Pollin

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W. Va. -- This time last year, Washington Bullets owner Abe Pollin vowed, as a matter of principle, he would never trade John Williams, whose lingering weight problems limited him to 33 games over the past two seasons. The veteran forward was under medical suspension all of last year.But last week Pollin gave his full endorsement to the trade that sent all 318 pounds of Williams to the Los Angeles Clippers for rookie forward Don MacLean and reserve center William Bedford, who has since been released by the Bullets.

NBA Pollin's widow wouldn't mind return to Bullets name Wizards: Abe Pollin 's widow and former team co-owner said recently that she wouldn't object if the new owner Ted Leonsis decided to return the team name to the Bullets. "I respect my husband's wishes. I love him very much. I miss him terribly. If the fans want to change it back — hey, why not?" Irene Pollin said. "To me, it's what do the fans want? What's going to please them? To me, they're the ones who support, care.

The Baltimore Arena , which was $1.183 million in the red before the city turned over its operations to Centre Management in 1988, earned a $14,070 profit last year, city and arena officials announced today.The financial turnaround was the result of "professional management" which was able to cut costs and boost revenues at the arena, said Abe Pollin, chairman of the board of the Centre Group, the parent company of Centre Management."We told the city at the time that we took over that we would eliminate the operating deficit in five years," Pollin said.

The tiny honeybees in Dan and Jeri Hemerlein's six hives in their big Columbia backyard are dedicated work-a-day drudges, oblivious to the passions they've stirred in humans across Maryland. But in a search for water next door in retiree Sam Peperone's yard, the bees set off a Howard County zoning fight that has lasted close to three years and drawn hundreds of bee supporters to a series of public hearings over the last 18 months. The local dispute has highlighted what experts say is a global trend, and Howard County has become a flashpoint in the debate over growing interest among home beekeepers, more than 3,000 of whom are registered in Maryland alone.

EMMITSBURG -- Abe Pollin delivered his annual state of the Bullets address in training camp yesterday, reiterating his vow that he will not trade veteran forward John Williams, absent for the second straight year in a wage dispute.Though Pollin touched on many topics, Williams was the main subject at Mount St. Mary's College.A year ago, Pollin asked Williams to return to the Bullets after missing training camp and the preseason schedule. This time, ++ however, Pollin said Williams can remain at home in Los Angeles until he is willing to fulfill his existing contract.

After bringing the Washington Capitals into the NHL 19 years ago, watching them flounder, then become one of the league's most successful franchises, Abe Pollin is considering selling the team.According to a report in yesterday's editions of The Washington Post, Pollin said that Capitals president Dick Patrick, who represents the team at the league level, would have the first option of purchasing the team.Patrick, a Northern Virginia attorney and real estate developer, owns 20 percent of the Capitals.

More than 20 years ago, Abe Pollin built an arena in Landover for about $20 million. Yesterday, he agreed to do it all again at Gallery Place in downtown Washington -- but this time, it will cost him nearly $200 million."

He is an elder statesman of sports, a key donor to politicians and a highly successful developer whose projects will form a lasting legacy.Abe Pollin, 75, who announced yesterday the beginning of the end of his sports empire, has been a fixture on the Washington scene for most of his adult life.He is the longest-tenured owner in the NBA and one who has been outspoken in his opposition to stratospheric player salaries. He acquired the NHL expansion Capitals in 1973, becoming one of the first modern entrepreneurs to take advantage of owning two teams that could share a building and key administrators.

In a move that may mark the beginning of the end of stalled contract negotiations, Washington Bullets owner Abe Pollin met for an hour with top draft pick Juwan Howard yesterday afternoon at USAir Arena.The result of the meeting: Pollin has asked general manageJohn Nash to "take a new approach" in contract talks with Howard and his agent, David Falk. The Bullets reportedly are offering Howard $30.7 million over 10 years; Falk is seeking a six-year, $24 million contract for his client."Juwan expressed his desire to play for the Bullets this seasonand I told him I would not have drafted him with the fifth pick if I didn't want him to play for the Bullets," Pollin said in a statement released by the team.

WASHINGTON -- It began in 1964 with the purchase of the then-Baltimore Bullets, and, in the 35 years since, Abe Pollin has built a sports empire. Yesterday marked what may be the beginning of the end of Pollin's involvement in professional sports.After months of negotiations, Pollin sold the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League to a group led by America Online executive Ted Leonsis. In addition, Leonsis purchased a minority stake of Washington Sports and Entertainment, an umbrella group that operates the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association, the Washington Mystics of the Women's NBA, the Washington-Baltimore TicketMaster franchise, as well as three arenas, including the 20,000-seat, 17-month-old MCI Center.

