Port

James J. White, who left the port of Baltimore two years ago after a public battle for control with his former bosses in the Republican Ehrlich administration, will return to lead the state-owned terminals this summer. Yesterday's announcement was expected by some members of the port community, who had flooded new Democratic O'Malley administration officials with calls to bring back the executive director. White, 57, had joined a private sector maritime firm in New Jersey but maintained his home in the region.

I am having real trouble with sending e-mail using Outlook Express. This error message comes up on my Windows XP Home Edition every time I try to send a .txt or picture file to another e-mail address: "The host `smtp' could not be found. Please verify that you have entered the server name correctly. Account: `pop3', Server: `smtp', Protocol: SMTP, Port: 25, Server (SSL): No, Socket Error 11001, Error Number: 0x800CCC0D." This is all gibberish to me. Do I need to pay Microsoft or Dell to get it fixed?

Some 20,000 longshoremen, contractors and other people who work at the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore will finally be subjected to more thorough background checks starting in late November under a new, long-delayed federal security program. But procedures won't change at the port overnight. It will be months before the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC, cards are issued and required for access to secure areas of port terminals. At least 1 million workers could eventually be required to get and use the ID cards, as the Transportation Security Administration phases in enrollment at the nation's 361 ports through September 2008.

Five stowaways on a merchant ship, who spent two weeks inside a steel container lashed to the deck, were captured yesterday at the South Locust Point Marine Terminal, where they emerged thinking they had arrived in New York City.One of the stowaways broke a leg and suffered internal injuries when he jumped off a stack of cargo containers. He was listed in critical condition at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.All five stowaways were from Ecuador, where they climbed inside the empty 40-foot steel box on a pier at the port of Guayaquil sometime in early June, federal officials said.

State officials have figured out how many people owe their jobs to the port of Baltimore: somewhere between 6,500 and 126,700, depending on how you do the math.As stark as the differences are, determining the port's economic impact means more than a potential ego boost for those whose livelihoods depend on the commerce of the waterways. It could mean a lot of money.The Maryland Port Administration commissioned an economic impact study this year to provide ammunition to use in Annapolis, where a few thousand jobs in economic impact can translate into a few million dollars in additional state funds.

More than 500 people, many of them trade union members from Baltimore, crammed a Maryland Port Administration public hearing last night to endorse or object to leasing port property to developers who want to build a 54,000-seat auto racing stadium near Key Bridge in Pasadena.Building the stadium would mean jobs for them, said carpenters, bricklayers and electricians.Pasadena residents who have adamantly opposed the track did not attend in the numbers expected, apparently believing that Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens made their case for them last week when she called the 100-acre site unsuitable.

Open-water dumping would hurt the bay and the economySince they are shipping industry executives, perhaps M. Sigmund Shapiro and George Thomas care only about the the Chesapeake Bay as a shipping channel ("Dredging the port is crucial to economy, won't hurt the bay," letters, July 27). Fortunately, people such as Rep. Wayne Gilchrest are trying to protect the bay.I keep hearing how economically important the port of Baltimore is to Maryland. Yet, apparently money isn't available to dredge it unless dredged material is dumped in the cheapest way possible.

BALTIMORE'S port sure is attracting attention from international shippers these days. Three big deals are on the table, with this city well positioned in the heated race for more cargo.Yet earlier in this decade, shipping lines left Baltimore for nearby ports that had more cooperative dock workers, better rail rates or were closer to the open waters of the Atlantic.The economics of maritime commerce are changing. What was a negative 10 years ago is now a positive.Baltimore's port community has finally come together to promote an aggressive marketing effort.

Those who depend on the port support dumping at Site 104I would like to take issue with Del. Mary Rosso's letter, "Dumping opponents are not misinformed about the hazards" (Aug. 16). With 18,000 jobs at stake through the port of Baltimore, it is important that we take the time to understand the environmental issues of Site 104.Federal agencies have criticized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for writing an incomplete report on that site. Scientific evidence was left out of that report that may answer the questions now being asked about the dumping plan.

Forum forged innovative ideas to revive manufacturingThe bad news is that the Baltimore region lags behind 17 similar metro areas. ("Manufacturing jobs below many cities, but holding steady," Nov. 12).The good news is that a panel of key leaders of industry, government, education and labor came together at the Regional Manufacturing Institute's Points of View forum Nov. 11 to discuss the future of manufacturing in this region.They agreed that through collaboration, increased promotion of the new technological face of manufacturing, and a renewed spirit for change, the region's manufacturing base can be expanded.

