Modernization

WASHINGTON -- Although grandiose plans often go awry, even partial success for the Internal Revenue Service's $8 billion modernization effort will bring visibly big improvements for the nation's 100 million-plus taxpayers.Did you misplace the copy of the return you filed last year ago just when you need to document an application for college financial aid? The IRS, which now has a 45-day target to respond to such requests but misses it in one case out of three, expects to be able to supply a copy within 24 hours.

Let me start with this: If not for the absurd war on drugs — by far, the nation's longest war — we would not have had so many killings on the streets of Baltimore over the years. The United States leads the world in incarceration. Without the war on drugs, thousands of men and women would be home with their families instead of in cellblocks; they might even be employed. There would be less social dysfunction and community upheaval. There would be less crime overall. If not for the war on drugs, now in its fifth decade, we would not have gangsters, like the reputed Black Guerrilla Family leaders Eric Brown and Tavon White.

WASHINGTON -- Reflecting growing concern over recent reductions in defense spending, the United States' top military leaders have warned that the Pentagon must boost its budget for weapons modernization sooner than planned or risk eroding military preparedness.In a memo to Defense Secretary William J. Perry, the military service chiefs recommend increasing the modernization budget to $60 billion a year by fiscal 1998, rather than fiscal 2000, as currently anticipated. The budget currently stands at $39 billion.

"Deep" and "sitcom" are not words often used in the same sentence. But a visit to the "VEEP" soundstage in Columbia gave a glimpse of the larger cultural power of this savvy satire from HBO, returning for its second season Sunday night. I also came away dazzled by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who last year won an Emmy as best comedic actress for her portrayal of Vice President Selina Meyer. "VEEP" drills as far down into the state of the national psyche as any TV comedy has in the past 30 years.

WASHINGTON -- Despite recent criticism over costly congressional perquisites, the Senate is proceeding with an $18 million plan to modernize the subway shuttle that carries lawmakers, staff and tourists a few blocks from nearby office buildings to the Capitol.Under plans approved three years ago by the Senate Rules and Appropriations committees, four automated cars will replace operator-run vehicles on the line between the Senate and its Hart and Dirksen office buildings by the end of 1994.

Reaching the Internal Revenue Service by phone rarely has been easy. But several years ago callers to the Buffalo, N.Y., office had more trouble than usual.The Treasury Department investigated and found that IRS telephones "may have been set so that false busy signals registered when taxpayers called the office."But that was the old IRS, agency officials insist now. There's a new one on order. Say goodbye to the uncaring, overworked paper shuffler of years past. Say hello to a customer-friendly computer whiz.

ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS are busy at the U.S. Naval Academy, examing old buildings and calculating cost estimates. When they are finished, the academy hopes to launch one of the biggest renovation drives in its history.A total of 13 buildings, some of them dating to the turn of the century, are to be modernized. Twenty-three small storage buildings, including World War II-era Quonset huts, are to be razed. "We are just into initial planning stages right now," says academy spokesman Capt. Tom Jurkowski.

WASHINGTON - The ranks of the military are now about as small as they are going to get. So the Pentagon is busily turning to its next priority: modernizing its arsenal.It's a ritual that recurs almost every decade with the rhythm of war World War II in the 1940s, Korea in the 1950s, Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, the Cold War spanning the decades and the Persian Gulf war in the 1990s.After each major conflict, the defense budget is routinely cut, almost as if the most recent war is assuredly the last one. The world, of course, doesn't always cooperate.

The Pentagon has picked Aberdeen Proving Ground as one of four defense research centers in the nation to participate in a planned $1.4 billion program to modernize the military's advanced computers.Proving ground researchers use "supercomputers" to develop weaponry and other materiel. The modernization program announced this week will allow the replacement of outdated equipment, officials said.Aberdeen scientists have been involved in developing advanced computers for nearly 50 years, including the ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator, the world's first electronic digital computer.

WHEN ORIOLES OWNER Peter G. Angelos acquired One Charles Center a year ago, he bought more than a 22-story office tower. He bought the cornerstone of a 1950s revitalization campaign that produced the city's first modern office campus and paved the way for the transformation of the Inner Harbor.Just think: The 1961 groundbreaking for One Charles Center marked the first time since the late 1920s that a major building was under construction in downtown Baltimore.Mr. Angelos, a young lawyer and member of the City Council in those days, remembers all the excitement.

