Social Security Administration

Rosalie D. Bonica, a retired Social Security Administration worker and a world traveler, died in her sleep April 14 at Oak Crest Village in Parkville. She was 101. Rosalie D. Macaluso was born and spent her early years in Calascibetta, Sicily, and arrived with her family at Ellis Island in New York in 1911. Her father, a coal miner, settled his family originally in Beaverdale, Pa., before moving to Dundalk in 1918. "She always said how grateful she was to her father, who had the foresight to bring them to this country where there were jobs and opportunity," said a daughter, Patricia M. Marani of Parkville.

Dr. Michael Kevin Finegan, a retired Maryland General Hospital surgeon who also worked for the Social Security Administration, died of multiple myeloma Wednesday at the Brightwood Center in Lutherville. The Roland Park resident was 81. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he studied at boarding school, Newbridge College in Kildare, where he entertained thoughts of playing rugby professionally. He attended University College Dublin and received his medical education at the National University of Ireland, where he was a rugby team captain.

A day after a federal judge ruled that the government could not use mismatched Social Security numbers to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, a coalition of immigrant advocates, faith leaders and workers gathered near the Social Security Administration headquarters in Woodlawn to voice their outrage at the proposal. The regulation is part of a recent Bush administration push to get tough on employers and weed out illegal immigrant workers. But advocates said yesterday that the proposal encourages employers to fire millions of workers with questionable Social Security numbers, harming immigrants and citizens.

Karl E. Zinkhan, 85, former deputy chief of policeKarl E. Zinkhan, retired Baltimore County deputy police chief whose career spanned nearly four decades, died Sunday of pneumonia at Carroll County General Hospital. He was 85.Mr. Zinkhan, a former Chestnut Ridge resident who recently lived at Carroll Lutheran Village Retirement Community in Westminster, joined the Baltimore County police department in 1939.Beginning his career as a patrolman, Mr. Zinkhan was promoted in 1940 to the traffic division, which he later commanded.

John Patrick Gillespie, a retired Social Security Administration executive, died Wednesday of complications of a stroke at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Mays Chapel resident was 69.Mr. Gillespie joined the Social Security Administration in 1952 and retired in 1984 as a special analyst at the administration'sWoodlawn headquarters."He loved working with the elderly and helping them with their claims," said his wife, the former Sarah Needham, whom he married in 1949.Born in Scranton, Pa., Mr. Gillespie graduated from the University of Scranton, where he studied pre-medical and chemistry courses.

WASHINGTON -- More than 100 black male employees from the Social Security Administration's headquarters in Baltimore plan to come to Washington on Monday to protest what they say is the discrimination in promotions and pay they have suffered because of their race and sex.The men, joined by representatives of the NAACP, say they will demonstrate in front of the offices of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to call for more aggressive monitoring of...

WASHINGTON -- The inspector general of the Social Security Administration has been asked to review allegations that some employees at the agency's Baltimore headquarters pursued hobbies or held part-time jobs -- even selling hot dogs at Camden Yards -- while they were supposed to be spending paid time on union activities.The decision by agency officials to request the inquiry was prompted by congressional testimony last week from a former shop steward who made broad, but undetailed accusations of abuse of the policy of "official time."

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the House panel that oversees the Social Security Administration contends that its employees have been inappropriately performing work for their unions during regular work hours.While contracts with federal employees allow them to carry out some union duties on "official time," Rep. Jim Bunning charges that the problem is out of control, costing taxpayers $14.7 million in salary and expenses a year. The Kentucky Republican began three days of hearings on the issue yesterday; they are scheduled to conclude tomorrow.

Lawrence E. Hendricks, a retired Social Security Administration executive and avid sailor, died Dec. 20 on his boat in the Virgin Islands from complications of an infection. He was 70.Mr. Hendricks, who lived in Baltimore, was born in Charleston, S.C., in 1925. His family home was near the Atlantic Ocean, and he learned to sail at an early age.He graduated in 1943 from Porter Military Academy in Charleston, where he received pilot training. He was an Air Force pilot until 1945.After being discharged, Mr. Hendricks enrolled in the University of Alabama, where he majored in political science and economics.

Maryland health officials have alerted their counterparts in New York that a Social Security Administration manager may have contracted Legionnaires' disease while vacationing in upstate New York rather than while at work in Woodlawn.Thousands of Social Security Administration employees returned to work yesterday at a Woodlawn building closed during the weekend as a precaution to prevent spread of the disease, which causes severe pneumonia. Most people get the ailment by inhaling mist from a contaminated water source, such as air-conditioning cooling towers.

