Data

A Beltsville technology company that bought a former department store building in Glen Burnie said this week it plans to convert it into a sprawling data center for government and commercial customers. Privately-held AiNet Corp., which owns and operates data centers and fiber optic networks, bought the former Boscov's department store building at Marley Station Mall in January for $1.6 million from an arm of General Growth Properties. Deepak Jain, AiNet's founder and president, said his company is ramping up operations this spring and summer at the 300,000-square-foot facility.

Here's another reason to file your tax returns as early as possible: an identity thief might beat you to the money. Identity thieves are filing fake federal returns using taxpayers' Social Security numbers and claiming tax refunds worth billions of dollars. The taxpayers only find out about it when their returns are rejected by the IRS because someone already received a refund using their identity. It's a big problem — and one that's rapidly growing, according to a report this month from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

Maryland's 46 acute care hospitals can now all share information electronically on patients admitted, discharged for transferred. The “encounter level” data can be passed along in real time via the Maryland Health Information Exchange , a statewide system of secure information sharing among hospitals, doctors' offices and health organizations, according to Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who announced the system recently. Some hospitals also are sharing lab and radiology reports, consult notes and other clinical data.

The weather map was first published in an American newspaper on May 12, 1876, at the International Exposition at Philadelphia, according to the U.S. Weather Bureau. The New York Herald was working with the Weather Bureau, which telegraphed data to make a demonstration map. The weather map didn't begin to appear regularly in a newspaper until May 9, 1879, in the New York Daily Graphic. USA Today first published on Sept. 15, 1982, and revolutionized the weather map with color and more data, causing the newspaper industry to change and update.

Anyone wondering about the power of police should read Nicole Fuller's story on Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold, who we all remember was indicted on charges that he abused his office and used his police protection detail for personal errands and to separate competing girlfriends. The story says he did more: The Anne Arundel County Police Department acknowledged Wednesday that a statewide police criminal records database was accessed in order for County Executive John R. Leopold to investigate political opponents.

Want to know how many people have asthma or diabetes in the county where you live? A new state web portal was recently launched that provides this and other health data for every county in Maryland. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene partnered with the Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County to create the website that uses data about Medicaid recipients.  The website can be found at http://www.md-medicaid.org/ia-maps/ .  The interactive website has data on chronic diseases, such as asthma, diabetes and hypertension.

Are Maryland and The Wall Street Journal showing federal health-care cops how to do their job? Kind of looks that way. On a computer network based in Woodlawn, on huge encrypted hard drives, are patient records containing evidence of the estimated $50 billion that fraudsters and abusers drain from the federal Medicare program every year. But pressure from doctors has kept the data under guard for three decades. The Journal and the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission are mining the information in long-overdue attempts to shed light on abuse.

I've just spent two days in training on a system that generates business reports, and I understand so much more about the power of my company's particular tool and its application in my job. I also have a really bad headache from glancing at the teacher's screen up in front of the classroom and then back at my monitor for the better part of six hours each day. But here's the thing. Now I really want a Janet's World Home Management Database. Why, the JWHMD already has the requisite long and unmemorable acronym — it will fit in perfectly in the IT world.

THE ARMY Corps of Engineers reacted indignantly Friday to complaints from elected officials in Anne Arundel County who claim they had not been told about plans to lay a 310-mile fiber-optic cable network underneath the Chesapeake Bay. After all, Corps representatives point out, they had issued a public notice on July 26, posted the notice on the Corps' Web site, and mailed copies to 425 agencies, groups and private citizens who had happened to be on...

The Census Bureau is expected to release official numbers Wednesday that will detail how Maryland's population has expanded and shifted in the past decade. The bureau announced Tuesday afternoon that it had shipped the data, which will be used to redraw Maryland's political district lines, to Gov. Martin O'Malley and leaders of the state legislature. Once they have confirmed their receipt of the data, the Census Bureau will release the information on its website. The data will include population counts down to the block level, including information on race, Hispanic ethnicity and home vacancy.

