LAS VEGAS -- In an apparent compromise worked out between Jerry Tarkanian and University of Nevada-Las Vegas officials, Tarkanian will spend one more season as UNLV's basketball coach before leaving the job he has held through nearly two decades of triumph and turmoil.
Tarkanian's plans were announced yesterday after two days of talks between Tarkanian and university president Robert Maxson.
Tarkanian's program has been the subject of negative publicity on an almost weekly basis during the last few months -- the most damaging item being the publication of photographs in the Las Vegas Review-Journal May 26 showing former UNLV players Moses Scurry, David Butler and Anderson Hunt socializing with convicted sports fixer Richard Perry.
UNLV also has had to deal with an NCAA letter of inquiry charging the basketball program with rules violations in 29 areas, many focusing on the recruitment of former New York high school star Lloyd Daniels. The university sent its response to the allegations to the NCAA last week and expects the case to be heard by the NCAA Committee on Infractions by late summer.
The infractions committee has barred the Runnin' Rebels from postseason competition and television appearances during the 1991-92 season as a final penalty in the infractions case that prompted Tarkanian to take the NCAA to court in 1977.
In his letter of resignation to Maxson, Tarkanian cited the toll that his long-running battle with the NCAA has taken on his family and indicated that the publicity generated by the Perry photos was the "final straw."
Said Tarkanian in his letter: "I love this university, and do not want to cause it any harm. In addition, although I have been toughened over the years by the pressures of these battles, the pain I now see in my children's eyes makes me realize none of this is fun for anyone."
Despite the strain, Tarkanian said he felt obligated to coach another season at UNLV because of his concern for his assistant coaches' job opportunities at this point in the year and his determination to deal with the NCAA charges.
Tarkanian, 60, denied reports that he will have NBA front-office or coaching jobs waiting for him when he leaves UNLV.
"I love coaching, I really do," he said. "But I'm getting older. I don't know what's going to happen."
Tarkanian has two years remaining on a contract that pays him more than $400,000 a year in base salary and complimentary tickets to UNLV basketball games. However, under terms of the resignation agreement, the university will not be required to buy out the final year of the contract.
The university also will not be required to fulfill additional financial obligations to Tarkanian stemming from his position as a senior assistant athletic director and a tenured university employee, Maxson said.
"The truth of the matter is this is the way Jerry wanted to do it," Maxson said. "This was his request to me, and I honored that request. . . .
"Coach did not ask for any money [in settling with UNLV]. Coach voided the last year of his contract, gave up his [tenured] professorship and agreed to coach next year so we can have an orderly transition process."
Names sure to surface in the Rebels' hunt for a new coach are Georgetown coach John Thompson, who visits Las Vegas frequently and owns property in the city, and Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins, who was coaching at Appalachian State in North Carolina when Maxson was a dean at that school 13 years ago.
Aug. 25, 1977: The NCAA announced a two-year probation for UNLV's basketball program for "questionable practices" during 1971-75. The NCAA also recommended that Tarkanian be severed from the athletic program during the probationary period.
Sept. 7, 1977: UNLV informed Tarkanian that he was suspended from his athletic duties. The next day, Tarkanian filed a lawsuit and obtained a temporary restraining order prohibiting the university from imposing the suspension.
Sept. 26, 1977: A Nevada county judge issued a permanent injunction prohibiting UNLV from suspending Tarkanian.
Dec. 12, 1988: After the initial decision had been upheld and reversed by lower courts, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that left intact Tarkanian's injunction against the suspension.
After nearly two years and numerous delays, two officers of a failed Maryland thrift went on trial yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on charges of conspiracy, and mail and wire fraud -- actions federal prosecutors allege led to the collapse of Community Savings and Loan.
The defendants, Clayton C. McCuistion and Barbara A. McKinney, are two of three people indicted in the case. The alleged mastermind, Tom J. Billman, fled the country in 1985, taking with him millions of dollars, prosecutors said.
In her opening statement yesterday, federal prosecutor Barbara S. Sale outlined a series of allegations that amounted to classic 1980s financial adventurism involving high-rollers whose real estate scheme got out of control, depositors left with empty accounts, and a once-stable company ruined and placed under state conservatorship.
"It is a tale of greed, expediency, opportunism and Las Vegas-style risk-taking," she told Judge Walter E. Black Jr.
The government alleges that the defendants diverted more than $106 million from Community Savings and Loan and used the money to prop up companies founded by Mr. Billman and Mr. McCuistion. Another $28 million was diverted for the personal use of the defendants and their Delaware-based corporation. These actions, Ms. Sale said, violated the trust depositors placed in the bank.
