System

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people - including 13 women working as corrections officers - who face racketeering and drug charges. Twenty of the accused also face money-laundering charges.

Maryland's in-state undergraduates will pay a few hundred dollars more per semester this fall under a new tuition-and-fee plan approved Wednesday by the university system's Board of Regents. Out-of-state students will be hit a little harder, paying as much as $1,060 more, for example, at the University of Maryland, College Park. The plan marks the fourth year that tuition for resident undergraduates at most Maryland schools has gone up 3 percent — an increase characterized by university system officials as moderate and lower than many states.

Inside Westminster Abbey, eight 20-foot-tall live trees lined the center aisle during the wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William. The trees transformed the space, doing what even the most elaborate floral arrangement could not — providing a natural, living sense of permanence and an air of drama. The move was unexpected, unpretentious and bold. A potted tree on your patio or deck can have the same effect. While not every tree is well-suited for a container, there are a surprising number of options, ranging from crape myrtles to hollies.

The city school board is considering proposals for seven charter schools that include two named for female trailblazers, another attempt at an all-male, college-preparatory program in East Baltimore, and an elementary school for at-risk youths. The new programs were presented to the Baltimore school board Tuesday as part of the district's annual charter application process. The applicants, the majority of which want to open in 2014, had made it through at least one round of interviews with a district charter advisory board.

Some years, Maryland Jockey Club stakes coordinator Coley Blind has to turn horses away from the Preakness.  He and other members of the staff may look through the credentials of 20 horses, calculating their earnings -- the Preakness uses a fairly complicated three-tiered system -- to determine the 14-horse field. Not this year. As of Friday afternoon, connections for only seven horses had confirmed they planned to enter the race, and five others had been identified as strong possibilities.

LOUISVILLE, KY. - This year, Doug O'Neill and his assistants sat in the office at a barn in the far corner of the Churchill Downs backside. Few reporters dropped by, and O'Neill was not asked repeatedly to relive the running of the Kentucky Derby a day before. Last year's winning trainer, with I'll Have Another, O'Neill instead convened with his robust team to discuss plans for the 138th Preakness Stakes, scheduled for May 18 at Pimlico. Their Derby horse, Goldencents, finished 17th.

On Thursday, the day the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, a 47-year-old Baltimore woman went to the drugstore, and pulled out her debit card to pay for a prescription refill. But she didn't have enough money in the account to cover the $425 charge. So she asked the pharmacist and staff for a favor. "I asked them to break up the prescription to give me one-third," says the woman, who would not allow her name to be published because she didn't want to disclose her medical conditions.

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailiani was found guilty on just one of 285 terror related counts ( "The system worked," Nov. 19). If this shows the system worked," the bar for claiming success must be very low. Ken Waters, Ocean Pines

The PalmSecure system should not be allowed in a food service setting ("Palm scanner concerns Carroll County parents," Oct. 3). It involves children placing their hands over a common scanning pad and sharing bacteria with other children passing through the cafeteria line. It is filthy, dirty and unsanitary. For decades, we have conducted school lunch programs without using such a highly invasive and unsanitary system. I am surprised that the state health department has not evaluated this plan.

I just returned to the U.S. from a pastorate in British Columbia, Canada, where for the past 10 years health care cost me $56 a month. I am very healthy. I only used the Canadian system once. Now I face huge expenses every month because I am over 61. Having experienced both systems, I am definitely in favor of a nationalized health care program now! Yes, it will have glitches as the public and the government get used to it, but I believe soon we will all be saying, "What took us so long?"

In the black market of Maryland's prisons and jails, where the right price can secure cellphones and drugs, transactions unfold through a complex system of currency. Among the key elements: 14-digit codes, prepaid debit cards and text messages. One brand of cards - Green Dot - is so ubiquitous that it has become part of the lexicon on the inside. The recent federal indictment of two dozen inmates and corrections officers in an alleged Black Guerrilla Family corruption scandal at the Baltimore City Detention Center notes several instances in which suspects refer to "dots" in transactions.

