Nickel

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's proposed 5-cent bottle tax can add up quickly. For example, five 12-packs of Diet Coke can be bought on sale for $10. Sixty cans times 5 cents equals $3. Add to that the 6 percent sales tax - 60 cents - and the total becomes $13.60. That's why I think city residents will soon find themselves buying sodas and alcohol in the county. Dave Edington

It's one of those things that make sense but we do not do: Have a nickel deposit on every bottle and can of beer, soda and all the other liquid beverages we drink. Maryland does not have it. Some states do. Every state should. I first looked into why Maryland is a no-deposit/no-return state 30 years ago, having been raised where this was done all the time. There have been attempts over the years to get a bottle-deposit law passed in Maryland, but it was always shot down. Tom Horton, my former columnist colleague at The Sun, once cited polls showing that as many as seven out of 10 Marylanders supported the idea.

Nickel Creek, the American acoustic trio known for its contemporary bluegrass and indie rock music, will hit Pier Six Pavilion during its Farewell (For Now) Tour at 7:30 tonight. Fiona Apple will also perform. The pavilion is at President Street and Eastern Avenue at the Inner Harbor. Tickets are $22.50-$37.50. Call 410-547-SEAT or go to tick etmaster.com.

Hurdled and bulldozed by Denver Broncos running back Knowshon Moreno and outsmarted by quarterback Peyton Manning , the Ravens' defense was rendered largely helpless Sunday. During a crushing 34-17 defeat at M&T Bank Stadium, the Ravens' reactions were usually wrong as Manning cooked up his usual batch of timely audibles to keep the defense off guard. "I felt like it was Christmas, and not for our side," Ravens free safety Ed Reed said. "We were in a giving mood, honestly.

Conventional wisdom around the Ravens was that once Jimmy Smith recovered from the high left ankle sprain that had shelved him since the season opener on Sept. 11, the rookie cornerback would quickly overtake Danny Gorrer as the fifth defensive back in the defense's nickel package. But that wasn't the case on Monday night as Gorrer, not Smith, lined up as the nickel back in the team's 12-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Smith, who is still dealing with some soreness in the ankle, was relegated to strictly special teams work against Jacksonville.

My, have the footballs been flying. In case you needed more proof that this has become a passing league, six NFL teams have averaged 40 or more pass attempts through four games. The New Orleans Saints and Detroit Lions, who have a combined one win between them, are closing in on 50 passes a game. Heck, even the Ravens have thrown the ball 159 times in their four games, which is the seventh-highest total in the league. And trust me, the Ravens defense, which ranks 29th against the pass, is also aware of this continuing trend.

On December 8, 2003 CATHERINE H. NICKEL (nee Cook) dearest wife of the late Henry J. Nickel; devoted mother of Timothy J. Nickel, Constance A. Kelly and Catherine A. Brown. Also survived by seven grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at the Charles L. Stevens Funeral Home, Inc., 1501 E. Fort Avenue, Locust Point, MD on Thursday at 11 a.m. Interment in Moreland Memorial Park. Family invite friends to call at the funeral home on Wednesday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m.

Three people connected to the theft of more than 321,000 pounds of stolen metal have pleaded guilty in a scheme with tentacles reaching from a scrap metal dealer in West Baltimore to companies in Pittsburgh, New York, Switzerland, India and Australia. It began with a truck chassis loaded with shipping containers filled with nickel briquettes and a metal called ferrochrome, stolen last year from a nondescript warehouse by people who cut through a fence and used forklifts and front-end loaders to take the heavy containers.

On September 4, 2005, GRACE N. NICKEL (nee Sergi); dearest wife of the late Leo M. Nickel; devoted mother of James A. Nickel, Nancy A. Ochrzcin, Barbara N. Schuman, and Phyllis A. Farrell; devoted sister of Pauline and Anthony Sergi. Also survived by seven grandchildren and many other loving relatives and friends. Christian Wake Service, Charles L. Stevens Funeral Home, Inc., 1501 E. Fort Avenue, Locust Point, MD, on Tuesday, at 4 P.M. Mass of Christian Burial at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, on Wedneday, at 10 A.M. Interment in St. Stanislaus Cemetery.

If you pay your Comcast bill via phone, you might have noticed something new this month. Comcast has started charging a $2 "convenience fee" for those using the company's automated voice system. When asked about the fee, Comcast spokeswoman Aimee Metrick noted that consumers still have other ways to pay their bills for little or no money. Those include online payments, automatic transfer of funds and traditional mail. She also added that Comcast recently started offering an "ecobill," a paperless online billing program that allows customers to view and pay their bills online at no charge.

