BUSINESS
Andrea K. Walker, The Baltimore Sun | May 3, 2012
RG Steel LLC is cutting the salaries of managers and executives, including those at Sparrows Point in Baltimore County, because of weak economic conditions. The company sent a letter to employees Monday that said it would temporarily slash the pay of salaried workers by 10 percent beginning May 1. Company executive pay was reduced by 25 percent. RG Steel will also stop contributing to the 401(k) plans of the employees affected. "We view this as temporary until the company can get on better financial footing," said spokeswoman Bette Kovach.
NEWS
By Childs Walker, The Baltimore Sun | February 21, 2012
The former president of Baltimore International College allegedly misused more than $200,000 for personal meals, antiques and unapproved salary, according to a legal filing submitted Tuesday by the remaining board of the defunct culinary school. Roger Chylinski, who founded the college and served as its president from 1980 to 2010, sued Baltimore International for $5 million last year, saying that he was not receiving a monthly retirement benefit of $17,000 promised by his contract.
SPORTS
By Jeff Zrebiec | February 20, 2012
With free agency set to begin on March 13, there have been a lot of questions about where the Ravens sit with the salary cap. That cap hasn't been officially set, though it's expected to be similar to last year's number. Either way, all indications are that the Ravens are in decent shape with the cap, certainly in better position than they have been the past couple of offseasons. That doesn't mean that the Ravens have the room to go on a free-agent shopping spree, because that won't happen.
NEWS
By Erica L. Green, The Baltimore Sun | February 2, 2012
Even as Baltimore principals have been given an unprecedented amount of responsibility over the past four years under schools CEO Andrés Alonso, their average salary has remained among the lowest in the state. The average salary for city principals this school year is about $108,000, just $2,800 more than their pay in 2008, according to an analysis of school system employee salaries obtained through a Maryland Public Information Act request by The Baltimore Sun. That leaves city principals — who lead schools with the largest and most academically challenged populations in the state — behind most of their colleagues in the metropolitan area and only slightly above rural counties on the Eastern Shore.
NEWS
December 27, 2011
As more Baby Boomers start receiving Social Security benefits, more and more strain will be put on that system. Social Security is supposed to be paid for with payroll taxes, but President Obama and his party, with the foolish support of the GOP, call for reducing those taxes to spur economic growth. The results are in, and growth is anemic at best. Unemployment is well north of 8 percent and would have been even higher if so many people hadn't already given up looking for work.
NEWS
December 18, 2011
On May 27, 2010, the Baltimore County Council voted on legislation that would reduce pension benefits for thousands of government workers. The bill, part of a plan by then-County Executive James T. Smith Jr. to shore up the finances of the pension system, limited cost-of-living increases for county retirees and raised the amount of their paychecks county workers were required to contribute. But a last-minute amendment added to the bill would turn out to be worth tens of thousands of dollars to three of the councilmen who voted it into law. County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and former councilmen Stephen G. Samuel Moxley and Vincent J. Gardina, both of whom have been hired into top positions in the Kamenetz administration, are taking advantage of a new provision of the law that allows them to earn their county salaries, accrue new retirement benefits and bank their council pensions for a lump-sum payout when they retire for good.