Upfront

1997 Beringer Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc ($13).This lush, complex, rounded, dry sauvignon offers a fullness of flavor and compatibility with food that few chardonnays can match. The soft, toasty upfront feel never loses its sense of proportion. It's a wonderfully rich, long wine for this price. It would be ideal with grilled salmon, but has tremendous versatility. It offers exceptional complexity for the price.Pub Date: 11/18/98@

Housing officials yesterday unveiled a federally funded program designed to help middle-income people buy houses in the city's poorer neighborhoods by paying part of their down-payments and taxes.The "Empowerment Zone Housing Venture Fund" will pay up to $5,000 toward the initial costs of buying a house for the first 400 working people who promise to live in the city's poorer neighborhoods for at least five years.The initiative is designed to stabilize communities at risk of falling apart and help people who might not otherwise be able to come up with enough cash upfront to buy a home, said Michael Preston, a spokesman for the Empower Baltimore Management Corp.

NEW YORK -- Homeowners are swarming to redo their mortgages.Behind the boom: a drop in interest rates and mortgage fees. Last year at this time, interest rates on fixed loans averaged 9.3 percent, according to HSH Associates in Butler, N.J. Now they're at 7.3 percent. Upfront costs are also down. That makes it profitable to refinance for a rate cut of around 1 percent, says John Lewis, managing editor of Inside Mortgage Finance, a newsletter based in Bethesda, Md.Here's the traditional way of telling whether refinancing will pay:Compare the new loan's upfront cost with the total amount that you'll save in monthly payments each year.

If you're discouraged by how long it's taking to find a new job, you might be tempted to pay an advance-fee career-marketing firm to speed your efforts. Many promise access to "the hidden job market," a high rate of success with past clients and fast results. All they ask in return is your signature on a binding contract . . . and a few thousand bucks upfront.In most cases, however, what job hunters receive isn't what they're promised. Sure, they'll get a new resume, several lists of hiring managers at local companies and lots of interviewing tips.

NEW YORK -- If you buy your mutual funds through a stockbroker or financial planner, you may have two tough decisions to make. First, is the recommended fund really what you want? And second -- a new challenge -- which of two or three methods of payment should you choose? How you pay will affect how much you ultimately earn.Some brokers and planners tell you how much you're paying and explain the options. Others don't. Some may arbitrarily choose a payment method for you.There's a fee table in the prospectus.

New York --If you buy mutual funds from a stockbroker or financial planner, you're being sliced up to pay sales fees. It's entirely proper to pay a salesperson for advice. But you may not realize how large your fees can grow over the years, or the damage that does to your investment returns -- especially in bond funds, where average returns aren't all that high in the first place.The National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) will impose a new rule beginning July 7 to suppress the unregulated growth of mutual-fund sales charges.

A growing number of employers are requiring job applicants to pay for their own drug tests, saying they are fed up with paying millions of dollars for drug users who flunk the tests.The trend started with temporary agencies, construction companies and other employers offering entry-level positions -- some of whom say half of their job applicants are flunking drug tests.But more companies are embracing the practice, saying that charging for the test upfront discourages drug-using applicants from wasting companies' time and money.

NEW YORK -- Not so long ago, this was the time of year when the television networks flexed their muscles. Big-name companies were summoned to network headquarters in New York, given a peek of next fall's prime-time lineup and told to place their orders for advertising slots. A day or two later, all the slots were gobbled up.But now, as this year's "upfront" advertising season gets under way, the tables are turned on the networks. If the past two summers and surveys for this year are accurate guides, advertisers will drag out the negotiations over weeks and haggle over the prices.

The Annapolis Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended the city approve a 162-townhouse development near Aris T. Allen Boulevard and Bywater Road despite potential crowding at Parole Elementary School.The panel of residents appointed by the mayor to review land-use proposals ruled Thursday night that the city does not have the authority to charge the developer of Oxford Landing a fee to compensate for crowding, a practice used in the county.The commission did recommend that the city require the developer to work with the developers of Oxford Mews and a new Safeway shopping center to widen 400 feet of Bywater Road from two lanes to five.

In an interview in July, former Eagles band member and would-be TV star Glenn Frey said he didn't know what a short order was and, frankly, he didn't care.Frey knows now.His "South of Sunset" TV series was canceled last week after just one episode aired. It was one of the fastest cancellations in the history of television. And it was canceled in part because of a new practice called a short order, which is spreading throughout the TV industry and changing the way decisions about canceling prime-time shows are made.

