New Era

The photograph told the whole story: The heads of 34 nations of Europe and their North American offpsring were in a most jovial mood as they gathered for the photographer to record the momentous occasion for posterity. The language was extravagant, but so was the achievement: The Cold War was officially over; a charter had been adopted committing all of Europe -- not just Eastern Europe and Western Europe, but all of Europe -- to "a new era of democracy, new era of democracy, peace and unity."

Timothy E. Parker, manager of T. Rowe Price's New Era Fund for the past three years, will leave the the Baltimore-based money manager by the end of September, the company said. Parker will be replaced as manager by Shawn T. Driscoll, an energy analyst with the fund. "I had a wonderful 12 years here and learned a lot of things," said Parker, 38. "It's a good organization. Sometimes you need to part ways to pursue different challenges. " Parker said he doesn't have any firm plans at this point.

It took the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland nearly 14 years to get a new stadium constructed, and the Ravens only three hours and one minute to lose their first game in the facility. The new $223 million stadium was a house of horror for the Ravens, who self-destructed and had their coming-out party ruined in a 20-13 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers before 68,847 at Ravens stadium at Camden Yards. After three days of glitz and pageantry ended and the smoke cleared, the Ravens had committed a comedy of errors that made them look a lot like the team that played at Memorial Stadium, winning only 10 games the past two seasons.

If Alex Hekemian knocks on your door during this election you'll find him pleasant to talk with. You'll likely say that he sounds reasonable. He is a good man and is passionate in his beliefs. However his beliefs do not represent mine. When I was on the Village Board and he was our CA Representative, my experience was that he often offered an obstructive perspective. Alex was part of an early Columbia that was vibrant and innovative. But Alex and his supporters seem uncomfortable with the idea of today's Columbia being vibrant and innovative again.

Baltimore radicalism has lost one of its cornerstones: New Era Bookstore in the 400 block Park Avenue has gone out of business.Since its opening three decades ago, New Era, which was closely linked to the U.S. Communist Party, was the city's main purveyor of Marxist literature. Publications from the Soviet Union, China and Cuba could be found there as could an impressive array of fringe newspapers from the United States. The store also had one of the best selections of black-related books and magazines in the city.

Washington -- "This could be bigger than the [Jim] Bakker and [Jimmy] Swaggart scandals,'' an attorney with close ties to the philanthropic community tells me. He's referring to the Foundation for New Era Philanthropy, an outfit that filed for bankruptcy protection last week after failing to deliver enough .. pots of gold to hundreds of museums, universities and religious groups that had bought heavily into its get-rich-quick scheme -- only to find nothing...

The Howard County Council this morning is scheduled to sit down and begin hashing out an agenda. With Republicans at the helm for the first time, this is unplowed ground for county politics. The new chairman, Charles C. Feaga, promises "steady, effective government."On the immediate agenda are some housekeeping chores. A move is afoot to limit the council's questioning of staff during public sessions, leaving the bulk of the nitty-gritty to private work sessions. We don't like that idea, and believe council members would come to regret it. (They might want to ask their friends over at Coca-Cola who intend to build a Howard plant and who years ago launched "new Coke" how public opinion can undo the best-laid plans hashed out in private conferences.

In the seven municipal elections that concluded this week in Carroll County, voters spoke with surprising clarity. In most towns, they elected candidates who promised to overturn the old order, to encourage greater participation and to slow the rate of growth. The 1995 elections could mark a new era in Carroll politics.Hampstead's election is illustrative of the change. Despite running against incumbents, the slate of Christopher Nevin for mayor and Lawrence Hentz and Stephen Holland for council won by a landslide.

When the lights go up on Owings Mills Boulevard Saturday night, a new era will dawn for Stevenson University. A capacity crowd of 3,500 is expected to pack the school's new $9 million stadium, built on the site of the former Ravens and Colts training facility. A 75-piece marching band will take to the state-of-the-art field turf to blare out the school's newly minted fight song, with images beamed live to cable TV viewers throughout the region. And referees will break out special footballs emblazoned with the Stevenson logo and the words "Stadium Opening 2011.

A new era began on tonight's Raw. With Team John Lauriniatis' victory at WrestleMania , Laurinaitis officially launched his reign of control in WWE. His first orders of business? Rewarding the men who helped land him his position of power. Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler were granted shots at Santino Marella's United States Championship; Mark Henry was awarded a chance to dethrone CM Punk as WWE Champion; and The Miz was placed in the main event against Zack Ryder. The members of Team Johnny found a mixed degree of success.

