Technology Center

The Johns Hopkins University will receive at least $48 million to develop computer systems that would help military and spy agencies process the huge amounts of intelligence data they collect. The Department of Defense grant is for a new research center focused on improving technology that can automatically translate and analyze speech and text in multiple languages, school officials announced today. It would help overburdened intelligence analysts cope with the flood of information - often in Arabic - being gathered in Iraq and the war on terror, experts said.

When a pharmaceutical company acquired an Owings Mills drug firm about four years ago, about 100 people worked there. Shire Pharmaceuticals has since expanded and brought another 150 jobs to Baltimore County. Yesterday, the company announced another expansion. Company officials joined by politicians, fireworks and shimmering golden streamers unveiled a multimillion-dollar building designed, in part, to improve manufacturing efficiency. The $6 million Pharmaceutical Technology Center is 19,000 square feet.

Ecker conference to air on CETV Cable TV Channel 21, CETV, will air the news conference that Carroll County Public School Superintendent Charles I. Ecker held Tuesday regarding the embezzlement of school funds by a former employee. A financial secretary at South Carroll High School allegedly took more than $200,000 from South Carroll High School, Ecker announced. His statement on the school system's response will air at 5 p.m. today, 8 p.m. tomorrow and 10 a.m. Tuesday. Information: 410-751-3020.

J.T. Bright was a willing, if jittery, recruit when a Maryland State Police officer surveyed a crowd of students for a volunteer to help him demonstrate the swift skills of Yuka, the department's patrol dog. "At first, I couldn't believe they were going to let us do that," said Bright, an 11th-grader at South Carroll High School in Winfield who also attends classes at the Carroll County Career and Technology Center in Westminster. "I was a little nervous. ... Especially when the dog charged at me."

After serving as principal of the Center for Applied Technology North for 10 years, John Hammond is set to retire at the end of February. His replacement, appointed Wednesday, will be Daniel Schaffhauser, an assistant principal at the school, a career-training center in Severn. The two men have been working together at CAT North for a year and a half, but they have known each other for more than 30 years. They met in 1975, when Schaffhauser, who had recently graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with a degree in administration and supervision, applied for a job at Lindale Middle School.

A gray whirling tornado inches past a brown rectangular house, surrounded by a white picket fence. Then the house is engulfed in flames while the image of an American flag waves in the corner of the screen. Pictures of Westminster sights come into view on the screen, with the words, "When in need, the community comes together!" Filled with cartoon graphics, photos, and lists of emergency supplies, the Ready React Respond Community Connection Web site was set up to teach residents how to prepare for a natural disaster or a terror threat.

The state agreed yesterday to give Charles County 50 acres that local officials hope to turn into a high-tech research hub that will create jobs and secure the U.S. Navy's presence there for years to come. The land would be used for an energetics laboratory, which would develop explosives and propellants in partnership with the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indian Head. Wayne Cooper, president of the county Board of Commissioners, said the facility could spin off dozens of businesses.

For sale: Seventy-year-old manufacturing plant with 50 football fields of floor space on 182 potentially contaminated acres. Only one owner. Comes with easy access to a congested East Coast highway. Zero percent financing unlikely. See your General Motors dealer for details. With the assembly line at GM's plant in Southwest Baltimore idle, the search is on to find a developer with deep pockets to take on the task of bringing one of the city's largest and most prominent industrial properties back to life.