Washington Baltimore

The Washington-Baltimore region has won the right to play host to the U.S. Olympic Committee's Coach of the Year awards in September, giving the area another chance to impress the officials who will choose a city for the United States' 2012 Summer Olympics bid."This was far and away the best bid," said Bob Condron, USOC director of media. "Because of the quality of the bid, I don't think there was any competition at all. This was one of those places that everyone can enjoy."During the awards, to be held Sept.

Clarence T. Bishop, a former executive with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, was named senior vice president of the Washington-Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition yesterday.Bishop will be responsible for government and community relations and for bringing Olympic-related sporting events to the region as the area's bid for the 2012 Summer Games proceeds.In his most recent assignment as deputy executive director of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Bishop was responsible for overall daily operations of the $45 million independent federal regulatory agency.

Although organizers trying to bring the 2012 Summer Games to the region won't reveal all the companies pledging support, they do say that the Olympics bribery scandal has not squelched local enthusiasm.Just over a week ago, Dan Knise, president and chief executive officer of the Washington-Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition, said he visited a major local corporation and was asked: "Where do we sign?"Knise spoke yesterday at a breakfast meeting of the Greater Baltimore Alliance board of directors -- the day after the International Olympic Committee recommended the expulsion of six of its members.

The Eastern Baltimore Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its 53rd annual dinner Jan. 20 at Martin's Eastwind to present economic development awards and hear plans to attract the 2012 Olympics to the region.Dan Knise, president and chief executive officer of the Washington-Baltimore 2012 Coalition, will discuss the possibility of drawing the Olympics. The 1998 awards will be presented to Rukert Terminals Corp. of Canton; Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Holabird Business Park; B & B Welding Co. Inc. of North Point; Landers Atlas Appliance Services Inc. of Rosedale; Baltimore County Savings Bank; and businessman James T. Dresher Jr., owner of several restaurants and hotels.

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."

Olympic silver medalist Jair Lynch and Morgan State University President Earl Richardson are among 10 community and business leaders named to the Washington-Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition by those cities' mayors.Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke named five people to that board, which is working to bring the 2012 Olympics to the region:Richardson, John A. Moag Jr., chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority; Ioanna Morfessis, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Alliance; Ron Shapiro, a Baltimore attorney, and William L. Jews, president and chief executive officer of CareFirst, which was formed by the combination of the Maryland and District of Columbia Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.

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.

One of the premier goals on the minds of speakers and people attending a town hall-style forum on regional cooperation last night was the Washington-Baltimore effort to bring the 2012 Summer Olympics here.More than 100 people came to the gathering, sponsored by The Sun, called "Baltimore-Washington Regional Cooperation: Opportunities and Obstacles.""We have a wonderful opportunity with respect to the Olympics," said Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke. "This bid helps focus us as a region in a way that nothing else has done in the past decade."

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 Washington-Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition has secured office space on the sixth floor of the International Square Building in Washington.The 2,300-square-foot building at 1875 I St. N.W. has been donated by Carr Realty for the Olympic coalition's use over the next two years. Offices are to be completed by Jan. 1."We're, of course, very appreciative of the donation, but also excited now to have a home base within which to grow our operation and really take on the next phase of this work," said Dan Knise, president and CEO of the coalition.

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.

In a sign of the merging of the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas, state officials approved a plan yesterday to add trains to the rail link between the two cities. The Board of Public Works voted to add three trips to the MARC Penn Line each weekday evening by mid-February. Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari, who presented the plan to the board, said the first train will leave Washington's Union Station in the early evening rush hour to help alleviate some of the extreme crowding on the Penn Line.

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your calculators. On Thursday at 6:30 p.m., the Greater Baltimore Technology Council joins with the MIT Enterprise Forum of Washington-Baltimore to sponsor their first joint entrepreneurial forum -- or "StartupLab" -- in Howard County. The StartupLab includes company presentations and expert panels, while encouraging audience participation. "Hosting this forum event in Howard County recognizes the county's growing importance as a source of technology-based entrepreneurial activity," said Roy Morris, chairman of the Baltimore-Washington chapter.

Baltimore and Washington will remain joined as the nation's fourth-largest metropolitan area after the White House Office of Management and Budget decided not to separate the cities, easing fears that Baltimore could lose out on economic development opportunities. The region, which will be called the Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia metropolitan area, was in jeopardy of being split by OMB this year when congressional leaders from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia failed to say whether they wanted to stay linked.

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.

BALTIMORE STANDS to cash in on the booming commercialization of biotech research with a privately run, $800 million biotech park near the Johns Hopkins medical campus. But even as plans for the proposed park progress, the Brookings Institution warns of the difficulties of achieving the dream. In a report released last week, the think tank identified the Washington-Baltimore region as one of only nine clusters in the nation that are having success with biotech commercialization. Unfortunately, research prowess is not enough in the risky world of biotech business.

Only nine of the 51 largest metropolitan areas in the nation have significant enough clusters of both biotechnology research and product development to be considered biotech "centers," and the Washington-Baltimore region is one of them, a new study finds. But the study by the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy found that the region is the "least entrepreneurial" of the nine, meaning relatively few of its many patented ideas are being developed locally into products or services.

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.

Local organizers working to bring the Summer Olympic Games to Washington-Baltimore in 2012 will submit the final piece of their bid proposal - a project that has consumed a team of three dozen people for three months. The United States Olympic Committee asked the four finalists for the 2012 Games to submit a bid addendum by Monday. In addition to Washington-Baltimore, Houston, New York and San Francisco are vying for the Games. "It's gotten very competitive," said Dan Knise, president and chief executive of the Chesapeake Region 2012 Coalition.

WASHINGTON - Washington-Baltimore won high marks yesterday from a team sent to evaluate its bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. "How did Washington-Baltimore do? You raised the bar," said Charles H. Moore, leader of the U.S. Olympic Committee's evaluation team, at a press conference. "That's important, because this is our first city. Every other city will be judged against you." The USOC team made the Washington-Baltimore region the first stop on its summer-long eight-city tour that ends in Los Angeles on Aug. 23-26.