Jobs

The small but heavy package arrived in Baton Rouge on Tuesday and was delivered around lunchtime. Cam Cameron ripped open the package and gazed at his championship ring from Super Bowl XLVII, the one the Ravens went on to win after relieving him of his duties in December. The dazzling ring weighed 380 grams, was encrusted with 243 round-cut diamonds and crafted in 10-karat white gold with yellow highlights. Without a hint of resentment, the team's former offensive coordinator who was at times the most-scrutinized man in the Baltimore area, said he appreciated the gesture from the Ravens and their owner, Steve Bisciotti.

Harford Christian Academy boys basketball coach Richard Westerlund is leaving Maryland to take over as the head basketball coach at Crossroads College in Rochester, Minn. Westerlund, an Ellicott City native, guided HCA to a 24-6 record last season. Crossroads is an NAIA II school. "I believe the potential for growth and success is imminent, and I am committed to embracing this process as we look to become one of the premier Christian college basketball programs in the nation," Westerlund said in a news release .  

On Thursday, the day the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, a 47-year-old Baltimore woman went to the drugstore, and pulled out her debit card to pay for a prescription refill. But she didn't have enough money in the account to cover the $425 charge. So she asked the pharmacist and staff for a favor. "I asked them to break up the prescription to give me one-third," says the woman, who would not allow her name to be published because she didn't want to disclose her medical conditions.

The University of Maryland Medical Center will send layoff notices to employees at the end of the month as it looks to cut costs in the wake of federal budget cuts and what it and other state hospitals have called inadequate rate increases. Jeffrey Rivest, president and CEO of the Baltimore hospital, sent an email to managers Tuesday that said individual letters regarding layoffs would be given out June 25, 26 and 27. The number of people who will lose their jobs still is being finalized, said spokeswoman Mary Lynn Carver said.

The University of Maryland Medical Center will send layoff notices to employees at the end of the month as it looks to cut costs in the wake of federal budget cuts and what it and other state hospitals have called inadequate rate increases. Jeffrey Rivest, president and CEO of the Baltimore hospital, sent an email to managers Tuesday that said individual letters regarding layoffs would be given out June 25, 26 and 27. The number of people who will lose their jobs still is being finalized, said spokeswoman Mary Lynn Carver said.

WJZ meteorologist Bernadette Woods is leaving the CBS-owned station to join a non-profit firm in New Jersey focused on climate change, she said Wednesday night. Woods, who has been with WJZ for seven years, said she will remain at the station helping with the transition for the next month. After that, she, her husband and their two children will be moving to Princeton, N.J., where she will join Climate Central as staff meteorologist. "I'm very excited about the opportunity in Princeton," she said.

E ach year, as many people are released from Maryland's prisons as are employed at the Johns Hopkins medical complex in East Baltimore. And each year, the Johns Hopkins Hospital helps provide meaningful futures for some of these ex-prisoners by offering them new hope in the form of jobs. Studies have shown that former prisoners' ability to find and maintain gainful employment is crucial to their successful return to their families, communities and society. Without good, steady jobs, many return to illegal activities, fueling an unacceptable recidivism rate and eroding public safety.

Mere seconds after setting foot on the bustling sidewalk outside Lexington Market, Frank M. Conaway Sr. is surrounded first by a small group of admirers, quickly followed by hordes of hangers-on howling his name. Like many Baltimoreans who have fallen on hard times, they want something from their politicians. And this crowd doesn't shy away from asking. On a rainy day last week, dozens of people — some of whom said they were living in government-subsidized apartments or were homeless — pleaded with Conaway for jobs.

I have followed with interest The Sun's recent coverage of the election, but one key fact has been underemphasized in your reporting. Please remind your readers that President Barack Obama has had four years to dig us out of the economic slump and has not done so. In fact, President Obama's "spend now, pay later" policies have worsened the recession. Mr. Obama has brought us ever-increasing debt and sky-high unemployment. Mitt Romney has spent his life in business. Mr. Romney understands that the road to recovery is to unleash the spirit of American free enterprise.

As I write out my check to Baltimore Gas & Electric this month, I am struck, once again, by the fact that these payments are processed out of state - in this case, Pennsylvania. Why is a Maryland utility that is a state-regulated monopoly allowed to move all the jobs (and the associated income for the state in property taxes, housing, income taxes, sales taxes, shopping, etc.) that come from payment processing out of the state of Maryland? Their answer is, most probably, that it saves them money, but it doesn't save their customers money.

