Reward

I live in the Canton neighborhood in Baltimore, just a few blocks away from where the 26-year-old woman was brutally attacked and raped and nearly killed ("Va. crimes lead back to Baltimore," Dec. 23). I heard this horrifying story and could hardly imagine such evil taking place on that lovely snowy Saturday. I was very relieved to hear the rape suspect was arrested, but I could not help but be angered that he ever was allowed to come to Baltimore in the first place. I am not going to go into detail about what should have happened; the good news is he was caught and hopefully will never see the light of day. I want to fervently request that the people of Kilmarnock, Va., give the $10,000 reward to the rape "survivor" in Baltimore since she did in fact find the suspect for them.

“Go back to the second verse,” J. Cole told his DJ late into his hour-long set Thursday night at Baltimore Soundstage. “Y'all asked for this, so you gotta rock with me.” Moments earlier, his microphone had malfunctioned during "Chris Tucker," a slithering, Timbaland-esque track from his recent “Truly Yours 2” EP. He bristled at first, but smiled once he realized the sold-out crowd was reciting the lines verbatim, even without the beat....

The idea of "debt relief" ("Time to forgive us our debt?" Oct. 5) is disheartening and disturbing. Ideas to assist people who lost their jobs to keep their homes are compassionate and have merit. Rewarding reckless, spendthrift spending habits is disgusting to anyone who sacrificed, scrimped and saved to buy a house within their means, went to a college they could afford, or (God forbid) paid cash for their needs! Paul D. Belz, Timonium

The talk about city projects always goes round and round. The mayor's glowing study for the magic kingdom of Harbor Point shows that there will be 9,200 permanent jobs and 7,200 construction jobs ("Mayor, builder push for Harbor Point tax deal," June 7). Another study shows 6,611 new jobs, of which 4,320 employees will live outside of the city. The developers state the obvious - that without public infrastructure, no development can take place. The cost of infrastructure is the city's responsibility so if it costs nothing, why not go ahead with it?

Ronald Reagan famously asked Americans, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" in a 1980 debate with then-President Jimmy Carter. They weren't, and Reagan, a Republican, went on to win the 1980 election in a landslide. Baltimore City residents are not better off than they were two years ago, or four years ago or even 10 years ago. In the last decade, tens of thousands of people have left, along with their jobs, shrinking the tax base. And poverty is at 26 percent, up 20 percent from a year earlier.

A reward has been offered in the fatal shooting of a teenager in Wicomico County, according to the Maryland State Police. Preston Morehouse, 19, was found dead Sunday morning in the 27000 block of Ocean Gateway in Hebron, police said. Based on an autopsy, his death has been ruled a homicide. Morehouse, who had lived in Florida and Virginia, had moved to Maryland within the last two weeks and was staying with residents of the home where he was shot, according to police. The Wicomico County Crime Solvers have offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the perpetrators of this crime.

Howard County elementary students displaying good behavior will soon be rewarded with fruit bouquets. A partnership between the school system and Edible Arrangements of Columbia, Ellicott City and Laurel was scheduled to be signed Friday at Elkridge Elementary. The agreement provides principals with 1,500 gift certificates, worth a total of $51,000, for the rest of the academic year. There are also plans to continue the program in the fall. Schools have been distributing the certificates for the bouquets since January.

Howard County police are offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the driver in a hit-and-run accident in Columbia on Sunday. Devon James Carter, 16, of the 9400 block of Merryrest Road was walking west with two friends about 12:30 on Farewell Road when he was struck by a red Honda. According to a witness, the vehicle was headed west and crossed the double-yellow line. Carter was hit from behind and taken by ambulance to University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center with non-life-threatening injuries to the head, torso and legs.

A Delaware jewelry store owner is offering $10,000 for information about a November robbery in which an 8,000-carat ruby - shaped like the Liberty Bell and worth $2 million - was stolen, the FBI announced Tuesday. Armed with hammers and a handgun, four suspects took over the Stuart Kingston Galleries in Wilmington on Nov. 1, the FBI said. They tied up employees and “smashed display cases, making off with a large volume of high-end jewelry and diamonds.” They quartet left the scene in a U-Haul can and were last spotted on Interstate 95, heading north toward Pennsylvania.

The U.S Postal Service is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a man involved in an armed robbery at the small Benson Post Office between Bel Air and Fallston Wednesday afternoon. The robbery at the post office, in the 100 block of Connolly Road, was reported at 1:46 p.m., Sheriff's Office spokesman Eddie Hopkins said. According to a follow up news release from Hopkins issued Thursday, witnesses told police a white male entered the post office and posed as a customer.

