Facilities

I was very excited to see the article "The failure of 'baby booking'" (Dec. 29), hoping it would address some of systemic inequalities in the criminal justice system in this state. Upon reading the article, however, I was disappointed. The systemic "failure" that is the primary concern for Michael Nakan is the failure of the system of operate in an economically efficient manner, not the more important failure of the system to properly care for, educate and protect the incarcerated youth of this city.

Gambling started Wednesday afternoon at the Rocky Gap Casino Resort right after the state approved the opening of its fourth casino, one that Western Maryland leaders hope will lure not only gamblers but also their families to a region eager for more tourist dollars. "It's open and jamming," said Scott Just, the general manager of the resort near Cumberland. "There's a couple hundred people in there. They were pressing up against the ropes. " The $35 million casino, located in what was the lakeside golf resort's conference center, will be open around the clock.

A plan by the Department of Juvenile Services to double capacity at a privately run residential facility for young offenders was put off Wednesday after state officials expressed concern about the system "backsliding" toward larger, harder-to-manage facilities. Sam Abed, Maryland secretary of juvenile services, appeared before the Board of Public Works to request approval for an $11.7 million contract to grow the Silver Oak Academy in Carroll County beyond the state cap of 48 beds to 96. The move would help reduce a backlog of juveniles who get stuck at detention centers awaiting beds to open up at a treatment facility, he said.

Michael Dresser got it right in describing the trajectory of the Baltimore school facilities bill as going from "non-starter to law," but the story goes far beyond the elected and appointed officials who worked hard to make the deals and shepherd the legislation to passage ("City schools bill a political showpiece," May 17). The deeper story must include the herculean efforts of the Baltimore Education Coalition (BEC), the innovative policy advocacy work done by the ACLU of Maryland and the powerful community organizing of groups like BUILD and Child First.

Manor Care Inc. announced yesterday that it had completed the purchase of 11 retirement homes and skilled nursing facilities, making it the third-largest provider of assisted living in the country.The Silver Spring-based company said it paid competitor Beverly Enterprises Inc. $74.3 million for facilities in California, Illinois, Ohio and Florida.With the acquisition of the six new retirement centers and five nursing homes, Manor Care said it now owns a total of 193 facilities with 25,532 beds in 28 states.

LET US pray that the audacious order of the county commissioners banning scheduled recreation activities on Sunday mornings will be rescinded. For the information of Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier, this is not a "Christian nation" subject to the tyranny of whatever "majority" claims divine right of power. It is a nation of religious freedom and tolerance, of respect for differing beliefs and practices, of official separation of church and state. Admittedly, there is a cultural tradition in Carroll that consciously, practically limits official activities on Sunday mornings because many residents may have a conflict with worship services.

Baltimore County Fire Capt. Tom Schaech is all too familiar with the anxiety of responding to an emergency call at a nursing home and searching for the location of a patient who may be in dire need of immediate treatment. He and other paramedics tell of their frustration when called to nursing homes and assisted-living facilities -- patients they couldn't find immediately, vital medical information buried in filing cabinets, and tense arguments with nursing staff. To solve those kinds of problems, the county announced yesterday a partnership with a retirement community and nursing home in Towson that organizers hope can be duplicated countywide.

The high number of teens held at Maryland's three largest jails for delinquents has helped foster violence at those facilities, the state's juvenile justice secretary testified yesterday as he promised to reduce their size. Juvenile Justice Secretary Bishop L. Robinson, who fell ill after his testimony, told legislators that smaller facilities with fewer than 50 beds will soon be scattered around the state. They will house some of the teens being held in the Victor Cullen Center in Frederick County and the Cheltenham Youth Facility in Prince George's County.

AS ONE OF THE region's fast-growing jurisdictions, Anne Arundel County is woefully short of recreation facilities.So great is pent-up demand for forums suitable for indoor sports that for more than a year, community groups have been squabbling over space at Pasadena's Lake Shore Arena.Can you imagine how intense the competition would be if a facility to fight over existed? Construction on that $7 million arena has not even begun. The first shovels should bite the ground this spring."Basically everything is a 'go,' " says Anne Arundel's recreation chief, Thomas F. Angelis.

Youth Services International Inc., stock market sweetheart and Owings Mills-based treater of juvenile delinquents, yesterday credited newly opened facilities with helping it book a 63 percent profit increase and a similar rise in sales in its latest quarter.Youth Services reported earning $1.1 million in the January-March quarter, the third in its fiscal year, up from $676,000 a year ago. Sales rose by 57 percent to $21.6 million.Per-share earnings came to 18 cents and were "right on target" with the expectations of Wall Street analysts, said Bill Bavin, who follows the company for Ferris, Baker Watts, a Baltimore-based investment house.

