Employees

Your article about the effects of the sequester on federal employees left readers with a misleading impression of its effects by not mentioning the IRS ("Agencies in Maryland dodge furloughs - for now," March 30). The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS employees and more than 35 other federal agencies, represents over 1,000 employees at various posts in Maryland, including Baltimore City, Annapolis, Salisbury, Wheaton and Frederick. In addition, there is a huge IRS office in New Carrollton.

A Baltimore County worker employed with the Property Management Division died after emergency personnel responded to a former golf course in Kingsville where he was working Monday, but officials released few details about the death. County spokeswoman Ellen Kobler confirmed the death of the 57-year-old man and said emergency workers went midday Monday to county-owned property that was formerly the Gunpowder Falls Golf Course on Raphael Road, off of Mount Vista Road. She did not identify the employee, and said the county could not release any further information.

Columbia-based technology company Lotame Solutions Inc. has been awarded a $5.5 million venture loan that's expected to help boost sales and marketing. The loan came from Horizon Technology Finance Corp. The Farmington, Conn., finance company provides secured loans to venture capital and private equity-backed companies in the technology, life science, healthcare information and clean-tech industries that are in the development stage. Lotame, which offers data management services to publishers, ad networks and marketers, plans to strengthen its global initiatives and hire new employees on its sales, technology and executive teams.

A staffing company owned by Columbia-based Maxim Healthcare Services created a false email to make it appear it had informed state health officials about unethical conduct by contract worker David Kwiatkowski, who is accused of exposing hundreds of Maryland patients to hepatitis C. State investigators divulged the information in a report about Kwiatkowski's time in Maryland working at four hospitals from 2008 to 2010. Kwiatkowski is accused of stealing narcotics-filled syringes and filling them with saline to be used on patients in several states.

A team of city employees, inmates in the state's correctional system and local volunteers gathered along Gwynns Run in Southwest Baltimore on Friday morning to clear trash and debris that had found its way into the stream. The effort, which the city said was the "first ever mass cleanup" of the stream, kicked off at 7:45 a.m., officials said. "It is our plan to remove all the trash in the stream and along the banks. We also want to point out that everyone can protect our streams, harbor and the Bay through proper trash disposal," said Department of Public Works Director Alfred H. Foxx in a statement.

During the Tower Federal Credit Union's annual Have A Heart fundraiser in February, employees and members raised $32,000 to help care for critically ill children receiving treatment at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, in Baltimore. TFCU members and employees also held raffles and sales to add to the fundraising effort. Since 1998, Tower, which is headquartered in Laurel, has raised more than $475,000 for the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, which is a member hospital of the Children's Miracle Network, an organization dedicated to helping raise fund for 170 children's hospital throughout North America.

Epic Games Inc., a North Carolina-based video game manufacturer, closed its office in Baltimore County last month, laying off 40 employees, Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said Thursday. Epic announced in August it was opening Impossible Studios in Hunt Valley, hiring 36 employees, some of whom had lost their jobs months earlier at Big Huge Games of Timonium. Big Huge closed in May after its parent company, 38 Studios, abruptly shut down because of financial problems.

Harford County Public Library employees added creativity to their participation in the Harford County government's Harvest for the Hungry food collection campaign which ran March 1-8, collecting nearly a ton of food for local food banks in the process. The library system held a contest for its own employees to create the most creative food collection themes and displays. Overall, Harford County Public Library employees collected 1,810 pounds of food to be donated to the Harford Community Action Agency, which provides food for those in need through its own pantry and through distribution to other local nonprofits.

Fort Meade announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with the union representing Department of Defense employees on how proposed civilian furloughs will be handled. Civilian employees face up to 22 days of furlough - about a 20 percent pay reduction - after lawmakers failed to reach a budget deal to stop $85 billion in automatic spending cuts this year called the sequester. Furlough notices to civilians could be issued sometime between Thursday and Monday, according to Fort Meade.

A former vice president of Hebron Savings Bank in Wicomico County was sentenced to 18 months in prison for embezzlement and ordered to pay $456,665 in restitution, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Wanda Henderson, 56, of Westover had used her position at the bank, including her role as executive assistant to president, to manipulate bank records and receive fraudulent loans over a period from 2005 until April 2011, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. Over that time, Henderson had secured 20 fraudulent loans for herself and family members worth more than $680,000, with most of that ending in default, prosecutors said.