Fines

If Baltimore Gas and Electric can legally pass on the cost of the recent outage - along with the fines to them associated with their slow response to the people who suffered through the weeklong blackout - how is a fine effective in preventing future delayed reactions from BGE? Perhaps fines deducted from their executives' obscene bonuses would be a better idea. Deborah Greenstein

Employers in Maryland and across the United States face a deadline Wednesday that some may not know exists but that could prove costly if ignored. That's when all employers will be required to use an updated version of the federal I-9 form to prove the eligibility of new workers. The form appears to be short and simple, requesting an employee's name, address, Social Security number and citizenship status. But immigration and business experts say it's more complex than it looks.

Special cameras are the answer, all school areas need them. I live close to Scotchtown Hills Elementary in Laurel, and the camera helped slow down the speeders there. There is also a four-way stop close by and I've seen trucks speed through without stopping as some auto drivers do. I doubt a smiley face or frown face would mean anything to those who don't care, but a $40 fine would get their attention. Luella Cain Laurel

Southwest Airlines was fined $150,000 Wednesday for failing to respond to consumer complaints in a timely fashion, the Department of Transportation announced. Federal enforcement officers found that the Dallas-based airline did not answer "a large number" of disability-related and other consumer complaints filed on its website from June 2011 through January 2012. Further, the agency said, when the airline did respond, it was late and it did not include information specifically required by transportation department regulations.

The Environmental Protection Agency has levied nearly $250,000 in fines against Baltimore City and Anne Arundel and Harford counties for failing to adequately protect their waterways from pollution washing off streets, parking lots and lawns. The EPA's Mid-Atlantic regional office in Philadelphia proposed fining the three local governments more than a year after inspections found they were violating permits requiring them to control storm-water pollution from government facilities, construction sites and businesses.

Great Oak Lending Partners, a Timonium broker, is being fined $11,000 for what U.S. officials describe as misleading advertising about Federal Housing Administration mortgages. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees FHA, said this week that its mortgagee review board found several problems with Great Oak Lending's direct-mail ads. In addition to the fine, the company will have to forward its advertising to the FHA for monthly reviews during a six-month probation, HUD said.

The city liquor board handed down a five-day liquor license suspension Thursday night to a strip club on The Block after a dancer in the bar was found guilty of fondling the genitalia of a male patron. Mouse Trap II in the 400 block of E. Baltimore St. was also fined $2,250. A liquor board inspector testified at the hearing that he saw a dancer with her hand inside the unzipped pants of a man July 12. The club was also fined for selling alcohol to an underage patron that same night. - Brent Jones

The 30-day warning period for Howard County's new speed cameras will end next week. As of 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16, drivers caught going 12 mph or more over the speed limit will receive citations and be fined $40, according to the Howard County Police Department. The speed cameras are in vans and operate in school zones on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. The county has two cameras now, but county law allows for up to eight. The police department's website is updated each Thursday with camera locations for the following week, though it does not give specific dates and times.

It's 2 a.m. on a Saturday, and young people in various states of inebriation stream out of a Federal Hill bar. Some are so intoxicated they appear to be walking into a stiff wind, staggering and clutching friends for support. One woman tries to steady herself on the hood of a car, then slowly slides to the ground. A commotion breaks out and several police officers — stationed nearby for the seemingly inevitable late-night fight — hurry to pull two young men apart. A woman wearing a short leopard-print dress and towering high heels rushes over.

The state's energy regulator on Wednesday fined Pepco $1 million for failing to properly maintain the utility's electricity grid, resulting in prolonged and frequent power outages during storms and normal conditions. In its order, the Maryland Public Service Commission said Pepco, which serves Maryland customers in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, "compounded those reliability problems through poor customer communication. " The fine came more than a year after the PSC initiated an investigation into Pepco's reliability, which was prompted by numerous customer complaints.

