Inadequate

Feast of Love, Charles Baxter's 308-page novel about quasi-love, half-love and the undeniable real thing, comes to the screen as an upscale banquet processed like fast food. In print, it was a leisurely, poetic account of how soul mating and sex mating bewilder or restore a group of college-town acquaintances. Director Robert Benton's film is a rushed and ludicrous amorous mash up. Allison Burnett's screenplay so haplessly reshapes, compresses and simplifies the action that even peaks of wistful wisdom true to the book, such as pivotal character Bradley Smith's notion that every relationship has a perfect day, register as greeting-card bromides.

An article in the Business section yesterday about Verizon facing customer service complaints did not make clear that the telephone company provided some documents to the Maryland Public Service Commission on Aug. 6 as requested. Verizon filed for an extension to complete the request on Aug. 22, though the PSC has since determined that the effort was inadequate and asked for more data.

WASHINGTON -- Federal officials described the Minneapolis interstate bridge collapse as a "wake-up call" yesterday, but industry groups and others have tried for years to draw attention to gaps in funding for the country's aging infrastructure. In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers reported that more than a quarter of the nation's bridges were structurally deficient or functionally obsolete -- and that was one of the brighter spots in the organization's report card on the nation's infrastructure.

With a controversial facilities upgrade to Mount Hebron High School looming, the Howard County Board of Education is evaluating the physical needs of its other older schools. Some Mount Hebron parents have been vocal in their opposition to a $49.8 million plan that would include mechanical upgrades, full systemic renovations and an expansion of the school's art, athletic and administrative offices. Many parents say they want a completely new school, some want plumbing, sewage and rodent problems addressed, and others want the school system to further investigate other alternatives.

During a Harford County League dual meet in the 2002-03 season, Havre de Grace was forfeiting so many bouts that Aberdeen's wrestling team would have had to lose every bout by pin to lose the match. "Every one of our kids lost, but we had a couple of guys not get pinned. And because of that, we were able to win our one match of the season by a few points," recalled coach Jerry Lacey, who was then an assistant. "I called [former coach] Dick Slutzky on the phone and I had to brag a little bit. I told him, `We did something you never did: We won a dual meet without actually winning a bout.

In an otherwise distressing account from the Abell Foundation of life inside Baltimore's once seniors-only public housing high-rises, there is a bright note: When residents work together to build a sense of community - even in the face of declining services and inadequate funding - they are better off. More than a third of the 3,440 housing units in 20 of the city's public high-rises are occupied by non-elderly low-income Baltimoreans with disabilities....

CHICAGO -- The average worker hasn't seen a meaningful pay increase in three years, despite the economy's rebound, according to U.S. Labor Department data. That may explain the findings of a national survey released yesterday reporting a sharp increase in the number of employees who feel underpaid. Nearly 40 percent of employees think their companies pay less-than-market-rate salaries, compared with 28 percent last year, according to the annual survey of workplace attitudes conducted for Randstad North America LP, a national employment services company with headquarters in Atlanta.

Nathan C. Irby Jr., who was fired as Baltimore liquor board executive secretary late last month after a closed-door meeting with liquor board officials, took legal action yesterday to get his job back. In a petition for judicial review filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court, Irby, a former state senator and city councilman, accuses liquor board officials of failing to adequately explain why he was fired March 24. Irby was suspended pending termination Jan. 23. Irby's petition also accuses liquor board Commissioner Edward Smith Jr., who handled the personnel action on behalf of liquor board Chairman Mark S. Fosler and Commissioner Jeffrey B. Pope, of "prejudice," adding that Smith went out of his way to make sure that Irby never returned to the state agency, denying him his constitutional right to due process.

Aimee Kilgore never imagined she would get rich as an elementary school teacher, but she was startled when she saw calculations of what her pension income would be if she spends 30 years in the Carroll County school system. "It's at least 50 percent less than what I think I would need to live comfortably in retirement," said Kilgore, 28, who has taught fifth grade for seven years at Taneytown Elementary. Seeing the calculation "was eye-opening." Robert Ridgely, who taught third grade at Manchester Elementary for five years, said he left the profession last fall in part because of his worries that he would be unable to retire on a teacher's pension.

The state did a poor job of providing medical care to prisoners at Baltimore's downtown prison over much of the past five years because of a flawed and underfunded contract with a private company that took effect in 2000, according to a grand jury report released yesterday. But the report, which supports findings of a Sun investigation published this year, credits the Ehrlich administration for its efforts to come up with an innovative solution to the problems through a new set of medical care contracts that state officials signed in June.