Cypher

D id hundreds of patients at St. Joseph Medical Center get heart stents when they weren't called for under accepted medical standards? That's a disturbing question. But for taxpayers, insurers and most medical consumers, it pales next to this one: Are millions of patients getting stents that are unnecessary even when the rules give doctors a green light? Accumulating evidence says the answer is yes. "In many instances we're seeing it overused and in some instances abused," says Dr. William E. Boden, a professor at the University at Buffalo Schools of Medicine & Public Health who led a major study on stent effectiveness.

Did hundreds of patients at St. Joseph Medical Center get heart stents when they weren't called for under accepted medical standards? That's a disturbing question. But for taxpayers, insurers and most medical consumers, it pales next to this one: Are millions of patients getting stents that are unnecessary even when the rules give doctors a green light? Accumulating evidence says the answer is yes. "In many instances we're seeing it overused and in some instances abused," says Dr. William E. Boden, a professor at the University at Buffalo Schools of Medicine & Public Health who led a major study on stent effectiveness.

The former vice president of a Rochester, N.Y., science museum will start today as the director of the 25-year-old Baltimore Museum of Industry. Paul Cypher, 36, beat out more than 85 other applicants from a search performed by Baltimore-based Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations, Museum of Industry spokeswoman Claire Mullins said. His salary was undisclosed. Cypher, who had worked for the Rochester Museum and Science Center since 1997, previously oversaw fund raising for that city's Seneca Park Zoo Society.

Whichever candidate you want to pick up the White House phone at 3 a.m., The Strangers makes one choice clear: Scott Speedman is not the actor you want to answer a knock at the door at 4 a.m. As James, the male half of the couple terrorized in a remote vacation home by three masked marauders in The Strangers, Speedman is the weak, silent type. And his better half, Kristen, played by Liv Tyler, isn't that much better. Sure, they go through a choppy tunnel of love right at the start. Figuring she'd be in the right mood for a proposal after a friend's wedding reception, he intends to win her hand with rose petals, champagne and an engagement ring, only to find his puppy-dog eagerness has the opposite effect.

When he was a little boy, Paul Cypher's grandfather took him on long drives in a big blue car, imparting life lessons through stories about working in steel mills. Now 36, Cypher is recalling those stories as he plans changes at the Baltimore Museum of Industry. The new executive director of the Locust Point museum wants to make it a venue for storytelling, just as that car was for him. He believes the museum can offer a better history of Baltimore industry by telling the personal tales of canners, printing press operators, garment makers and steel mill workers.

The Baltimore Museum of Industry, a rising Inner Harbor attraction where attendance has increased over the past two years, is losing its leader. Executive Director Paul Cypher will resign tomorrow to begin work as a consultant for two nonprofit organizations in Rochester, N.Y. "This is for family reasons," said Cypher, who has led the museum since December 2002. "I'm from Rochester, and my wife and I realized that we really miss living near our parents and siblings." Cypher, 38, is leaving less than five months after the museum's finance director, Samuel T. Mercer, was arrested on charges of stealing more than $323,000 from the museum.

On Tuesday, February 20, 2007, ELEANOR C. McCARTY, daughter of George Cypher and Myra Abram of Butler, PA, mother of Myra McCarty-Paniculam of Ellicott City, MD, Thomas A. McCarty of Munster, PA, and David G. McCarty of Harrisonburg, VA, mother-in-law of George P. Paniculam, Susi Jacobson and Judith P. McCarty; loving grandmother of Holly Maginniss, Emily, Claire and Olivia McCarty, cherished great-grandmother of, Sophie and Sean Maginniss, one sister, Gen...

The Baltimore Museum of Industry, a rising Inner Harbor attraction where attendance has increased over the past two years, is losing its leader. Executive Director Paul Cypher will resign tomorrow to begin work as a consultant for two nonprofit organizations in Rochester, N.Y. "This is for family reasons," said Cypher, who has led the museum since December 2002. "I'm from Rochester, and my wife and I realized that we really miss living near our parents and siblings." Cypher, 38, is leaving less than five months after the museum's finance director, Samuel T. Mercer, was arrested on charges of stealing more than $323,000 from the museum.

Federal and local authorities are investigating the reported theft of $300,000 from the Baltimore Museum of Industry, a South Baltimore facility that displays artifacts from the manufacturing businesses that shaped the city's history. Officials at the museum announced yesterday that they are missing money -- the equivalent of 20 percent of their annual budget -- and they said authorities are in the midst of a three-month investigation. "This is a very difficult situation," said Paul Cypher, the museum's executive director.

