Offices Open

WASHINGTON -- When the government of Vietnam opened its first diplomatic office here last week, the chief of liaison was met with angry shouts from protesters. In the days that followed, however, the downtown suite of offices has filled up with flowers from U.S. companies eager to do business with the former foe.As Vietnam and the United States move gingerly toward full diplomatic ties, the strains of the past and the hopes for the future overlap awkwardly.Le Van Bang, the chief of the new, six-person liaison office, describes his role as helping to tell America of how Vietnam has moved on since the Communists emerged victorious and unified the country nearly 20 years ago. As he shows a visitor around the largely empty downtown suite of offices, decorated with tapestries of pagodas and the orange-and-yellow Vietnamese flag, he stopped to read cards from some of the floral tributes.

Annapolis Mayor Al Hopkins cut the ribbon to welcome the new Johns Hopkins Health Plan office to Annapolis, at a recent ceremony conducted at the South River Health Center, 200 Harry S. Truman Parkway.The event, attended by politicians and community leaders, heralded the opening of the facility, which will serve members of the Johns Hopkins Health Plan as well as fee-for-services patients. The office is one of 70 medical facilities serving members of the plan.More than 100,000 Marylanders use the plan, which has contracts with most major area employers, the state of Maryland, the federal government and Anne Arundel County government.

Six of the state comptroller's branch offices will remain open until midnight tomorrow, the last day of the tax amnesty period. The amnesty program includes personal income taxes, employer withholding taxes, corporate income taxes, sales and use taxes, and admissions and amusement taxes. Sites of the offices and tax amnesty applications are available online, or by calling 410-260-7980 in Central Maryland or 800-MD- TAXES elsewhere.

In a Sunday article about Ford Motor Credit Co., Todd Brace was misidentified as employment training center director for Howard Community College.Brace is director of the county's employment training center and has helped Ford in its hiring. The community college will provide training to some Ford employees this fall.The Howard County Sun regrets the errors.Ford Motor Credit Co. opens its new regional office in Columbia this week, with county officials pointing to the Fortune 500 company's presence as a boon to the area's prestige and its tax base.

Hoping an increased police presence will help to reduce crime in the Gay Street and Middle East areas, the Baltimore Police Department opened a Community Policing Office in the 1600 block of E. Chase St. yesterday.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and Police Commissioner Edward V. Woods, joined by police and elected officials, opened the office in a two-story townhouse at the Clay Court Apartments in East Baltimore. At the new Community Policing Office, foot patrol officers assigned out of the Eastern District will be able to talk privately with area residents and answer complaints and calls.

Postal service returned to Westminster's Main Street yesterday with the official opening of a satellite office at Giulianova Groceria at the Winchester Exchange Building.Owner Tony D'Eugenio said he was in at 6: 15 a.m., hours before state and local officials arrived for a ribbon-cutting. "I've been cooking -- lentil bean soup, fresh spaghetti sauce. I had some baking to do, and I had to make lasagna."D'Eugenio said he hopes the post office window at the rear of his store will boost business when postal patrons get a whiff of what's cooking.

In the race for Baltimore County sheriff, Norman M. Pepersack Jr. would like to go back to the future. His opponent, R. Jay Fisher, just wants to step into the future. Pepersack, a Republican who was sheriff from 1990 to 1998, said he would like to restore discipline to the office while completing plans to allow take-home cars for deputies. Fisher, a Democrat and a Baltimore City Police Department lieutenant with 30 years' experience in law enforcement, said he wants to be sheriff "to re-establish professionalism and public trust, both of which suffered greatly for the past 12 years" - a period that includes Pepersack's two terms.

BEIJING -- A group of more than 20 Maryland officials and businessmen wrapped up a weeklong mission to China yesterday in which they officially opened a new state commercial office in the booming city of Shanghai.The office, which will have a staff of three beginning next month, is designed to help Maryland firms find Chinese partners and negotiate the country's often confusing and risky business landscape.During its whirlwind trip, the delegation -- led by former Maryland Gov. Harry R. Hughes -- also met with scores of Chinese officials and businessmen in hopes of developing joint ventures and tapping into the world's largest market.

A city police officer fatally shot an East Baltimore man yesterday afternoon after police say the man pointed a large-caliber revolver at two undercover officers during a confrontation on a normally quiet street in the Berea neighborhood. Last night, police identified the victim as Devine Moore, 23, of the 3000 block of E. Monument St. Plainclothes officers in an unmarked vehicle began following Moore and two other men after seeing one of them holding a gun, said Officer Nicole Monroe, a city police spokeswoman.

A man was found shot early Saturday in the 400 block of N. Collington Ave., near the Butcher's Hill and Patterson Place neighborhoods, police said. Around midnight, an officer on foot near the 2200 block of Jefferson Street approached as an unidentified person was shooting at a 30-year-old man, police said. Pulling his own gun, the officer ordered the suspect to drop his weapon, police said. The suspect instead turned and fired at the officer, who shot back without appearing to hit the suspect, police said.