Education observers were split Tuesday on whether the city's school board should launch a nationwide search to replace schools CEO Andrés Alonso or give the job of taking on the district's daunting challenges to his hand-picked successor. Some, such as principals union president Jimmy Gittings, said they'll push for the board to name interim CEO Tisha Edwards as permanent superintendent. School officials said late Tuesday that Edwards, Alonso's chief of staff, would not have to obtain a state waiver despite lacking the teaching experience typically required by state law for the post.

The beautiful weekend weather just couldn't last. While clear, sunny skies remain over New England, a low-pressure system spinning up from the Southeast has brought clouds over the mid-Atlantic. An area of high pressure that dominated from late last week through the weekend is now centered near Maine, slipping off the coast. The area had blocked clouds from moving into the region. "ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END...AND SO WE SAY FAREWELL TO THE FINE WX OF THE PAST FIVE DAYS," National Weather Service meteorologists wrote in a morning forecast discussion.

The Board of Education of Harford County is seeking applications from interested county citizens to fill one opening on the school system's Audit Committee. The purpose of the five-member committee is to assist the board in fulfilling its fiduciary oversight responsibilities. The committee serves as an independent and objective party to monitor the school system's financial reporting process and internal controls. The committee meets at least quarterly to review financial performance and may meet annually, in separate sessions, with management, the internal auditor and the external auditor.

Maryland's House Republicans decided this week to jettison Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell from the leadership of their caucus on the grounds that a new messenger is needed to revitalize the party's prospects and pick up seats in the 2014 election. We wish new Minority Leader Nicholaus Kipke and new Minority Whip Kathy Szeliga the best of luck; Maryland is better when it has two functioning political parties. But color us skeptical that rearranging the deck chairs in the House GOP caucus is going to accomplish much.

FLIR Systems' government-contracting arm is more than doubling its space in Howard County as it prepares to start assembling threat-detection devices. Gov. Martin O'Malley visited the company in late February to discuss concerns about the employment effect of the federal government's sequestration budget cuts. Now, FLIR says, it feels more confident about expansion because funding for its programs is less uncertain. "With budgets beginning to get resolved, it makes decision-making for us in the future somewhat easier," said David Cullin, chief technology officer of FLIR Government Systems, FLIR's government-contracting division.

A key statistic was not pursued in Tom Schaller's thought provoking essay of 18 May concerning whether we are (or should be) sliding toward socialism. He states that our economy comprises 25 percent of the worlds output. But we only make up 4 percent of the population. Apparently, something about our system works well. The idea of redistribution of wealth has been debated, and attempts to put it into practice have been a dominant theme over the last two centuries. It is hard to implement the theory because it runs counter to the laws of nature — some people are simply more gifted and productive than others, and people have a natural instinct to guard what is theirs.

This is my 15th year teaching in Baltimore City. I am a second-career teacher and plan to retire in three years. I have taken two sick days in that time. However, the school system operates under a use-them-or-lose-them policy unless you stay in the system for 20 years. That just will not be possible for me, and since 50 percent of all teachers leave by the fifth year, the current system simply promotes the taking of sick leave unnecessarily ("This looks a lot like playing hooky," Nov. 13)

Baltimore City school officials say the nearly $1.2 billion budget the system unveiled last week will fund a raft of new academic endeavors, among them a new team to upgrade instruction in the sciences to meet the higher standards of the new national "core" curriculum and additional programs for academically gifted students. This is all to the good if it helps the city attract and retain more young families with children for whom strong public schools are often the most important factor in choosing where to live.

Micros Systems Inc., a maker of software for the hospitality and retail industries, reported third-quarter net income of $44.3 million Thursday, a 2.4 percent increase compared with the same period in 2013 and a record for a third quarter. The Columbia-based company said it also set third-quarter records for earnings per share and sales. Diluted earnings per share rose 3.8 percent to 55 cents per share, the company said. Sales grew 13.3 percent to $315.1 million for the quarter that ended March 31. "We continue to execute in a difficult environment and I am confident in our ability to meet not just the challenges but the opportunities which lie ahead," Micros CEO Peter A. Altabef said in a statement.