Money

Roberto Pagan-Franco didn't have a bank account for decades. His employer paid him in cash or with a check that the Baltimore resident took to a check-cashing store. A few years ago he lost his job after a severe illness and for a time was homeless. Not exactly the type of customer you'd expect a big bank to court. But Pagan-Franco enrolled in a PNC Bank program that targets consumers who otherwise might be shut out of the banking system. And today, the 54-year-old has checking and savings accounts at PNC and is in the process of getting a credit card.

My response to your editorial "Citizens United II" (May 22) is get real. Do you really think that the justices "fail to grasp that spending by a super PAC on behalf of candidates amounts to something little different than giving them money directly," or, "surely the justices are capable of recognizing their mistake"? Citizens United is no mistake; the justices knew exactly what they were doing. Michael Brown, Columbia

Maryland Live! Casino at Arundel Mills will have its grand opening at 10 p.m. June 6, casino officials announced Thursday morning. The grand opening still requires approval by the Maryland Lottery, which will oversee a trial run to take place before June 6. The announcement comes as the state slots commission on Thursday considers a bid to open a casino in Rocky Gap, in Western Maryland, by Evitts Resort LLC. The commission also has yet...

It's deja vu at Sparrows Point. The Baltimore County plant once again faces wholesale layoffs and a possible sale. The same story has played out every couple of years for the past decade at the steel plant, whose future remains in limbo. The revolving pattern of new owners and layoffs that began when longtime owner Bethlehem Steel declared bankruptcy in 2001 leaves some questioning how much more the Sparrows Point plant can take and remain viable. "How many lives does a mill have?"

Hundreds of people lined up on sun-drenched asphalt Saturday to see if they could get regular payouts, in the form of paychecks, from the new Maryland Live! Casino, a slots casino scheduled to open at Arundel Mills mall in about three months. "I hope I get lucky enough to get a position," said Mark Ellison, who's from West Baltimore. "They want people who are willing to go the extra mile so customers come in and enjoy spending their money. " The operators of what will be the state's largest casino hosted a job fair Saturday with the Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corp.

Mike Smith appeared dazed in the moments after his horse, Bodemeister, was again beaten by Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another - this time by a neck in Saturday's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course . The veteran jockey wore the frozen smile of a man hardly able to fathom what had just transpired. "I swear I don't know how he ran me down, man," Smith said after trainer Bob Baffert approached in the fading sunlight. "You did a good job," the 59-year-old trainer told the 46-year-old jockey, a fellow Hall of Famer and former Preakness winner who recently passed 5,000 career victories.

Albert Lord doesn't like to wait - not in business or on the golf course. The colorful chairman of student loan behemoth Sallie Mae, who's embroiled in a nasty fight over the failed sale of the company, has spent 40 years in the accounting and banking industries. He said that experience should have instilled in him a measure of patience, but it hasn't. Whether in traffic, at the office or on the links, Lord said, he just doesn't like to wait. He can't do much about the first two, but he's got a sure-fire solution for the last one: He's building his own, an 18-hole golf course on land he's acquired amid shuttered tobacco farms and grazing horses in southern Anne Arundel County.

I don't understand why taxes keep going up. They say it's for schools and infrastructure, but if the United States would just cut back on military spending, the money for schools and roads would be there without having to raise taxes on Americans. We have troops in almost every country in the world, but why? We probably only need to be in half of them, and on top of that we're spending massive amounts on technology. Perhaps if we pulled out of a couple of countries and cut military spending a little, life at home would improve.

At least I'm not the only one! Eileen described in her Sunday column about unclaimed property databases how a family acquaintance had spotted her husband's name on an Indiana attorney general website, reminding them to collect more than $1,200 in a long-forgotten bank account. Have any of you ever tipped off a friend or relative that they had some money coming to them? I've periodically checked my own name in the search engine on missingmoney.com with no hits, but in March I must have been bored, because I also ran my parents and sister through the system.

