Lerner

Cleveland-based businessman Alfred Lerner is expected to file an application today to own an NFL expansion team in Baltimore, becoming the third owner vying for a local team.His emergence, with the encouragement of Gov. William Donald Schaefer, is at least a vote of no confidence for the two other potential owners who have been involved in the effort for more than a year: Florida-based corporate investor Malcolm Glazer and Baltimore-born retail executive Leonard "Boogie" Weinglass.Although officials would not confirm that Schaefer would endorse Lerner, Weinglass said he was told otherwise during a 50-minute meeting yesterday morning.

Alfred Lerner, the newly placed chairman and chief executive of MNC Financial Inc., has asked for federal approval to raise his stake in the region's largest banking company to just past 25 percent, a crucial threshold that would allow him to acquire the remainder of the company without further regulatory hurdles.The application, part of a planned $180 million capital infusion by Mr. Lerner into MNC, is the first indication that the Cleveland investor might proceed with additional purchases of stock in the open market to bolster his stake in the company.

In the circumspect world of Baltimore banking, even a tidal wave can sound like a ripple as it washes through the financial community.The sudden appearance of Alfred Lerner at the top of MNC Financial Inc. has been no different.Though the Cleveland investor's new title as MNC's chairman and chief executive has been a major topic of conversation these days, it has not, apparently, been the subject of much debate."He's just kind of a blank page," said an executive at a top financial institution in town, who -- like most others who were interviewed -- spoke only on condition of anonymity.

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- Now it becomes an act of persuasion. Gov. William Donald Schaefer and the would-be owner of the team, Alfred Lerner, go before the National Football League tomorrow to determine Baltimore's fate for an expansion franchise. What they have to say will go a long way toward determining if they win or lose.Three long-established club owners, one in the East, another in the Midwest and a third in the far West, have mentioned during the past month the possibility that if there's a deadlock on the expansion site they will propose taking one additional city and name it for the future.

The NFL owners know the name, but not the man.That's about the best way to describe their knowledge of Alfred Lerner, the minority owner of the Cleveland Browns who is now heading the Baltimore effort to get an NFL expansion franchise.Most of the owners had little to say about Lerner and even those who know him fairly well were reluctant to say if he would sway their vote Tuesday when Baltimore, St. Louis, Jacksonville, Fla., or Memphis, Tenn., is expected to be named the NFL's 30th team.

An Israeli play so controversial it has never been produced in the playwright's native land will highlight the 2005-2006 Center Stage season. Motti Lerner's The Murder of Isaac takes place in a rehabilitation center where patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder stage a play based on the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Calling it "provocative" and "very original," Center Stage artistic director Irene Lewis acknowledged, "I don't think many theaters would touch it."

Alfred Lerner, the new chairman of troubled MNC Financial Inc., has a knack for simple, direct statements."I'm trying to get this place fixed," Lerner said about his new job at the helm of the state's largest bank. "I'm just trying to make a living."In his characteristic low-key manner, Lerner has taken on the task of trying to turn around the parent of Maryland National Bank, a bank-holding company that ranks as the nation's 27th largest. In the second quarter, the company lost $74.7 million.

Alfred Lerner, chairman and chief executive of MNC Financial Inc., has won a partial victory in his bid to acquire more than 25 percent of the region's largest banking company.The Federal Reserve Board, which regulates bank holding companies, ruled this week that Mr. Lerner and the Progressive Corp., a Cleveland-based insurance company of which Mr. Lerner is chairman, could increase their combined stakes to beyond the 25 percent threshold.But the total stake held by Progressive, Mr. Lerner and an investment company he controls, The Maybaco Co., cannot reach beyond 29.9 percent without further regulatory approval, the Fed ruled in a letter dated Wednesday.

Alfred Lerner, chairman and chief executive officer of MNC Financial Inc., told shareholders today that he "hopes and expects" MNC to be profitable in the last three months of the year.He also told reporters after the company's annual meeting that MNC "has a shot" at paying dividends sometime in 1992. Dividends were dropped in the 1990 fourth quarter.MNC, the parent of Maryland National Bank, is the largest bank holding company in the state. The company last year lost $439.5 million, or $5.23 a share, primarily because of bad commercial real estate loans.