The Baltimore County school system has hired a local architecture firm to help document its long-term school facilities needs, following a similar strategy the city school system used to generate a $2.4 billion plan and secure some of that funding from the General Assembly. The county school board entered into a $500,000 contract with GWWO Inc./Architects last month to help take an inventory of the second-oldest school infrastructure in the state. The county's school buildings suffer from overcrowding and a lack of air conditioning, and its overall needs are estimated to be at least $1.7 billion.

An educational testing firm is planning a job fair Friday for positions at its new facility in Baltimore County. Prometric says the event is scheduled for 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., at the Hampton Inn Baltimore/White Marsh, located at 8225 Town Center Drive. The company is hiring customer-service employees for its new location in White Marsh. Job seekers should bring copies of their resume and be prepared to meet recruiters and hiring managers, the firm said. The company has corporate headquarters in Canton, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of ETS. People also can search for Prometric jobs at prometric.submit4jobs.com . alisonk@baltsun.com twitter.com/aliknez Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

State health officials don't know how often Marylanders use medications mixed in facilities lacking safety oversight, like a Massachusetts facility linked to three deaths here, but a newly passed law could tell them — and help demonstrate a gap in federal regulation. Batches of sterile drugs from so-called compounding pharmacies will be subject to state review under the measure Gov. Martin O'Malley signed this month. And pharmacists and doctors who perform compounding, in which drugs are somehow altered from their Food and Drug Administration-approved form, will face an extra layer of permits and inspections for drugs used in Maryland.

UPDATE: O'Malley's spokeswoman, Raquel Guillory, said late Wednesday that the governor had a meeting with the mayor and discussed "the history of the case and the formation of the task force. " O'Malley thanked Rawlings-Blake for the city's participation on the Maryland Prison Task Force, which "made the case with state and federal partners," Guillory said. She added that the governor asked for the city's "continued  participation as we work to expand this beach-head and follow this case as far and high as it goes.

Maryland health officials may ask state lawmakers for permission to oversee plastic surgery centers, a move inspired in part by the death of a Lochearn woman after liposuction. The state health department had already been considering whether to ask for a change to the legal definition of free-standing surgery centers to align regulations with medical risk instead of insurance billing practices, Secretary Joshua Sharfstein said. Surgical centers currently are subject to state inspection only if they meet certain criteria in how they bill insurance companies, he said.

Howard Hord considers himself a chef of sorts, but the food he works with is a little past its prime. Using moldy melon rinds, orange peels and other castoff fruit and vegetables from some Howard County kitchens, Hord is "cooking" the first batches of plant fertilizer to be produced by the new composting facility at the county's Alpha Ridge landfill in Marriottsville, set to mark its official opening on Monday, Earth Day. Hord, the landfill's operations...

Maryland's top health official said yesterday that he will order his staff to improve investigations of deaths and serious injuries at state-licensed facilities, and a legislator added he intends to make sure that happens. Dr. Georges Benjamin, secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said his staff will study states around the country to see how they investigate serious incidents and then make proposals to improve Maryland's practices. His remarks came at a legislative budget hearing of the Subcommittee on Health and Human Resources.

ADD TENNIS to the list of county sports in which a primary youth organization is beginning to talk about developing new facilities on its own - or maybe with a little involvement by public entities. The Howard County Tennis Association is a volunteer group that conducts lessons and a couple of tournaments each year for, mainly, children in public schools and in parts of the county without private tennis clubs. Now the group has begun openly talking about a facility it can call its own. The Soccer Association of Columbia/Howard County is building its own field complex, scheduled to open next spring.

General Motors officially launched its new electric motor in White Marsh Tuesday, a milestone in U.S. manufacturing - and a key part of the company's bet that the electric-vehicle market is poised to grow. With production under way at the Baltimore County "eMotor" plant, GM says, the company is the first automaker to manufacture electric-drive motors domestically. The operation is small for now: About 20 employees make motors for the plug-in electric Chevrolet Spark EV, side by side with 27 robots.

H&S Bakery is moving its Harbor East distribution center to an East Baltimore business park, freeing up prime real estate that the breadmaker-turned-developer has eyed for development for more than a decade. The facility, bounded by South Central Avenue and South Eden, Fleet and Aliceanna streets, lies on the edge of the fast-growing shopping, hotel and business district. Its future home, meanwhile, is a development that was once in bankruptcy and has struggled to attract tenants.