I Work

I work for an executive search firm. Three of the employees are part-time assistant recruiters who work 20 hours a week. Even though they were hired at about the same time and do the same work, each has a different pay rate, ranging from $10 to $12 an hour. I'm told that during interviews the owner asks applicants, "How much do you want to be paid per hour?" If the person answers on the low side, he or she is hired at that amount. Is this legal? The situation you described is legal as long as the employer doesn't discriminate - for example, by reserving the lower salary for women and minorities.

I work for a handicapped riding program, and part of my duties includes teaching horseback riding to our clients. My employment contract gives me a seven-day paid vacation. But after my latest one, my employer demanded that I pay my replacement $99 for the lessons she taught in my absence. Can my employer require this? Since I earn so little, $99 is a considerable sum. If your employer agreed to the paid vacation, and you've got a written contract to prove it, she can't turn around and essentially charge you for it. Neither can she force you to pay your replacement nor take that money out of your check.

A private consultant hired to work on a new computer system for the Baltimore school district was paid more than $600,000 over 18 months, more than twice what the highest-paid city school official earned during the same period. From January 2002 to July 2003, Annmarie L. Wells charged the school district $185 an hour to help implement the $16 million computer system. The project, designed to make the school system's management functions operate more efficiently, is five months behind schedule.

Arthur Smith Position: Cornerback College: Northeastern Who he is: Signed by the Ravens in May as an undrafted rookie free agent, Smith was a first-team All-Atlantic 10 pick after leading Northeastern to the conference championship his senior year. A co-captain as a senior, Smith notched 56 tackles and two interceptions, as well as a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a 54-yard pass reception. Smith had a league-high seven interceptions as a junior. On learning from the Ravens secondary: "It's an honor being out there with those guys.

NEW YORK -- He's won an Oscar. He's been nominated four times. He's played everyone from presidents and Nobel laureates to butlers and crazed ventriloquists. He's even been knighted. It would be hard to think of an actor more accomplished than Anthony Hopkins, who returned to movie screens last week in his role as that most erudite of cannibals, Hannibal Lecter. Yet it would also be hard to find someone less inclined to pontificate on the fine art of acting. "I've become so detached over the years," the 63-year-old actor says during a roundtable discussion at New York's Regency hotel.

I work out of my home and find that my Hewlett-Packard DeskJet works like a horse but still doesn't print fast enough for my needs. I've heard that the way to go is a laser printer, which will give me better quality and faster printing. What do you suggest? They shoot horses, don't they? I say plug that HP workhorse and send it to sleep with the fishes. Since you asked for an opinion, I certainly have one here. The human race has wasted far too much time waiting for ink jet printers to paint out full-color Web pages and other documents when all anybody really wanted was information, not 256-color artwork.

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin discussed the census with fourth-graders at Owings Mills Elementary School and senior citizens in Lansdowne and Odenton. Last week, U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings spent several hours at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, talking to doctors about the lives they save. Not exactly the vote-catching, campaign-trail stumping you'd expect days before Super Tuesday. But then, neither Maryland Democrat is opposed in next week's primary election. In November, Cardin will be challenged by Republican Colin Hamby for his 3rd District seat.

After a cross-country search for "the perfect city," Susan Loysen chose Baltimore as her home, and has become an ardent supporter of its arts scene. Known for her spare, chic style, Loysen softens her neutral pallette with a visual sense of humor. Loysen, 35, will be among the crowd at the Orpheum benefit 5 p.m. Sunday at the Charles Theater. (For more information about the event -- an evening of movies and music that will help the now-closed theater pay its debts -- call 410-732-4614.)Loysen, a social worker who works with teens in foster care for the Baltimore County Department of Social Services, is also an ardent collector of local art, which she displays in her Hampden rowhouse.

WASHINGTON -- Finally, there's room to stretch. There's a chance to yawn. And during the day, some even find time for a midafternoon snooze.It's the end of August, and with Congress in recess, the Supreme Court gone since June and the vacationer-in-chief having left town yesterday for Martha's Vineyard and other sun-dappled spots, the nation's capital has settled into its annual late-summer slumber.Overworked lobbyists, lawyers and legislative assistants can kick up their heels and plop them down on their desks.

Two lanes of the Baltimore Beltway in Arbutus will be closed late tonight so that crews can repair and straighten one of the bridges smacked by a truck and its oversized load in the freak accident that crushed three cars on the road this week.The repair work on the I-695 bridge at Westland Boulevard is to last from 8 p.m. today until 10 a.m. Sunday.The bridge was inspected shortly after the collision and deemed safe, but structural engineers found that one of 10 beams on the span was bent and out of alignment.