Vice Chairman

UNTIL I moved to the central county, I thought bird-watching was something other people did. But Maryland skies offer so much: iridescent hummingbirds in the summer, migrating geese in the autumn, busy winter birds when all else is still.I've become a bird-watcher. It's a natural evolution for an animal lover. All I need is a good bird book, a pair of binoculars and some bird seed. It's a lot easier and cheaper than other animal pursuits, such as show dogs or tropical fish.To attract more birds than you can possibly watch, all you have to do is provide a steady supply of food and water.

Constellation Energy Corp. yesterday named future senior managers and department heads of the planned $15.1 billion utility, according to an internal employee memorandum.Of the 18 top managers named to the entity that the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and the Potomac Electric Power Co. will create by merging, 10 are existing BGE executives, raising speculation that the Baltimore-based utility will dominate Constellation's leadership and operations.A public announcement is expected later this week.

Is it possible that the first month of 1995 is almost gone?The sooner we get through the next month and a half, the sooner we'll get to see the bulbs now poking green shoots through the ground blossom into spring flowers. I can't wait.*Speaking of blossoming, the Association for Severna Park Improvement, Renewal and Enhancement (ASPIRE) is doing just that.ASPIRE will address issues such as historic preservation, a community master plan, adequate facilities for our youth and seniors, preservation of green space and adequate zoning.

NEW YORK -- One of the few minority-owned businesses to make a name for itself on Wall Street was reeling yesterday following the death of its founder and chairman, Wardell Lazard.Mr. Lazard, chairman of the investment bank W. H. Lazard & Co., was found dead Wednesday afternoon in a Pittsburgh hotel room, his naked body face down on the bed, Pittsburgh Police Sgt. Mark Ninehouser said. By his side was a tray containing a "white powdery substance," and an empty vodka bottle was at the foot of the bed, Sergeant Ninehouser said.

A. B. Krongard, chairman and chief executive of Alex. Brown Inc., will be named chairman of the Securities Industry Association tomorrow at the trade group's annual meeting in Boca Raton, Fla.The association represents more than 760 brokerage firms, mutual funds and investment bankers.Mr. Krongard said his agenda as chairman of the organization will include working to educate consumers about the importance of savings and investing; lobbying for legislation that gives investors incentives, such as tax breaks, to save money; and working to retain and build public trust in the securities industry.

WASHINGTON -- Bowing to congressional anger over the course and management of the Iraq war, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that he will recommend that Gen. Peter Pace, who has been at the highest levels of war strategy and decision-making since 2001, be replaced as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when his term ends in September. Thwarted in his desire to keep Pace on for another two years, Gates' decision cuts short what normally is a four-year stint as the nation's senior military officer and chief military adviser to the president.

When 75 people attend an Anne Arundel County Republican Central Committee meeting, something is up. This week's gathering, which had to be moved to a larger venue to accommodate the expected crowd, promised political theater and did not disappoint. The result was just as promised: By a vote of 10-2, chairman Mike Collins was ousted. But before that, there was (failed) maneuvering to quash public comment, followed by a (failed) effort to limit it. Then came the impassioned speeches, telling central committee members that the future of the county and state Republican party hinged on the decision they were about to make.

Bell Atlantic and Nynex resolved the remaining management issues yesterday that stood in the way of their merger, an executive familiar with the talks said.While investment bankers for the companies were still negotiating about how to value the shares of Nynex, the executive said they had narrowed the gap to "a very small difference."Executives of Bell Atlantic and Nynex have begun briefing board members of both companies about the merger, which would create the nation's second-largest telephone company after AT&T.

A half-century after his untimely death at the age of 38, celebrated tenor and movie star Mario Lanza is receiving fresh medical attention from a Baltimore doctor who takes a dim view of one of the singer's weight-loss treatments - injections of the urine of pregnant women, a controversial therapy with new followers today. Dr. Philip A. Mackowiak, vice chairman of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of the Medical Care Clinical Center at the Veterans Administration Hospital downtown, teamed up with Armando Cesari, Lanza's Australia-based biographer, for an article about the singer's health issues just out in The Pharos, the journal of the medical honorary society Alpha Omega Alpha.

The closing of 25 Superfresh stores in the Baltimore area this summer meant new opportunities for other grocers looking to move to the region. One of those was the ShopRite chain, which opened stores last month in old Superfresh buildings in Timonium and White Oak. ShopRite is part of WakeFern Food Corp., a cooperative of companies that pool their resources to buy food at lower prices and thus have more money to spend on marketing. The New Jersey-based co-op includes 47 members that own more than 230 ShopRites in six states; it lists eight other stores in Maryland.