Staffers

Right now Rick Abbruzzese works at a desk a few feet from Gov. Martin O'Malley's office in the State House. In two weeks, he'll report a few blocks away to the Annapolis law firm Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan and Silver LLC, where he will likely lobby his soon-to-be former boss. Ditto for Joseph C. Bryce, a State House staffer for nearly two decades and O'Malley's influential chief legislative officer for the past six years. Last month he announced his departure and has moved into a new office at Manis, Canning and Associates where he'll cajole, pressure and maneuver on behalf of corporate clients.

The Obama White House has been trying to de-legitimize Fox News almost from the day it took office. Remember the media blitz of 2009 launched by then White House Communications Director Anita Dunn? I stood with Fox on that one on principle and came away impressed with the almost tribal unity that Roger Ailes inspired in his troops in the face of White House pressure. Ailes showed more of that Thursday with a memo sent to the Fox newsroom. Read it below, and try to tell me he's not right.

An early-morning three-alarm fire that heavily damaged Holland Manor, a Riderwood assisted-living facility, early Saturday morning resulted in more than a dozen staff and residents being evacuated from the building. Twelve residents and staffers were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, according to WJZ-TV. The historic home in the 800 block of Landrake Road had been known as Bush Manor for years. During the 1920s, it had been part of the estate of Baltimore-born silent movie star Francis X. Bushman, who starred in the 1926 classic "Ben Hur. " The fire is under investigation.

Kevin Cowherd Ravens 27, Broncos 24 Only because the Ravens are at home. And they're desperate. And they might have Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs back. And a three-game losing streak would cause The Castle to implode. Edward Lee Broncos 30, Ravens 17 The Broncos are 0-5 all time against the Ravens in Baltimore, but the Ravens are reeling, and a change from Cam Cameron to Jim Caldwell at offensive coordinator isn't the end-all solution. Peyton Manning will fortify his candidacy to be named the NFL's Most Valuable Player.

WASHINGTON -- It will all look very official and proper when President Clinton, flanked by beaming congressional leaders, signs the tax and budget bills into law this morning.But don't look too closely.Between the lines lurks what can only be called human nature. Typos. Bloopers. Unintended consequences. Hidden provisions that have nothing to do with the budget. Vague directives. And outright mistakes.And all because of the way Congress operates: in a rush. In Washington, it is simply standard operating procedure to haggle and procrastinate and then cram at the last minute, pull an all-nighter and get the deal done in a flurry of adrenalin.

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Baltimore's WBFF appears to have hunkered down after a patriotic statement of support for President Bush read by the station's anchors prompted widespread media scrutiny and vexed some staffers. At a recent meeting with employees, station officials warned staffers not to talk to the press, pointedly reminding them they could be fired if they did. And Bill Fanshawe, the station's general manager, criticized The Sun for its coverage of the original incident in a rare, on-air editorial which ran Monday and Tuesday.

WASHINGTON - They swarmed the offices of U.S. representatives Wednesday demanding answers. "We're here to ask questions," said Alex DeOrazio, as he greeted a staffer for Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Democrat from North Carolina. But this was no congressional probe, and DeOrazio was no investigator. The Glen Burnie fifth-grader was one of a group of elementary- and middle-school pupils who fanned out through the Cannon House Office Building to quiz congressional staffers on their knowledge of the Constitution as part of Liberty Day. In Butterfield's office, legislative fellow Ryan McKeon knew that senators serve six-year terms, but he was stumped on the next question: "What are the three rights in the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution?"

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WASHINGTON -- Even before Prince George's County State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey interviewed to work for Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes in 1994, he was confident he had the job. After all, the two shared Ivy League alma maters. "I thought that would be a real feather in my cap," Ivey said. "Then he says, `Princeton and Harvard, not bad - but where's Oxford on there?'" Sarbanes, 74, was jokingly referring to his days as a Rhodes scholar, but the colorful exchange gave the young lawyer a snapshot into how particular the senator can be about those who serve him. Yet, in doing so, Sarbanes, who is retiring, has shown an ability for spotting talented individuals, considering many of his staffers gained plenty of political prestige after they left his service.