The funeral for Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin will be held Friday. The team said Wednesday that a public memorial service will also be held Dec. 8 at Verizon Center. Pollin died Tuesday at the age of 85. Team spokesman Matt Williams said Pollin suffered from corticobasal degeneration, a rare brain disease. President Barack Obama issued a statement paying tribute to Pollin, who bought his NBA franchise in 1964. "Abe believed in Washington, D.C., when many others didn't - putting his own fortune on the line to help revitalize the city he loved," the president's statement said.

Abe Pollin, a pioneer in area sports and the first man to move a major league sports franchise out of Baltimore in the modern era, died Tuesday. He was 85. His death was announced by his company, Washington Sports & Entertainment. No details were disclosed, but Pollin suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare brain disorder that impairs movement and balance. He had heart bypass surgery in 2005 and broke his pelvis two years later. "With Abe Pollin's passing, the NBA family has lost its most revered member, whose stewardship of the Wizards franchise, together with his wife, Irene, has been a study in unparalleled dedication to the city of Washington," NBA commissioner David Stern said.

Abe Pollin, a pioneer in area sports and the first man to move a major league sports franchise out of Baltimore in the modern era, died Tuesday. He was 85. His death was announced by his company, Washington Sports & Entertainment. No details were disclosed, but Pollin suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare brain disorder that impairs movement and balance. He had heart bypass surgery in 2005 and broke his pelvis two years later. "With Abe Pollin's passing, the NBA family has lost its most revered member, whose stewardship of the Wizards franchise, together with his wife, Irene, has been a study in unparalleled dedication to the city of Washington," NBA commissioner David Stern said.

Eight-year-old Justus Brown has had allergy problems before, but nothing like he experienced Sunday on the way to church in Towson - an attack that his parents blame on last week's record pollen counts. "He told me on Sunday morning he made a `funny noise' when he breathed," recalled his mother, Kenya Brown, 37, of Owings Mills. Justus was wheezing, and he knew something was wrong. "I thought I was going to die," he said. "It felt horrible every time I walked. Every second I had to bend down and catch my breath."

Forty years ago, wildlife managers and utility engineers struck a deal to keep power flowing to the growing Washington region without destroying the wooded bottomlands of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. The Potomac Electric Power Co. would clear-cut a right-of-way for electric lines across an upland portion of the reserve, but manage the 250-foot-wide utility corridor as a unique "scrub-shrub" habitat friendly to migratory birds. Four decades later, the plan is working - in critical ways neither side predicted.

The flowers of my cucumber plants are falling off. How can I get cucumbers? Early female flowers usually fall off without setting fruit because no male flowers have opened yet. Once the males show up, if no pollination occurs it indicates a lack of pollinators. It takes 10 to 12 visits from a pollinator to make a cucumber, and honey bee numbers are down because they're suffering from parasitic mites. Encourage other pollinators by planting bee-attracting flowers and avoiding insecticides.

Did the state offer to build an arena at Camden Yards for the NBA Wizards and NHL Capitals before turning to an NFL team?The owner of the basketball franchise says so. But local officials dispute that account, and one even says it was the team owner who proposed a Baltimore arena be built for him but the idea was rejected.Abe Pollin, chairman of Washington Sports & Entertainment, whose holdings include the Wizards and, until earlier this year, the Capitals, took out a full-page ad in yesterday's Washington Post.

WILMINGTON, N.C. - Washington Wizards majority owner Abe Pollin flew a group of the team's highest-profile fans and investors here yesterday for a day of golf and sun and basketball. And while the golf was middling, and the sun played peekaboo for a lot of the day, the basketball, in the form of an intrasquad scrimmage, was impressive enough to get the long-suffering Pollin optimistic. "Most people, as you know, call me the nutty optimist," said Pollin, who starts his 38th year as majority owner this year.

REHOVOT, Israel -- To the many mysteries of love, add avocados. Scientists have spent decades trying to figure out how avocado trees have sex. A tree can sprout as many as a million blossoms in spring, but only 150 to 500 will bear fruit. Some avocado flowers bloom as females in the morning, then appear the next afternoon as males. Other avocado species do the opposite. Honeybees are not impressed. Bees that break-dance with excitement in the hive after discovering a rich source of citrus blossoms do a slow shuffle when bringing news of avocado.

HOW CAN I GET RID OF SKUNK CABBAGE? Skunk cabbage is a native perennial that provides flowers for pollinators in early spring when few other sources are available. (And since many honeybees are dying of disease, we need all the pollinators we can get.) Consider leaving a few in your garden. Skunk cabbage resembles hosta but goes dormant midseason, so interplant them with another perennial for a full season of bloom. To remove them, dig them up or use a total-vegetation herbicide. Glyphosate is a good choice because it breaks down quickly so you can replant in that area.