Nearly one in four jobs in the Baltimore area requires skills in science, technology, engineering and math, a concentration that ranks among the top 10 in the country and brings wealth to the region, according a report released Monday. The Baltimore area ranks No. 8 on a list of metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of jobs requiring high-level knowledge in STEM, the acronym by which the fields are known. The nearly 282,000 STEM jobs in the region in 2011 made up 23.1 percent of all jobs, according to the Brookings Institution report, "The Hidden Stem Economy.

After playing for two teams and four head coaches in four seasons, quarterback Danny O'Brien is again college football's version of a free agent, hoping to find a school where he can fulfill the promise he showed in a redshirt freshman season at Maryland that seems long ago. “Funny circumstances” is how the 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year describes the unusual arc of his college career. O'Brien said in an interview Monday that he won't return to Wisconsin next season and is looking for a suitable spot to use his final year of eligibility.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake justifies over $100 million in taxpayer-funded property tax subsidies for the developers of Harbor Point on the grounds that the development will bring jobs to Baltimore ("Mayor: Project means jobs," June 4). But if those employees don't live in the city, the outcome will leave city taxpayers out $100 million, living with the traffic and congestion as employees drive to work and the county enjoys the income tax revenue. Here's a modest suggestion: Tie developer property tax subsidies to the number of those employed in the development who pay income taxes as Baltimore City residents but did not file as city residents the previous year.

The City Council's decision this week to unanimously approve a bill requiring businesses getting large city contracts to hire 51 percent of new workers from Baltimore was regrettable not only because the measure probably won't have much impact on the worthy goal of reducing city unemployment, but because it may be illegal as well. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's decision to let it go into law without her signature, despite the advice of City Solicitor George Nilson that it is almost certainly unconstitutional, is shameful.

Hours before introducing legislation Monday to the City Council that asks for more than $100 million in taxpayer assistance for a large waterfront development near Harbor East, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake released hard numbers to justify the financing deal. Baltimore should issue $107 million in city bonds to pay for infrastructure needed for the $1 billion Harbor Point because the project, when finished, will generate 80 times the annual property taxes that the land produced before development began, according to the analysis Rawlings-Blake distributed.

Annette Walter was chief operating officer of a fast-growing Baltimore real estate company. Her husband, Shawn, a former construction project manager, had launched a successful career in sales. But in March, the Hunt Valley couple walked away from the corporate world of fixed schedules and long commutes and went into business for themselves. They bought a 75-year-old company in Baltimore that distributes wooden and plastic pallets. The Walters will run the business from their home.

They're facing high unemployment, depressed wages and loads of debt — and they're only in their 20s. Welcome to life after college. Though the labor market is recovering slowly, graduates this spring have only slightly better chances of landing jobs than grads did in the depths of the recession, experts say. Over the last year, unemployment has averaged 9.4 percent for college graduates under age 25. Meanwhile, researchers at the Washington-based Economic...

I keep hearing the Republican mantra that we need to reduce taxes, especially on the super rich. That's why they keep extending the Bush tax on them. They say that with these lower taxes on the top 2 percent, money goes back into the economy, businesses thrive, and as a result more jobs are created. If this is true, why am I not seeing the results of more jobs being created? David Gosey, Towson

Every election has its consequences. In the 2008 presidential election, the country got the Obamacare health plan that is still not supported by a clear majority of Americans. In the presidential election of 2012, with an unemployment rate at 7.9 percent, the country rejected a proven private job creator and re-elected President Obama, who never created a private job in his life. Now The Sun's opinion pages that were in virtual lock step supporting President Obama's reelection bid are all of a sudden having an epiphany, a revelation if you will, about the lack of jobs in our country for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)

A Senate report criticizes Apple for shifting billions of dollars in profits into Irish affiliates where its tax rate is less than 2 percent, yet a growing chorus of politicians call for lower corporate taxes in order to make the U.S. more competitive. The seeming contradiction is explained by the simple fact that global capital is gaining enormous bargaining power over nation states. Global companies are not interested in raising living standards. Their only goal is to maximize returns to their investors.