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Port officials have asked the state Public Utilities Commission to set a flat rate for taxi services to and from the cruise ship terminal and three popular city locations. James White, executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, said passengers — many from out of state — have complained "that they are being overcharged and that taxi drivers are not turning their meters on. " He asked the commission to set a fare for trips to Fort McHenry, Pennsylvania Station and the Inner Harbor in the same way it established a $30 flat rate for fares to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

A CSX Transportation dockworker who says he suffered disabling injuries last August when a tanker collided with a Curtis Bay pier has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the shipping company. David Rienas of Abingdon was atop a coal-loading machine on the Bayside Coal Pier when the Wawasan Ruby struck, "causing it to be dragged down the pier with great force," according to the suit, filed Friday. Rienas, 42, is asking the court for $5.2 million as compensation for back, neck and rib injuries that have kept him from working and have, he says, caused him permanent injuries "including mental anguish, fright and emotional distress and disfigurement.

The manufacturers of Asia just got a lot closer to Baltimore. Four massive cranes at the Seagirt Marine Terminal began writing the next chapter in the region's maritime history Thursday morning as they started unloading a 981-foot cargo ship laden with containers onto waiting trucks. The cranes are the most visible symbols of a $1.3 billion public-private partnership between the Port of Baltimore and Ports America Chesapeake that allowed the expansion of Seagirt to handle the world's largest ships and gives the facility a leg up on almost every port from Maine to Florida.

Theodore A. "Ted" Dietz, a retired shipyard electrician who earned the sobriquet of "40-Watt Dietz" from fellow volunteer crew members aboard the Liberty ship SS John W. Brown, died Feb. 3 of heart failure at his Severna Park home. He was 91. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Dietz was a 1942 graduate of Franklin K. Lane High School. "He enlisted into the Navy before he formally graduated from high school and his mother received his diploma," said his wife of two years, the former Mary Bartlett.

A 61-year-old man with a high fever was rescued Tuesday evening from a 957-foot tanker ship anchored near Annapolis, U.S. Coast Guard officials said. The captain of the Cape Althea contacted Coast Guard officials about 5 p.m. reporting he had a 104-degree fever, and Anne Arundel County Fire Department personnel helped retrieve the man via a 45-foot rescue boat to a medical center, officials said. "Since the Cape Althea was at anchor and the crew from Anne Arundel County Fire and Rescue has an advanced capability to aid medically, we asked them to assist," said Chief Petty Officer Eddie McCrae, supervisor of the Coast Guard Sector Baltimore Command Center, in a statement.

John R. Duffy, a retired Baltimore police officer and Navy veteran who witnessed the Japanese surrender that ended World War II, died Wednesday of a heart attack at Ivy Hall nursing home in Middle River. The longtime Perry Hall resident was 87. The son of a Baltimore police officer and a homemaker, John Robert Duffy was born in Baltimore and raised on Linwood Avenue near Patterson Park. After graduating in 1944 from Patterson High School, Mr. Duffy entered the Navy. He was assigned to the battleship USS Missouri, where he was a gunner's mate and coxswain.

Cruise traffic at the port of Baltimore last year dipped slightly from 2011, snapping a four-year string of increases. Port officials said Wednesday that 240,676 people sailed on 100 cruises out of Baltimore, the second-highest count since year-round service started in 2009. In 2011, 251,889 passengers sailed on 105 cruises, a nearly 20 percent increase over the previous year. Cruise traffic is worth about $90 million in total economic value to the state and is responsible for about 220 jobs.

Werner H. Fornos, who fled post-World War II Germany as a teen and became an advocate for global population control after serving in the Maryland House of Delegates, died of diabetic complications Jan. 16 at his home in Basye, Va. The former Davidsonville resident was 79. Born Werner Horst Farenhold in Leipzig, Germany, he was separated from his family during the World War II during Allied bombing when the apartment building where the family lived...

Famed Orioles baseball manager Earl Weaver died early Saturday aboard a cruise ship after spending nearly a week sailing the Caribbean surrounded by fans, friends and family. The 82-year-old Weaver was taking part in The Original Baltimore Baseball Cruise aboard the Celebrity Silhouette cruise ship, which departed from Fort Lauderdale last Sunday with an itinerary that included stops in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Haiti. Cruisecritic.com, a website specializing in cruises and a gathering place for cruise-goers, reported that Weaver collapsed in his cabin and never regained consciousness.