Xerox

The issues described in the article "Troubled transition shuts down city speed cameras" (Jan. 23) reveals gross mismanagement and poor judgment by the city in its awarding of the speed camera contract. Furthermore, Baltimore City officials repeatedly are quoted with more regret for the shortfall in ticket revenue than for their oft-stated purpose that the cameras are for children's safety. First, the request for proposal required that the awarded vendor must supply all software required to run the equipment.

It seems you are talking from both sides of the issue in your editorial on the new speed camera contract that has been awarded ("Playing fast and loose," Jan. 24). First, you are all over Xerox, the former contract holder, for faulty equipment and issuing tickets to innocent people. Then you call for Brekford Corp.'s head for not having the software to run the same faulty equipment you complained was issuing bogus tickets. Brekford Corp. now has a chance to install their equipment and rectify the mess that Xerox's equipment left our city.

Representatives of Eastman Kodak Co. yesterday accused Maryland's Department of General Services of intentionally channeling thousands of dollars in contracts for high-speed printing equipment to a rival company.In testimony before a legislative task force investigating state procurement practices, Kodak officials alleged that General Services subtly steered contracts to Xerox Corp. by declaring that Xerox was the "sole source" for the specific equipment the department wanted.At other times, Kodak officials contended, General Services drafted bid specifications for printing equipment that were tailored so closely to Xerox's products that other potential bidders were, as a practical matter, excluded.

Interest in USAir reportedBritish Airways, frustrated in an attempt to buy 44 percent of USAir Group Inc., plans as soon as this week to bid for a smaller stake that would give it a foothold in the domestic U.S. aviation market, several newspapers reported yesterday.British Airways declined to comment on the reports that an offer for up to 25 percent of USAir could come soon after President-elect Bill Clinton's inauguration tomorrow. The airline did say it was holding talks with USAir.The Financial Times said British Airways would bid $340 million for a 20 percent stake in USAir.

Texas strike looms for LockheedLockheed Martin Corp. said yesterday that a 300-member machinists union local at its Abilene, Texas, facility has rejected a final offer and that the workers are working without a contract. The union has authorized a strike but operations have been normal, said a Lockheed spokesman.The Abilene plant, which has laid off nearly half its employees in the past year, makes parts for the F-16 fighter, the Tomahawk cruise missile and other aerospace programs. Union officials were not available for comment.

In the Region Md., 4 other states in study on quality of nursing homes Maryland will be one of five states in a federal pilot project to collect and publish more detailed data on nursing home quality, the Department of Health and Human Services said yesterday. HHS will release 11 measures of how people receive care - for example, how many patients in each nursing home are physically restrained, how many have lost weight and the frequency with which they contract new infections. Besides Maryland, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will begin in January collecting information on homes in Colorado, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington state.

In The Region Judge doesn't block Marriott transfer of management pacts A Massachusetts Superior Court judge denied yesterday a motion by two Marriott International Inc. senior living center operators to block the largest U.S. hotel company from transferring the management contracts on some of the centers, which Marriott is in talks to sell. Five Star Quality Care Inc. and Senior Housing Properties Trust, two operators of the centers, had obtained a court order Dec. 2 prohibiting Bethesda-based Marriott from completing a sale and transferring the contracts.

In the Region After strong sales, Ahold sticks with forecast for year Royal Ahold NV, the No. 1 food distributor, will stick with its full-year profit forecast as rising store sales offset a slowdown in food-service revenue after the U.S. terrorist attacks, Chief Executive Cees van der Hoeven said yesterday. The Dutch owner of the Giant Food Inc. and Stop & Shop grocery chains in the United States has expanded through acquisitions and is focusing on the business of supplying food to restaurants and hotels, which has been growing faster than supermarkets.

We have a deep ambivalence about selling and the people who earn their living doing it. Selling is the ultimate capitalist act, the grease that keeps spinning the wheel of supply and demand. Yet we attach so many unwholesome images to the craft: the used-car salesman with his shifty eye, the insurance man who won't let up until our untimely demise means untold riches for our loved ones.David Dorsey will make you more sympathetic toward salespeople, although after reading this compelling account of a year in the life of a Xerox sales team, you probably won't be any more eager for your next encounter in the auto showroom.

The Anne Arundel County school board approved a $36.6 million construction budget yesterday, but made several changes in how that money will be spent.School planners were told to reduce a planned addition to Broadneck High School. Instead of seating 2,500 students, the addition will be built for 2,000 -- saving about $4 million for projects that had not been on Superintendent Carol S. Parham's final list.The board also moved two projects ahead of Broadneck's on the construction priority list: renovations to five school libraries, known as media centers, costing a total of $500,000; and $550,000 for 10 prototype computer labs.