Dollars

On the football field, Towson University's game Saturday night against No. 3 Louisiana State University gave 60 players a chance to dream of the ultimate upset. Off the field, it gave the Towson athletic department the funds it needs to stay solvent and the sort of exposure that could help the school and the football program grow. LSU paid Towson $510,000 to travel to Baton Rouge's Tiger Stadium, which seats more than 92,000 people and is considered one of the nation's most difficult places to play.

The best news to come out of Capitol Hill last week was largely buried in the back pages. It was the statements made by senior Republicans that if President Barack Obama wins reelection in November, they will retreat in their position on raising taxes on high-earners. Finally, a sign of compromise of some sort. It's hardly a guarantee that Congress will retreat from the looming "fiscal cliff" of massive tax increases and spending cuts that could easily plunge the nation back into an economic recession early next year, but considering how ridiculous and self-destructive the political standoff in Washington has become, it's something.

Since Baltimore City Hall contended in a federal lawsuit last year that a group of international banks conspired to keep a key interest rate benchmark low, more municipalities and private companies have started to investigate potential losses because of the alleged scheme. Baltimore bankruptcy attorney Joel I. Sher is looking into whether banks' manipulation of Libor, the London interbank offered rate, caused a jumbo mortgage lender, Thornburg Mortgage Inc., to lose money though interest-rate swaps tied to the rate.

A world-class ice dancer and figure skating coach is expected in Howard County courtroom on Monday after being accused of sex offenses in New York, charges that come on top of a civil suit alleging that he fondled a figure skater he mentored in Laurel. Genrikh Sretenski, who was born in Russia and placed fourth in the 1988 Olympics, will have an opportunity to ask for bail on felony sex abuse and related allegations. He has been held without bail in Howard County since he was taken in handcuffs Tuesday from his Clarksville home, Rene Sandler, his lawyer, said.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and Annapolis Mayor Joshua Cohen this week disclosed to The Sun how much money their administrations spent attending a May convention in Las Vegas, two months after the legal deadline to respond to a public information request.  Representatives for both men apologized for the lateness of the disclosures.  * Brown and his chief of staff spent just more than $3,000 in taxpayer money at the event, the Global Retail...

Does it feel as if NBC and its affiliates are getting a little greedy with its London coverage? As one who has defended the network's right to try and make as much money as it can off the games in hopes of offsetting the $1.18 billion it paid for rights, I have to admit even I have been getting a little queasy as to the way  that long-held patterns of network prime-time programming and affiliate news are being bent in pursuit of extra profits....

The Sun's recent editorial on public pensions ("Prudence and public pensions," July 20) misses the mark in several respects. Readers should be forewarned that The Sun's proposed solution - a switch to defined contribution plans - is a recipe for increased costs and decreased retirement security. Walking away from the fiscal efficiencies of defined benefit plans and closing one plan while opening another serve to drive up the state's costs. Moreover, moving to a defined contribution plan typically leads to a drastically decreased benefit and an increased reliance on social services by retirees, again driving up state costs.

I was pleased with The Sun's editorial stand on campaign finance transparency ("Self-interest trumps democracy," July 18). However, I wish you had pointed out how much the status quo hurts both parties. The flood of unlimited, undisclosed money affects the primaries as well as general elections. It controls who can run and what positions they can take, limiting the choices for all voters. The Republican presidential primaries illustrate the point. Few Republicans seem very happy with Mitt Romney.

A federal judge approved Wednesday a potentially multi-million-dollar bonus package for 10 RG Steel executives after the Baltimore County steelmaker modified the proposal in response to objections. The amount seems unchanged from the original proposal, which the U.S. Trustee Program calculated could be up to $20.3 million. But RG Steel altered the proposal to make some of the payments contingent on sales of its facilities to buyers who intend to operate them. Both creditors and the U.S. Trustee Program, which oversees bankruptcy cases, objected to the company's original plan.

I'm amazed at the mileage that "50 Shades of Grey" is getting since it seems to have no value except to excite hormonal interests. Since libraries are facing financial burdens and criticism, perhaps it would be good for them to specialize solely in reading material that has educational value. The readers of recreational material can easily get it at bookstores using their money rather than the taxpayers'. David Wenner, Bel Air