Incentive

The saying "curiosity killed the cat" is appropriate for the clamor to see the final pictures of Osama bin Laden. He was directly responsible for the deaths of many world wide. He is dead now, and let's be satisfied with that fact. Showing any pictures now would provide the incentive and motive for retaliation by his fanatic supporters. Richard L. Lelonek, Baltimore

So we're supposed to appreciate the fact that Charm City Cakes is now making small cakes for us common folk priced at a mere $250? ("Now you can have your Charm City Cake -- and visit it, too," April 6). And the incentive is that you're allowed to actually step inside the place to pick up the overpriced thing? Graul's makes the best cakes around for under $20. And there are dozens of other great bakeries in this town (though they haven't been on TV). Every bakery in the country lets people come in and look around.

While Gov. Martin O'Malley labors to overcome lawmakers' reluctance to subsidize huge wind turbines off Ocean City, another bill is steaming ahead with incentives for facilities that make energy by burning trash. The Senate has approved legislation to provide enhanced, ratepayer-paid subsidies to new and existing facilities that generate electricity by burning household and commercial trash. A House committee is expected to vote soon on a similar measure. "To me it's the sensible thing to do," said Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, the Senate bill's chief sponsor.

After failing twice to attract a developer to transform the debt-ridden Rocky Gap Lodge into a profit-generating slot machine palace, Maryland lawmakers are considering a new package of financial incentives that would erase millions of dollars in fees and temporarily reduce the state's take of gambling revenue. The 13-year-old complex in Western Maryland includes a hotel with meeting rooms and an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus golf course. But saddled with tens of millions in debt, it has been an annual drag on the state's already challenged balance sheet.

Yet again, the aftermath of a storm has left large segments of the public disgusted with a slow restoration of power. We saw this following Hurricane Isabel a few years ago and after the February blizzards and severe thunderstorms last year. The time it has taken to restore power has led to calls for fines and penalties on the utilities that provide the wires, poles, transformers and substations that bring us electricity. Under these circumstances, you might think the silliest thing we could do would be to promise these utilities the same profits regardless of how much electricity they deliver.

With a wide smile that extended to almost where his trademark long sideburns ended, Koji Uehara hugged Orioles teammate Brian Roberts and then his manager, Buck Showalter . It was this "personal attachment" to his teammates, the organization and the city of Baltimore that Uehara cited in his decision to re-sign with the Orioles. The one-year, $3 million deal, which was finalized when the 35-year-old reliever passed a physical Monday, includes a vesting option for 2012 based on appearances and games finished.

It may be too early to conclude for certain that Dr. Mark Midei is to blame for excessive and improper implantation of cardiac stents in his patients at St. Joseph Medical Center, but after a report on the matter by a U.S. Senate committee, it is not too early to conclude that the system by which doctors, hospitals and medical device makers profit from the high volume, if not high quality, of health care is deeply flawed. The Senate Finance Committee's report adds to what was already an unseemly story in which St. Joseph paid a $22 million fine (though it admitted no wrongdoing)

The payments and "VIP trips" given to a Maryland cardiologist by Abbott Laboratories for parties and consulting work — disclosed in a federal report released Monday — are just what new legislation and industry guidelines are supposed to curtail, lawmakers said. But some industry analysts say the revamped rules aren't strong enough. "There's absolutely no [meaningful] regulation," said Eric G. Campbell, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School who studies health policy.

A Baltimore city councilman is raising concerns over a plan to grant $155 million in aid to a Southeast Baltimore development project led by bakery magnate and developer John Paterakis Sr. City development officials say the benefits of developing the waterfront parcel far outweigh the city's investment. They have asked the council to quickly approve a development district encompassing a planned $800 million project at Harbor Point, which is sandwiched between Fells Point and Harbor East.

Maryland and most other states outlaw "pay for performance" for political lobbyists for a very good reason. Experience has shown, going back to an 1853 case involving a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad lobbyist and the Virginia Legislature, that rewarding business agents for achieving short-term goals induces them to break the rules. It's OK for lobbyists to earn a salary, courts have found. But paying them bonuses for legislative approval of specific bills — "success fees," they're called — creates temptations for corner-cutting and sleaze that even the pols in Annapolis found extreme.