Make Money

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have impeached the Constitution.It does seem a shame that a candidate for mayor of Bawlmer must live here when most Bawlmerns don't.Bill is flying off to Gaza and Masada where a stab in the back is the least of his worries.No matter how broke poor old Bawlmer gets, there will be people who contrive to make money off it.Pub Date: 12/11/98

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more," I say, quoting Shakespeare's Henry V, the breach being not the hole in the wall at Harfleur, but the gap between who Marylanders are as recyclers and who we could be. How's that for reducing a fine literary allusion into a mundane practicality? But I mean well. I'm talking about the gap between being pretty good recyclers of bottles and cans and being nearly excellent recyclers of same. Into that breach comes the bottle-deposit bill, now before the General Assembly.

Evidence is finally available to the public that President Nixon ordered an illegal break-in that never occurred.Attention, mayors! Vacancy at Housing. Keep resumes brief. Omit embarrassments.Bill discovered on his travels a country where they don't let overseas Chinese bankers buy political influence. It's China.Bawlamer is in trouble when the best way to make money in property is to burn it down.Pub Date: 11/25/96

Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to require handgun licenses would make the state more than twice as much as it would cost to administer the program, according to a Department of Legislative Services analysis released Monday night. The analysis is the first independent look the costs of licensing, which advocates call the most effective and the most controversial piece of O'Malley's sweeping gun proposal.  Requiring a license to buy a handgun in Maryland would generate $3.8 million for Maryland in its first year, after the Maryland State Police hires 22 people to help implement the program.

MOSCOW -- Casting himself as just an old businessman, President Bush departed from two days of high-level political talks to tell aspiring Soviet wheeler-dealers how to set their country right.Think American, the president said during a new phenomenon here -- the breakfast meeting. Take risks, he said. Remember that can-do attitude.The wheeler-dealers ate it up."This is just what we need," said Alexander Vladislavlev, a Soviet people's deputy and executive vice president of the League of the Scientific and Industrial Association of the U.S.S.

How does Johnny Rotten feel about the Sex Pistols reunion tour? We caught up with him by phone recently, and here's what he had to say:How is it on the road?It's a form of madness, touring.Is it enjoyable madness?The actual gigs are, but the rest of it is a nightmare. I like being onstage, but I can't stand the waiting beforehand, because I get extremely nervous.Really?Well, I always want to do the best I can, and I don't like feeling that I could be letting people down. Because I do believe in giving value for money.

In my family when I was growing up, my mother handled the money.When it came to dollars, she was tightfisted and tenacious, an early guerrilla-style family consumer advocate that no one -- trust me on this -- would ever wish to cross.Pity the financial adviser/retailer/service purveyer who tried to put something over on her.We would stand back aghast at the culprit's poor judgment as we awaited the irrevocable onslaught of justice which Mom would summon upon him.To my father, this was great theater and he loved every minute of it. To him, keeping track of family money and investments was a task that he happily shared or handed over altogether.

In my family when I was growing up, my mother handled the money.When it came to dollars, she was tight-fisted and tenacious, an early guerrilla-style family consumer advocate that no one -- trust me on this -- would ever wish to cross.Pity the financial adviser/retailer/service purveyor who tried to put something over on her. We would stand back, aghast at the culprit's poor judgment as we awaited the irrevocable onslaught of justice that Mom would summon upon him.For my father, this was great theater and he loved every minute of it. To him, keeping track of family money and investments was a task that he happily shared or handed over altogether.

The man sitting next to me at the busy lunch counter was visibly annoyed. "I've been waiting over five minutes," he said, turning to me. "How long does it take to put some soup in a bowl and carry it out here?"Too long, apparently.The man who mistook his waitress for a servant got up and left in a huff. But not before unloading a parting shot: "Time is money," he said in an angry voice, one loud enough to be heard by everyone at the counter.It was the second time in a week I'd heard that philosophy expressed: Time is money.

Just over a year ago, longtime blogger Jason Kottke announced that he was quitting his Web design job and planned to work full time on his Web site, kottke.org. For revenue, Kottke decided to try a bold experiment: Instead of adding advertisements to his very popular site, the Brooklyn resident decided to hold a three-week fund drive. "I'm asking the regular readers of kottke.org (that's you!) to become micropatrons of kottke.org by contributing a moderate sum of money to help enable me to edit/write/design/code the site for one year on a full-time basis," he wrote at the time.