ASHBURN, Va. - DeAngelo Hall hurt his ankle enough that he had to use crutches to make an appearance on a Washington, D.C. radio show Tuesday. Still, the Washington Redskins cornerback vowed that he would not sit out Sunday's home contest against the Ravens. “I feel all right,” Hall said after Wednesday's practice at the team's training facilty. “And like I said, there's no way I'm not playing this game. So it's a non-story.” Hall's availability is significant for Washington, which lost the services of nickel back Cedric Griffin after he was suspended for four games Tuesday for violating the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing substances.

Cornerback Chris Johnson - signed by the Ravens on Nov. 13 - didn't take much time making an impact for his new team, stripping Mike Wallace after the wide receiver caught a pass in the first quarter of the Ravens' eventual 13-10 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday night. Johnson, who was signed two days prior to Jimmy Smith undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia, lined up as the fifth defensive back in the team's nickel package - a role that had previously gone to Chykie Brown in the Ravens' 55-20 rout of the Oakland Raiders on Nov. 11. Brown, the organization's fifth-round pick in last year's draft, tried not to sound disappointed about getting leapfrogged on the depth chart by Johnson.

In his longest stretch on defense of the season, Corey Graham finished Sunday's 25-15 win against the Cleveland Browns with six tackles. But the cornerback was unable to register an interception or a pass breakup, which contributed to the sixth-year veteran feeling unfulfilled about his play. “It was all right,” Graham said Thursday. “Obviously, some things have got to be better, and I feel like I can play a lot better. I've got to find a way to make more plays. It was up and down, and to me, it wasn't that good.

My, have the footballs been flying. In case you needed more proof that this has become a passing league, six NFL teams have averaged 40 or more pass attempts through four games. The New Orleans Saints and Detroit Lions, who have a combined one win between them, are closing in on 50 passes a game. Heck, even the Ravens have thrown the ball 159 times in their four games, which is the seventh-highest total in the league. And trust me, the Ravens defense, which ranks 29th against the pass, is also aware of this continuing trend.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's proposed 5-cent bottle tax can add up quickly. For example, five 12-packs of Diet Coke can be bought on sale for $10. Sixty cans times 5 cents equals $3. Add to that the 6 percent sales tax - 60 cents - and the total becomes $13.60. That's why I think city residents will soon find themselves buying sodas and alcohol in the county. Dave Edington

Two Baltimore men who owned a warehouse have pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiring to transport stolen nickel, which had been imported through the Port of Baltimore, the U.S. attorney's office announced Monday. Gregg Lee Purbaugh, 50, and Kenneth Trainum, 44, were charged after Homeland Security agents caught them in November 2011 removing unmarked sacks of nickel briquettes from a shipping container next to their Bear Creek warehouse and loading them in a truck. According to their plea agreements, Purbaugh and Trainum began removing nickel from their warehouse in 2006 that belonged to an international mining company for which they were storing it. Over the next five years, working through another co-conspirator, Purbaugh sold 80,000 pounds of nickel worth about $1 million to a Pittsburgh scrap metal company, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

It was a deceptively simple heist. People cut through a chain-link fence surrounding a nondescript warehouse, backed trucks onto a lot and drove off with chassis loaded with shipping containers filled with nickel briquettes and a metal called ferrochrome. But cashing in on one of the biggest thefts in recent Baltimore memory proved to be much more difficult. Total weight of the stolen metal: 321,872 pounds. Total value: $2.6 million. City police began their investigation shortly after the Labor Day break-in and quickly identified a suspect.

Cornerback Chris Johnson - signed by the Ravens on Nov. 13 - didn't take much time making an impact for his new team, stripping Mike Wallace after the wide receiver caught a pass in the first quarter of the Ravens' eventual 13-10 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday night. Johnson, who was signed two days prior to Jimmy Smith undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia, lined up as the fifth defensive back in the team's nickel package - a role that had previously gone to Chykie Brown in the Ravens' 55-20 rout of the Oakland Raiders on Nov. 11. Brown, the organization's fifth-round pick in last year's draft, tried not to sound disappointed about getting leapfrogged on the depth chart by Johnson.

If you have a package good store near the county line, Baltimore MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake's proposed 5-cent bottle tax is not a nickel ("Mayor pushes school repairs," Feb. 14). Applying the tax to a 30-pack of beer would cost the city consumer $1.50 more plus a  15-cent sales tax on a tax. The nickel is now $1.65 more than the county! I agree that nickel is no big deal on a single item, but when you buy a bulk package, which is how beverages are sold in a package store, that nickel is devastating and prevents us from being competitive.

Three people connected to the theft of more than 321,000 pounds of stolen metal have pleaded guilty in a scheme with tentacles reaching from a scrap metal dealer in West Baltimore to companies in Pittsburgh, New York, Switzerland, India and Australia. It began with a truck chassis loaded with shipping containers filled with nickel briquettes and a metal called ferrochrome, stolen last year from a nondescript warehouse by people who cut through a fence and used forklifts and front-end loaders to take the heavy containers.