In what might have been President Barack Obama's most progressive speech, his second inaugural address Monday marked a distinct change from the so-called New Democrat ideology of pragmatism and compromise to a full embrace of the principles that once put the Democratic Party squarely on the side of the middle class and the poor. Better late than never. It is only because the tea party has pushed the Republican Party further to the far right - and perhaps off the cliff - that Barack Obama is seen by some as a liberal.

In the 17 years since Katie Cleary and Sharon Dongarra locked eyes in the kitchen of an Arby's restaurant, they have shared a first, tentative kiss, traded letters across continents, set up a home, exchanged vows before family and friends, signed a host of legal documents and nurtured a young daughter. The couple has shared nearly every experience that can bond two people, except for one. Until today. But just after midnight, the two women pledged themselves to each other yet again in their Towson home, becoming one of the first same-sex couples to be legally married in Maryland.

Dorsey Nicola was shaking the dice and staring down the green felt, where chips were stacked like miniature skyscrapers and multiplying. The craps table was hot last week as a half-dozen students lined the perimeter and Nicola kept throwing sixes. The winnings went ignored in this windowless room tucked into a back corner of an Anne Arundel Community College satellite campus. Students glued their attention instead to the dealer's clever tricks to coax tips from players and calculate payouts, crucial skills for someone hoping to secure a job in the state's newly expanded gambling industry.

When Harborplace first opened, it was hailed as one of the crown jewels of Baltimore's renaissance, and millions of visitors from across Maryland and around the country beat a path to its door. On a typical Saturday afternoon, the Light and Pratt street pavilions were beehives of activity, crowded with tourists who came to the Inner Harbor to eat, shop and gawk. More than 30 years later, Harborplace is still viable and still commercially successful, although not necessarily what it once was. There are any number of reasons for this, from competition elsewhere to the natural evolution of any attraction - but surely one big problem involved its owners and the lack of sufficient investment in the properties as ownership transferred from Rouse Co. to Chicago-based General Growth Properties, which subsequently landed in bankruptcy.

Penn State began what it calls a "new era" of football Saturday by allowing 21 unanswered second-half points in a 24-14 loss to Ohio University. Penn State played its first game under Coach Bill O'Brien and fourth since former coach Joe Paterno was fired last November. An announced crowd of 97,186, about 9,000 below Beaver Stadium capacity, returned to pledge support for O'Brien and his football team, which went through a tumultuous offseason. On the field, however, second-half lapses led Penn State to its first opening-day loss 2001.

The future of the port of Baltimore eased through the morning haze Wednesday, limboed under the Bay Bridge with room to spare, ducked under the Key Bridge and arrived dockside at Seagirt Marine Terminal just in time for dinner. Fourteen stories tall and already emblazoned with Maryland's colors, four cranes capable of handling the world's largest cargo ships looked almost ready to go to work. "This is a big day for us. We're on schedule and under budget," said Mark Montgomery, president of Ports America Chesapeake as he watched the Zhen Hua 13 ease into Berth 4 at Seagirt.

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Republicans launched their new era yesterday, adopting a House rule that will make it harder to raise federal income tax rates.The 279-152 vote, mainly along party lines, came after sharp debate in a long day that quickly brought partisan bickering as the GOP began acting on the campaign pledges that helped bring it to power.A key plank in the GOP "Contract with America," the proposal to require a three-fifths vote, instead of a simple majority, to raise income tax rates was backed by the 73-member Republican freshman class.

Gregory Moore, the editor of the Denver Post , is, I believe, a good man grappling with a difficult challenge. The Post , as described in an article at Poynter.org by Steve Myers , is essentially eliminating its copy desk. Eleven are going or gone, a couple have been reassigned to other duties, and the nine survivors become assistant editors assigned to the various newsroom departments. When explanations of these and similar changes are made, there is talk of moving away from "assembly-line editing" and "outmoded nineteenth-century industrial processes" to some bold, modern, fresh, immediate journalism that removes all those unnecessary "touches" between the writer and the reader.

If all goes as planned, sometime this morning a spacecraft will blast off from its launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and ride a fiery plume of contrails upward through the pre-dawn darkness to begin a two-week journey to the International Space Station and back. But the flight won't be just another NASA resupply mission. Instead, the Falcon 9 rocket and its unmanned Dragon cargo capsule built by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation - SpaceX for short - will be the first commercially owned and operated vehicle ever to rendezvous with the station's orbiting astronauts.