Dispatched to a one-story brick warehouse in flames on Baylis Street in Canton last month, firefighters did not know it contained 8,000 gallons of corrosive chemicals. But not because it wasn't known to the Baltimore City Fire Department. Its hazardous materials permit database included the warehouse and chemicals, but is so arcane that it's impossible to point and click through it using a computer mouse. The chemicals also were disclosed by the owner on an annual hazmat form required under a federal law inspired when a chemical gas leak killed 5,000 people in India in 1984.

Maryland is moving forward with a plan to place what could be thousands of state documents online, a decision that, if done effectively, could make possible any number of computer application, journalistic and other public information projects. The state comes somewhat late to the party; 30 other states and Washington already have “Open Data” programs in place . In Maryland, officials can look to Baltimore City, which has run a similar program for more than a year.

Want to know how many people have asthma or diabetes in the county where you live? A new state web portal was recently launched that provides this and other health data for every county in Maryland. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene partnered with the Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County to create the website that uses data about Medicaid recipients.  The website can be found at http://www.md-medicaid.org/ia-maps/ .  The interactive website has data on chronic diseases, such as asthma, diabetes and hypertension.

State officials are in town today discussing how they might go about launching an open data initiative to help improve access to public information. Several members of the tech community are there, and have been tweeting throughout the morning. We'll embed some of the comments below. Such a project might be similar to the work that Baltimore City and other local governments have done. On the city's Open Baltimore site , you can find all sorts of tax, traffic citation and other information that has helped lead to features in The Sun. -- For instance, check out our speed camera finder for the city.

A computer thumb drive that was lost in the mail with the names, Social Security numbers and salaries of some Under Armour employees was being sent between two offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers, an auditing firm used by the Baltimore-based sports apparel company, an Under Armour official said Monday. "The thumb drive was not mailed from Under Armour to PwC. It was mailed between PwC offices," Under Armour spokeswoman Diane Pelkey said in an email. The breach of payroll data was first reported by Ohio's Dayton Daily News, which last week obtained an internal memo sent by Under Armour to its employees about the incident.

The names, Social Security numbers and salary information of an unknown number of Under Armour employees might have been exposed when a thumb drive containing payroll information was lost in the U.S. mail, according to a published report in Ohio. The Dayton Daily News obtained an internal memo from the Baltimore-based sports apparel maker to its employees last week. The emailed memo reported that an unencrypted thumb drive containing employee payroll information was lost in the mail on or about April 12. The thumb drive was sent by mail to Under Armour's auditing firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, in connection with an audit.

LAS VEGAS -- Microsoft Corp. introduced its long-awaited Access data base management program here last week, filling one of the last major gaps in the software giant's product line.In a bold attempt to pre-empt its probable main rival (the Windows version of Borland International Inc.'s popular Paradox program, not expected until early next year), Microsoft will sell Access for $99 until Jan. 31, 1993, when the list price of $695 will take effect.As a relative newcomer to the data base arena, Microsoft is essentially giving away Access in order to gain a share of the market now in the possession of Borland's Paradox and other more expensive data base programs, like Oracle.

LONDON --Amid growing concern that handovers of confidential banking data to U.S. counterterrorism investigators may violate European privacy laws, officials from around the Continent met yesterday in Brussels, Belgium, to consider legal options for probing the data transfers. Representatives from European privacy commissions considered complaints that sharing data on thousands of international wire transfers with U.S. law enforcement to help track terrorist financing could open the door to inappropriate uses of information that is protected by European laws.

Every day, stories appear in The Baltimore Sun that are driven by investigative reporting. Some are major data analysis projects, while others are smaller glimpses into how institutions of power operate. This blog will help us highlight the results of those investigations, share primary source documents and give readers a better understanding of how journalists do their jobs.

A Beltsville technology company that bought a former department store building in Glen Burnie said this week it plans to convert it into a sprawling data center for government and commercial customers. Privately-held AiNet Corp., which owns and operates data centers and fiber optic networks, bought the former Boscov's department store building at Marley Station Mall in January for $1.6 million from an arm of General Growth Properties. Deepak Jain, AiNet's founder and president, said his company is ramping up operations this spring and summer at the 300,000-square-foot facility.