Maryland will get $6 million of federal stimulus money to go toward port and transit security and firehouse construction, an announcement government officials made Wednesday in Baltimore amid the backdrop of an unspecified terrorism warning issued this week. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the money earmarked for the state will create jobs through construction projects and is part of a $510 million federal government effort to improve security at some of the country's major ports.

Joseph J. Giancola, former director of trade development for the Maryland Port Administration who was a transportation industry executive, died Sunday of cancer at his Timonium home. He was 72. Mr. Giancola was born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y. He was a 1955 graduate of Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, and was a graduate of the Academy of Advanced Traffic in New York City. He served in the Army from 1955 to 1957, and the next year, he went to work in the New York City office of the Western Maryland Railway, where he solicited import/export freight that would be shipped through the railroad's Port Covington facilities in South Baltimore.

Gasoline prices rise for 45 straight days NEW YORK - : Gas prices rose Friday for the 45th consecutive day as summer travelers hit the highways and refineries hold back on fuel production. Pump prices added less than a penny overnight to a new national average of $2.639 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Gas is 37.2 cents a gallon more expensive than last month. Yet prices have risen all year after slumping to around $1.60 in December.

12 nanobiotechnology projects get state funds Twelve research projects in the burgeoning field of nanobiotechnology will receive nearly $3 million in funding as part of a competition led by Maryland business and technology development agencies, state officials said Thursday. Maryland's Business and Economic Development Corp. and the Technology Development Corporation administered the one-time program, reviewing 103 applications for funding requests from researchers. The winners were awarded grants worth up to $250,000, according to the state.

The Maryland Port Administration is inviting private companies interested in leasing and running the Seagirt Marine Terminal to submit their qualifications to become a partner in the venture, officials said Wednesday. The move is another step toward finding a private partner to invest more than $100 million in capital improvements at the Southeast Baltimore terminal. Last fall, the MPA hired a consulting firm to help it draw up plans for the venture. The state is calculating that it will need an influx of private money to pay for construction of a 50-foot berth at Seagirt in time for the 2014 completion of a wider, deeper Panama Canal.

Thousands of new and unsold automobiles are parked at ports across the country - another sign of just how badly car sales are faring. At the port of Baltimore, more than 57,000 unsold domestic and imported cars sit on land near the docks. And state officials recently bought about 15 acres off Broening Highway as they seek more space to store the backlog of cargo. In normal times, cars that Mercedes, Kia, Subaru, Hyundai, Volvo and others ship to Baltimore might sit in terminals for a week or so before being sent by truck or rail to dealers who would sell them to waiting customers.

Harry Routson Jr., who worked at the port of Baltimore from age 15, died Dec. 26 at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson of organ failure. He was 91. Born in Baltimore, he attended Polytechnic Institute until 1932, when he left school to work for Rukert Terminal Corp. at the port. In 1942, he entered the Navy as a chief warrant officer, serving in Puerto Rico overseeing supply shipments to the U.S. fleet in the Pacific and European theaters. On his way to Puerto Rico, Mr. Routson's ship was sunk by a German U-boat.

Finnish paper manufacturer UPM signed a 10-year contract with the port of Baltimore yesterday to ship at least 320,000 tons of product through the harbor annually, a deal Maryland officials said would help the port maintain jobs during the economic downturn. The 16,000-employee port is Maryland's largest provider of blue- collar jobs. The UPM deal will result in 120 jobs and $2.7 million in tax revenue, state officials said. Yesterday's contract-signing took place in a $32 million port-side warehouse built for UPM by the state about three years ago. The paper company has been shipping product through Baltimore since the early 1990s.

Phillip Peay has reaped the benefits of working at a bustling port of Baltimore for the past 19 years. His employer, a port logistics company, has paid for most of his college education, and he, his wife and two children live in a house in Rosedale. But the 38-year-old man is also concerned, because he knows his livelihood may depend on the Big Three automakers, specifically Chrysler LLC - the port's largest exporter of automobiles. After listening to Chrysler's president and others speak about the necessity of a federal bailout for the Big Three during a town hall-style meeting yesterday, Peay says he still has more questions about how the automakers will succeed.

Truckers, longshoremen and other workers waited for hours yesterday as they attempted to secure a federal identification card without which they cannot get to their jobs in the port of Baltimore. A top port official said the problem stemmed in part from a three-week computer outage that delayed issuance of the cards by a contractor for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. Yesterday afternoon, more than 100 workers - many of whom said they had been cooling their heels since as early as 6 a.m. - crowded into the closed cafeteria of an office building in Southeast Baltimore waiting for news on when they might be allowed upstairs to pick up their federally required Transportation Workers Identification Credentials.