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Filming of the second season of the Netflix production “House of Cards” began in the Baltimore area Monday, and with it came an announcement from Gov. Martin O'Malley that the first season of the political thriller starring Kevin Spacey had brought $140 million in economic impact and 2,200 jobs to the state. The state's Film Production Tax Credit helped bring “House of Cards” here, according to O'Malley. “Together with our leaders in the General Assembly, we've expanded the Film Production Tax Credit,” O'Malley said in a statement, “and as we welcome the cast and crew back, we also look forward to more job creation and economic opportunity to come.” Both the dollar figures and the politics behind them in O'Malley's statement were quickly called into question by critics of the incentives program.

Bay Theatre Company in Annapolis caps its 2012-2013 season with Arthur Miller's "The Price," a play that may be among the lesser-known of his works but nonetheless strikes a nerve with contemporary audiences. Miller's rarely staged, insightful play examines two estranged brothers meeting after 16 years to sell off the household contents of their dead parents, long stored in the attic of a Manhattan brownstone that is now scheduled for demolition. Bay Theatre dubs the work "Miller's last play of note" — it came two decades after his 1947 "All My Sons" and 1949 "Death of a Salesman" — yet its subject, family dynamics, is timeless.

Household-product maker Sun Products said it will lay off 53 people next month at its manufacturing plant on Holabird Avenue in Southeast Baltimore. Spokeswoman Kathryn Corbally said the cuts, planned for May 13, are a result of the Connecticut-based company "realigning the manufacture of products with the customer base. " She wouldn't specify which products. The company's brands include laundry detergents such as all and Wisk, fabric softeners and dish detergent. Gerry Setley, vice president of the International Chemical Workers Union Council, which represents many of the plant's 350 workers, said the company is shifting its laundry detergent production across North America.

Rarely does a literary classic transfer from page to stage as eloquently as Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" does in the current production by the Annapolis Shakespeare Company at Bowie Playhouse. Everything works beautifully, beginning with Jon Jory's engaging stage adaptation, which is faithful to Austen's prose and yet holds its relevance to contemporary audiences. Sally Boyett-D'Angelo's smart direction of the dream cast she has assembled creates exciting theater, where every actor fully delivers.

Finally it's spring. That means baseball, hay fever and the start of painting season. "May through September are the biggest months for paint sales," says Mark Sposito, vice president of marketing for Sherwin-Williams' Eastern Division. As temperatures rise, so do the number of home painting projects, he notes. The Sherwin-Williams paint factory on Hollins Ferry Road is operating 24 hours a day, five days a week. Soon the plant will be working around the clock on weekends as well, says plant manager Mike Levitsky.

The knock on Gov. Martin O'Malley by his critics is that everything he does is an effort to pad his resume for a presumed run for president. The latest evidence: He enacted Maryland's most sweeping gun control measures in a generation, abolished the death penalty, secured the most significant boost in state transportation funding since the Schaefer administration, laid the groundwork for a wind farm off the Ocean City coast, passed legislation that...

There's something about "Les Miserables" that keeps me coming back. It's not that "Les Miz," running through Sunday at the Hippodrome Theatre , is my favorite musical. Far from it. It's all too easy to point out the technical flaws in Claude-Michel Schonberg's melodies (bombastic) and Herbert Kretzmer's lyrics (unsurprising). The critics have been making these arguments for the past 27 years, and for the past 27 years, audiences have been ignoring the critics. Producer Cameron Mackintosh's much-hyped new staging incorporates brighter costumes and screen projections to simulate such effects as Paris' underground sewers.

Subscribers and friends of Compass Rose Theater Company had major cause for celebration last month with the opening of the troupe's new theater home in the Annapolis Arts District. The redeveloped 2,900-square-foot space at 49 Spa Road now has a full lobby, classroom, library and a large backstage area for performers and dressing rooms, with a ceiling height of 25 feet and a 10-by-25-foot stage. Designed by Severna Park-based theater architect Gary Martinez, the theater comfortably seats 70. Martinez described it as "a dynamic space for a dynamic company," and Lucinda Merry-Browne, founder and artistic director of Compass Rose, called the theater "the realization of the dream of a lifetime.

Parents of children who attend 14 Harford County public schools were warned by school officials Thursday night that their children may have eaten a pizza product that is subject to a voluntary recall because of possible E. coli bacteria contamination. The affected schools are 12 elementary schools around the county and two secondary schools. The school system said the product, Pepperoni Pizzatas, has been removed from its food inventory, along with all products by the same manufacturer, Rich Products Corp.

There had to be some drama at the end. The 2013 General Assembly session, in a marked contrast to the train wreck that was the 2012 edition, moved toward its conclusion Monday as a model of efficiency and cooperation. For once, the kids weren't waiting until the night before to do their homework, having wrapped up virtually all of the major issues by Friday. And then came the speed camera bill. After a series of reports in The Sun about erroneous tickets given to motorists in Baltimore City (including one case of a car ticketed for speeding while stopped at a red light)