Decline

Since the Motown sound went silent -- except on oldies stations -- and General Motors and Chrysler (but not Ford) required life support from Washington, there has been little to recommend Detroit, Mich., to visitors, much less its residents. The recent conviction of Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, on multiple charges, including racketeering, fraud and extortion, adds another insult to the city's injury, increasing its misery. During the mid-20th century, Detroit was a vibrant city with a population of almost 2 million.

Now that quarterback Joe Flacco is poised to become the highest paid player in the NFL by virtue of a $120.6 million contract, the Ravens aren't expected to use the franchise tag on any of their other unrestricted free agents. Although Monday afternoon marks the league deadline to use the designation, general manager Ozzie Newsome has already stated that Flacco was the Ravens' lone candidate to be named a franchise player. The Flacco contract, which includes a record $62 million payout during the first three years, won't become official until the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player takes and passes a physical and signs his contract Monday.

The rate of youth confinement in Maryland declined by nearly half over a 13-year period, outpacing the national average amid a "sea change" in the approach toward dealing with young people who break the law, according to a report released by a national youth advocacy group. From 1997 to 2010, the rate of youth incarceration dropped 37 percent, according to the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation. The group noted that the United States leads the industrialized world in locking up young people, and said that the majority of incarcerated youths are held for nonviolent offenses such as truancy and low-level property crime.

February can be the cruelest month. In the midst of the cold, gray winter bleakness, it's tempting to daydream of a simpler life without hard work, heavy lifting or personal sacrifice, where nobody ever has to pay more in taxes yet all necessities of modern transportation — from airport runways and port dredging to eight-lane highways and bus lines — are magically provided. In other words, how easy it would be right now to be a Maryland state senator or delegate opposed to raising the state's gas tax from 1992 levels.

In all of the clamor about deficit reduction and fiscal cliffs, the assumption is that the U.S. economy is basically fine. The "jobs slump" is just that - a slump - so with proper government intervention (or lack thereof), the happy days of full employment will return. After all, the "recession" is just temporary, isn't it? There is a more devastating prospect: that the lost jobs are gone forever, leaving tens of millions of Americans, concentrated at opposite ends of the age scale, who may never work "permanently" again.

AmericanStyle magazine, a quarterly publication catering to consumers and producers of fine crafts, has suspended publication and is seeking a buyer, its Baltimore-based publisher announced this week. The magazine has had trouble maintaining advertising sales, said Jean Thompson, a spokeswoman for the magazine's publisher, The Rosen Group, a marketing firm focused on helping North American artists expand their businesses. Many of the magazine's advertisers are art galleries, Thompson said.

Ending a tenure marked by the costly decline of the 'Today' show, the failure of the newsmagazine 'Rock Center'  and an erosion of journalistic values, Steve Capus Friday resigned as president of NBC News after almost eight years on the job. While NBC once had the number one morning and evening news shows on his watch, the last two years have been a story of failure for Capus and the network's news division. Morning shows are the engines that drive news division profits, and in the last 18 months, "Today" has managed to blow what seemed line an insurmountable lead to ABC's "Good Morning America" -- a development that has already cost the network hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue and promotional platforms.

A throng of reporters and cameramen waited in front of his locker this afternoon, anxiously anticipating a quote or quip that would liven up the Super Bowl rhetoric. The old Terrell Suggs would have loved this opportunity. This year's version, however, turned the corner in the Ravens' locker room, surveyed the scene and emitted an audible groan. For Suggs, it was a chance to reflect on a decade in the NFL where he had never before reached this point. It was a chance to revel in his own perseverance, to remind everyone why he worked so hard to return from a preseason Achilles tendon injury and an in-season biceps tear.

Dale Capuano winced at the sight of the 10 or so people watching the horse race at Laurel Park as he walked from the paddock into the 3,000-seat grandstand. Most were familiar faces. Out on the track, his filly, Calcutta Cat, reeled from a rough break — the horse next to her veered left sharply coming out of the gate — and finished sixth of eight horses. She was the only Maryland-bred horse in the race. Only 19 of the 80 horses entered in races that day had been foaled in Maryland.

While much of the focus in the offseason and preseason was on the negotiations for a long-term deal between the Ravens and quarterback Joe Flacco, cornerback Cary Williams also took a risk and declined a three-year, $15 million extension. But Williams said he never viewed his decision as a risk. “I just left it in God's hands,” he said after Friday's practice. “At the end of the day, I knew that God had brought me this far, and all of that hard work and preparation was going to come into play, and I just continued to keep my head down, continued to do what I'm normally doing, and I felt success would be there.