A state plan to tie medical spending to the growth of the economy is making hospital executives uneasy. Executives support the spirit of the plan proposed by the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which seeks to reduce health spending by shifting patient care away from their facilities and toward more outpatient and preventive care. But they worry that its spending goals are too aggressive, and that they can't be attained in the time period the state has laid out. And they say it lacks necessary details on key elements, including how hospitals can be expected to limit spending increases to state economic growth.

Walking through a giant hall in the Baltimore Convention Center, Susan Johnson and Sherry Mills stopped to admire a bronze-and-steel sculpture with water cascading out of it. "I need this," Mills said. "You may want to come around this side first," Johnson said, nodding at a sticker announcing the water feature's $18,000 price. The sculpture by San Francisco artist Michael Szabo was among the many pricey items at the American Craft Council show this weekend. Others among the 650 crafts people at the event were showing high-end jewelry, paintings, furniture and glassware, with prices reaching into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Anna Di Pierno's little charmer of a restaurant has been around for about seven years, operating under the name Pasta Blitz. If you go looking for it, though, look for Il Basilico. Di Pierno has taken a deliberate approach to the name change, but the transition is almost complete. The neon sign above the restaurant, located in a Timonium strip mall, still carries the old name, but virtually everything inside is now emblazoned with the Il Basilico logo. The menu has been changing gradually, too. The main part still consists of Italian-American favorites - lots of them - things like veal Parmigiana, homemade lasagna Bolognese and chicken cacciatore.

Baltimore native Jason Winer will deliver the commencement address May 10 at Stevenson University, the school announced this week. Here's the release: Baltimore-born actor and Hollywood director Jason Winer will give the keynote address at Stevenson University's 60th Commencement on Friday, May 10, 2013. Winner of the 2010 Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award for Outstanding Direction of a Comedy Series for the pilot of ABC's Modern Family, Winer was named one of Variety's 2011 “10 Directors to Watch.” A graduate of Baltimore's Friends School and of Northwestern University, Winer is an alumnus of Chicago's Improv Olympic Theatre and began his career as an actor, improvisor, and photographer before making the transition to directing with the short film The Adventures of Big Handsome Guy and His Little Friend in 2005.

Pimlico is home to some of the most exhilarating and important horse races in history. It annually hosts the Preakness, the second stop on the road to the Triple Crown and primary revenue-driver for its ownership group. As the Maryland Jockey Club charts its future, though, the immediate focus appears to be on its lesser-known track. In a preliminary capital improvement plan submitted to the state late last week and made public Tuesday, the Jockey Club outlined a plan to essentially rebuild Laurel Park as a mixed-use development featuring retail and a hotel surrounding the track.

As Barack Obama prepares to be sworn in for the second time as president of the United States, he faces the stark reality that little of what he hopes to accomplish in a second term will likely come to pass. Mr. Obama occupies an office that many assume to be all powerful, but like so many of his recent predecessors, the president knows better. He faces a political capital problem and a power trap. In the post-1960s American political system, presidents have found the exercise of effective leadership a difficult task.

A poor management record has cost the Anne Arundel Housing Authoritymillions of dollars in grants to repair and modernize its housing projects.Citing the agency's difficulties with previous grants, theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rejected a request for $5 million last August, allocating only emergency money for improvements.Four months later, HUD officials in Baltimore also rejected the agency's long-range plan for improvements -- the cornerstone for securing grants for renovations.

Charity begins at home. Home for the Hunt family of Brooklyn Park, however, has been Harbor Hospital Center for at least three generations and 40 years.The late Irene Hunt and her husband Donald, of Brooklyn Park, devoted 36 years of service to the institution; she, as a night supervisor, and he, a security guard.Their children, too, have had positions varying from secretarial to nursing. Feeling such affection for the institution, the Hunt children and grandchildren have donated a generous gift to the hospital's Modernization Fund in memory of their parents.

Daniel Reed's flair for decorating and interior design - especially during the holiday season - is immediately evident at the front door of his very modern duplex in Baltimore's Clipper Mill development. To visit this home is to slip into a winter wonderland; a fantasy in light, color and motion. "Wait until you get inside," said the 44-year-old president of his own design firm. "I love decorating for Christmas. " He doesn't exaggerate. Imagine seeing the most beautifully embellished department store window and being able to walk through the glass and become a part of that other-worldly tableau.

As more people occupy the same amount of land, things change. A generation or two ago, it was perfectly OK in Harford County to burn garbage and maintain a residential dumping pit on a rural property. It isn't all that long ago that the sewage system and stormwater system in Havre de Grace were one in the same, both emptying into the Susquehanna River largely untreated. Indeed, the city continues to deal with issues of separating the storm drains from sewerage lines under the roadways.