Illness

The cafeteria at the Johns Hopkins at Keswick complex was shut down Tuesday after 18 people were sickened with an unknown condition and 600 evacuated from the building in North Baltimore. Fire and emergency management officials are still investigating what caused the illness that gave employees breathing problems, but one of the theories is possible food contamination. We are "trying to chase down what everybody ate," said Connor Scott, a spokesman with the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management.

Nearly half of Baltimore's municipal employees and retirees have a "critical or chronic" illness - a distinction that contributes to the high cost of providing their health insurance, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday. "We need to improve the wellness of our workforce to reduce costs by promoting fitness and smoking cessation," Rawlings-Blake said as she released a consultants' report about the city's long-term finances. "Our workforce is unhealthy and it's driving up our costs.

Bowing to pressure from some fellow Democrats in the legislature, Gov. Martin O'Malley has signaled a willingness to compromise on at least one element in the package of new gun restrictions he proposed in the aftermath of last year's school shooting in Newtown, Conn. And in a surprise, given the massive lobbying effort against his bill, the change actually makes it better. Aides now say the governor will support a provision to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill people that is even tougher than one presently on the books.

Gay Lynn Diffenderffer had no idea that her husband was growing marijuana at their Baltimore County home, her attorney says, until state police investigating his mysterious disappearance discovered about 100 plants in a locked basement. Two weeks later, investigators found Michael Diffenderffer, 52, dead in his car - an apparent suicide that meant he would never face the drug charges brought against him when the marijuana was found. But that didn't close the book on his 2011 case.

There is still much we do not know about Dayvon Green, the University of Maryland, College Park student who police say fatally shot one of his roommates, Stephen Alex Rane, and seriously wounded another outside their off-campus apartment before taking his own life on Tuesday. Mr. Green, a promising graduate engineering student from the Baltimore area, reportedly was under treatment for mental illness, and though the precise nature of his condition has not been confirmed, investigators believe it may have been a factor in this horrible crime.

Annapolis may be located on the banks of the Severn River, but during the first three months of the year it often seems to be an island - so isolated are members of the General Assembly from real life. The gyrations of lawmakers over the high-stakes issues of gambling and transportation have produced many such only-in-the-State-House moments in recent years. So, naturally, it makes sense that when the two are combined - as in an absurd proposal to install 2,500 slot machines at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport - the result is the kind of empty, pandering legislation that does the institution no credit.

As an architect who worked for the Rouse Company for 30  years and managed the design of many buildings in Town  Center, I am concerned about the feasibility of the Inner  Arbor Plan shown last Thursday (Jan. 31) at Slayton House. I am not  opposed to the idea of building some cultural facilities in the woods, but the choice of a site, with a 55-foot change in grade elevation from top to bottom, that necessitates burying the theaters substantially underground is unrealistic. As places of public assembly it would be impossible to comply with the building code's exiting requirements in case of fire or the barrier-free accessibility requirements of the handicapped without prohibitive costs.

I'm not trolling for any sympathy, since I got to spend the whole week in New Orleans covering the buildup to the Super Bowl, but it hasn't been all happy hours and fancy "Hurricane" drinks for this former party animal. The only party I got invited to was the media party last Tuesday night, and every fool with a credential gets invited to that. Some of my friends got into the Rolling Stone (Magazine) party, which must have been rockin'. The Playboy and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit parties also are very hot tickets.

Workers in Maryland would be guaranteed seven paid sick days a year under a bill introduced Thursday in Annapolis, eliminating what advocates say is an "impossible choice" that thousands of mostly low-wage employees are forced to make between preserving their health or their jobs. "Folks are now in a place where they have to make these impossible choices," said Del. John A. Olszewski Jr., a Baltimore County Democrat and sponsor, noting that for many people, three unpaid sick days can equal a month's worth of groceries.

Captains Sharing & Caring, a nonprofit foundation that gives children with terminal illnesses or physical disabilities and their families a day out on several local waterways, is looking to marinas, yacht clubs and those with private docks to hosts events this summer. According to Cheryl Krajcsik, the executive director of the foundation, this is the third summer that the foundation will run events, mostly on Middle, North East and Magothy rivers and Bodkin Creek. The events typically last from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the water - with a picnic or other activities, such as swimming afterward - on Sundays from June through August.