Deal

Editor: I write to support the City of Havre de Grace's attempt to purchase the 701 Concord Street (Gamatoria's) property.  As the President of the Friends of the Concord Point Lighthouse and representing its Board of Directors, I ask all Havre de Grace citizens to vote YES on this ballot question. There are many reasons for my support of this effort.  Number one it would be an additional treasure for tourism in our city.  It would greatly enhance the appearance and accessibility of the Concord Point Lighthouse property.  It would certainly be better for the city than anything a commercial developer would provide.

University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center will be able to recoup some of the tens of millions of dollars it lost while operating without a Medicare certification under a compromise reached with federal officials. The Towson hospital will be able to bill Medicare for treatment given to patients in the federal program since Jan. 7, about six weeks before it regained what is known as a Medicare provider agreement. St. Joseph had operated without one since the University of Maryland Medical System bought the hospital and chose not to renew its existing Medicare certification.

Towson sophomore attackman Cory Dobyns sat out the Saturday's 10-8 loss to No. 12 Penn State, and a timetable for his return is unclear. Coach Shawn Nadelen said Dobyns, who ranks second on the Tigers (7-6 overall and 3-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association) in goals with 18 and third in points with 20, suffered an injury in a 9-5 victory over Massachusetts on April 6. Nadelen said he has not heard anything indicating that Dobyns sustained a season-ending injury, but he also said he is not certain whether Dobyns will play in Saturday's road contest against No. 20 Drexel (9-3, 4-1)

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.'s shopping spree continued Thursday with the announcement of a $373.3 million deal that extends its television reach to a third of U.S. viewing households. Sinclair will gain 20 additional stations in eight markets by acquiring Seattle-based Fisher Communications Inc. The purchase extends Sinclair's push into new areas, giving the Hunt Valley television station owner access to key markets such as Seattle and Portland, Sinclair CEO David Smith said.

Immigration reform advocates are organizing thousands of Marylanders to attend a Capitol Hill rally on Wednesday to bring attention to negotiations in the Senate over immigration. The rally, conceived by CASA de Maryland's executive director, Gustavo Torres, is expected to draw tens of thousands of people from across the country - though organizers say most will arrive from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A bipartisan group of eight senators has been working behind the scenes for months to draft an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, an effort that gained political momentum after Hispanic voters - a growing voting demographic - flocked to Democratic candidates in last year's election.

Chris Davis was one of the hottest hitters in baseball in the first week of the season, though he has cooled off over the past couple of games. Still, his historic four-game start to the season probably prompted casual sports fans across the country to ask themselves, “Who is this Chris Davis guy and where did he come from?” Well, everyone here in Baltimore knows that the Orioles acquired him from the Texans Rangers before the trade deadline in 2011. But Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports has shared some interesting details from the deal . As it turns out, the Orioles more or less bought the slugging first baseman from the Rangers for $2 million.

Senate and House negotiators reached a compromise Monday on legislation that would overturn a court decision that pit bulls are "inherently dangerous. " The Senate ratified the deal unanimously. The House will vote on it later in the day. Gov. Martin O'Malley has said he wants to read the final bill but is inclined to sign it. Sen. Jamie Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat who chaired the Senate conference committee, said the compromise would set a different standard of liability based on the age of the victim.

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. " - Thomas Jefferson My recent column on the challenges associated with the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program elicited numerous and very personal stories from readers about how individual (disabled) recipients depended on the program for daily maintenance. And, many asked, how dare I (and others of my ilk) question such a vital program?

Dr. Richard R. Rubin, a Johns Hopkins psychologist who counseled children and adults on how to cope with the emotional effects of diabetes, died of complications from prostate cancer March 25 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Monkton resident was 69. Born in Lima, Peru, he was the son of Goldie Rubin and Morton Rubin, a scientist who worked in meteorology in South America, Antarctica and South Africa. He lived with his parents in Pretoria, South Africa, and was a 1961 graduate of Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda.

Varsity baseball President's Cup film to premiere today "The President's Cup," a documentary film about an annual high school baseball tournament in Baltimore, will premiere at the University of Baltimore today at 6 p.m. The film, directed by Julie Simon , associate professor in the university's School of Communications Design, follows the progress of the second annual tournament, which took place in 2012, and makes its debut as this...