Companies

Before sunrise Monday, Kevin and Shelley Taylor set out from their Millersville home to a new employment center for the Maryland Live! Casino, a slots parlor next to the Arundel Mills mall seeking workers for 1,500 jobs. Having tracked the progress of what will be the state's largest casino, the Taylors believe the facility could provide opportunity for their five-member family. Though Kevin Taylor has a job, he wants a better-paying one. And Shelley Taylor has been out of work for several months.

The owner of the financially ailing Sparrows Point steel plant is idling operations there, warning 1,975 workers Thursday that they would be laid off starting next month. The news, the latest casting doubt on the future of the Baltimore County facility, came as RG Steel is shopping the steel mill and its other assets to potential buyers. RG Steel informed the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulations that layoffs would begin June 4 and continue through June 18. The state said the company would be laying off 1,714 hourly and 261 salaried workers, losses that would be a significant blow to the economy.

The woman who says she represents North American Power is not telling the truth about the benefits of buying electricity from her company. "You can save up to 10, 15, 20 percent of your bill, depending on your usage," she says in a telemarketing call to my house. But the rate she eventually quotes is only about 7 percent less than the standard price offered by Baltimore Gas & Electric — something the average customer would have no way of knowing. And of course the percentage savings won't vary even if my "usage" goes up to that of a steel mill.

A company that manufactures airplanes in Hagerstown that are used to monitor the nation's borders would receive $43 million to continue production under legislation approved by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. Sierra Nevada Corp., a Nevada-based company with a plant in Hagerstown, outfits the twin-engine aircraft with sensors that assist Customs and Border Patrol agents on the ground with catching people who cross the border into the U.S. illegally. If approved by Congress, the funding will keep the company's production line open, allowing it to begin work on two new aircraft.

If all goes as planned, sometime this morning a spacecraft will blast off from its launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and ride a fiery plume of contrails upward through the pre-dawn darkness to begin a two-week journey to the International Space Station and back. But the flight won't be just another NASA resupply mission. Instead, the Falcon 9 rocket and its unmanned Dragon cargo capsule built by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation - SpaceX for short - will be the first commercially owned and operated vehicle ever to rendezvous with the station's orbiting astronauts.

The University of Maryland says it is teaming with Maryland companies on 17 research projects to develop products for technologies ranging from wind power to removing nutrients from wastewater. Other projects include restoring vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay and medical technologies for diabetes, kidney disease and other conditions. The companies include Hunt Valley-based Mastix Medica, which is developing a chewing gum to help dialysis patients control phosphorus levels, and Jessup-based American Dynamics Flight Systems, which is working on propulsion systems for unmanned aircraft that can take off and land vertically.

Your recent article about corporate contributions to candidates is worth reading ("O'Malley weighs donor changes," April 30). However, the practice of big business being involved behind the scenes is not new. Companies with employees having expense accounts in the past have "suggested" they send personal checks for themselves and wife and carry the amount on their expense accounts showing entertainment (dinner) with clients or customers. If employees were limited by budget restrictions in the amount that could be submitted on the expense account, it was waived to accommodate the "contribution.

Letter writer Robert W. Palter of Timonium ("Bring back U.S. manufacturing jobs," April 19) is right. We desperately need manufacturing jobs in the United States. However, the owners of U.S. businesses will not allow it. God forbid the citizens should demand higher wages for their labor. It is impossible to buy anything in the U.S. now that wasn't made in China, Vietnam, Mexico and countries I've never heard of because American businesses, with the blessing of the U.S. government, have moved their companies offshore in order to hire people who are desperate to work for a dollar a day. Our government and big business created this situation because it benefits them and to hell with the people.

Marylanders interested in owning thoroughbred horses can purchase shares in six racing investment companies founded by Frank Stronach, the owner of Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course . The stock offering began earlier this month, allowing investors in several states — including Maryland, California and New York — to own a piece of a thoroughbred for $10 a share. Each company plans to raise revenue by racing its horses until November 2013 and then by selling them. After the sale, the net proceeds would be distributed to shareholders, though the prospectus warns potential investors that owning racehorses involves a "high degree of risk.

For manipulating energy markets Constellation Energy has just paid the highest penalty in history - $245 million - to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("Merger, record fine OK'd," March 13). That's more than all previous penalties combined. While the media and their audience are distracted by sensational stories, real stories about issues that impact our daily lives seem to be ignored. While we pay higher energy rates, and while churches like the one I serve help poor people keep their lights on, Constellation Energy manipulates energy markets, cuts deals, and no one is going to jail.

