Electronics

Marilyn M. Rawlings says building her $7-million-a-year company, Cameo Electronics, was a simple matter of having goals and pursuing them in a logical and determined manner."

Pigtown resident Daryl Landy believes he's one of a growing number of Americans striving for better, not bigger, living quarters, and last week he launched a new online magazine devoted to living, working and playing in small spaces. Rohous Magazine went live Wednesday. The electronic magazine, available on iPads and the Internet by subscription, will highlight home furnishings, products, decor and do-it-yourself projects. It will feature a different city each month (the first issue focuses on Baltimore)

Computer Donation Management Inc., a company that recycles electronic equipment, is moving from its Southeast Baltimore location to an industrial building in East Baltimore near the Baltimore County line. The company, which does business as CDM eCycling, signed a lease for 100,700 square feet at 500 North Point Blvd. and plans to move in January, brokers at Cushman & Wakefield said. The 10-year-old company handles electronic waste materials in the Mid-Atlantic by restoring or dismantling obsolete equipment for parts.

Maryland may eventually do away with tollbooths on the state's highways, bridges and tunnels and switch to electronic toll collection. A preliminary report by the Maryland Transportation Authority concluded that converting its seven toll plazas is feasible but would cost as much as $180 million. Transportation officials initiated the study as they look for long-term savings and ways to reduce travel time and increase highway safety. "It's something we're interested in doing.

Elkridge-based electronics recycling company E-Structors was honored with a Maryland Green Registry Leadership Award Tuesday, June 7. The award is given to organizations that "have shown a strong commitment to sustainable practices, measurable results and continuous improvement," according to a news release from the Maryland Department of the Environment. E-Structors was able to ensure that 100 percent of the materials it recycles stay out of landfills by increasing the company's operational efficiency and taking advantage of new opportunities to recycle material such as shrink wrap and broken wooden pallets.

Electronics retail chain hhgregg plans to open six stores in the Baltimore area later this year, filling a void left when Circuit City went out of business last year. The Indianapolis-based chain will open stores in Hanover, Annapolis, Catonsville, Bel Air, Towson and Glen Burnie – some in former Circuit City buildings. It expects to hire 50 people at each store. The openings are part of an expansion by the company in the mid-Atlantic. hhregg has 129 stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Franklin Electronic Publishers Inc. will unveil its first product aimed at the handicapped market at the 1992 Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.Language Master 6000SE, a talking electronic dictionary, spell checker, thesaurus, grammar checker and message unit, is the first hand-held unit that has full speech capability, said company spokeswoman Mindy Fendrick.The device, priced at $495, was designed as an aid to people with handicaps such as blindness, speech impairments and learning disabilities.

Walter A. Johnston, retired owner of an electronics business and an Eastern Shore hotel, died of cancer Sunday at his home in Largo, Fla. The former Glen Arm resident was 74. Born and raised on a farm in New Windsor, he was a 1946 graduate of Westminster High School. He enlisted in the Navy and was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, working in electronics. After his discharge, he attended an electronics school and became a military radar test engineer for Bendix Corp. in Towson. He later joined Hoover Electronics in Reisterstown, also in defense work.

Baltimore County residents can no longer put most household electronics out for trash collection starting Friday, when a new law takes effect. The county council enacted the legislation to keep potentially hazardous materials such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic out of landfills and waste-to-energy plants. Residents will be responsible for recycling computer equipment, such as monitors, keyboards, printers, laptops, and scanners, as well as televisions, VCRs, DVD players, telephones, including cell phones and answering machines, stereos, fax machines, and video display devices.

Martin L. Jones, a retired electronics defense worker and former radio station chief engineer, died April 8 of complications from cancer at Rock Glen Nursing Home in Catonsville. The Ellicott City resident was 92. Born in Baltimore and raised in Walbrook, he was a 1930 graduate of Forest Park High School and attended the Johns Hopkins University. Interested in electronics at an early age, he tinkered in his basement and made a working microphone from a Hershey metallic candy wrapper and a magnet.