Maryland became the sixth state to offer a lottery rewards program Monday, allowing those who did not cash in to collect points instead. Players holding losing scratch-off tickets can now register online at mdlottery.com/rewards and enter ticket numbers to accumulate points, which are redeemable for prizes ranging from music downloads to big-screen televisions. "Offering this added value to Maryland Lottery scratch-off tickets is an innovative way to reward our loyal players," said John Martin, the state's assistant director for the lottery, in a statement.

Rep. John Delaney's new bill offering corporations that repatriate their offshore profits deeply discounted taxes if they invest in a new infrastructure bank, praised in your editorial ("Road work ahead?" May 28), would only serve to reward the very firms that have successfully gamed the tax system in ways that cost the U.S. Treasury $100 billion a year. Mr. Delaney's system of allowing corporations to bid on the tax rate they will ultimately pay opens the system to even more gaming.

The Maryland Racing Commission passed a revised incentive program Tuesday meant to persuade thoroughbred breeders to operate in the state and owners of those horses to run on its tracks, but might have shattered the harmony achieved among the sports' stakeholders in recent months. Breeders, who have pushed for a stronger program to reward Maryland horses, hailed the new measure as the final step in rejuvenating the state's horse racing industry. Purses at Maryland tracks have been bolstered by slots revenue - rising from about $160,000 a day to nearly $300,000 since casinos began operating in 2010 - and are again competitive with those in nearby states that legalized gambling earlier.

Eleven different players scored a goal in No. 4 Stevenson's 23-7 shellacking of Lebanon Valley in a Middle Atlantic Conference tournament semifinal Wednesday night. That kind of diversity has not been limited to just one game. For the second year in a row, the Mustangs have 10 players who have each scored 10 goals this season and boast an offense that entered the week ranked sixth in Division III in scoring with a 15.6 goals-per-game average. (That average was raised to 16.0 after the victory over the Dutchmen.)

The future economic growth and competitiveness of the United States depends on our capacity to innovate. Many ideas have emerged from government, industry and academia regarding how best to inspire and support innovation. But nothing spurs creativity and innovation more than a combination of incentive and challenge: a reward for achievement, combined with the urgency of a dare to succeed and the reality that we must race against others. We are at our best when we compete. This is why I believe that prizes and competitions are crucial to create a climate of innovation and entrepreneurship, and for driving new advances in targeted areas.

Five years ago, I thought I might have to leave Baltimore. Not because I wanted to but because I thought I needed to. It was 2008. Like many employers, Urbanite magazine, where I worked, was feeling the effects of the Great Recession, so I would soon have only half a job. The cut gave me a chance to rethink a few things. Just a few years earlier, I was at the London School of Economics sharing hallways with one of then-Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi's sons and the crown prince of Norway.

City police and the Baltimore field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are offering up to a $5,000 reward for tips in a series of recent attacks in which makeshift firebombs have been thrown against homes causing minor damage but raising concerns. Since Sept. 13, there have been 13 incidents in which Molotov cocktails have been thrown at homes, largely in the area of Liberty Heights and Wabash avenues in Northwest Baltimore. The most recent occurred Nov. 16, and police believe the attacks are random but connected.

The father of a woman killed 37 years ago in her Severn home has put up a $10,000 reward, hoping to generate new leads to help police find her killer. Phyllis Bohle was bludgeoned with a fireplace poker and stabbed on March 25, 1974, when she was 23. Traditional investigative methods and DNA tests have not led detectives to a suspect. Omer "Bud" Gray, 83, said not a day goes by that he doesn't dwell on the crime, and miss his eldest child — who would be 61 now. "It's been bothering me quite a bit, and the older I get, the worse it gets.

A $5,300 reward is being offered for tips that lead to the homecoming of James White, an intellectually disabled 64-year-old man who left his Owings Mills assisted-living home a month ago. White, who is black, 5 feet 7 inches tall and 186 pounds, left his group home in the 9200 block of Leigh Choice Court on Feb. 26. White was last seen between 3:30 a.m. and 4 a.m., after which time staff found the front door open. White's sisters, Rosanna Miles of Rosedale and Addie Bagley of Baltimore, urged the public to provide police with any information.

Thanks to Joseph Urgo, president of St. Mary's College of Maryland, for his editorial smackdown of those who think of higher education only as vocational training ("Why we need the liberal arts," March 3). His point about preparing students to really think about what makes a meaningful life versus just learning to "make a living" was well taken. It also makes me proud that our education system in Maryland supports the broader educational outlook that is only possible through rigorous study of the great philosophers, artists and thinkers who have done the most to shape our world.