Contract

Researchers hailed the Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that bans the patenting of human DNA, saying it would expand access to genetic testing for disease at lower cost to patients. In a unanimous decision, the justices said Myriad Genetics did not have exclusive rights to the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes that are linked to significantly greater risk for breast cancer and thus should not be the only company allowed to test for it. "Myriad did not create anything," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for his fellow justices.

Et cetera Duke extends John Danowski's contract through 2018 The contract of Duke men's lacrosse coach John Danowski has been extended through the 2018 season. Last month, Danowski guided the Blue Devils to the 2013 NCAA championship with a 16-10 victory over Syracuse in the title game. In seven seasons at Duke, Danowski has guided the Blue Devils to a 111-31 (.782) record with two NCAA titles, six Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championships and four ACC tournament crowns.

The Navy has awarded a contract of up to $10 million to a Baltimore firm for architectural, engineering and other services at installations throughout the mid-Atlantic, the Defense Department announced Thursday. Mimar Architects Inc. beat 64 other bidders to win the agreement to perform work for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command including building construction and renovation work; facility planning; obtaining permits and regulatory approvals; and U.S. Green Building Council leadership in energy and environmental design.

Defense contractors Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman said Thursday that they've won a $91 million contract for radars to be used on Saudi Arabia's Apache attack helicopters. Northrop Grumman said its share of the Longbow work would be handled from its electronic systems division in Linthicum. Lockheed Martin is based in Bethesda. The companies said the contract is for Longbow Fire Control Radars for the Royal Saudi Land Forces Aviation Command and the Saudi Arabia National Guard, spares and support for the aviation command and Longbow mast mounted assemblies for the U.S. Army.

Bill Bleich calls the teachers' signing stipend a "bribe" ("Reject the contract," Oct. 13) He teaches English and drama, but he does not know that a bribe is something given to induce a person to do wrong or commit a crime. He says merit pay will pressure teachers to be less supportive of each other and act in a more self-centered way and then immediately and inconsistently goes on to say teachers are more highly motivated than administrators and selflessly devote large amounts of time to student activities.

It's worth a shot Juan C. Rodriguez Sun Sentinel Should they try? Absolutely. Would they be successful? Probably not. Alex Rodriguez has been an on-field and off-field migraine for the Yankees. What remains on his contract - five years and $114 million - is a crippling figure for most franchises. If they were to somehow remove the Rodriguez albatross it won't be because he purchased banned substances. The Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program precludes teams from taking punitive action beyond penalties the Commissioner's Office imposes.

Baltimore City schools CEO Andrés Alonso may have one of the toughest jobs in Maryland – steering a big urban school system with a large proportion of disadvantaged minority youths back to health after years of inadequate funding and neglect. Nor is it a post known for long-term job security; having served three years at the helm, Mr. Alonso already has surpassed most of his recent predecessors in terms of longevity. At the same time, he has presided over a major reorganization of the system and overseen a steady rise in test scores.

Baltimore's spending board voted to approve a contract for Fire Chief James S. Clack Wednesday. Clack had requested the formal contract, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said. He had worked without a contract since taking over the fire department in 2008. Clack was one of seven fire chiefs nominated recently by the The International Association of Fire Chiefs to head the U.S. Fire Administration, but he said he would most likely choose to stay in Baltimore. Under the contract, Clack will continue to earn $158,100, the salary he has been paid since he took over the city department following the retirement of former Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. Clack's contract is set to expire at the end of Rawlings-Blake's term next year, but he would be eligible to be reappointed.

The state plans to award a contract for up to $20.9 million as it prepares to expand a program that issues tickets to drivers caught on camera speeding in highway work zones. The equipment and management services award to ACS State & Local Solutions Inc. of Germantown, which holds the contract for the existing program, is scheduled to go to the Board of Public Works for approval next week. The contract would permit the state to expand the work zone enforcement program that was authorized by the General Assembly last year.

The Ravens have decided to terminate the contract of Bobbie Williams, the team announced. Looking to find a steady replacement for departed left guard Ben Grubbs, the Ravens signed the veteran guard before the 2012 season. He made six starts and played in 12 games, but was a reserve during the playoffs.   Williams, who turned 36 in September, signed a two-year, $2.925 million contract last spring that included an $800,000 signing bonus. By terminating his contract, the Ravens will free up $800,000 in salary cap space.

