Two Sides

Millennial Media's stock has lost three-fourths of its value since the Canton company went public a year ago as an established force in the mobile advertising market. Ask CEO Paul Palmieri about that, and he'll repeat what he deems wise words from a prominent contemporary. "I care very much about our share owners, and so I care very much about our long-term share price," Palmieri said, quoting from an interview Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos gave to the Harvard Business Review in January.

The winter of 1946-47 was a bitter one in Europe. Three years after liberation, Paris was still the "two cities" decried by the influential communist press -- "the Paris of nauseating luxury . . . and the other Paris."Paris had rapidly regained its prewar status as the capital of culture and style. In February, while "the other Paris" was shivering in its unheated apartments -- coal barges had been icebound on frozen rivers -- Christian Dior introduced his "New Look," fashions extravagant in their use of fabrics.

Casino gambling could pump hundreds of millions of dollars into Maryland's lackluster economy or it could spell ruin for the state's centuries-old horse racing industry, advocates and opponents of the controversial measure told business leaders yesterday.Jumping into a high-stakes debate, a five-member committee appointed by the Maryland Chamber of Commerce held a public "fact-finding" meeting to hear the pros and cons of proposals to legalize casino and riverboat gaming here.That alone was unusual.

Foie gras, French for fatty liver, is either a signature ingredient at white-tablecloth restaurants - or the most abject form of animal cruelty and unhealthy to boot. Animal lovers and health advocates squared off yesterday against white-jacketed chefs and restaurant owners over whether Maryland should ban the sale of the delicacy because of what ducks and geese must endure to produce it. But the emotional clash before a Senate committee in Annapolis lost some bite when the chief sponsor of the bill to outlaw trafficking in the high-price food unexpectedly announced she was leaning against going through with the legislation.

NEW YORK -- Union and management officials held discussions for a couple of hours yesterday, but the only progress they made toward an end to baseball's labor dispute was a schedule for next week's negotiations.The talks will resume with a bargaining session on "noneconomic" issues Monday, followed by a series of work-group sessions Tuesday and a full-blown negotiating session on the major collective issues Wednesday.The meeting yesterday was a continuation of a meeting late Thursday afternoon in which the Major League Baseball Players Association presented the owners with a set of revenue-sharing concepts.

Orchard Street is the dividing line. On one side is Orchard Mews, a subsidized townhouse development built in the late 1970s. On the other side is Seton Hill, home to some of Baltimore's oldest rowhouses, built in the early 1800s and tucked away in a maze of narrow alleyways. They share a proud history that dates back to the days of the Underground Railroad and the Orchard Street Church, built by a former slave, and a compact area bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Pennsylvania and Druid Hill avenues.

Down at the opposite end of Charles Street from the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum are two little galleries that have always intrigued me and that currently are showing artists whose contrasting styles evoke interesting parallels: At the Montage Gallery, Mary Cate-Carroll's show, "Surviving: The Desert of the Real," presents quirky, mixed-media constructions of painting and sculpture that suggest a post-modern send-up of the elaborately...

WASHINGTON -- A business trade group formed to focus on just one issue -- mandatory health insurance -- claims the zTC enactment of such legislation could cost millions of Americans their jobs; labor, community action and consumer activists say the group is spreading false alarms about what should be a basic job benefit for all workers.The battle is over whether the federal government should requirmost businesses to provide health insurance for their employees. A measure to do that was approved by the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee in July last year.

A taste for political rights is sometimes too subtle for the country that takes such pride in celebrating them. Every American knows that rights protect individuals against arbitrary governmental power.But rights also depend on the existence of organized political power, a fact more rarely appreciated in American political discourse. Leave people alone and, subject to the mercies of nature and each other, they will never be free. Freedom is a social condition. To be able to exercise individual rights, people must strengthen the very government against which rights are asserted.

Just because Jim West won't be reporting sports on WBAL Radio's morning show every day doesn't mean he's taking a rest.To the contrary, West, who will go on "semi-retirement" after Friday, will be a pretty busy guy, doing occasional fill-ins for newcomer Pam Ward, reporting from the Preakness and Camden Yards and calling lacrosse for Home Team Sports.West, who will be 66 later this month, just won't be getting up at 2:30 a.m. as much, and he considers that a good thing."Gosh, now I'll be able to stay at the games without having to look at the clock and thinking, 'I've got to get to bed and get up in a few hours,' " said West.