Ledger

SO, YOU'RE actually building your own deck. Not having fun yet? Well, if you've done the concrete footers (to support the posts that support the deck) and the ledger board (which allows fastening the deck to the house), you've probably done the most strenuous part.Now it's time to start creating the structure of your deck. Cheer up -- this part is only painstaking and tedious.First step, the posts: These will support the edge of the deck on the opposite side from the ledger, in other words, the yard side.

SO, YOU'RE actually building your own deck. Not having fun yet? Well, if you've done the concrete footers (to support the posts that support the deck) and the ledger board (which allows fastening the deck to the house), you've probably done the most strenuous part.Now it's time to start creating the structure of your deck. Cheer up -- this part is only painstaking and tedious.First step, the posts: These will support the edge of the deck on the opposite side from the ledger, in other words, the yard side.

While serving as a Baltimore Housing Authority board member, Larry Jennings Jr. helped run the finances of a family company that won more than $1 million in no-bid work from the city housing agency, according to testimony in his father's bribery trial.The younger Mr. Jennings lent money to the company, Elias Contracting Corp. helped balance its books and even wrote chekcs to workers -- all while serving as a Schmoke administration appointee to the very agency that awarded the work to his family's firm.

For many, the worlds of salmon in puff pastry and hamburger on a bun are distinctly separate. But Michael St. Ledger, the chef at Loews Annapolis Hotel, moves from one to the other with ease.In fact, he has done it so well that tomorrow he is going from the kitchen of a four-star hotel to the finals of the Great Burger Build-Off, a fund-raising project for Meals on Wheels.Mr. St. Ledger will compete against 14 others from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia to build the best burger.

Howard C. Corbin, a decorated Baltimore police detective who worked on all the major murder cases after joining the homicide unit in 1966, died Dec. 7 of a heart attack at Good Samaritan Hospital.He was 68 and had been on medical leave after suffering a stroke in 1992.During his years with the Baltimore Police Department, he received 21 commendations, four Bronze Stars, a Unit Citation and a Distinguished Service Award. He was the senior member of the department in years of service."He worked one way or the other on all the major homicide cases.

New York -- Urgent memo, to everyone with cash-value life insurance: Your policy, which you expect to last for life, may not -- at least, not if you keep on paying your current premiums. Unless you put up extra money, certain types of contracts will expire before you do, leaving your family without funds.Some cash-value policies were built to last. But many others are tottering, especially those bought in the 1980s when insurers projected double-digit rates of return on your policy's cash values.

Bob Harding, a retired, award-winning sportswriter for the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger, died Tuesday of complications from cancer at his home on Green Lane in Baldwin.Services for Mr. Harding, who was 60, will be held at 11 a.m. today at the Ruck Towson Funeral Home, 1050 York Road.Mr. Harding lived in Baldwin after his retirement last year from the Star-Ledger where he had worked since 1965. Though he had covered the New York Knicks and the college basketball xTC championships, he became a specialist on horse racing, covering the Triple Crown events as well as the New Jersey and New York tracks.

Publishers of the Harford Business Ledger have proved that if you create a product that is targeted to the right market, then a company can prosper during tough economic times."

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide a tax dispute that is likely to affect every business that has customers who keep coming back.The question in a case taken to the court by a Newark, N.J., newspaper is whether a business can claim a federal tax write-off for the value of a list of continuing customers -- in that case, a list of subscribers.A federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled in September that federal tax law does not allow a depreciation deduction for the value of customer lists, since the lists represent nothing more than business "goodwill," and "goodwill" cannot be depreciated on federal tax returns.

From The Sun July 7-13, 1841July 8: The Philadelphia Ledger states that the locomotive attached to one of the Baltimore trains broke loose from the train on Monday afternoon, near Chester, and traveled off like an express for one or two miles.July 9: The very interesting and amusing letter from our Cape May bachelor correspondent, Philip Fiveandforti, which will be found on the first page of this day's Sun, will be read with a great deal of pleasure.From The Sun July 7-13, 1891July 7: A dance was given last evening in the large pavilion at Loch Raven, on the Baltimore and Lehigh Railroad, which was enjoyed by a company of young persons from the city.

