Survey Results

The first comprehensive study to evaluate Baltimore's convention business and leisure travel reports that the majority of people surveyed had a good experience in the city, would come back and would recommend that others visit. However, parking, panhandlers, safety and convention food were among the criticisms that visitors shared in the $68,000 survey conducted by Deloitte & Touche LLP, which was financed by the Maryland Stadium Authority and the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

The Chesapeake Bay and its rivers have lost 44 percent of their underwater grasses over the past three years, scientists reported Thursday, reducing vital habitat for crabs and fish to a level not seen in nearly three decades. Scientists blamed weather and storms for much of the decline seen last year, but they said an as-yet unexplained long-term decline in the bay's water clarity has played havoc with this key indicator of the Chesapeake's health. An aerial survey flown from late spring to early fall last year found 48,191 acres of submerged vegetation, down 21 percent from the extent of grasses seen in 2011, according to scientists from Maryland and Virginia.

The chairman of the Carroll County Democratic Central Committee filed a lawsuit yesterday under the Maryland Public Information Act, demanding all records related to a state delegate's survey on how Carroll should be divided into five commissioner districts. Martin Radinsky, a member of the redistricting committee that worked six months to create a map dividing the county into five commissioner districts, said he repeatedly asked Del. Tanya T. Shewell, a Carroll County Republican, for the results of an informal survey she conducted last year on map options for the new districts.

The results of a $248,000 survey commissioned by the Howard County school system show that although parents are generally satisfied with educational offerings, teachers have serious doubts about the district's leadership. Sixty percent of teachers responding to the survey - given to thousands of parents, support staff, administrators, students, instructors and district-level managers in May - indicated low confidence in Superintendent John R. O'Rourke and his staff to "provide the leadership and resources" they need.

Supporters of Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley are crowing about poll numbers showing the mayor well ahead of Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan in the race for next year's Democratic gubernatorial nomination. The internal O'Malley poll, conducted by GarinHartYang Research Group of Washington, showed O'Malley with 50 percent support among likely primary voters. Duncan had 28 percent, and 22 percent were undecided. The results of the poll, which had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points, were similar to those in a Sun Poll conducted in April, which found O'Malley beating Duncan 45 percent to 25 percent, with 29 percent undecided.

The underwater grasses that sustain fish and crabs in the Chesapeake Bay expanded by 6 percent last year, reversing a two-year decline in one of the key indicators of the bay's health.The 3,500-acre growth of bay grasses, reported yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency's bay program office, was a welcome surprise because it occurred despite storms that flooded the Chesapeake with record flows of fresh water.Biologists had blamed spring flooding in 1994 and 1995 for declines in underwater grasses during those years.

Members of the Howard County school system's largest employee union have been instructed not to reveal results of an annual job satisfaction survey to administrators until leaders devise a strategy they hope will force top officials to improve working conditions at some schools. Ann DeLacy, president of the Howard County Education Association, said her organization's board of directors will meet March 3 to discuss the best way to share the results with the administration. "We need to formulate a strategy," DeLacy told a room of HCEA representatives from all schools during a meeting Tuesday.

Despite the disruptions of a financial crisis that threatened their school system with insolvency, Baltimore's students made gains in every grade and nearly every subject area on this year's statewide exams, in many cases outpacing students in the rest of the state. "This chart speaks volumes about the work that went on this year," said an exuberant Bonnie S. Copeland, the school system's chief executive officer, pointing to a bar graph showing scores moving steadily upward. "For all of the challenges confronting the system this year - the financial issues, layoffs, the talk of layoffs and a myriad of banner headlines that forecasted the demise of the school system - we stayed focused on teaching and learning."

The Sun is conducting a survey this week to gauge readers' interest in the comics and panels that appear daily.To participate, call SUNDIAL, the telephone information service of The Baltimore Sun, at 783-1800. Enter Code 6300 and you'll be told how to indicate your preferences. The survey can take 5 to 10 minutes. You will need to use a touch-tone phone.If you have a rotary dial phone, you may call 332-6450 between 9 a.m. and noon Thursday and Friday to take part in the survey.Results will be published in Today the week of July 27.

The Sun would like to thank the 188 intrepid commuters who called Sundial last week to tell us about the problems they have geting to work in the Baltimore region.The newspaper's metropolitan staff is taking a look at the worst of the region's commuting problems and plans to recount some of the misadventures of motorists and Metro, train and bus riders who race to work by the dawn's early light.A summary of the survey's results, and some of the comments will be published next Sunday with a story on the problems faced by commuters.