Marylanders interested in owning thoroughbred horses can purchase shares in six racing investment companies founded by Frank Stronach, the owner of Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course . The stock offering began earlier this month, allowing investors in several states — including Maryland, California and New York — to own a piece of a thoroughbred for $10 a share. Each company plans to raise revenue by racing its horses until November 2013 and then by selling them. After the sale, the net proceeds would be distributed to shareholders, though the prospectus warns potential investors that owning racehorses involves a "high degree of risk.

The owner of an Anne Arundel County trucking company put out of business late last year by federal safety officials has filed for bankruptcy protection again, listing more than $3.3 million in debt. Mark David Gunther Sr., owner of Harmans-based Gunthers Transport LLC, filed under Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore on May 15. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration called Gunthers Transport an "imminent hazard" to the public when it ordered the company's trucks off the road on Nov. 16. When the company tried to reconstitute itself weeks later as Clock Transport LLC, it, too, was ordered closed.

What if the cable guy was also your home security guy? Maryland consumers are about to find out. Comcast Corp. has launched a marketing blitz this month to sign up customers for its new "Xfinity Home" package, which features a residential alarm system, video monitoring, and temperature and lighting controls, among other features — all manipulated from a touchpad, mobile device or computer. It's not enough for major telecom and cable companies to sell you services for your television, computer and smartphone.

Bill Bateman's in Havre de Grace presents The Battle of the Guest Bartenders to benefit the Susquehanna Hose Company Saturday, May 19, at 8 p.m. Come support the local fire company as members show off their stuff behind the Bateman's bar. See which house is fastest. There will be a DJ and dancing as well as raffles and auctions. The fire company has some of the best raffle and live and silent auction stuff it has ever offered, including golf packages, concert packages, fishing packages and sports memorabilia including a 16-by-20 Pete Rose autographed framed photo, a 16-by-20 Eddie Murray autographed framed photo, Joe Flacco autographed, framed Delaware jersey, a Ray Lewis autographed helmet, a Super Bowl XXXXVI Giants team autographed football, a Ben Roethlisberger autographed football and Adam Jones autographed bat. Bill Bateman's is at 2021 Pulaski Highway in Havre de Grace.

It turns out wearing sneakers - without exercising - won't get you in shape. Skechers USA has agreed to a $40 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission for making that claim. The shoe company had claimed its Shape-ups sneakers would help people lose weight. It also said the shoes would strengthen and tone people buttosk, legs and abs. The government agency said Skechers also made false claims about its Resistance Runner, Toners and Tone-ups shoes.

Roy W. Spence, a businessman who founded a Baltimore bus company and was an active churchman, died Saturday of complications from internal bleeding at Northwest Hospital. The Pikesville resident was 84. Born and raised in Camden, N.C., Mr. Spence attended public schools until he was forced to drop out to help support his family as a farm and mill worker after his father became ill. His family moved in 1948 to Delaware and two years later to Baltimore. Mr. Spence worked as a truck driver for Yale Transport and later the old Silber's Bakery.

Merritt Properties announced that four companies recently became tenants at bwtech@UMBC, adjacent to the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Communications Scientific International, an aerospace technology and services company that provides communications and information systems for satellite, airborne and ground applications to the Department of Defense signed a lease for 2,804 square feet of office space at 5523 Research Park Drive. Tech Edge USA, an IT solutions company, signed a lease for 2,825 square feet of office space at 5523 Research Park Drive.

Rob McGovern started the job search website CareerBuilder.com in 1994 when the Internet as we know it today was in its infancy. Five years later, at the height of the dot-com bubble, McGovern took the company public. It had monthly traffic of about 10 million job seekers at the time, he said. The following year CareerBuilder was sold to Tribune Co. (the parent company of The Baltimore Sun) and Knight Ridder in the first of what would be two transactions and an ultimate price tag of more than $500 million.

Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical "Company" has a title that refers to the companionship provided by the main character's friends, but it also essentially refers to the acting company that's called upon to do so much singing, dancing and acting. In that respect, it plays to advantage that two of the couples in the enjoyable Silhouette Stages production at Slayton House Theatre are played by real-life married couples. The banter flowing on stage may have been rehearsed across their kitchen tables.

Exelon Corp. and Constellation have donated $1.8 million for a new energy exhibit at the Maryland Science Center , the first public display of their charitable commitment to the city and state since the merger between the energy giants closed in March, the companies announced Tuesday. In acquiring Constellation, Exelon promised to maintain the Baltimore company's annual charitable contribution of $7 million in Baltimore and Maryland for at least a decade. The financial commitment was part of a $1 billion package of concessions associated with regulatory approval from the Maryland Public Service Commission.