Standards

The woman who says she represents North American Power is not telling the truth about the benefits of buying electricity from her company. "You can save up to 10, 15, 20 percent of your bill, depending on your usage," she says in a telemarketing call to my house. But the rate she eventually quotes is only about 7 percent less than the standard price offered by Baltimore Gas & Electric — something the average customer would have no way of knowing. And of course the percentage savings won't vary even if my "usage" goes up to that of a steel mill.

El Paraiso is a crowd-pleaser. Whether your friends are hard to impress foodie types, or cautious and careful when exploring a menu, El Paraiso ("the paradise" in Spanish) will make them happy. The restaurant, in a Reisterstown shopping center, serves tasty and familiar Mexican standards alongside authentic — and equally appealing — Salvadoran dishes like yuca con chicharron and beef tongue tacos. The restaurant opened in 2003, but the recipes date back much further. El Paraiso's owners, Mercedes and Maria Rodriguez, emigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador during the Central American country's civil war in the 1980s.

El Paraiso is a crowd-pleaser. Whether your friends are hard to impress foodie types, or cautious and careful when exploring a menu, El Paraiso ("the paradise" in Spanish) will make them happy. The restaurant, in a Reisterstown shopping center, serves tasty and familiar Mexican standards alongside authentic — and equally appealing — Salvadoran dishes like yuca con chicharron and beef tongue tacos. The restaurant opened in 2003, but the recipes date back much further. El Paraiso's owners, Mercedes and Maria Rodriguez, emigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador during the Central American country's civil war in the 1980s.

Just in time for the start of ozone season, the Environmental Protection Agency officially reminds us that Baltimoreans are still breathing unhealthful levels of pollution in their air in late spring and summer. The city and its suburbs were among 45 metro areas nationwide that EPA listed on Tuesday as being in "nonattainment" with air quality standards set in 2008 for ground-level ozone, or smog. Ozone is the byproduct of chemicals emitted in vehicle exhaust and from a wide variety of other sources, including power plants and factories.

In response to the Sun's editorial "Not No. 1 in reform" (Dec. 22), why not make the National Board Certification for teachers the litmus for teacher tenure in Maryland? Teachers cannot sit for the National Board Certification until they have completed three full years of teaching in the same school district and must submit a portfolio, which should include video recordings, examples of student work and documentation of accomplishments outside the classroom that impact student learning.

The state school board voted Tuesday to recommend that students maintain a C average to be able to play sports in public high schools over concerns raised by some educators and coaches that marginal students might drop out without the incentive of sports. The decision, passed with two dissenting votes on the 12-member board, will take effect next school year. While advocates say the minimum grade standard will motivate student athletes to do better in school, critics, including board member Kate Walsh, who voted against the standard, say schools should not discourage struggling students from staying in school.

The lawsuit brought by several Baltimore are homeowners against the largest residential real estate team in the state is the direct result of the Maryland Real Estate Commission ignoring the rules governing brokers and the required course work needed to become a broker ("Lawsuit alleges fraud in real estate deals," Dec. 20). Recently, the commission allowed sales people, like Creig Northrop, to form teams without having the required training a broker must have. There is a reason brokers must have training, prior to managing salespeople.

British writer Aldous Huxley once observed that the only "completely consistent" people were dead. If so, then the majority of Maryland's highest court can be congratulated for producing incontrovertible evidence that they are still very much alive and breathing. In a 5-2 decision released Tuesday, the Court of Appeals ruled that just because a person's signature on a petition for referendum is so sloppy that it is impossible for someone else to read doesn't mean that signature should not be counted.

Maryland energy regulators on Tuesday adopted new regulations designed to improve electric service and reliability in the state. For the past year, the Maryland Public Service Commission has been working to improve new reliability performance standards for each of the state's utilities, including Baltimore Gas and Electric. The standards set rules for tree trimming and customer service performance and require greater accountability by the utilities. Hanah.cho@baltsun.com Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts

IT DOESN'T TAKE a brain surgeon to understand the dangers of overworking young doctors who are in training: sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, medical mistakes. But implementing an 80-hour work week for residents might require the expertise of a professional just as highly educated. It sounds simple, but it's a change that Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and other teaching hospitals are grappling with. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has cited Hopkins for violating work hour rules in its 106-resident internal medicine program, which could endanger the program's accreditation.

