Decline

Home values have continued to fall across Maryland, but for the first time since 2008, the average decline in tax assessments was in the single digits, state officials said. "It's showing an improved market, that's really the bottom line here," said Robert E. Young, director of the state's Department of Assessments and Taxation, which will send out tax assessment notices Friday to 678,763 property owners. After several years of disheartening double-digit declines, this year's lesser slump in home values - down an average of 6.9 percent from three years ago - is being taken by homeowners, government officers and real estate professionals as a sign that better times are likely ahead.

Even as enrollment in Harford County Public Schools is projected to decrease again in the coming academic year, the school system is seeking an increase of $15.1 million, which would bring spending to $442.8 million in the spending year that begins July 1, 2013. Meanwhile, enrollment dropped from November 2011 to November of this year by 356 students to a total of 37,868. Incremental declines in enrollment have been the rule for the past several years, even as spending has continued to increase.

Sadly, as one reflects on what America stood for during the years John F. Kennedy was president, and what it stands for now under President Barack Obama, we have to ask ourselves what happened? How did we go from "ask what you can do for your country" to "ask what your country can do for you. " It speaks volumes about the President of "Free Stuff" but sadly, and even worse, about the people who re-elected him for another term. America is surely in decline. Richard LaCourse, Forest Hill

Most major crime was down in Baltimore County during the first half of 2012 compared with the average rate of crime during the same time frame in the past five years, according to Baltimore County police. Rapes, the exception to the overall 8.6 percent decline, increased. The first six months of the year showed homicides, robberies and aggravated assaults, all considered "Part I violent crime," had declined compared with the previous five-year average, Police Chief James Johnson wrote in a summary of the statistics posted on the county website Tuesday.

The city of Baltimore is likely wasting tens of thousands of dollars a month on "phantom" phone lines that are never used, the city's new information technology director said Thursday. Chris Tonjes, who heads the Mayor's Office of Information Technology, said he's discovered 51 idle phone lines in his agency alone. He recommended that the city conduct an audit to review the status of its estimated 14,000 lines — and said that based on audits in other cities, Baltimore probably could save 15 percent of its $16 million annual phone bill.

It's a rare occurrence when a church ceases to be the site of regular worship services, and it is even less frequent that a congregation with centuries of continuous history ends up being dispersed. That, however, is what is happening to St. George's Spesutia Parish in Perryman, a congregation that has been in continuous operation since 1671, the same year Scottish folk hero Robert Roy MacGregor was born. That's a long time, so long that the church sanctuary has been rebuilt twice, most recently in 1851, a decade before the start of the Civil War. In recent years, regular Sunday attendance at the Episcopal church has dwindled to between 25 and 30 members and the congregation has been relying on guest priests to preside over services.

Great nations and proud empires have always collapsed from within before they were conquered from without. President Barack Obama's re-election mirrors the self-indulgent, greedy and envious nation we are rapidly becoming. Pollsters Michael Barone and Dick Morris got it horribly wrong. Both predicted a 300 electoral-vote win for Mitt Romney. It was President Obama who reached that mark. The central message coming out of the election seems to be that we are no longer the America of our Founders, or even the America that existed during World War II, which produced our "Greatest Generation.

The number of U.S. homes lost to foreclosure in September was half the number in September 2010 - the peak month of the foreclosure crisis, according to data released Wednesday. In September, there were 57,000 completed foreclosures across the country, real estate industry analysis firm CoreLogic reported in its monthly National Foreclosure Report. A year prior, in September 2011, there were 83,000 completed foreclosures. "Increasingly improving market conditions and industry and government policy are allowing distressed homeowners to pursue refinancing, loan modifications or short sales rather than foreclosures,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, in a statement.

First baseman Mark Reynolds, an integral part of the Orioles' best season in 15 years, said he wasn't surprised that the team declined its $11 million option on him for 2013, but he made it clear that he still wants to remain in Baltimore. In declining Reynolds' option - a move the team announced Wednesday - the Orioles must pay Reynolds a $500,000 buyout, but he still has one year of arbitration eligibility remaining. So the team can retain Reynolds for next season, provided it tenders him a contract by the Nov. 30 deadline.