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The state is planning a new building in Prince George's County to house the state Department of Housing and Community Development, Gov. Martin O'Malley announced Monday. The agency, which employs 385 workers, will move from Crownsville to New Carrollton next fall, O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown said. The new building, to be called Metroview, is to be built near the Orange Line and the proposed Purple Line of the Washington Metro. O'Malley called it a "modern investment" that will "allow us to do the right thing for reducing traffic and sprawl, the right thing for our quality of life, and the right thing for our land, our water, and our air. " Metroview is to be developed by Carl Williams of Grand Central Development, the governor's office said.

More than a year-and-a-half ago, The Baltimore Sun stopped offering the app you are using right now. On May 23, the app was retired to coincide with the launch of our new mobile-optimized site. You may visit this new site at http://touch.baltimoresun.com . The site, accessible via any modern Web browser, was specially built for touchscreens and automatically adjusts to whatever smartphone or tablet you are using. Access to the “touch” site content follows the same model as our desktop site.

The Howard County Board of Education on Tuesday approved a new site to be considered for construction of an elementary school in Elkridge, giving an alternative to a previously proposed site that raised concerns about proximity to a MARC rail commuter line and a proposed CSX rail cargo transfer station. The new site, on Ducketts Lane adjacent to U.S. 1, is 10.1 acres and will include space for a ball field and multipurpose field. Howard school officials said a permit is required from the state Department of the Environment and the Army Corps of Engineers to fill in wetlands.

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More than a year-and-a-half ago, The Baltimore Sun stopped offering the app you are using right now. On May 23, the app was retired to coincide with the launch of our new mobile-optimized site. You may visit this new site at http://touch.baltimoresun.com . The site, accessible via any modern Web browser, was specially built for touchscreens and automatically adjusts to whatever smartphone or tablet you are using. Access to the “touch” site content follows the same model as our desktop site.

Baltimore officials have chosen a possible site to which to move the city's police headquarters and are hiring a space-planning consultant to determine whether it is feasible.In a breakfast meeting with reporters yesterday, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said he has "all but decided" that renovating the headquarters building at 601 E. Fayette St., which has air-conditioning and asbestos problems, "is not the way to go."Mr. Schmoke said he has a first choice for a new site for the headquarters from a field of three but is not ready to identify it at this time.

Plans for a county equestrian show ring are on hold while a new siteis being evaluated.The original site, on the northern tip of theproposed Union Mills Reservoir north of Westminster, was deemed unacceptable because of wetlands regulations, said John P. Little, countyrecreation and parks director.Now, the county's Equestrian Recreation Council is studying another nearby site, one with no apparent wetlands concerns. But the alternative site is a wooded area, and trees would have to be cut down andthe stumps removed for the ring, Little said.

Westminster Volunteer Fire Department is negotiating for a new site to replace its 99-year-old Main Street fire station, Fire Department President James Bangerd III said.The New Grounds Committee, a 10-member panel investigating the fire company's renovation and relocation options, is preparing a proposal for a new site and larger community facility that may cost between $3 million and $4 million to build. The fire company's membership would have to approve the plans before purchase of the site and construction.

Baltimore's cultural institutions have heard all the complaints. It's too hard to find things to do around town, or even worse, there's nothing to do at all. Today, the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance is hoping to put an end to the excuses. The GBCA's new site - www.BaltimoreFunGuide.com - features a detailed calendar listing cultural events and activities at about 280 venues throughout the region. Each Thursday, subscribers will receive an e-mail containing up to six offers for half-price tickets and admissions to plays, galleries, museums, concerts and sporting events.

Rebuffed by Pikesville residents who didn't want a new crime lab in their neighborhood, Maryland State Police have pinpointed another Pikesville site behind a subway station.The state's Office of Real Estate is seeking appraisals on a 10-acre property west of Reisterstown Road and bordered by Dreher Avenue and Milford Mill Road. The site, known as the Phillips property, is about 10 blocks from the current crime lab and two blocks from the site state police had hoped to buy for the facility.

DuClaw Brewing Company is still negotiating to purchase a 167,000-square-foot warehouse in Harford County for a future brewery, the company's president and the site's broker said Tuesday, a project that could make the brewer a major player in the regional craft beer market. Though an original deal fell through, Dave Benfield, the craft brewer's president, is bullish on the project, contrary to an early published report in a local trade. "I'm extremely confident we'll be producing beer starting in 2013 out of the new facility," he said.

