Rating

City officials plan to raise fees for docking boats in Baltimore's Inner Harbor in hopes of generating about $35,000 in added revenue. With that money, officials say, they could reduce the amount that taxpayers spend to operate the city-owned docks. Barry Robinson, the city's head of transit and marine services, said officials are working to make the program self-sufficient. "This is the first step in that direction," he said. The Board of Estimates is expected to approve increases to the Inner Harbor docking fees Wednesday.

I was very happy to see that additional development was barred at Green Spring Station and that common sense prevailed in our county's decision making. Anyone who travels through this intersection during the week days, especially rush hours, can tell you this is a failing intersection that it fully deserves its "F" rating. To those legislators who upgraded it as a "D" rating, I would suggest that without major improvements in place beforehand, any further development at Green Spring Station would overnight decrease its rating to a "F". For this reason, I believe the restriction that prohibits development only near "F" rated intersections should be expanded to include "D" rated roadways and intersections; this is only common sense, guys.

In his remarks to the Greater Baltimore Committee's annual meeting Wednesday night, T. Rowe Price Chairman Brian C. Rogers noted a contradiction in how the world sees Maryland as a place to do business. On the one hand, it is universally recognized for its top-ranked school systems and universities, skilled workforce, research activity, potential for innovation, and great quality of life. On the other, it frequently winds up toward the bottom of rankings of business competitiveness — most recently, by CEO Magazine — largely because of our tax system and regulatory environment.

As a teenager in the mid-1990s, he moved with his parents to the United States from Pakistan. The family sought and received political asylum. They settled in Baltimore County and operated a gas station. The boy attended Owings Mills High School. His cricket skills helped him excel at baseball, the quintessential American game. "He always seemed like such a nice young man," said the chair of the English department. The nice young man graduated in 1999. He picked up a job as a data administrator with the Maryland Office of Planning.

I had to laugh at Mark Ryan's letter about George W. Bush claiming that "the man woke up every morning and tried to do what was best for all Americans" ("Bush will be lauded by history," April 30). Lying to get us into a war to try to finish what his daddy couldn't, which resulted in the deaths of so many U.S. soldiers, wasn't doing what is best for all Americans. It was what was best for himself. Also, Mr. Ryan's remark that "Mr. Bush will go down in history rated far better than the presidents before and after him" is wishful thinking.

Maryland hospitals said they will need to cut jobs and patient services after a state panel voted Wednesday to keep hospital rates flat, despite a 2 percent cut in Medicare payments required by federal sequestration. "There are significant job cuts literally on the near-term horizon," Robert A. Chrencik, CEO of the University of Maryland Medical System told commissioners during a hearing before the vote. "I think folks need to be aware of that. " The 5-1 vote by the Health Services Cost Review Commission, which sets the state's hospital rates, effectively forces the hospitals to absorb the cut in Medicare reimbursement at a time when hospital margins are razor-thin.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. expects to ask for a rate increase within the next two months, less than half a year after it won approval for its last one. The plans were disclosed Wednesday during parent Exelon Corp.'s earnings call with analysts. Chicago-based Exelon said BGE would file its request by the end of June. The Maryland Public Service Commission approved BGE's most recent distribution-rate request in February, though not at the level the company had asked for. The regulatory agency said the average residential electricity consumer would pay an extra $3.33 a month and the average residential gas customer would pay an additional $2.70 a month.

For the second time in three weeks, a somewhat surprising loss dropped Maryland out of the top five in the latest Rating Percentage Index list - also known as RPI - released by the NCAA Monday evening. Friday's 13-6 setback to unranked Virginia (7-8) caused the Terps (9-3) to slip from No. 3 in RPI to No. 7. Maryland encountered a similar fall after losing to Johns Hopkins, 7-4, on April 13 and slipping from No. 4 to No. 8. Perhaps the only positive outcome from the loss to the Cavaliers was their move up to No. 20, which gives the Terps a fourth top 20 victory.

College students taking out subsidized federal student loans will see their interest rate double in July unless Congress comes to the rescue. The rate on subsidized Stafford loans is a fixed 3.4 percent, but that's set to expire and revert to 6.8 percent for new loans issued starting in July. (Old loans stay at their current rate.) Subsidized loans, for which the government pays the interest while students are in school, are awarded to those in financial need. Unsubsidized loans, for which borrowers pay the interest, already charge 6.8 percent interest.