NEWS
February 17, 2009
Try as they might, Maryland prison officials can't keep inmates from their addictions. That's keenly apparent from the drugs and paraphernalia found among the home-made weapons, cell phones and other contraband recovered in prison shakedowns. Corrections officials estimate that 80 percent of the state's 23,000 inmates have a drug problem. But the state can treat only about 3,300 inmates. That imbalance can't be overcome soon. At the same time, untreated addictions keep prisoners at high risk of reoffending upon release.
NEWS
By PETER SCHMUCK | December 19, 2008
Once again, it appears the Orioles have overplayed their hand in seeking a spring training site, assuming they had enough leverage to squeeze whatever they wanted out of one of the cities that recently lost its major league tenant. They might be able to go back to Vero Beach next month and resume negotiations, but it appears they might be doomed to a lesser deal than they could have gotten if they had been more decisive. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/schmuckblog)
NEWS
By David Zurawick | December 5, 2008
Corporations have all the power, all the money, Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton) tells a weeping mother at the end of the pilot for a series premiering Sunday night on TNT. "We provide [pause] leverage." So begins Leverage, a Mission Impossible-type series of a band of merry pranksters - hackers, grifters, escape artists and thieves - assembled to right the wrongs of society with high-tech tools. There is nothing new or exciting about the team, which is mainly done as caricature. There's the immature computer hacker who drinks orange soda, the femme fatale who seduces men into deals they shouldn't make, and an escape artist who is blond and lithe and seems to have studied every one of Uma Thurman's moves.
NEWS
By RON SMITH | September 24, 2008
In brooding about the current financial meltdown, the question occurs: Why is it we are supposed to believe that the same "experts" who led us down the path to financial ruin are capable of constructing strategies, policies and bailouts that will turn us around and head us toward solvency? It makes no sense. We are assured that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is on top of things because he won his spurs as a scholar of the Great Depression. This isn't a replay of the 1930s, though; it's something new, something perhaps even bigger.
NEWS
By Rolfe Winkler | September 21, 2008
Will it ever end? For more than a year, the financial system has struggled to function, stricken as it is with economic Ebola. Cash is the only cure, and banks have raised almost $400 billion. That's not nearly enough, however, so the federal government has committed to various bailouts that will cost hundreds of billions over time. The most expensive yet - a new super-agency to buy bad debt - may eventually cost north of $1 trillion. As bad as the situation is, we're in deeper trouble than most realize.
NEWS
By DAVID STEELE | May 29, 2008
By all indications, Joe Flacco's enforced absence from the latest Ravens minicamp at the Castle isn't going to throw the new regime's plans out of whack. He's not allowed to be here this week, but the Ravens inserted a camp in a couple of weeks to make up for it. As for any contract problems delaying his arrival in training camp in July, nothing about the early stages of negotiations raises red flags. "They have a ton of leverage," Joe Linta, Flacco's agent, said yesterday, "and we have a ton of leverage.
NEWS
By Tom Petruno | February 18, 2007
History isn't supposed to repeat, but investors this year may have the feeling that they've been here before. U.S. and most foreign stock markets are off to a strong start, the same as in 2006. And Wall Street's primary obsession remains whether the Federal Reserve is finished tightening credit. When Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke testified before Congress last week, much of his commentary was right in line with the economic "soft landing" forecast that underlies the bullish case for stocks.
NEWS
By Edward Lee | November 11, 2006
Of the things you can't question about defensive tackle Kelly Gregg - like his relentlessness, his passion and his significance to the Ravens - add another no-no: his toughness. On a second down and 10 from the Cincinnati Bengals' 27-yard line Sunday, running back Rudi Johnson took a handoff toward the middle of the line of scrimmage before bouncing to the left and getting tackled by Gregg and linebacker Adalius Thomas after a 5-yard gain. During the play, Johnson's knee hit Gregg's helmet, and the 6-foot, 310-pound lineman appeared to sway after standing up. Although Gregg returned to the line in anticipation of the next play, Ravens coaches ordered him off the field.
NEWS
By EDWARD LEE | October 30, 2005
The Washington Redskins' statement game today will end in either an exclamation point or a question mark. Washington travels to the Meadowlands to meet the New York Giants at 1 p.m. in a game that could go a long way toward determining who has a foothold in the contentious NFC East. Redskins@Giants Today, 1 p.m., chs. 45, 5, 1430 AM, 106.7 FM Line: Giants by 2
NEWS
By Gregory Karp | June 26, 2005
Negotiating the best price on goods and services can be an art form. And unless you're in a bartering business, you may feel inept at haggling. For tips, we turned to two professional negotiators. Both are certified purchasing managers and members of the Institute for Supply Management: Jim Haining, director of procurement at Insituform Technologies, a sewer-repair company near St. Louis, and Carol Marks, director of purchasing for an Industrial Distribution Group facility in Belmont, N.C. Have a plan.