Baltimore Gas and Electric's standard electricity price from June through May 2013 is expected to decrease customer bills by $54 on average for the year-long period, state energy regulators announced Monday. The Maryland Public Service Commission last week accepted bids from BGE and other utilities in the state to supply electricity to residential and commercial customers. On the residential side, utilities purchase electricity from wholesale suppliers under a twice-yearly competitive bidding process, which is overseen by the PSC. BGE residential customers can buy BGE's standard utility service or purchase electricity from third-party suppliers.

Maryland energy regulators on Tuesday adopted new regulations designed to improve electric service and reliability in the state. For the past year, the Maryland Public Service Commission has been working to improve new reliability performance standards for each of the state's utilities, including Baltimore Gas and Electric. The standards set rules for tree trimming and customer service performance and require greater accountability by the utilities. Hanah.cho@baltsun.com Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts

Johns Hopkins University professor Nathan Connolly sees the Trayvon Martin case in terms far broader than the details of how the Florida teenager was shot and killed at the end of February. Look at the attempts by some to dismiss race as a potential factor in the shooting of the black teenager or to limit any discussion of racial motivation on the part of George Zimmerman, who has been charged in the killing, Connolly told a roomful of Hopkins students and professors who had gathered Thursday to discuss the fallout of the case.

Does anyone in charge at NBC News have any sense of journalistic standards? How about any sense of shame? I have been banging away at NBC News since at least the days of the suck-up White House interview the network's bowing anchorman, Brian Williams, did with President Obama. You remember the one when they "spontaneously" went out for hamburgers in the middle of the day. (Loved the celebration of special correspondent Chelsea Clinton the last few months as well.) But the double whammy this week is just too much for me to keep quiet - even though I'm on vacation.

How ironic is it that University of Maryland Medical System Board Member Francis X. Kelly stated that "All of the ethical standards of the [Catholic] Church will be upheld," after his institution buysSt. Joseph Medical Center(March 24, 2012, "Ailing Hospital Agrees to Sale"). After all, St. Joseph was an independent Catholic facility when the public trust was violated byDr. Mark Midei. My hope for the St. Joseph Hospital community is that ethical standards which provide autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice in the delivery of health care will trump the "ethical standards of the Church" which were reduced to a meaningless sound bite for the patients who underwent unnecessary medical procedures.

Every week for nearly a year, Sonnie Jones visited the Baltimore Police Academy to help put on a demonstration about how officers could better interact with residents in the city's crime-ridden neighborhoods. Though the demonstrations could become heated, officers often ended up thanking him for his perspective. But while his participation in the in-service training was always on a volunteer basis, he now wonders whether the city took advantage of his good will, in light of reports that guest speakers and non-law enforcement consultants were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to participate in other police training.

The Senate reached an important milestone Thursday when it voted overwhelmingly to approve an energy bill that, if enacted, would require the first major increase in vehicle fuel efficiency since federal standards were imposed in 1975. The "if" is a big one. The Senate measure emerged much compromised with several of its key parts missing. Nonetheless, this turning point - in a chamber that could barely muster three dozen votes for similar proposals in the past - gives momentum to perhaps even stronger action by the House over the next few months.

Berkeley, Calif. -- HOORAY for history controversy! For years, we've agonized and anguished over how our schools teach math and science -- as we should. But history bonds us together as a people, as Americans. Isn't it time we gave it serious attention?Two recently published volumes, entitled the "National Standards for United States and World History," give us that opportunity. But let's make the discussion honest, fair and civil -- not mean-spirited misrepresentations.From Rush Limbaugh to the Wall Street Journal editorial writers to the former head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Lynne Cheney, critics complain that the "Standards" which are more guidelines than rigid "standards")

I was disappointed and, quite frankly, surprised to read Dan Rodricks ' column in which he wrote that based upon his opposition to the tax increase, Senator Bobby Zirkin should switch political parties and become a Republican ("Bobby Zirkin: secret Republican?" March 20). As a guest on Mr. Rodricks' radio program last year, I discussed my decision to support marriage equality and the fact that I was the only Republican senator to do so; support, I might add, that Mr. Rodricks applauded.

There is no greater challenge than to appropriately balance a sport's integrity with injury risk. And there is also no greater responsibility for a sport's national governing body. Since the formation of US Lacrosse in 1998, the investigation of injuries in men's and women's lacrosse has been a focus of the doctors and researchers who make up its Sports Science & Safety Committee. The prevention of injuries that involve the head, face and eyes has been an ongoing priority for US Lacrosse.