Mid-Atlantic Fine Furnishings Show Rug maker Michael Heilman will highlight the 2013 Mid-Atlantic Fine Furnishings Show , which will take place at Maryland State Fairgrounds on May 3-5. Heilman will use handheld rug-making tools dating from 1870 to 1970 during his demonstration. Tools from the “Blue Nose Rug Hooker” to the “Rumpelstiltskin Hand Speed Needle” will be used while Heilman creates new rugs. The event promises to be both educational and entertaining. Attend the 2013 Mid-Atlantic Fine Furnishings Show, May 3 - 5 at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

Recession being the bane of piano retailers, it seems wholly remarkable that Harry Cohen and his son, Lou, decided to start selling Baldwins and Wurlitzers in 1937 - the year the economy relapsed toward the end of the Great Depression. But somehow the Cohens survived the recession of 1937 and 1938. In fact, the family business, founded in Philadelphia, thrived through three generations and extended into three states. Hundreds of families in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland bought new and used pianos from one of the Cohens over the years.

Bay Theatre Company in Annapolis caps its 2012-2013 season with Arthur Miller's "The Price," a play that may be among the lesser-known of his works but nonetheless strikes a nerve with contemporary audiences. Miller's rarely staged, insightful play examines two estranged brothers meeting after 16 years to sell off the household contents of their dead parents, long stored in the attic of a Manhattan brownstone that is now scheduled for demolition. Bay Theatre dubs the work "Miller's last play of note" — it came two decades after his 1947 "All My Sons" and 1949 "Death of a Salesman" — yet its subject, family dynamics, is timeless.

Even though Chris Davis and Adam Jones have carried the majority of the offensive load in the Orioles lineup through the first 11 games, right fielder Nick Markakis has quietly had a solid start to the season. Markakis' go-ahead solo homer in the third inning of yesterday's 5-3 win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium gave him hits in nine of the first 11 games. He's also homered in two of his past four games. "That's where I like to be,” Markakis said after Saturday's game. “I like to be under the radar.

New laws passed by the Maryland General Assembly late last week would put stricter penalties and an element of public shaming behind the state's open-meetings laws. State lawmakers said public officials have been able to flout the rules without significant consequences. "It has no enforcement whatsoever," said Del. Dan Morhaim, a Baltimore County Democrat who sponsored the bill to toughen open-meetings laws. "This is the first bill that actually creates some enforcement. " Maryland's public officials are barred from conducting public business behind closed doors, but the penalties for doing so in the past have been a rarely levied fine and a written notice that Morhaim said was often ignored.

I live in Clemens Crossing and am fortunate enough to be able to walk to my Giant. So off I went tonight to get a couple bags of groceries. On my way I passed a Mom and three kids at the tot lot. The little boy called to me from high on the swing. He had just called safely and successfully to a stranger! And then I noticed the two little girls were thrilled because they had just spotted a frog in the creek. On I went to then have a fun discussion with a man I had never met about his beautiful Great Dane.

Selling beer to an underage, undercover police volunteer has proved costly to the owners of two Howard County liquor stores. Rakesh Shah, licensee of a 7-Eleven located at 9049 Frederick Road in Ellicott City, was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and to stop selling alcohol on four days over two consecutive weekends starting May 6. The county's appointed Alcoholic Beverage License Board imposed a $600 fine on Winfield Kelly III's Woodbine Wine and...

Mr. St. Peter's recent letter (March 14) opposing fines on BGE and Pepco for their power failures during last summer's derecho missed the mark in several ways. First, the legislature gave the PSC the authority to fine monopoly utilities which fail to provide service for one obvious reason: to incentivize the companies do their job. There need to be serious consequences for failure. Second, the law explicitly requires that fines be paid by shareholders, not customers, as Mr. St. Peter mistakenly thought.

Two quick updates from Wednesday's game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Brian Roberts fouled a ball off his right ankle in a sixth-inning at-bat. He stayed in the game, but was removed in the top of the seventh. Taking him out for the final three innings was the plan. It had nothing to do with the injury. Afterward, Roberts said his ankle was sore, but OK. “It is fine. It will be fine. It's sore, but no big deal,” he said. “It was going to be my last at-bat either way. Able to end the game with a bang, why not?