"What's the one thing you expect when you put your money in a bank? You expect it to be safe," she said. "[The defendants] never understood that the depositors' money was not theirs to play around with."
Though the government alleges the conspiracy began in April 1984, prosecutors have traced the defendants' involvement with Community to October 1982, when Mr. Billman and Mr. McCuistion took control of the Montgomery County thrift. Ms. Sale said the pair bought the S&L to provide a steady source of income for their debt-ridden real estate concerns. After the sale, she said, the bank "essentially stopped functioning as a bank and became a cash cow."
But defense attorney Mark Tuohey, who is representing Mr. McCuistion, characterized Community in 1982 as a losing proposition that posted more than $800,000 in losses that year.
"Bottom line was Community Savings and Loan needed an infusion of capital," he said in his opening statement. His clients enabled Community to compete with larger thrifts, Mr. Tuohey said.
He also argued that the defendants' decisions were typical of the business climate of the time and that they did not attempt to deceive regulators or commit fraud.
Mr. Tuohey also discounted any idea that depositors who lost money were victims. The depositors were risk takers, he said.
The government says that among those depositors were a retired couple who lost their savings, a small health maintenance organization and a school that had placed all of its operating capital in the thrift. Some of those depositors are scheduled to testify during the four-month trial.
It was blustery, chilly and wet as the four-day voyage from Baltimore's Inner Harbor by way of the Eastern Shore and Southern Maryland ended Thursday evening at a marina in Southwest Washington.
James Piper Bond, executive director of the Living Classrooms Foundation, which until recently was known as the Lady Maryland Foundation, presided at Thursday night's festivities under umbrellas and canopies at the Gangplank Marina on Washington's Water Street.
"It is successes like this that people need to read about," Mr. Bond told the crowd, referring to "all the tragic news from our inner cities."
Mayor Schmoke said the just-concluded program "cemented good relations among young people and showed that our governments can work together."
Morning Edition, a funky little restaurant in Butcher's Hill, is known for its breakfasts; but I'd been hearing good things about dinner there, so I decided to give it a try.
First of all, nobody else was eating there, which always makes me a little nervous. (OK, two other tables were filled over the course of the evening.)
And then the setting. Morning Edition would be a charming antique and "junque shoppe," with all its clutter and memorabilia: old Coca-Cola signs, a bit of neon rainbow, collectibles, faded mismatched furniture, dried grapevine entwined with fairy lights. a place to eat, it doesn't quite work. I wouldn't mind if they cleared it out some and slapped a fresh coat of paint on the chairs. The dried grapevine tendrils kept getting in my hair.
And the classical radio station, which was fine when the music was playing and not so fine during the commercial breaks.
But on the other hand, this is some of the best food I've had at these prices in quite a while. Oh, you can spend as much as $17 if you want Grand Marnier shrimp, but my guess is that most people have the vegetarian dishes for under $10 or the chicken or burgers.
The food not only tastes good, it's prettily presented. Lasagna can be slopped on a plate or it can be arranged carefully -- as Morning Edition's kitchen does -- so that a green sprinkling of chopped parsley contrasts appetizingly with the red sauce and white pasta. That garlicky sauce was excellent: full of meat, fresh mushrooms and tomatoes. The pasta was tender, and cheese melted deliciously into the nooks and crannies.
A special of the evening had superbly fresh scallops and tender spring asparagus in a light citrus sauce (supposedly made of Mineola oranges, but those tasted like grapefruit segments to me).
Thai sate isn't for the faint-hearted: The peanut and coconut milk sauce packs a fiery wallop. It's tossed with tender-crisp vegetables arranged over Asian noodles.
Dinners come with small raw vegetable salads, very fresh. Get the garlic vinaigrette dressing with them.
First courses are limited, but there are always a couple of specials and soups. A light cream of asparagus puree was smooth, fresh-tasting and piping hot. Tabouli salad (mostly couscous, chopped parsley and red pepper in vinaigrette) would be a refreshing starter if you didn't feel like an ordinary salad. Only a vegetarian pate disappointed us a bit -- the crust was a little soggy, as if the pate had been around too long.
The closest Morning Edition comes to a light dessert is the Montgomery pie, with a lemon filling under a cake layer, all baked in a crust. The closest it comes to a really outrageous dessert is the Killer Cake. Need I tell you what flavor it is? Too bad that the kitchen, which had done so beautifully up until then, covered them with whipped topping instead of real whipped cream.
