Offices In Baltimore

THE PROBLEM : The Spanish translation of "no trespassing" signs at the Maryland MVA offices in Baltimore and Glen Burnie are so riddled with errors that even non-Spanish speakers can detect mistakes. THE BACK STORY : Trips to the Motor Vehicle Administration can be confusing enough, even for drivers and would-be drivers who read English fluently. But Watchdog reader Robert H. Rivkin pointed out that those who read Spanish might have a hard time with poorly translated signs at MVA offices in Glen Burnie and at Baltimore's Mondawmin Mall.

Velma C. Seabrooks, a retired Social Security Administration district office manager, died of lung cancer Friday at her Catonsville home. She was 79. Born Velma Castine Cherry in Ahoskie, N.C., she was raised and educated in Washington, D.C., where she joined the Social Security Administration as a clerk. She moved to Baltimore in 1960 and became a district manager of offices in Baltimore and Towson. Mrs. Seabrooks received two Commissioner Citations for her work with the federal agency.

The new chief of the FBI's Baltimore office is a 23-year veteran who worked on cases including the infamous shoe-bomber incident and organized crime and is coming from the agency's Albany, N.Y., office, officials confirmed yesterday. William D. Chase, 49, will oversee a FBI office of some 180 agents in Woodlawn, and about 200 administrative personnel in Maryland and Delaware. In an interview yesterday, Chase, who will be special agent in charge, described the move as a natural progression from one of the FBI's smaller offices to one of its largest.

In an office where the workday usually stretches well into the night, things went down a little differently yesterday. At 3 p.m., staff at the Towson law firm Hodes, Ulman, Pessin & Katz set up pizzas, filled bowls with chips and gathered employees in two lounges where plasma TVs were tuned to - of all things - the NCAA basketball tournament. Some workers couldn't tear themselves away from their desks, but for others, it was the end of the business week. "No [basketball fans] would be working at this time of day, anyway," said Randy Lutz, sports fan and attorney.

Awards Lallie Inc., a Millersville-based designer and maker of social stationery for private and corporate clients, received six print quality awards from the Printing and Graphics Association Mid-Atlantic. Manekin LLC has been awarded a Green Leadership award by the local chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council for development of three green building projects. Kudos Kevin Shepherd, co-chairman of the real estate group of Venable LLP, was elected a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Some post offices plan to help last-minute tax-return filers meet the April 15 deadline by extending their hours Friday. The main post offices in Baltimore and Frederick will stay open until midnight. In Annapolis, the main post office will remain open until 10 p.m. The Glen Burnie, Columbia, Cumberland, Hagerstown, Bel Air, Ellicott City and Easton post offices will be open until 8 p.m. Pikesville's post office will be open until 7 p.m. The Severna Park, Catonsville, Halethorpe, Nottingham, Clarksville, Pasadena and Reisterstown post offices will be open until 6 p.m. The Owings Mills, Havre de Grace, Westminster and Linthicum post offices will be open until 5:30 p.m. The IRS accepts a postmark as a sign of an on-time filing.

Kao Professional Salon Services Inc., which makes and markets hair-care products for salons and day spas, is boosting the role of its offices in Baltimore. KPSS, which has been in Baltimore since 1979, is making the city its official headquarters in April. As part of the plan, the company will bring to Baltimore the management of two of its subsidiaries, Goldwell Cosmetics (USA) Inc. and KMS Research LLC. Goldwell makes hair color under the Topchic, Colorance and Elumen brands, and makes perms and shampoos under the Kerasilk, Goldwell Definition, Color Glow and Goldwell for Men names.

She runs to the printer, her long, black braid flying, to grab papers for a meeting. She climbs the back stairs, two at a time. Chandreyee Banerjee hasn't been sleeping more than two hours a night. And if someone didn't share a sandwich with her or quietly leave a cookie on her chair, she might not have eaten this week, either. It's hard to think of food, with thousands of people without any. Banerjee coordinates support for Catholic Relief Services' emergency workers in four of the Asian countries hardest hit by the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsumani.

Reuben Clark Kinsley Jr., a retired Baltimore County public defender and former Veterans Affairs loan official, died of a heart attack Sunday while gardening at his Lutherville home. He was 87. Born in Baltimore and raised in Forest Park, he was a 1935 graduate of Forest Park High School and earned a law degree from the University of Baltimore. He enlisted in the Army during World War II and did counter-espionage work investigating foreign workers suspected of enemy activities while employed at embassies in Washington.

Baltimore prosecutors are quitting at the fastest rate in recent memory, as low salaries and high stress take their toll on the morale of an agency that for years has been criticized as a weak link in the city's criminal justice system. Lawyers and judges say the result is a revolving door that undermines the office's effectiveness in bringing cases before juries. "The ability of a prosecutor is directly proportional to the kind of justice you get in the courtroom," said Salvatore Fili, chief of the drug unit, who left two weeks ago after 20 years there.