A caucus of the Baltimore Teachers Union has conducted its own survey which concluded that, of the sample participants, city teachers have been overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the union contract that is set to expire this month. According to the survey, conducted by the Educators for Democratic Schools, of the roughly 200 teachers polled, only 11 percent of respondents said they would vote for the contract--passed in 2010, and hailed as the most progressive in the country for its pay-for-performance structure--if faced with the decision again.

A few days ago, yet another article appeared in The Baltimore Sun about Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco and his contract that will pay him more than $20 million per year for the next six years. That's a total of over $120 million. I don't know Joe Flacco. I am sure that if I knew him I would like him, and that if we were neighbors, we'd get along just fine. But that is not why I write. And I am not writing because I am jealous of Joe Flacco's good fortune, or because I don't think he is worth it based on his competitive value in football.

The Baltimore City school board approved three new charter schools to open beginning in 2014, including two schools that will be subject to heightened scrutiny throughout their contracts. The Lillie May Carroll Jackson School, which will be operated by a nonprofit organization created by Roland Park Country School and educate girls in grades 5-8, won a smooth approval to open in 2014. But the Green Street Academy, which has been operating as a "transformation" school with an environmental theme for the past three years, "stretched certain standards," city schools CEO Andrés Alonso said in recommending to grant the school charter status.

Baltimore's housing authority has disciplined a group of employees after an internal investigator found that top agency officials hired lower-level staff to do contracting work at their homes. The agency's inspector general concluded that executive and senior management staff showed "a lack of good judgment" in hiring James Bassetti and Cecil Williams, who work for the housing authority's construction arm, according to a report issued by the office May 13. In all, five housing authority employees and the relative of a sixth paid for work to be done at their homes.

It was a familiar scene for the Ravens' offensive backfield as running back Ray Rice took handoffs and made his cuts with Pro Bowl fullback Vonta Leach operating as his lead blocker on Thursday morning. Behind the scenes, though, whether Leach runs interference for Rice this season under his current contract remains an unresolved situation. The Ravens would ideally like to lower Leach's $4.33 million salary-cap figure and are expected to craft a proposal to try to adjust his contract, according to league sources.

The Baltimore school system said Thursday that it will review all contracts awarded by a former chief information technology officer after school officials in Dallas said he could face a federal indictment stemming from his tenure in the Atlanta public school system. Jerome Oberlton was forced to resign as chief of staff in the Dallas Independent School District this week after informing Superintendent Mike Miles that he was the target of a federal investigation, according to a statement from the Dallas school district.

With a little more than two weeks to go before a contract extension between East Coast and Gulf dockworkers and port operators expires, the federal mediator said Thursday that progress is being made toward a long-term settlement. George Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said the International Longshoremen's Association representing 14,500 union members and United States Maritime Alliance, which represents 14 ports and shipping companies, met between Tuesday and Thursday, and have agreed "that the negotiations will continue under our auspices.

Baltimore teachers rejected a contract Thursday that would have provided six-figure salaries for an elite corps but would have tied the pay of all educators to how they perform in the classroom, a vague provision that caused discomfort for many union members. More than 2,000 educators represented by the Baltimore Teachers Union voted on the tentative agreement, which had been hailed as the most innovative in the nation since its details emerged two weeks ago. However, it proved to be one of the most contentious ever in Baltimore, with its overhaul of how teachers are compensated, promoted and evaluated.

Joe Flacco got a taste this week of how it'll be all season long. Privacy? Gone. Flying under the national radar? Ha, forget it. Having every move you make on and off the field analyzed relentlessly until you just want to scream? Oh, yeah. There will be a lot of that. The Joe Linta flap was just the beginning. Now the Ravens quarterback gets the kind of suffocating scrutiny that comes with leading your team to a Super Bowl championship and landing a six-year, $120.6 million contract extension that makes you the NFL's highest-paid player - if only for about five minutes until Aaron Rodgers signed his new deal.

Two unions said Friday that they have ended a nearly six-year call to boycott the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel, a move that came as workers ratified a new bargaining agreement with management. The unions, Unite Here Local 7 and Local 37 of the International Union of Operating Engineers, said the new agreement covers 130 workers and includes health insurance, a 401(k) retirement plan and retroactive wage increases reaching back one year. Tipped employees are due raises of 15 cents to 45 cents an hour, while non-tipped employees' raises will be 30 cents to 90 cents per hour, the unions said.