Recipients

Seven Baltimore-area student-athletes were among the 13 state recipients chosen for the 2013 Minds In Motion Scholarships, provided by The Allstate Foundation. A luncheon held in their honor will take place June 4 at M&T Bank Stadium, where each of the winners will receive a $1,000 scholarship. Dr. Lillian Lowery, state superintendent of schools, will be the guest speaker. This is the sixth year for the scholarship program, which awards $1,000 toward post-secondary education to each of the female and male senior student-athletes chosen who attend an MPSSAA school and participate in MPSSAA recognized sports.

College lacrosse Fletcher, Ratliff among Loyola's eight ECAC award recipients Loyola senior defenseman Joe Fletcher was named the Eastern College Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year on Thursday, and senior long-stick midfielder Scott Ratliff was named Specialist of the Year. Both also were named to the All-ECAC first team. Senior attackman Mike Sawyer , junior attackman Justin Ward (Old Mill), senior defenseman Reid Acton and senior midfielder Davis Butts were named to the second team.

It was big news in Oregon last week when a local TV reporter discovered he could use a supplemental nutrition card to buy a Starbucks frappuccino. In Washington, Republicans suggested that banning millionaires from becoming eligible for food stamp benefits could help finance an extension of the payroll tax cut. And even here in Maryland, local talk show hosts were wagging their fingers over a recent report that Maryland has a relatively high food stamp overpayment rate of 6.11 percent, a problem that is far more attributable to administrative error than fraud.

Seven Baltimore-area student-athletes were among the 13 state recipients chosen for the 2013 Minds In Motion Scholarships, provided by The Allstate Foundation. A luncheon held in their honor will take place June 4 at M&T Bank Stadium, where each of the winners will receive a $1,000 scholarship. Dr. Lillian Lowery, state superintendent of schools, will be the guest speaker. This is the sixth year for the scholarship program, which awards $1,000 toward post-secondary education to each of the female and male senior student-athletes chosen who attend an MPSSAA school and participate in MPSSAA recognized sports.

The Social Security Administration announced Tuesday that 56 million retirement beneficiaries are set to get a cost-of-living raise of 1.7 percent next year. The same goes for the 8 million people receiving disability payments from the agency. The raise is tied to inflation. Checks this year went up 3.6 percent, after two years when inflation was so low that beneficiaries didn't get a raise at all. In addition, the agency announced that the level of earnings subject to the Social Security tax is going up $3,600 to $113,700 next year.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- They wore baseball caps and golf shirts and, some of them, hearing aids. They talked about wives and ex-wives, reminisced about 10-cent bottles of beer and just laughed a lot. Only the pointed gold medals dangling from their necks hinted that this was a convention of old heroes.There was Lewis Lee Millett, his Army crew cut still sharp at age 77, who in Korea led a bayonet charge up a hill against enemy fire. And Ronald Ray, 56, who in Vietnam shielded his men from a grenade by diving in front of it. And Jack Montgomery, a small, quiet man of 80, who in World War II killed 11 Germans and captured 32 others in a single battle.

WASHINGTON -- The nation's 62-year-old welfare system, condemned last year by federal law, will formally die tomorrow, and a season of state legislative debate has brought new clarity to the decentralized system rising in its place.If the emerging programs share a unifying theme, it can be summarized in a word: work. States are demanding that recipients find it faster, keep it longer and perform it as a condition of aid. Most states regard even a low-paying, dead-end job preferable to the education and training programs they offered in the past.

The Sexual Assault Recovery Center, 1010 St. Paul St., and Margaret Savko, a volunteer at the center, have been named the recipients of the sixth Annual Governor's Victim Assistance Award.Gov. William Donald Schaefer and the Maryland Victim Assistance Network chose the recipients.

Four Maryland organizations won the right to raise $135 million for community development projects by selling federal tax credits, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. The New Markets tax credits help developers fund projects intended to add jobs and bring other improvements to distressed areas. Investors purchasing the credits from New Markets recipients receive a break on their federal income taxes. The local recipients are Baltimore-based CDF Development, a Cordish Cos. affiliate that intends to invest in retail and mixed-use projects; Baltimore-based Harbor Bankshares Corp., which will offer below-market-rate loans to projects in low-income neighborhoods; Columbia-based ESIC New Markets Partners, which focuses on health care centers, healthy-food options and mixed-use developments; and Bethesda-based Mid-City Community CDE, whose investments will include transit-oriented businesses.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer said today he has stopped writing his sometimes controversial letters to constituents because the recipients had gone public with them."