UPDATE (11 a.m. Nov. 29): Jeff Zucker named head of CNN Of all the major executive, talent and programming moves that CNN has made in the last few years, the expected announcement of Jeff Zucker as the president of CNN Worldwide looks like one of the best. Of course, when you're comparing that to, say, giving the 8 p.m. hour each night to Eliot Spitzer, that might not be such high praise. Seriously, this is a decision that truly matters -- not just for CNN and Time Warner, but for the future of TV journalism.

Whose traffic camera system is bigger? D.C. or Baltimore's? In the Baltimore Sun's speed camera investigation published Sunday, Xerox State & Local Solutions, Baltimore's speed camera vendor, called the city's automated traffic enforcement system the largest in North America. That figure included both red light and speed cameras. The next morning, the mayor's office challenged that claim and sent out a news release comparing Baltimore's cameras with the District's. It did not send the release to the Sun reporters who had authored the article.

What makes the University of Maryland's move to the Big Ten look like such a winner is the school's participation in the Big Ten Network, one of collegiate sports' most successful and savvy TV operations, with its audience of 80 million homes. At least, that's what economists and TV executives were saying Monday as the school announced its 2014 departure from the Atlantic Coast Conference, which it had helped charter in 1953. "TV didn't matter in 1953," said media economist Douglas Gomery, a professor emeritus of journalism at College Park.

Maybe the best way to cut through all the spin and counterspin on the Olympics is this: Last week, NBC was saying it would lose money on the Olympics. Yesterday, it said it might break even. Today, the network is saying it could turn a profit on the $1.18 billion investment. "Yeah, we think there's a small chance, a chance we could make a little bit of money over the next couple of weeks," Mark Lazarus, chairman of the NBC Sports Group, said in a conference call from London Thursday when asked if the network might turn a profit on the games.

Baltimore stakeholders continue to push for solutions to the high number of vacant and boarded-up houses that dot the city. The latest effort, " Baltimore Builds Expo : Restoring value to Baltimore's vacant property," is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 9. Admission is free, but guests must register by calling 410-396-4111. Check out the website for information. The event will be held at the Westside Skills Center, 501 North Athol Avenue in Baltimore's Allendale neighborhood.

Apparently pay-phone owners make money when certain toll-free numbers are called. So this guy programmed his phones to repeatedly call the numbers. Similar to robo-clicking on blog sites, only a little more direct. And more lucrative. Pay phones are a dying business, but Mr. Kantartzis seems to have found a way to revive them. Temporarily. From the Associated Press, via the Daily Record :  Nicolaos Kantartzis pleaded guilty in September to using more than 100 pay phones to make phantom calls to toll-free numbers, some 8 million calls in all. Because the calls are free to legitimate users, the party getting the call must pay costs that include a cut for the pay phone operator.

Is it possible that your career may hurt your children? A thoughtful article in Fortune, dated today, supplies some answers.Excerpts: "According to a University of Maryland study, parents spend on average only about 17 hours per week with their children. . . Mommy often gets home from work too tired to talk. Daddy's almost never around. . . Because children are the future, America could be headed for bad bumps down the road. . . We pay child-care workers less than zoo keepers, and expect them to do wonders.

What lies ahead for the U.S. economy? Will it remain strong? Or will it collapse? Will all the Internet billionaires go broke and be forced to use their Palm Pilots to kill rats for food? Wouldn't that be great? To answer these questions, we need to understand how the U.S. economy works. We'll start by following an imaginary dollar bill on its fascinating journey as it circulates through our economic system: Our dollar is "born" in the U.S. Mint when a blank piece of paper goes into a printing press and comes out with a picture of George Washington and a pyramid with a weird eyeball.

I read that the proposal to subsidize the property taxes of developers and others who "build green" has passed. However, our community newspaper has never reported on how the shortfall in county income will be made up. Thanks for pointing out that we taxpayers have already coughed up half a million bucks to developers. I would also like to know why our council thought it was OK for we property tax payers to subsidize commercial developers with said half a million dollars.

It's difficult to know whether to be more insulted or admiring of Penn National Gaming's latest effort to milk the residents of Maryland (and perhaps some surrounding states) for all they are worth. For sheer chutzpah, it's hard to beat a company that releases not one but two consultants' studies revealing that turning Rosecroft Raceway into a massive casino could be extremely profitable for - drum roll, please - - Penn National Gaming. Well, duh. Was there some doubt lingering in the public's mind that installing thousands of slot machines as well as possible table games in a brand-new facility in the Washington suburbs might generate much in the way of jobs or revenue?