Elkridge will get a new elementary school for the 2013-2014 academic year now that the sellers of a 10.1-acre site on Ducketts Lane have settled a dispute in court. The Howard County school system was supposed to close the deal with Ducketts Ridge LLC in October, but a shareholder refused to release a lien to the sellers. The $2.64 million deal was put on hold, leaving the school system without property needed to alleviate overcrowding in the northeast and causing the system to file a lawsuit in December.

Since Baltimore police ousted the members of Occupy Baltimore from their encampment at the Inner Harbor's McKeldin Square last week, the activists have been deliberating about where -- and whether -- to continue a physical encampment. Jessica Lewis, a member of the Occupy Baltimore media team, said the activists are considering several locations that could provide a symbolic backdrop. One option, Lewis said, is for Occupy Baltimore members to move their encampment to the site of the state's new proposed juvenile jail in East Baltimore, off East Madison Street, between Graves and Forrest Streets.

The selection of two new school sites in Elkridge at Oxford Square and Ducketts Lane — chosen to alleviate overcrowding in northeast Howard County — could clear the way for developers to build new homes in the area. Nearly 30 new housing developments planned for Elkridge have been on hold because growth-control laws curb development around schools that are 15 percent or more over capacity. Three northeast middle schools and four elementary schools were predicted to soon exceed their limits, but with two new school sites chosen, the County Council can now approve the number of new home projects in the area.

The state is planning a new building in Prince George's County to house the state Department of Housing and Community Development, Gov. Martin O'Malley announced Monday. The agency, which employs 385 workers, will move from Crownsville to New Carrollton next fall, O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown said. The new building, to be called Metroview, is to be built near the Orange Line and the proposed Purple Line of the Washington Metro. O'Malley called it a "modern investment" that will "allow us to do the right thing for reducing traffic and sprawl, the right thing for our quality of life, and the right thing for our land, our water, and our air. " Metroview is to be developed by Carl Williams of Grand Central Development, the governor's office said.

Online budgeting sites aim to take the tedium out of money management, and the latest entry even tries to make a game of it with cash prizes. Budgeting is such a turnoff that some financial professionals won't even use the term with clients. But some online budgeting sites aim to take the tedium out of money management. And the latest entry even tries to make a game of it — with cash prizes. Payoff.com, which helps users manage their way out of debt, officially launched at the end of June.

The frustrating, 18-month search for a north Baltimore County site on which to build a replacement for the burned out Sparks Elementary School may be nearing an end.Water testing and an environmental report on about 50 acres owned by the Archdiocese of Baltimore -- east of Interstate 83 and southeast of Old Belfast Road -- are expected to be completed by next month, says Gene L. Neff, chief of facilities for county schools.If the tests and report turn up no problems, the search for a site may be over because the land already passed sewage percolation tests -- and the archdiocese is willing to sell, said an archdiocesan spokesman.

Building a new Mayo Elementary School across the street from where it has stood for 64 years would cost more and take at least two years longer than demolishing the school and rebuilding it in place, according to an environmental review released yesterday. The 15 acres across the street is "developable," wrote consultants for KCI Technologies, but any one of several state agencies could deny the Anne Arundel County school board permission to build on the environmentally sensitive portions of land, now owned by the Mayo Civic Association and the St. Andrew the Fisherman Church.

It was eight days before the fourth installment of Baltimore Fashion Week, and suddenly Sharan Nixon had no place to hold it. In a couple of days a crew from New York City was scheduled to arrive to erect a 16,000-square-foot tent. “Wow, I have all these people wanting to be a part of my event and I still don't have a place to hold it,” she said as she selected clothes from Cold Water Creek, which was scheduled to present a line at her event. An initial agreement with the Harbor East neighborhood had just fallen through - Nixon alleges that H&S Properties Development Corp., the group responsible for developing the area, dragged its feet getting her a lease.

A group of North Laurel residents said they'd like to hear more about plans to develop the old Laurel Dodge site into a Royal Farms, even if it means changing the zoning laws created to revitalize U.S. 1. Royal Farms is considering purchasing nearly three acres on North Washington Boulevard between Davis and Madison avenues to build new convenience store that would include gas pumps and a car wash, employing 20 full-time workers. But before the company could redevelop the space, it would need a change in the zoning laws for the area, created to spruce up the aging corridor and facilitate new mixed-use development.