Four Maryland organizations won the right to raise $135 million for community development projects by selling federal tax credits, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. The New Markets tax credits help developers fund projects intended to add jobs and bring other improvements to distressed areas. Investors purchasing the credits from New Markets recipients receive a break on their federal income taxes. The local recipients are Baltimore-based CDF Development, a Cordish Cos. affiliate that intends to invest in retail and mixed-use projects; Baltimore-based Harbor Bankshares Corp., which will offer below-market-rate loans to projects in low-income neighborhoods; Columbia-based ESIC New Markets Partners, which focuses on health care centers, healthy-food options and mixed-use developments; and Bethesda-based Mid-City Community CDE, whose investments will include transit-oriented businesses.

The Carson Scholars Fund announces that 425 students across the country have been named 2013 Carson Scholars. Each year the Fund recognizes a select group of high achieving students in fourth to 11th grade who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement and humanitarian qualities. Students receive a $1,000 college scholarship award and the coveted honor of being named a Carson Scholar. In addition, 714 students have renewed their Carson Scholar status. These previous winners have maintained high academic standards and a strong commitment to their communities and are being recognized for their continued efforts.

Meghan Rafferty, assistant branch manager of its Park Avenue branch in Bel Air, is the winner of Freedom Federal Credit Union's quarterly "Core Value Award," which recognizes Freedom employees who continuously demonstrate support of Freedom's unique core values established as a vision and guidance for all employees in their commitment to serve Freedom members, fellow employees and the Harford County community. Rafferty joined Freedom as a financial services representative (FSR) in 2009 and was promoted to Senior FSR and then to assistant branch manager.

One of this weekend's AFC playoff games pits the Ravens against the Indianapolis Colts. There are many storylines linked to Sunday's contest including the history between Baltimore and Indianapolis, the inspiring story of Colts coach and former Ravens defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano, and the impending return of former Ravens like defensive end Cory Redding, free safety Tom Zbikowski and offensive lineman Joe Reitz. There's also the matter of the two quarterbacks, the Ravens' Joe Flacco and the Colts' Andrew Luck.

The federal government has sent more than $1 million in aid to the Eastern Shore to help victims of Hurricane Sandy and continues to process requests, emergency management officials said Wednesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has received 619 applications for assistance since the Obama administration reversed its initial denial and agreed to provide disaster aid to individuals in Somerset County affected by the storm. The city of Crisfield was particularly hard hit by heavy flooding that damaged hundreds of homes.

The Social Security Administration announced Tuesday that 56 million retirement beneficiaries are set to get a cost-of-living raise of 1.7 percent next year. The same goes for the 8 million people receiving disability payments from the agency. The raise is tied to inflation. Checks this year went up 3.6 percent, after two years when inflation was so low that beneficiaries didn't get a raise at all. In addition, the agency announced that the level of earnings subject to the Social Security tax is going up $3,600 to $113,700 next year.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center issued another warning about the hit man e-mail scheme that first surfaced a couple years ago and, more recently, earlier this year. The center said it continues to receive thousands of reports on the hit man e-mail, but it warns that the content has evolved since late 2006. The two new versions of the scheme started appearing in July. One e-mail instructed recipients to contact a designated telephone number, and the other e-mail claimed the recipient or a "loved one" would be kidnapped unless a ransom was paid.

During a decade of welfare reform, many states have shown tremendous progress - not only in reduced numbers on the welfare rolls but also in better prospects for families and children once a parent has gained steady and meaningful employment. But recent proposed federal regulations meant to help implement the next phase of reform seem to turn progress on its head. The new rules, which go into effect Oct. 1, represent changes to the welfare reform program that were passed as part of the Deficit Reduction Act this year.

Twenty-nine athletes who have received a donated organ or have donated one will represent Maryland in the 2012 Transplant Games of America , an annual awareness raising event. The games aim to highlight the importance of organ and tissue donation, while also celebrating the lives or donors and recipients, according to event organizers. This year, the multi-sport competition will be held in Grand Rapids, Mich., July 28-31. The local competitors, in their 30s, 40, 50s and 60s, will compete on behalf of Donate Life Maryland , the nonprofit group that maintains the state's donor registry through a partnership with the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Four doctor groups across Maryland have been chosen by the federal Department of Health and Human Services for a program that aims to cut health costs and better coordinate care for Medicare recipients. The program named 89 new groups in 40 states to become Accountable Care Organizations under the federal health care reform law. That brings the total already signed up for the voluntary program to 154, according to federal health officials. The groups share in savings realized through the more coordinated care.