Maryland

In a recent column, Dan Rodricks essentially excoriated corporate CEOs for whining about Maryland ("Complaining CEOs need to take a hike," May 8). OK, he feels that they make too much money, that's his right, and it falls exactly in line with the thinking in the halls of both Annapolis, and Washington, D.C. It's those "greedy capitalists" again. When will they ever have enough? Fast forward to a more letter to the editor ("Ignore business climate at our peril," May 11) in which a reader notes that Baltimore is no longer the home city for corporate offices of a single Fortune 500 company!

While the latest update of the Baltimore Sun public salary database continues a long-running trend of university head coaches out-earning their academic counterparts, those who oversee academic medical programs aren't exactly suffering. Coaches Randy Edsall, Ralph Friedgen, Brenda Frese and Mark Turgeon filled out the top pay slots, making a total of just over $5.7 million in 2011 (the second of the two years covered by the update), but University of Maryland medical school administrators were not far behind: The remainder of the top ten earners comprised university staff, with an average compensation of $759,029 for the year in question*.

The world's billionaires include nine from Maryland, according to Forbes magazine's latest ranking of the world's richest people. The magazine lists 1,226 billionaires worth $4.6 trillion - both record figures. Maryland's billionaires include the president and CEO of Baltimore-based Under Armour, Kevin Plank, the youngest of the group at 39, with a net worth of $1.1 billion. Baltimore Ravens owner Stephen Bisciotti, 51, worth $1.4 billion, and Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, with a net worth of $1.1 billion, also made the list.

Amazon.com customers in Maryland are now able to cozy up with both a book and a bottle of wine purchased from the online retailer. On Friday, Maryland joined the 12 other states (and Washington, D.C.) that have access to delivery from "Amazon Wine," a service launched last month that "features easy-to-use shopping tools to help customers ... explore great wines at a modest price point," according to a statement from Amazon. "When customersshopon Amazon Wine, they can narrow search results to meet their personal tastes, enabling them to discover new wines and find long-time favorites," Amazon's statement said.

The GMAC Insurance National Driver Test continues to rate Maryland a bottom-10 state for "Licensed Drivers Knowledge of Basic Road Rules. " And like Maryland, numerous Northern states, such as Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, were part of the bottom 10. Nearby Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia scored higher, and are not part of the bottom 10. To me, Maryland's problem is a culture of political stubbornness in not weeding out thousands...

There is no doubt that fracking has created many needed jobs for the economy. However, wouldn't it be more sensible to see what possible damages fracking could do to the environment before we began doing it instead of just barging ahead for profit? I guess it is the American attitude of "shoot first and ask questions later. " Clem Gavenas, Carney Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Maryland is one of three schools hoping to land Jacquille Veii on Signing Day. A former Terps commitment, Veii recently picked up an offer from Nebraska. The Avalon School athlete will visit Lincoln this weekend and choose between Iowa, Maryland and Nebraska on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post . “The meeting with Coach Edsall went great; I learned new things about him and he's an awesome guy,” Veii said. “I just told him that since I had already seen Maryland and not Nebraska, I needed to visit Nebraska so I could make the best decision in the end.” ** MaxPreps.com caught up with Terps quarterback commitment Shane Cockerille , who will play in the International Bowl next week . "It feels absolutely great," said the 6-foot-2, 205-pound quarterback who will lead the under-19 USA national team in a Tuesday showdown with a World Team in the fourth-annual International Bowl.

Thanks for a balanced op-ed page on Jan. 4 when you had Gov. Martin O'Malley patting himself on the back for his meaningless and justly-forgotten "Believe" campaign ("O'Malley: believing worked") right next to Marta Mossburg's intelligent commentary with suggestions that could actually improve the state of Maryland ("Md. needs fewer laws, not more"). One would hope that the former writer would take a break from his voodoo financial funds-shifting and gerrymandering and read the latter one's suggestions.