Doctors who have access to computer test results order more tests than doctors who don't, according to a new study that challenges an assumption about electronic health records. The study in the March issue of the journal Health Affairs found that doctors with access to computerized images ordered 40 to 70 percent more imaging and lab tests. The study authors warn that pushing for more health information technology might not deliver cost savings from reductions in duplicative or inappropriate tests and could drive up costs.

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.

Comptroller Peter Franchot said Wednesday that he planned to make the process of filing income taxes in Maryland "virtually paperless" by 2014. Franchot said at a meeting of the Board of Public Works, on which he sits, that 70 percent of Maryland taxpayers were expected to files returns electronically this year – double the rate of five years ago. He said electronic filing saved the state $2 per return and reduced paper waste by 26 million pages...

Tax season is officially here, with the Internal Revenue Service and state of Maryland starting Tuesday to accept electronically filed returns. This is a good year for procrastinators. April 15 — the traditional due date for returns — falls on a Sunday and the following Monday is Emancipation Day, a holiday celebrated in Washington. This pushes the deadline to April 17. But this is also a leap year, so Feb. 29 gives us one more day to ponder our taxes. Many filers could use the extra time.

Special prizes will be given throughout the evening to all players at the Laurel Boys and Girls Club Holiday Bingo. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 19 at the Phelps Center, 701 Montgomery St. The bingo includes a guaranteed $500 bonanza game. Prizes include electronics, kitchen items and jewelry. The kitchen will offer reasonably priced food. For information, call 240-264-6642.

Scrolling or flashing electronic signs on the Towson City Center would have to be 55 feet or less from the ground under legislation approved Monday by the Baltimore County Council. The measure revised a bill the council passed in October, which allows electronic signs of up to 300 square feet on the building. Fifth District Councilman David Marks, a Perry Hall Republican, sponsored both bills. He offered the height limit after working with the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations, which had complained that the October legislation would allow flashing signs that could be seen far as far away as Cockeysville and the Loch Raven Reservoir – and that county council members hadn't listened to the community's concerns.

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- Lear Corp., the world's largest maker of vehicle interiors, is poised to expand in the $20 billion global automotive-electronics market after last month's purchase of UT Automotive for $2.3 billion.The value of electronics per vehicle is expected to average $5,400 next year, up from $1,500 in 1990, James Vandenberghe, Lear's vice chairman, said yesterday.Buying the United Technologies Corp. unit created the world's No. 3 maker of vehicle electrical systems, behind Delphi Automotive Systems Corp.

LOS ANGELES -- Northrop Grumman Corp. yesterday posted lower-than-expected profit for the fourth quarter, hurt by fewer deliveries of the military contractor's B-2 stealth bomber.Net income was $58 million, or $1.17 a share.In 1994's final quarter, the company had a loss of $121 million, or $2.45, after taking $324 million of pretax charges for an accounting change and asset sales.Per-share results fell short of the average forecast of $1.30 from nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

A federal court judge ruled Thursday that Baltimore Police Officer Daniel Redd, who was indicted last month on drug conspiracy and firearms charges, can be released from detention pending trial despite having confessed to investigators. He could be released as soon as Friday to his mother's custody under electronic home monitoring and can't leave the house except for doctor's appointments and court-related meetings. The order will be stayed, however, so Assistant U.S. Attorney James Wallner can seek an appeal Friday.

When RCA introduced its first television, the set was encased in clear Lucite, so visitors to the 1939 World's Fair in New York could see the electronic innards and walk away confident that the sound and video were not a mere trick. Decades later, the venerable electronics company resurrected clear-case televisions for a different purpose: to ensure prisoners could not hide contraband in their cells. And though RCA has dropped out of the market, prison cells in Maryland and other states still are filled with the unusual TVs made by other companies.