Report: Richardson medics turned away The first ambulance sent to a ski resort where actress Natasha Richardson fell was turned away, a paramedic told a Canadian newspaper. Richardson fell Monday while taking a beginners ski course in Quebec and died Wednesday in a New York hospital of blunt impact to the head. The Globe and Mail reported on its Web site late Wednesday that Yves Coderre, director of operations at Ambulances Radisson, said ski patrollers requested an ambulance after Richardson fell, and the company sent its medics to Mont Tremblant resort.

No 'Hello, Aunt Dolly' in 'Hannah Montana,' Parton says she's out of movie Dolly Parton says she won't be in the coming Hannah Montana movie, despite word to the contrary on the Web. But Parton wishes she had been. The country legend says producers had asked her whether she would revisit her recurring role as Aunt Dolly from the TV show in the film. But her character apparently didn't make the script. Still, Parton says she loved playing the role on the TV show because it opened her up to a new generation of fans.

Capsules by Michael Sragow. Full reviews are at baltimoresun.com/movies. American Teen This documentary about a handful of high school seniors in Warsaw, Ind., shows how even teens who superficially fit the labels of jock and geek have inner lives and outer ambitions that break up any stereotypes. The movie has the sureness and nuance of a tiptop novel. PG-13 95 minutes A The Dark Knight Heath Ledger gives a bravura performance as the Joker in this handsome piece of work, but it takes you from absorption to excruciation within 20 minutes, and then goes on for two hours more.

Heath Ledger died at an age when many gifted actors first reach liftoff. At 28, he had achieved acclaim, popularity and riches. But he was just beginning to define himself as an actor and a star. In Todd Haines' I'm Not There (2007), he played a tortured big-screen idol, ill at ease with conventional accomplishment and fame, in the manner of Bob Dylan - or James Dean. When Ledger succumbed to an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in January, Dean provided an inevitable point of comparison.

The news yesterday that actor Heath Ledger died from a lethal combination of six different medications has raised new concerns about the hazards of overdoses among Americans with increasingly well-stocked medicine cabinets. The New York City medical examiner ruled yesterday that Ledger's death last month was accidental, the result of "acute intoxication" from two prescription painkillers (oxycodone and hydrocodone); two prescribed anti-anxiety drugs (diazepam and alprazolam); and two sleep aids - one of them available over the counter.

Hollywood legends are a funny thing. They're not always a matter of longevity; if they were, there would be no more revered figure in movie history than Lillian Gish, and how many people younger than 40 have even heard of her? They don't necessarily reflect youth snuffed out before its time; Brad Renfro's recent death, though undeniably tragic, hasn't guaranteed him a spot in the Hollywood firmament. And they don't necessarily have much to do with the quality of the work. Deborah Kerr was an extraordinarily gifted actress with a surprising range, but you don't see her image turning up on key chains and Internet tributes.

Heath Ledger, the Australian actor who earned an Academy Award nomination for his turn as a stubbornly taciturn gay ranch hand in Brokeback Mountain, was found dead yesterday in a Manhattan apartment, New York police said. He was 28. A housekeeper sent to fetch Mr. Ledger for a massage appointment found him naked and unresponsive about 3:30 p.m., NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. Police sources told The New York Times yesterday that sleeping pills were found near Mr. Ledger's body, leading them to suspect suicide or an accidental overdose as the cause of death.

On June 18, 2007, GARY JOSEPH BOYNTON. In lieu of flowers, the Boynton's have requested that friends and family honor Gary Joseph Boynton's memory through the Linsco/Private Ledger. The Linsco/Private Ledger is for Gary Tyler Boynton's Trust Fund. Gifts can be made to Linsco/Private Ledger, 277 Ridge Road, Fawn Grove, PA 17321.

Baltimore's mayor said yesterday that "most likely we should not be doing business" with a private equipment supply company after disclosures about an off-the-books account used by the Fire Department to purchase unauthorized equipment. Mayor Sheila Dixon, responding to a report in The Sun on the account with Draeger Safety Inc., one of the largest air mask distributors, would not say whether she continues to have confidence in Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. "I'm going to be reassessing all our department heads," Dixon said.

There are dog books, and then there are dog books. (And ever more dog books.) But a dog couple book? The Dogs' Book of Romance, by sisters-in-law Lisa Sachs and Kate Ledger, is out for Valentine's Day. A follow-up to The Cats' Book of Romance, the $9.95 dog book from Andrews McMeel Publishing also offers relationship advice. "From Dobermans to Dachshunds, they have wisdom to spare about how to make romance last a lifetime," says the book jacket. Nineteen pages of dog pictures accompany 19 pieces of advice.