Merchants

Anthony Steven "Tony" Zyna, a retired National Brewing Co. mechanic and member of the merchant marine who was sent to a Soviet concentration camp during World War II, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease June 18 at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 88 and lived in Cockeysville. Born Anthony Zinowski in New Britain, Conn., and raised in New Haven, he left his home at 14 and later joined the Navy. A medical disability — a punctured eardrum — forced him to leave the service and he then joined the merchant marine during World War II. He served aboard the Liberty Ship Barbara Frietchie, as well as the Glenpool and the Paoli.

Every day, millions of Americans make purchases with a credit or debit card. And most consumers think nothing of showing their driver's license when a merchant requests it. Maybe people are security-conscious; maybe they're going with the flow. But what isn't commonly known, consumer advocates say, is that they usually don't have to show ID. MasterCard and Visa rules state that a retailer can't decline a sale because a consumer refuses to present additional identification. That makes Alex Rostorotski's story all the more vexing.

Baltimore merchants and residents have mounted a grass-roots campaign against proposed funding cuts to the city's Main Streets program, warning they could be devastating to small businesses and neighborhoods just as many are struggling to recover from the recession. Opposition to the proposed cuts has been building since the Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development agency, indicated in March that four of 10 Main Streets initiatives may be "graduated," or dropped from the program, starting in July.

The nation's retail recovery continued in April, albeit at a more sluggish pace than in recent months. Sales at major chain stores increased 0.5 percent compared with the same month a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters' tally of 28 retailers. That was below the 1.7 percent increase that analysts had projected. An earlier Easter this year and poor weather in some parts of the country led to weaker sales than in March, when retail sales soared 9.1 percent. Because of the Easter shift, industry experts said that it was important to look at the combined March-April period.

Charles Bowman lost his life in a robbery that netted his attackers just $13. He was 72 years old, a veteran of the Vietnam War, a retired truck driver for a moving company and an overnight security guard at the Afro American newspaper in Charles Village. Nearly every working day, he left his corner rowhouse on East 33rd Street in Northeast Baltimore and ordered dinner at the Yau Bros. carryout on Greenmount Avenue. Relatives said he was such a fixture there that he simply ordered "the usual" - pork ya ka mein - though he shoved the pork aside and ate only the egg and noodles.

Charles Bowman lost his life in a robbery that netted his attackers just $13. He was 72 years old, a veteran of the Vietnam War, a retired truck driver for a moving company and an overnight security guard at the Afro American newspaper in Charles Village. Nearly every working day, he left his corner rowhouse on East 33rd Street in Northeast Baltimore and ordered dinner at the Yau Bros. carryout on Greenmount Avenue. Relatives said he was such a fixture there that he simply ordered "the usual" — pork ya ka mein — though he shoved the pork aside and ate only the egg and noodles.

Joseph John Carbo, a retired merchant ship engineer who sailed around the world 14 times and later put his engine room expertise to work as a longtime volunteer aboard the Liberty ship John W. Brown, died Sunday at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The longtime West Towson resident was 82. Mr. Carbo, who was born and raised in South Philadelphia within sight of the Delaware River and the ships steaming in and out of port, was the son of a shipbuilder and a homemaker. During World War I, his father worked at American International Shipbuilding's Hog Island shipyard, and after the war at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

After years of debating whether to ban disposable plastic store bags or slap a fee on them, the Baltimore City Council appears poised now to try fighting the city's litter problem with half a ban. Under a bill endorsed by a council committee Tuesday, food sellers would be given a choice of offering only paper bags or encouraging their customers to cut back on or recycle the plastic ones. James B. Kraft, chairman of the Judiciary and Legislative Investigations panel, said the measure should overcome objections store owners have to an outright bag ban or fee, which the panel had been considering since 2008.

Food stores and restaurants in Baltimore would be barred from giving away disposable plastic bags under a bill to be considered by City Council, unless the merchants join a program to encourage their customers to recycle or shop with reusable bags. Putting aside earlier proposals to ban disposable plastic bags outright or levy a 25-cent fee on them, the council's Judiciary and Legislative Investigations Committee approved, 3-0 with two members absent, what members have dubbed a "mandatory-voluntary" approach.

When you can take the time to get your eyebrows plucked, you know things are getting back to normal. That's what Virginia Scott did Saturday, two days after being marooned at home in Greenspring Valley, alone and without electricity for more than 12 hours, by the second winter storm in less than a week. When the worst was over, Scott, a retired teacher in the Baltimore schools, treated herself to the luxury of a visit to a salon in Mount Washington Village, all the wiser from the experience of having been powerless and stranded.