The millions that politicians are spending for campaign ads is not only annoying to TV audiences but also a disgraceful waste of money that could be used to feed homeless, fix the Maryland budget shortfall, or last but not least, fund medical research into cures for cancer or some other disease. Most of these ads do not even pertain to me. I can't vote for Andy Harris or Frank Kratovil, and I don't live in Anne Arundel County, so I can't vote for or against Question A (slots at the mall)

The owner of a downtown 7-Eleven that was attacked by a mob of youths drawn by a free Slurpee promotion says an envelope filled with the day's receipts — $6,600 in cash — went missing during the melee, according to Baltimore police. Salman Iqbal told police that the money was in his front right shirt pocket while he was being attacked Wednesday afternoon after he confronted up to 40 youths wearing yellow school shirts and khaki pants. He reported that some youths had stolen candy from the store on Light Street, near the Inner Harbor.

The Green and Libertarian parties are launching new petition drives to get their candidates for president and other offices on Maryland's November ballot after losing a battle before the state's highest court. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled Monday that state elections officials were correct to disqualify thousands of signatures on petitions previously circulated by the two parties. Many signatures were thrown out as illegible or not consistent with the voter's official registration card.

I don't understand why taxes keep going up. They say it's for schools and infrastructure, but if the United States would just cut back on military spending, the money for schools and roads would be there without having to raise taxes on Americans. We have troops in almost every country in the world, but why? We probably only need to be in half of them, and on top of that we're spending massive amounts on technology. Perhaps if we pulled out of a couple of countries and cut military spending a little, life at home would improve.

Maryland wants more of my money. It may not seem like a big tax increase being presented, but how much money does the state need? I am the so-called wealthy American who must pay more in taxes. Well I pay plenty of taxes so my politicians can yuk it up in their sky boxes. I pay 23.5 cents per gallon in gasoline taxes per fill-up. That's about $400 per year for two cars. I paid $300 in tolls to get to and from work. There was $41 to park for meetings in Baltimore, $180 to register my car, $1,600 in miscellaneous school fees (field trips, sporting events, uniforms, yearbook, prom, homecoming)

Though the idea that the Ravens could put injured linebacker Terrell Suggs on the non-football injury list and not pay him all of his $4.9 million base salary during the coming season has picked up steam this week, there has been no indication that it's something the Ravens would consider doing. As of Wednesday night, I was told that there had been no internal discussion within the Ravens' front office about trying to get out of part of Suggs' contract after he tore his Achilles tendon last month during a workout.

Susan G. Komen for the Cureon Thursday announced $58 million in grants to support breast cancer research.  The 154 grants were given to researchers in 22 states, including Maryland, and 7 countries. The grants will cover a wide spectrum of breast cancer research, including prevention, environmental issues, more sensitive screening, personalized treatments and factors that lead to worse breast cancer outcomes in minorities and special populations. Maryland grants were given to: Dr. Preethi Korangath of John Hopkins University, $120,000 Angela Brodie of the University of Maryland, $250,000 Vered Stearns of Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, $175,000 Sarah Sukumar of John Hopkins University, $250,000 Antonio Wolff of John Hopkins University, 62,500 grant  

There are 280 children in Frederick County enrolled in Head Start. To support the program the county spends $2.3 million and the federal government matches the county's contribution, for a total cost of $4.6 million to taxpayers. Long division is not my strong point, but that comes to $16,428.57 per kid if I'm not mistaken. Every study of Head Start shows there is no — zip, none, not an iota of — long-term learning advantage for kids enrolled in the program. Head Start is two things: an employment opportunity for a failed program and an expensive baby-sitting service.

Editor: I am sick and tired of the continuing myth implied in Allan Vought's column ( Most Underpaid People in the World? published in The Aegis Feb. 17), namely that teachers only work 10 months a year with summers off and are therefore are not underpaid. My husband and I are both retired public school educators (34-plus years and 37-plus years, respectively). If we weren't taking courses in the summer to get advanced degrees or to maintain our certification, one or both of us were working "summer jobs" to assure that the bills got paid and that no one in the family starved.

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.

If money is the mother's milk of politics, then America's big corporations are Big Mama, and Big Baby is the Republican Party suckling at the enormous bosom of business. Democrats, meanwhile, are abandoned brats scrounging for nourishment wherever they can find it. During the long decades the Democrats held a solid majority in Congress, campaign donations from the corporate world were spread around between incumbents in both parties -- not evenly, but at least the D's got their share.