John Bernard Schwartz, a retired Social Security Administration personnel executive who also taught at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, died of pneumonia Oct. 14 at Howard County General Hospital. The Westview resident was 83. Born in Minneapolis, he joined the Navy and served in the South Pacific as an electrician's mate. He earned a political science degree at the University of Minnesota. He became a Social Security Administration field representative and held numerous posts in the agency.

The Maryland Board of Public Works approved on Wednesday a transfer to the federal government of state-owned land in Northwest Baltimore where U.S. officials plan to build an office building to house some Social Security Administration operations. The new structure, which federal and state officials say is needed by 2012, is planned near the Reisterstown Road Plaza Metro station. It would be one of the largest and most expensive federal office buildings in Baltimore in years. About 1,600 federal workers now at the federal agency's Metro West complex on Greene Street would move there.

Nearly 30 years after the Social Security Administration opened its $92 million Metro West complex on Baltimore's west side, federal officials are planning to move 1,600 employees from there to an office building to be constructed near the Reisterstown Plaza Metro station in Northwest Baltimore. The state Board of Public Works is scheduled to consider Aug. 26 a request from the Maryland Department of Transportation to transfer an 11.3-acre parcel at 6100 Wabash Ave. to the U.S. General Services Administration in preparation for the proposed development.

Washington -Wanted: Large parcel of real estate suitable for high-security, high-tech databank containing names, earning histories and Social Security numbers of 300 million Americans. Must be within 40 miles of Baltimore. Using a hefty down payment from the newly signed economic stimulus law, the Social Security Administration has embarked on a $750 million project to replace its outmoded National Computer Center. The agency received a total of $1 billion in the stimulus, with half to go toward the computer project and half for reducing a huge backlog in processing disability claims.

Social Security benefits for the nation's 50 million seniors will rise 5.8 percent in January, providing the biggest cost-of-living increase in more than 25 years at a time when the nation's elderly are being buffeted by rising fuel and food costs and a weak stock market. The typical retiree will get about $63 more a month, the Social Security Administration announced yesterday. About 786,407 Marylanders received an average of $1,090 in monthly Social Security benefits as of January 2007, according to the Social Security Administration.

Arthur J. Brett, a retired Social Security Administration official who was active in veterans affairs, died Thursday of cirrhosis at his Mount Airy home. He was 76. Mr. Brett was born and raised in Milwaukee, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Marquette University in 1953. He served in the Army during the Korean War and remained an active reservist, attaining the rank of lieutenant. He went to work for the SSA in 1958 and was transferred to headquarters at Woodlawn in 1964.

Joseph M. Blackwell Sr., a lover of jazz and a longtime employee of the Social Security Administration in Baltimore, died of heart failure Wednesday at St. Agnes Hospital. The former Forest Park resident was 82. Mr. Blackwell was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Christmas Day in 1925. He graduated from Oliver High School in Pittsburgh in 1942. He later attended the University of Pittsburgh until he was drafted for service in the Korean War. After his honorable discharge at the rank of sergeant in 1952, he returned to the university and graduated with a degree in English in 1955.

Lucy Mae Green, a retired Social Security Administration worker and former seamstress, died of cancer Sunday at Season's Hospice in Randallstown. The West Baltimore resident was 81. Born Lucy Mae Trower in Baltimore and raised on George Street, she was a 1945 Frederick Douglass High School graduate. Family members said she spent time with friends waiting outside Pennsylvania Avenue theaters seeking autographs from performers who came through Baltimore during the early 1940s. She also developed her affection for movies at this time.

Annette Sherman DeRito, a former humanitarian aid worker in Africa, died Friday in her Olney home after a short battle with liver cancer. She was 55. Mrs. DeRito vowed to dedicate her life to the less fortunate, said a sister, Kate Miller of Short Hills, N.J. "She was appalled by the poverty and injustice," Mrs. Miller said. "She decided that that is what she was going to dedicate her life to." Annette Dilworth was born in Washington. Her father was a decorated World War II pilot, and her mother worked for the Treasury Department.

The Social Security system is choking on paperwork and spending millions of dollars a year screening dubious applications for disability benefits, according to lawsuits filed by whistleblowers. The lawsuits say insurance companies are the source of the problem, forcing many people who file disability claims with them to also apply to Social Security, even those who clearly do not qualify for the government program. The Social Security Administration defines disabled much more stringently than the insurers generally do, so it rejects most of the applications, at least initially.