Right now Rick Abbruzzese works at a desk a few feet from Gov. Martin O'Malley's office in the State House. In two weeks, he'll report a few blocks away to the Annapolis law firm Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan and Silver LLC, where he will likely lobby his soon-to-be former boss. Ditto for Joseph C. Bryce, a State House staffer for nearly two decades and O'Malley's influential chief legislative officer for the past six years. Last month he announced his departure and has moved into a new office at Manis, Canning and Associates where he'll cajole, pressure and maneuver on behalf of corporate clients.

Wanted: Flexible schedules and telecommuting options for congressional staffers who frequently work more than 40 hours per week and seek a better balance between their work and personal lives. After interviewing more than 1,400 U.S. House and Senate employees for "Life in Congress: Aligning Work and Life in the U.S. House and Senate," researchers concluded that congressional staff members are less likely than private-sector workers to be satisfied with the flexibility in their jobs.

Inside a small cubicle in Timonium, Jessica Gatton Facini is saving homes. The 26-year-old sorts through foreclosure and lien documents from Baltimore homeowners, identifies a problem and then navigates the bureaucracy of big banks and government agencies in search of a solution. It's a challenging task - some homeowners would say impossible - but Facini wields a weapon most Marylanders do not. When she contacts a bank, her caller I.D. says "U.S. Congress. " As part of a little-known effort, congressional staffers across the country have been calling banks relentlessly to bargain for help for homeowners.

The Maryland sports information office has added another former NFL staffer to its operation. Matt Taylor, who previously worked for the Indianapolis Colts, joined his former boss with the Washington Redskins, Zack Bolno. Taylor replaced Shawn Nestor, who left last month to go to the University of Texas, Bolno was hired to head the sports information office after Doug Dull left to start his own public relations company. According to Bolno, Taylor will work primarily with Randy Edsall and the football team.

Erna Segal, a writer and former Maryland Shock Trauma Center public affairs specialist who chronicled the lives and work of the center's medical staff, died Tuesday of complications from dementia at Largo Medical Center in Largo, Fla. The longtime Pikesville and Randallstown resident was 83. The daughter of furniture store owners, Erna Selznick was born and raised in Staten Island, N.Y., where she graduated in 1947 from Curtis High School....

A report last week recommending all charges be dropped against two city school department employees accused of tampering with student test booklets in order to raise their school's scores on state standardized exams is not only a personal embarrassment for schools CEO Andrés Alonso, who appears to have pursued the allegations long after it was obvious the city couldn't prove its case, but also a serious setback for the school system, whose credibility for...

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Government experts are creating bursts of light as intense as lightning and as hot as the sun. Unfortunately, they don't quite know their own address.This has been a disorienting summer for nearly 300 engineers, who are moving from the Naval Surface Warfare Center near Annapolis to the center's headquarters at Carderock, in Montgomery County on the Potomac River. The move, ordered by the nation's military downsizers in 1991, has left many in uneasy limbo."Anybody know the new street address?

Last year, 8.8 million viewers saw NBC's coverage of the Preakness. That's the kind of big-tent mass audience that makes the race one of Baltimore's showcase events. And that doesn't count the hundreds of thousands who will watch pre- and post-race coverage on the NBC Sports Network cable channel. But how Baltimore is seen by all those eyeballs largely depends on how NBC Sports chooses to cover the race and related events starting Saturday at 2:30 p.m on NBC Sports Network. NBC's network coverage of the race starts at 4:30 p.m. and runs until 6:30 p.m., with a closing half hour from 6:30 to 7 on NBC Sports Network.

I was just beginning my career at The Sun when the paper (and, yes, it was just a paper then) marked its 150th anniversary. Everything seemed startlingly new to me, and the festivities around May 17, 1987, were a heady part of that. Twenty-five years later, I'm honored to be running the newsroom as we turn 175. Readers may not know it, but we're older than The New York Times , The Washington Post and The Boston Globe . Leafing through the magazine published to commemorate the 150th, I was struck by how many companies that advertised in it no longer exist in the Baltimore area.