Occupants

Developers of the historic Bagby Furniture Building in Little Italy, on the edge of Harbor East, have boosted the building's occupancy to 80 percent since launching a $5 million renovation of what had been mostly vacant office space. Chesapeake Real Estate Group LLC has brought in 15 new office and retail tenants since buying the building in 2007, when it was 20 percent filled, converting the first-floor offices into street-level shops, adding a lobby and courtyard for outdoor dining and renovating the four levels of offices.

Hotel bookings by convention or business groups rose nearly 16 percent in the past fiscal year, Baltimore's convention and tourism agency said Monday. The Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association said the 522,541 room nights booked for group business meetings between this year and 2019 beat the tourism agency's goal of 500,000 room nights. The number exceeded the 451,608 hotel nights booked in fiscal 2008 for future years, BACVA said. "One of the major initiatives and goals is long-term, citywide convention sales" - or sales to groups that might require as many as 4,000 to 5,000 rooms on peak nights, said Tom Noonan, chief executive and president of BACVA.

The City of Annapolis cannot pass legislation to immediately occupy the Market House at City Dock, city officials said in response to a petition being circulated by the Annapolis Business Association requesting that the city allow tenants to move into the waterfront property by the start of spring. In its statement, the city outlines why it's not legally up to city officials to allow tenants to move in. "The city would love to resolve this matter and return the Market House to its rightful position as a jewel of our downtown and harbor area," the statement reads.

Waltz With Bashir views war from the inside out and the outside in. It carries the shock of full disclosure. Ari Folman, the writer-director, was a member of the Israeli Defense Forces in 1982, during the Israeli army's occupation of southern Lebanon and the massacre conducted under its eyes by Lebanese Christian Phalangists at the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. The bloodletting came after the assassination of Lebanon's Christian president, Bashir Gemayel. But from the outset, grotesque cruelty marked the Christian militia's treatment of Palestinian terrorists and civilians.

The Annapolis Business Association has started a petition to encourage city officials to pass legislation that would permit the Market House at City Dock to be occupied as soon as possible - a move the mayor said would be a "bailout" for the company managing the property. The Market House has been a point of debate for city residents, officials and business people for years. Mayoral hopefuls, in fact, are using their plans for Market House as campaign pitches to appeal to residents who want to see something done about the near-empty waterfront property that's snarled in legal woes and maintenance issues.

Dr. James Frenkil, a retired internist who practiced industrial and occupational medicine, died of pneumonia complications Saturday at his Northwest Baltimore home. He was 96. "As one of the oldest living graduates of the University of Maryland's School of Medicine, he was a source of strength to all of us when he came to reunions and university affairs," said Dr. E. Albert Reece, the school's dean. "James was a kind, gentle, generous and warm person. When he extended his hand, it was a shake of friendship, indicating 'My pal.' " Born in Baltimore and raised on Fernhill Avenue, he was a 1930 graduate of Forest Park High School, where he won a Mid-Atlantic Championship medal for pole vaulting.

Ruth B. Wiemer, former chief of the division of occupational therapy for Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, died in her sleep Oct. 14 at Heron Point retirement community in Chestertown. She was 92. Ruth Brunyate was born and raised in Orange, N.J., graduating from high school in 1934. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1938 from Hollins College in Roanoke, Va. After graduating from the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy in 1940, she was an occupational therapist at Seashore House in Atlantic City.

Salary: $31,000 Age: 36 Years on the job: 8 How he got started: Smith received a bachelor's degree in youth and family counseling and a master's degree in pastoral counseling from the Family and Bible College, Institute and Seminary in Baltimore. He first worked with young people on a volunteer basis with his church and local schools, then started working with the Department of Recreation and Parks in 2000 as a part-time youth recreation leader. He later switched to full-time work as a recreation leader at the Ralph J. Young Recreation Center in East Baltimore.

Divers searching the waters of Bear Creek in Baltimore County yesterday for the missing occupant of a 16-foot aluminum motorboat, which was spotted circling in the water with no one on board shortly before 1 p.m. yesterday, will continue their search today, a Maryland Department of Natural Resources police officer said. "If we do not locate him or his body by dark, we will stop the search and start back up tomorrow morning," Sgt. Ken Turner, the DNR police spokesman, said last night. Natural resources police, Baltimore County fire and rescue personnel and the U.S. Coast Guard all responded to the site near Anchor Bay yesterday to find the unmanned boat, which was no longer circling in the open water but was lodged beneath a pier, Turner said.