Urge

A dozen Annapolis business leaders braved the sweltering heat Friday afternoon to rally in front of the city's historic courthouse in support of a $43 million expansion project.Downtown merchants, lawyers, and representatives of the hotel and restaurant industry urged Annapolis' historic preservationists to approve the planned 250,000-square-foot Circuit Courthouse near Church Circle."Without the courthouse, it is easy to visualize either a ramshackle empty downtown or a tourist boardwalk," said Terry Drake, president of the Annapolis Business Coalition.

After two pedestrians died and 13 were injured last summer on Ocean City streets, city officials and the State Highway Administration devised a campaign to get motorists and those on foot to be more aware of each other. The effort includes highly visible markings on crosswalks and signs directing pedestrians to them and retimed traffic signals to get vehicles to slow down. “Ocean City is one of Maryland's largest cities all summer, but every week there's turnover and a new population,” said Melinda Peters, SHA administrator.

When Microsoft and MTV show up at a party - as a couple - attention must be paid. The two powerhouses joined forces to create a music subscription and download service called Urge, which debuted May 17. The subscriptions, which cost about $10 a month, allow unlimited streaming of songs from Urge's catalog of nearly 2 million selections. If you want to buy the songs, it's 99 cents per download. Microsoft Corp. and MTV Networks, which is owned by Viacom Inc., were not the first to the subscription/download party.

Although it leads the East Coast in several categories of shipping activity, the port of Baltimore often seems to be hiding in plain sight. So officials used the Saturday observance of National Maritime Day to throw open a pier at the Canton Marine Terminal and invite 28 businesses and agencies that call the port home to hold a career day. "It's the first time we've done this," said former Rep. Helen Delich Bentley, for whom the port is named....

WASHINGTON -- Gov. William Donald Schaefer today urged his fellow governors to adopt laws banning assault weapons and to urge Congress to do the same."

It is spring and dangerous urges are in the air. A neighbor of mine recently succumbed to the impulse to replace the somewhat soggy railroad ties in his backyard garden. For days I heard manly grunts and whirring chain saw noises as he battled the recalcitrant timbers. One day, after the wood chips had stopped flying, we talked. He gave me some neighborly advice. "If you ever get the urge to replace your railroad ties," he said, "take a cold shower."I recently yielded to a different seasonal impulse, I cleaned the basement.

Citing damage to her image and rising legal costs, Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey's closest advisers spent the day yesterday urging her to end her court challenge to the gubernatorial election.Late yesterday afternoon, Mrs. Sauerbrey had decided to withdraw and a statement was drafted, according to sources close to her.But after meeting with her lead attorney and others, Mrs. Sauerbrey had second thoughts, the sources said. No statement had been issued by late last night.Mrs. Sauerbrey did not return phone calls yesterday.

Angela Ward's job is to be Rhoda Eskwith's body.The organization can be reached by calling 1-800-487-6007.

At least 17 AFL-CIO unions in Baltimore will urge members to "turn off" WBAL-TV during the May "sweeps period" that determines the ratings that are critical to local stations' advertising revenues, the Writers Guild of America, East, said yesterday.The union drive is in support of 21 employees who have been unable to obtain a contract at the station since the Writers Guild won the right to represent them in an election the National Labor Relations Board sanctioned 18 months ago."We have had at least 50 meetings with management since the vote, the latest on March 31, and they have put up a variety of proposals that deal with everything but the core of a labor contract," said Mona Mangan, Writers Guild East executive director, from her New York office.

Amid a flurry of protests of censorship from across the country, Carroll County's school superintendent said yesterday that he is struggling with whether to keep a popular book for teens out of the district's libraries or to return it to the bookshelves. Superintendent Charles I. Ecker said yesterday that he will decide next week the fate of Carolyn Mackler's The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things. "I'm agonizing over the decision. You always question yourself," Ecker said. "I'm not leaning in any direction.

- Stores were shuttered and streets were mostly empty Friday morning as a manhunt was underway for a suspect in the marathon bombing that killed three and injured more than 180 others. Police had killed one suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing in a shootout early Friday. Officials said the dead suspect was Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and identified the hunted man as his brother, Dzhokar A. Tsarnaev, 19. Law enforcement urged all in Boston to stay home. Natalie Lambdin, a 27-year-old graduate student at Boston College, said the usually bustling area near Copley Square felt "eerie.

Long Reach has two contenders for the CA Board of Directors. Ed Coleman, the incumbent, is pledging to serve with a balanced approach of Long Reach interests. Looking for initiatives combined with common sense and solid management approaches he provides an innovative yet logical view. As a former Long Reach representative on the CA Board, I believe planning for the future but keeping the fiscal and representative interest of the constituents a priority is of the utmost importance.

Del. Don Dwyer, one of the General Assembly's most conservative Republicans, said Thursday that he may change his registration to Democratic as part of a move to infiltrate that party's primaries and vote out liberal incumbents. Dwyer, of Anne Arundel County, announced on his website that he is considering launching a movement called "Operation DINO" -- for Democrats in name only -- to encourage Republicans in heavily Democratic counties to re-register to "vote out the hard left liberals who are hell-bent on taking away our liberties.

Harford County Executive David R. Craig issued the following statement Wednesday in response to action earlier by the Maryland Board of Public Works to delay construction of the proposed Towson University building on the Harford Community College campus: As a graduate of Towson University as well as the County Executive for Harford County, I am deeply concerned by the action of the Board of Public Works to delay construction of a Towson University...

A task force studying Baltimore's troubled speed camera program will urge the city to increase oversight, change the way camera sites are selected and create a website containing maps and other information of interest to the public, according to draft recommendations released Wednesday. A final report is expected to be presented in the next two weeks to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who formed the task force last summer. "It's going to help us make a better program," acting Transportation Director Frank Murphy said.

After he was raped by a fellow Navy sailor, Brian Lewis wanted justice. What he got, the Baltimore man told a Senate panel Wednesday, was an order to keep quiet. When commanders learned of the attack, Lewis said, he was told not to report it to naval investigators. From his unit's lawyers, he said, there was "an eerie silence. " "At some point, it becomes about preservation of their own career, rather than helping me," the former Navy petty officer said. "There was no effective legal situation that I could access.

WASHINGTON - Some Bush administration officials have come to believe the U.S. detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be closed because reports of abuse have created a public-relations problem, a senior Republican lawmaker said yesterday. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the administration was divided on the issue, with some officials taking the view that if the facility is shut down, "you shorten the [news] stories, you shorten the heated debate, and you get it off the table and you move on."

Almost as soon as the planes slammed into the World Trade Center, the threatening calls began at the Washington headquarters of the Arab American Institute. Anonymous callers threatened retribution and offered sarcastic compliments on the attacks. The building was evacuated, but managing director Jean AbiNader stayed behind to deal with the all-too-familiar backlash that follows terrorist incidents. It follows with certainty when lives are lost in suspected acts of political violence, and for the nation's estimated 3 million citizens of Arab descent, the result ranges from slurs to unwarranted scrutiny by law enforcement officers, AbiNader said.

About 9 a.m. Saturday, Bonny Eisenbise strode up to a man outside a Giant supermarket in North Baltimore. "We're trying to get guns off the street," she told him, offering a yellow flier that asked in bold type: "Haven't we had enough gun violence?" "Yeah, I'm with you," said the shopper, David Kehoe, who promised her that he would call his state delegate. With that, Eisenbise scanned the parking lot, looking for more recruits in a last-minute lobbying push to support Gov. Martin O'Malley's gun control bill, which would ban the sale of assault-type rifles and require a license to purchase a handgun, among other changes.