NEWS
January 29, 2012
The proposal to rapidly overhaul Baltimore's aging school facilities that district CEO Andrés Alonso presented to a state Senate committee last week represents one of the most important and innovative ideas the city has offered in recent years to break out of its cycle of poverty and disinvestment. Baltimore cannot flourish without high-quality public schools, and although students have made impressive gains in recent years, the city will not be able to attract and retain families if children are trying to learn in dilapidated facilities.
BUSINESS
Eileen Ambrose | November 23, 2011
Upromise, the program where you earn cash rewards to pay for college by shopping at participating merchants, is upping the ante on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If you shop at one of the more than 900 merchants through the Upromise site, you could earn between 1 and 25 percent back, Upromise says. Plus, some merchants are doubling rebates or giving a 10 percent rebate on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the rest of the holiday season. Signing up for Upromise is free.
NEWS
By Michael K. Wyatt and James C. Howard | November 7, 2011
In his Sept. 8 speech on jobs, President Barack Obama repeated the conventional wisdom that small businesses create most new jobs. Like a lot of conventional wisdom, this does not fully capture the real dynamics of the situation. A 2010 article published by three University of Maryland economists led by John Haltiwanger revealed that when they controlled data for the age of a company, there was no indication that small companies outperformed large companies in creating new jobs. The key factor was age: new start-up companies were the vehicle for generating new jobs.
NEWS
By Sandy Apgar | August 1, 2011
The rancorous debate over the federal budget has obscured a central fact: The U.S. military has accomplished the near-impossible feat of reducing taxpayers' costs with bipartisan support in a large, complex, national program that nearly everyone admires. The program, named Residential Communities Initiative (RCI), is modeled on Columbia, Jim Rouse's pioneering city that combines housing, jobs, shops and recreation. One of the first RCI projects, in Fort Meade, is now home to 2,600 military families.
SPORTS
By Ken Murray, The Baltimore Sun | March 15, 2011
When NFL players waged a 24-day strike at the start of the 1987 season, Phillip Closius gained front-row insight as a law school professor and player agent. He saw the players' movement collapse in September when Pro Bowl stars like Joe Montana and Tony Dorsett crossed the picket line. He saw the players routed by the owners with replacement players. He saw the face of desperation. "I know what tensions are like on players when they start losing paychecks," Closius said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
By Lorraine Mirabella, The Baltimore Sun | October 8, 2010
Maryland will get $23 million in federal funding to spur small business lending and help companies in the state expand and create jobs, state economic development officials and the U.S. Department of the Treasury said Thursday. The funding, available through an initiative of the newly enacted federal Small Business Jobs Act, is designed to leverage a total $230 million in financing for small businesses and expected to create or retain thousands of jobs, said Christian S. Johansson, secretary of the state Department of Business and Economic Development.