the name Bob because it sounds friendly (everyone knows a Bob). The design of the package is based on research by two Stanford professors who believe that people enjoy a "social" environment.

EVEN THOUGH no one has yet raised a hammer -- or maybe even touched a checkbook -- your remodeling project has reached an important stage. With your plan laid out, your budget set, your specifications and drawings in hand, it's time to decide who will do the work.If it means choosing a contractor, it's a process that can easily lead to panic. It's an important decision. This is not just sticks and bricks, this is someone with whom you will be spending a great deal of time, someone who will be involved in your life in an oddly intimate way."

A few times a week, Lenwood M. Ivey leaves his small office on the ninth floor of the Equitable Building and strolls the two blocks to the city Finance Department to sign checks drawn up by a city clerk. As president of the Baltimore City Foundation, he puts his name behind several million dollars each year for programs that the city identifies as worthy. The foundation - a private nonprofit formed in 1981 to raise money, primarily to benefit city programs for the underprivileged - helps pay for projects such as a summer jobs program for youths, funeral expenses for homicide victims and home smoke alarms for the needy.

Presidential candidates have been stumping in Maryland for tomorrow's primary for a week, but they've had their hands out here for more than a year - tapping into a broad and generous base of campaign donors. Relying on the state's deep pool of federal workers, Washington-based lawyers, defense contract employees and professors, the candidates managed to scoop nearly $11 million out of Maryland in 2007, making the state one of the biggest players in the political money game. While many pundits believe Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is the favorite in Maryland's Democratic primary, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton bested him in fundraising, according to an analysis of last year's Federal Election Commission data.

For a pre-Title IX girl, I have a pretty lengthy exercise resume. There were no soccer teams for little girls when I was growing up; no sports teams for girls in high school. And the women who played a sport when I was in college had to get permission from their "dorm mother" to travel to an away game. They also had to pay for their own equipment and physicals. But I have tapped into every exercise trend since racquetball, including indoor tennis, running 10K races, Step aerobics, spin classes, walking, circuit training and Pilates.

It's still November and the Orioles already have bought four relievers for more than the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' projected budget. While other clubs haggled over everyday players and starting pitchers, the Orioles quickly signed Danys Baez, Jamie Walker, Chad Bradford and Scott Williamson. It's simple, albeit expensive, logic: They don't want another haphazard collection of rookies and never-weres backing up a group of young starters. Argue the specifics, but at least the Orioles showed moxie by identifying a weakness and aggressively attacking it. There is a victory in there somewhere.

WASHINGTON -- Something sounded eerily familiar about O.J. Simpson selling a sleazy near-confession in book and TV deals. Then it came to me: Emmett Louis Till. The brutal 1955 murder of Till, a black teenager from Chicago who was killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi, energized a decade of civil rights actions and reforms. It also led to a shocking episode of checkbook journalism. After J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant were quickly found not guilty of murdering Till by an all-white jury, they confessed at length in a 1956 Look magazine article, for which they were paid $4,000.

Chicago-- --Were you watching last night, Peter Angelos? Was your television tuned in to Game 2 of the World Series? If you saw what the rest of us did, your next step is clear: Paul Konerko should be priority No. 1 this offseason. He needs to be wearing an Orioles uniform next year. That big bat needs to be swinging from Baltimore's four-hole in the lineup. Several owners are clamoring for some offensive punch, but no one needs this as much as you. The suitors will start lining up the second the World Series ends, and no doubt they'll be flashing big bucks - a couple of commas and several zeros.

For a pre-Title IX girl, I have a pretty lengthy exercise resume. There were no soccer teams for little girls when I was growing up; no sports teams for girls in high school. And the women who played a sport when I was in college had to get permission from their "dorm mother" to travel to an away game. They also had to pay for their own equipment and physicals. But I have tapped into every exercise trend since racquetball, including indoor tennis, running 10K races, Step aerobics, spin classes, walking, circuit training and Pilates.

When Jennifer Page goes shopping for groceries at the Albertson's supermarket near her home in Portland, Ore., she doesn't have to worry about bringing cash, a credit card or even a wallet for that matter. Just her finger. She pays for her purchases by pressing her index finger against a machine that scans it and then deducts the money from her bank account. "It makes shopping a little easier," said Page, a financial analyst who wishes more stores would install the finger-scan technology.

With just a few taps on the keyboard and a few clicks on the mouse, Joe LaSala makes his mortgage, car and insurance payments. The housing developer, who lives in Washington Township, Pa., pays nearly all of his family's bills - the phone bills, electric bills, even the landscaper - the same way. "It's a great thing," LaSala said. "They'll even print out a personal check to somebody and mail it." LaSala, 38, is one of a growing number of Americans moving away from the time-honored chore of writing checks and stuffing envelopes in favor of pointing and clicking.