Investment

Bridget Collins waited a long time to go back to McDonogh School. A 1990 graduate, she hoped to teach there after she graduated from Bucknell University, but there were no openings. She got a master's degree in teaching, but McDonogh still wasn't hiring. Finally, Collins returned in 2000 to her alma mater, where she's now an upper school history teacher and soccer and softball coach. "McDonogh made me want to be a teacher," Collins said. "The experience I had as a student here made me want to teach.

Last month, when 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot and wounded by the Taliban in Pakistan, the world responded with outrage. That she was simply defending her right to an education made the event even more astounding. Her almost superhuman courage represents the face of an entire generation of girls around the world who struggle against extraordinary odds to get an education. Malala's struggle is at once unique and ubiquitous. Most girls in the developing world are not shot on a school bus. Yet they continue to face high barriers that keep them from school and make education an uphill struggle.

Infrastructure could be the least sexy word in the English language, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell acknowledged to his audience Monday morning, but "it is essential to everything we do. " While roads, rails and the electric grid — just to name a few — made the United States the greatest economic power in the world, those systems are no longer robust, Rendell said. Paltry amounts of money have been targeted for improvements to shipping channels and rail lines. Massive water main breaks have become a common occurrence as maintenance backlogs grow.

Glass bottles moved briskly along new manufacturing lines - some filling with rum, others with tequila - as the plant manager explained just how groundbreaking this was for a site used to a more sedate pace. The Baltimore County plant now can fill up to 300 bottles a minute, compared with 120 to 180 before the switch, said Matt Brownlee. Diageo PLC, a multinational alcoholic-beverage company based in London, pumped just over $50 million into the facility, replacing 40-year-old equipment to speed things up. The new level of automation at the plant in Relay, off U.S. 1, requires fewer people to do the same amount of work.

Baltimore's political and business leaders praised the New York-based real estate investment firm purchasing Harborplace as a potential savior for the Inner Harbor mall that has struggled to find the right mix of tenants to appeal to both tourists and locals. When it was announced last month that Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. was eyeing Harborplace, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake cited the company's high-profile properties - among them Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, Union Station in Washington and Rivercenter in San Antonio - as evidence that Ashkenazy will do right by Harborplace.

Caesars Entertainment, which plans to bring a casino to Baltimore, announced Thursday that it would spend $25 million more and hire 500 more people than originally planned to take advantage of opportunities presented by the passage of Question 7. Caesars now will build a higher-end Horseshoe-brand casino rather than a Harrah's on the Baltimore site near M&T Bank Stadium that will focus on table games such as poker and black jack. The Las Vegas-based company had long hinted it would invest more if Maryland expanded gambling because it believes it will draw dedicated cardplayers from around the country to the casino, which now will feature a World Series of Poker room and host series events.

If you believe in the American promise - that hard work leads to opportunity - then you should support the Maryland Dream Act. The American promise rewards us with a real opportunity to build a better future for ourselves and our children - a real shot at the American dream - no matter where we started out in life, provided we apply ourselves and pay our taxes. It is the promise our country makes to us when we make a promise to contribute to our country. Core to that promise is our public education system, which empowers children of all backgrounds to achieve at high levels and graduate ready to compete in the American workforce and give back to the country.

The venture capitalists at Accel Partners fly around the world to find hot companies ripe for investment. The Silicon Valley-based firm was the first major investor in Facebook years ago, and its portfolio is a Who's Who of fast-growing technology enterprises. But a few years ago, a little company in Columbia called Tenable Network Security Inc. caught the eye of Accel's executives. They followed Tenable closely as it steadily emerged as a top player in cybersecurity. Then, in September, the bombshell: Accel decided to pump $50 million into Tenable, a staggering amount even by venture capital standards and the biggest investment that Accel has ever made in a North American company.

Maryland's Dream Act, which allows some illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities, has drawn attention far out of proportion to its actual impact. Only a few hundred students are likely to be eligible for the benefit in any given year, but because it touches on the issue of who should be in this country and how we treat them, it has led to vocal and passionate campaigns on both sides. But there's a practical component to the issue, too. The Dream Act is a good investment for Maryland taxpayers, and for that reason, voters should support Question 4 on November's ballot.

Legg Mason Inc. bounced back from its first loss since 2009 with a profit of $80.8 million in the quarter that ended Sept. 30, the Baltimore-based investment company announced Friday. In the previous quarter, Legg lost $9.5 million, blaming the shortfall on the costs of refinancing debt and launching two new funds. In the July-to-September quarter last year, Legg earned $56.7 million. On a per-share basis, Legg made 60 cents per share in the latest period, up from 39 cents in the same quarter last year.