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings and housing advocates warned Maryland homeowners yesterday to avoid shady businesses that charge high upfront fees to avoid foreclosure. Since the mortgage and housing crisis began widening last year, Maryland officials have tried to stem the tide of people losing their homes to foreclosure. Since September, officials said, they've seen a troubling trend of struggling homeowners turning to for-profit companies that offer so-called "loss mitigation consulting" or "foreclosure prevention."

The Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation is warning consumers and mortgage companies to beware of a new type of business purporting to offer "loss mitigation consulting," "foreclosure prevention" and similar services. Many of the businesses, which advertise through direct-mail solicitations and other marketing materials, are offering Maryland consumers help in negotiating resolutions of their delinquent mortgage loans with lenders and servicers in exchange for upfront fees.

For nearly a half-century, television network executives and advertising buyers have gathered each May in New York to negotiate the cost of commercial spots for the fall season. And for nearly a half-century, the ritual has remained a relatively predictable and temperate affair, as both groups depended on a single ratings source: the Nielsens. But when the weeklong "upfront" bargaining begins today, network chiefs will be ready for battle. Faced with radical changes in the way people watch television, NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox hope to introduce new ways of measuring - and getting paid for - the growing number of viewers who download, stream or replay TV shows.

Three decades ago when then-Gov. Marvin Mandel heard from constituents about the high cost of automobile insurance, he bucked opposition from industry and pushed through legislation that set up a unique state agency to act as an insurer of last resort. Now a provision of that 1972 law has come under fire for contributing to today's high costs for 70,000 Maryland motorists who rely on the state for their auto insurance. The provision requires that residents insured through the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund pay the entire annual premium upfront - an average of $1,700.

When buying mutual funds, I always used to buy Class B shares or Class C shares, the type that do not levy an upfront sales charge. These always seemed to make more sense to me; they looked like the cheaper way to go. Then my financial adviser opened my eyes. He explained why Class A shares, which require an upfront sales fee, often are cheaper to own than Class B shares or Class C shares. I think your readers should know what I just learned. Can you please relay this message? - B.S., Titusville, Fla. With so many variables, it's impossible to say that one particular share class always has a clear-cut cost advantage over another.

When Dorothy arrived in Oz, she was flummoxed by the question, "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" "I'm not a witch at all," she proclaimed. And at the lavish network "upfront" presentations last month where the shiny new fall shows were first announced and glimpsed, there was a similar, new distinction for its upstart genre: Is it a good reality show or a bad reality show? As recently as January, executives were positively giddy about reality TV's unscripted formats, comparing their effect on ratings to crack cocaine.

When you're at work and take 10 minutes to post an item for sale on eBay, view the latest scores on ESPN or see how your stocks are faring, you probably don't think anything of it. Perhaps you should. Increasingly across the country, employers have been monitoring what their employees are doing with technology while they're on the clock -- everything from what keystrokes they make to Web sites they surf to where they drive company-owned vehicles. And while workers nationwide aren't losing their jobs en masse because of "playing" when they should be working, it does happen.

The state Senate's version of legislation to expand gambling in Maryland began to take shape yesterday with a radical rewrite of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s bill allowing slot machines at four racetracks. Among the ideas proposed during an all-day work session was scrapping the upfront licensing fees that Ehrlich is counting on to help balance next year's budget. The move reflects an emerging consensus that it would be better for the state in the long term to give the tracks a lower percentage of the proceeds.

1999 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot, Columbia Valley ($11). Too many merlots are either trying to be cabernet sauvignons or are greenish and medicinal. This Washington state version is precisely what a merlot should be - and at a most attractive price. It offers immensely appealing, upfront black-cherry fruit, lush texture and admirable intensity. It's neither immense nor complex, just thoroughly appealing. Serve with red meat, roast poultry or pasta dishes.

NEW YORK -U.S. advertising spending will rise 4.8 percent to $610 billion this year, reversing last year's slump when the U.S. economy entered a recession, according to investment bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson. From last year to 2006, ad spending will grow at a compound annual rate of 5.5 percent, reaching $760 billion, New York-based Veronis Suhler predicted in its 16th annual communications-industry forecast covering broadcast, cable and satellite television, radio, Internet, film, music, publishing, direct mail, public relations and billboard advertising businesses.