The Baltimore Museum of Industry, whose executive director resigned this month, announced the appointment of an interim director yesterday. Louis H. Kistner, 60, a vice president of the museum's board of directors and former external communications expert at Millennium Chemicals of Hunt Valley, will fill in until a permanent replacement can be hired, spokeswoman Claire R. Mullins said in a news release. The museum displays innovations and artifacts from manufacturing businesses in Maryland.

On Tuesday, February 20, 2007, ELEANOR C. McCARTY, daughter of George Cypher and Myra Abram of Butler, PA, mother of Myra McCarty-Paniculam of Ellicott City, MD, Thomas A. McCarty of Munster, PA, and David G. McCarty of Harrisonburg, VA, mother-in-law of George P. Paniculam, Susi Jacobson and Judith P. McCarty; loving grandmother of Holly Maginniss, Emily, Claire and Olivia McCarty, cherished great-grandmother of, Sophie and Sean Maginniss, one sister, Gen...

The Baltimore Museum of Industry, whose executive director resigned this month, announced the appointment of an interim director yesterday. Louis H. Kistner, 60, a vice president of the museum's board of directors and former external communications expert at Millennium Chemicals of Hunt Valley, will fill in until a permanent replacement can be hired, spokeswoman Claire R. Mullins said in a news release. The museum displays innovations and artifacts from manufacturing businesses in Maryland.

The Baltimore Museum of Industry, a rising Inner Harbor attraction where attendance has increased over the past two years, is losing its leader. Executive Director Paul Cypher will resign tomorrow to begin work as a consultant for two nonprofit organizations in Rochester, N.Y. "This is for family reasons," said Cypher, who has led the museum since December 2002. "I'm from Rochester, and my wife and I realized that we really miss living near our parents and siblings." Cypher, 38, is leaving less than five months after the museum's finance director, Samuel T. Mercer, was arrested on charges of stealing more than $323,000 from the museum.

The Baltimore Museum of Industry, a rising Inner Harbor attraction where attendance has increased over the past two years, is losing its leader. Executive Director Paul Cypher will resign tomorrow to begin work as a consultant for two nonprofit organizations in Rochester, N.Y. "This is for family reasons," said Cypher, who has led the museum since December 2002. "I'm from Rochester, and my wife and I realized that we really miss living near our parents and siblings." Cypher, 38, is leaving less than five months after the museum's finance director, Samuel T. Mercer, was arrested on charges of stealing more than $323,000 from the museum.

Officials at the Baltimore Museum of Industry began noticing some bookkeeping discrepancies late last year. At first, says Executive Director Paul Cypher, no one suspected theft. But slowly, museum officials grew more suspicious of Samuel T. Mercer, the museum's finance director. He drove lavish cars and said he had inherited $1 million from his grandfather. Their suspicions intensified this year when police dropped by the museum and arrested Mercer on an unrelated charge. Unknown to officials at the South Baltimore museum, Mercer had a history of theft.

Federal and local authorities are investigating the reported theft of $300,000 from the Baltimore Museum of Industry, a South Baltimore facility that displays artifacts from the manufacturing businesses that shaped the city's history. Officials at the museum announced yesterday that they are missing money -- the equivalent of 20 percent of their annual budget -- and they said authorities are in the midst of a three-month investigation. "This is a very difficult situation," said Paul Cypher, the museum's executive director.

Rob Alford, veteran heart patient, became a pioneer last week when tiny tubes were threaded into his clogged arteries. Doctors believe the devices could transform cardiac medicine. On Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug-coated stent that keeps scar tissue from choking newly unclogged arteries. The next day, Alford, a 50-year-old Bel Air resident, became one of the first patients in the country outside a clinical trial to get the new treatment. "This is the hottest thing in cardiology in years," said Dr. Mark Midei, the St. Joseph Medical Center physician who treated Alford.

Officials at the Baltimore Museum of Industry began noticing some bookkeeping discrepancies late last year. At first, says Executive Director Paul Cypher, no one suspected theft. But slowly, museum officials grew more suspicious of Samuel T. Mercer, the museum's finance director. He drove lavish cars and said he had inherited $1 million from his grandfather. Their suspicions intensified this year when police dropped by the museum and arrested Mercer on an unrelated charge. Unknown to officials at the South Baltimore museum, Mercer had a history of theft.

The Baltimore Museum of Industry staff prepared well for Tropical Storm Isabel's wind and waves. They loosened the moorings of the venerable steam tug Baltimore to keep swells from battering the vessel against the museum's Locust Point dock and set artifacts on foot-high risers to guard against basement flooding. But they didn't expect the tidal wave of sewage. Surging from basement drains, 5 feet of wastewater swamped artifacts for four exhibits, destroyed a computer lab in the education building, fouled the heating and air conditioning systems and shuttered what had become one of the city's most popular stops for touring school groups.