University Of Delaware

Ayers Saint Gross, a Baltimore-based architecture and planning firm, has been hired to recommend ways to redevelop the former Chrysler automobile assembly plant in Newark, Del. The University of Delaware acquired the 272-acre property and plans to replace it with a high-tech campus for research, business and academics as an extension of its main campus in Newark. The university has asked Ayers Saint Gross to develop a vision for the Chrysler site and how it could fit with the rest of the university's real estate holdings.

When Richard Wool looks at a soybean, he sees a natural resource that can be made into cars, farm machines and particleboard.For 10 years, Wool, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Delaware, has researched the use of soybean oil to make affordable manufacturing materials.Wool has developed a patented process that chemically modifies soybean oil so it can be made into a composite resin. Most commercial resins are made with petrochemicals."The soybean resin is basically a petrochemical resin look-alike, except it's from renewable resources and it's cheaper," Wool said.

Local television newscasts in Baltimore and Philadelphia grossly over-report and exaggerate murder and other violent crimes, leaving viewers feeling frightened, helpless and often uninformed about real dangers, according to a new study published by the University of Delaware.Furthermore, Baltimore newscasts routinely depict violence as a "social menace relentlessly creeping into the suburbs" -- although crime statistics in no way support that analysis, says the study, "Crime, Community & Local TV News: Covering Crime in Philadelphia and Baltimore."

John Grant Jr. has the longest list of accomplishments of any of the Chesapeake Bayhawks, but he doesn't want his pedigree to be a focus. He just wants to be a piece of the Major League Lacrosse team's winning puzzle. "They've been doing a phenomenal job without me," said Grant, who missed the Bayhawks' first three games while finishing his indoor season in Canada. "I'm not here to take over. ... We're tied for first, and now it's time to get the motor going and get some wins at home.

"Bye Bye Birdie," which opens Sept. 9 at Phoenix Festival Theater, is bursting with Harford County talent. Roger Schulman directs the frothy Michael Stewart-Charles Strouse-Lee Adams musical, which shows how 1960s bobby-soxers and their protective parents react when rock star Conrad Birdie shows up in their small town to promote his new song, "One Last Kiss. " The kiss is to be delivered on "The Ed Sullivan Show" to the president of the Sweet Apple fan club, teenager Kim MacAfee.

Ellicott City's historic center braced for a difficult, days-long cleanup of coal, overturned train cars and smashed vehicles after a Tuesday train derailment that crushed two 19-year-old women to death on a bridge. Investigators said the town's uneven topography along the Patapsco River in Howard County added obstacles to an already complex recovery. In addition to the cleanup efforts, local state and federal officials began an investigation into the deaths, the derailment, and the potential impact of thousands of pounds of coal on local waterways.

When it comes to teens having babies, it's a matter of pay me now or pay me later. You can pay for the programs that help teens understand sex and make good decisions about it, and you can pay for the health care services that provide them with options for contraception. Or you can pay for the misfortunes that are more likely to befall the child of a teen mother: health problems, behavioral and educational issues, and a greater likelihood of criminal troubles in adolescence and young adulthood.

Horse racing has always had its seamier side - desperate bets, old-time bookies - but the Preakness infield has lowered the bar. While the well-heeled mingled with martinis in box seats yesterday or in the new Turfside Terrace (where the seats went for $250 a person), thousands of raucous revelers set up mini-pubs in the center of the Pimlico Race Course track and preferred to get down and dirty. This year's Mardi Gras-like fete was one of the dirtiest. Blame it on the rain: Early morning storms turned the typically grassy field into sludge soup.

Remember when President Barack Obama stuck a federal takeover of the student loan program into the "Affordable Care Act," AKA "Obamacare"? The dirty deed was accompanied by a promise that federal control would save taxpayer money and cut off all the private sector profiteers anxious to put the screws to student loan applicants. Now comes the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with a daunting report on the grand experiment: A startling 35 percent of student loan-borrowers under 30 years of age were 90 days or more late in their payments as of December 31, up from 26 percent in 2008 and 21 percent in 2004.

Catherine D. Kohlenstein, a physical therapist who worked with injured veterans and athletes, died of leukemia Monday at University of Maryland Medical Center. The Ellicott City resident was 45. Ms. Kohlenstein was co-owner of a physical therapy practice in Columbia, where she treated clients with an approach that stressed movement and proper posture to relieve pain. Born Catherine Doetzer in Columbus, Ga., she was raised on Montrose Avenue in Catonsville. She was a 1974 graduate of Catonsville High School, where she played lacrosse, soccer and softball on varsity teams.