Washington Baltimore

Move over, Fort Worth. Make some room, St. Paul. Scrunch on up there, Oakland.If Maryland's preeminent business organization has its way, Baltimore will join these urban junior partners as one of America's official secondary cities.The Maryland Business Council, led by former Baltimore County Executive Donald P. Hutchinson, has voted to endorse "Washington-Baltimore" as the name of the proposed consolidated U.S. census region.Washington-Baltimore? Say it ain't so."It makes sense to take full advantage of Washington's name recognition," Mr. Hutchinson said in a statement dated Thursday.

The Olympic flame may not be extinguished along the Chesapeake Bay. A key organizer of the region's unsuccessful bid for the 2012 Summer Games is gauging interest in making a run at the 2024 Games. Dan Knise, president and CEO of the Washington-Baltimore 2012 Regional Coalition, believes "there's a little bit of a spark" in the region for another try. "There have been some informal discussions with people. The energy the Olympics create, the optimism it creates, I feel that again.

It's official: Today you become a Washington-Baltimorean.For this you can thank your federal government.Starting now, government statisticians will no longer consider Baltimore and Washington separate metropolitan areas. Starting now, for purposes of calculating federal statistics, the Office of Management and Budget has merged the two cities into a megalopolis that sprawls across three states.Consider: the District, Hagerstown, Spotsylvania County, Va., and Jefferson County, W.Va. -- they're now all part of the same metropolitan area as Baltimore.

Old Mill's Rob Chesson puts on a show almost every time he puts on a uniform. This season, he rushed for 2,702 yards, scored a state-record 49 touchdowns and led the Patriots to the Class 4A state championship. But Chesson wanted to show that he could do it against the best players in the state, and Saturday's 4th Annual Maryland Crab Bowl at Bowie State provided him the opportunity. All he did was rush for 137 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries to lead the Washington team to a 14-6 victory over Baltimore.

The Washington-Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition filed legal papers with the United States Olympic Committee, further cementing a commitment to the Summer Games 14 years from now.That approximately 20-page document, called a bid committee agreement, was due yesterday at the USOC office in Colorado Springs."

The United States Olympic Committee will pick two finalists next week to be the U.S. candidate for host city of the 2012 Summer Games. Today, The Sun examines the bid by Washington-Baltimore. San Francisco, New York and Houston also are competing. Picture tens of thousands of people crowding into the Inner Harbor day after day for more than two weeks, spending freely in the city's hotels, restaurants and attractions. Then there's the international attention: 5 billion television viewers around the world tuning in to see Baltimore's skyline, its neighborhoods and the University of Maryland, College Park.

PHOENIX -- As about 900 people in the sporting world descended on this Southwestern city for the annual United States Olympic Congress, Washington-Baltimore organizers had their first chance to show off since they united to bid on the 2012 Summer Games.With 3,000 watts of light, a high-technology animated video and free T-shirts, Washington-Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition promoters hoped to accomplish exactly what everyone else in attendance was trying to do -- send a message that wouldn't quickly be forgotten.

More than a year before bids are due and three years before the United States Olympic Committee picks a U.S. standard-bearer, Dallas is the popular choice for the site of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, according to a recent survey commissioned by Baltimore-based Eisner & Associates Inc.Washington-Baltimore was the favorite of 12 percent of the people polled, below Dallas' 21 percent and San Francisco's 13 percent -- and that pleases local bid leaders."

Washington-Baltimore will find out by September whether the region is one of two finalists in the hard-fought race to be United States Candidate City for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Members of the U.S. Olympic Committee's bid evaluation task force announced yesterday that they will recommend that the field of cities be reduced from four to two after visits this summer to the cities competing for the Games. In addition to the joint bid by Baltimore and Washington, New York, San Francisco and Houston are vying for the Games.

If the decision on where to hold the 2012 Summer Olympic Games were a popularity contest, the Tampa-Orlando, Fla., area would win hands down, according to a recent nationwide survey commissioned by Baltimore-based Eisner Communications. That area was the favorite among 20 percent of 1,000 adult Americans who were surveyed between Sept. 8 and Sept. 10. Among the seven other regions bidding for the Games, Baltimore-Washington tied with New York with 8 percent of the vote, above Houston, which received 6 percent.

Baltimore's book festival got here first. Organizers of the 16th annual Baltimore Book Festival, which opens Friday, say they aren't fazed that a larger, glitzier, more star-studded event is being held on the exact same weekend just 40 miles to the south. They aren't concerned that the upstart National Book Festival will feature celebrity authors the likes of actress Julianne Moore, or that the Washington extravaganza is expanding this year from one day to two. But not everyone is as gracious.

All MARC trains will experience significant delays, ranging from 20 to 50 minutes, late this afternoon, the Maryland Transit Administration said Friday. The MTA said there was only one track available between Washington and Bowie, a track problem near Odenton, and disabled Amtrak trains at the New Carrollton and Penn Station stops.

Graduate student Nikki Meadows lives in Baltimore and wanted to stay here, but the only place where she could find work in her field was in Washington. Three weeks into the commute, she can't take it any longer. She's subletting her room in a "McMansion of a rowhome" and looking for a place in D.C. A few years ago, she would have been bucking the trend. Now, she's part of one. Though Baltimore and its suburbs still attract more people from Washington than the number of people who migrate to that pricier region, our metro area has been rapidly losing ground since the economy soured.

"Paper or plastic?" is no longer the question most often on store clerks' lips in the nation's capital these days when shoppers are buying food. Instead, cashiers here routinely ask customers if they want a bag at all, since they have to pay a nickel for each disposable sack they use to hold their groceries, snacks or takeout meals. For many shoppers in the District of Columbia, the nickel fee has been an impetus to cut back on previously free store bags that all too often wind up in the trash - or littering nearby streams and trees.

In a senior All-Star football game that was supposed to be a showcase for Baltimore-area quarterbacks, it was Washington's defense that stole the show. The Washington team forced five turnovers, including two interceptions returned for touchdowns, and raced to a 24-21 victory in Monday night's second annual Crab Bowl at Towson University's snow-filled Johnny Unitas Stadium. Washington sealed the game when it stopped Baltimore on fourth-and-5 from the 10-yard line with four seconds remaining.

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven said it will open 50 stores annually in the Baltimore-Washington area during the next three years as part of an aggressive expansion in some of its best-performing markets. The Dallas-based chain is expanding in areas where it has a large concentration of stores that are doing well, said company spokeswoman Margaret Chabris. The top 10 markets for 7-Eleven include Los Angeles, New York City, San Diego and the Baltimore-Washington area. The company believes that there is room to expand even in areas where it already has locations.

Here's some new news about drugs in Baltimore: * A kilo of cocaine now costs $32,000, up a full $10,000 from 2006. Bulk quantities of the drug are more expensive here than in Washington, where a kilo costs $30,000, and in Richmond, Va., where it goes for $26,000. * Local drug dealers outsource even the final stages of turning powder cocaine into crack. * Dealers are increasingly steering away from highways to smuggle drugs, preferring package delivery services so they can track their shipments on the Internet.

The Olympic flame may not be extinguished along the Chesapeake Bay. A key organizer of the region's unsuccessful bid for the 2012 Summer Games is gauging interest in making a run at the 2024 Games. Dan Knise, president and CEO of the Washington-Baltimore 2012 Regional Coalition, believes "there's a little bit of a spark" in the region for another try. "There have been some informal discussions with people. The energy the Olympics create, the optimism it creates, I feel that again.