WASHINGTON -- For the first time, the entire DNA sequence of a free-living organism has been deciphered, displaying an entire set of the genes needed for life, two scientists announced Wednesday night.The sequence is a chain of 1,830,121 DNA bases, the chemical units of the genetic code, which constitute the full genetic data base of a bacterium, Hemophilus influenzae.The result, announced at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology here, is a personal triumph for Dr. J. Craig Venter, the scientist who led the sequencing work.
When Charlie Schneider came back one day in June after being out fishing near his Tilghman Island home, he noticed he was getting chills. His left ankle itched and got worse and worse through the evening. It eventually started to throb a bit, and he couldn't sleep. At 2 a.m., he asked his wife to get an ice pack before discovering that his ankle had swollen to twice its normal size. He didn't know what had caused the reaction, but his decision to go straight to the hospital ultimately helped save his legs - and his life.
Imagine having a virtually limitless supply of clean, renewable fuel to run our cars and trucks, a fuel produced from something as noxious and seemingly useless as pond scum. Fantastic as that may sound, it's no pipe dream to Algenol Biofuels. The three-year-old company aims to make ethanol with blue-green algae, by feeding it a steady diet of carbon dioxide and farm animal waste. A dark horse in a crowded field vying to develop a new generation of biofuels, Algenol is based in Florida, but its research arm is in Baltimore.
Scientists unraveling the story of mankind's ancient migrations have enlisted the help of an unlikely historian: an ulcer-causing bacterium that lives in the gut. An international research team reports in Science that the S-shaped bacterium Helicobacter pylori, best known for its miserable role in peptic ulcers and stomach cancer, may also harbor clues to human whereabouts over the centuries. Half the population of the planet may be infected with the bug, which is thought to be passed by contact from mother to child during infancy.
For the first time, scientists have found strong evidence that some types of cancer may be caused by bacteria.Stanford University researchers reported in today's edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that virtually all their patients with the most common type of stomach cancer are infected with a bacterium that has previously been linked to inflammation of the stomach and ulcers -- strong evidence that the infectious agent plays a role...
ROCKVILLE -- In a tour de force of computer-aided biology, scientists have decoded the full genetic instructions of the bacterium that causes ulcers and other stomach disease and have figured out many of its strategies.The advance is likely to lend new impetus to research on the bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, which is a leading cause of human illness. The microbe is thought to live in almost half the world's people, though usually without causing disease. In the United States it is found in 30 percent of adults and more than half of the people over 65, with a prevalence in lower socioeconomic groups.
Frances L. Pittman waited a year for her lung. She remembers feeling elated when she got a phone call at dawn three years ago and learned that an organ donor had given her a chance to beat her progressive lung disease. Her husband, Marshall, floored their Buick LeSabre across the city to Johns Hopkins Hospital, then held her hand as orderlies wheeled her into the operating room. After the lung transplant was completed, she awoke and scribbled on a pad to her husband: "It's over. I love you."
ALBANY, N.Y. - Listeria microbes have killed seven people in New York and infected at least 21 others since July, according to the state Health Department. Health officials are warning the public about the bacterium, which can be transmitted by contaminated food, and poses the greatest risk to newborns, children, pregnant women, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Only 10 of the cases, including eight in New York City, have so far been linked to a national outbreak of the illness, which has prompted an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta into a possible food source for the potentially fatal bacterium.
Flouting the scientific canon that all bacteria are microscopic, researchers have discovered a strain so huge that it can be seen with the naked eye.The single-celled organism, plucked from the bowels of an Australian fish, is about the size of a hyphen in a newspaper, making it by far the largest bacterium ever detected.In measuring more than one-fiftieth of an inch in length and possessing a volume a million times that of the common E. coli microbe, the newly discovered bacterium seems to defy laws of biology that limit how big a simple bacterial cell can grow.
It sounds like some medieval baby-killer that must have disappeared when husbands first began boiling water as their wives went into labor. But 25 percent of pregnant women in the United States carry a common, potentially deadly bacterium called group B streptococcus (or GBS) that can infect their babies during childbirth or soon after. Although doctors frequently administer antibiotics during labor to prevent them, GBS infections kill or injure several thousand babies each year - within hours or weeks of their birth.
METAIRIE, La. -- The question quietly circulating here is whether Legionnaires' disease is spreading in the battered refuse left by Hurricane Katrina. Some New Orleans-area doctors are saying the bacterium that can lead to the disease, a severe and stubborn form of pneumonia, might be growing in the soggy remains of buildings flooded after the hurricane. But some experts question whether the bacterium can grow in that environment, and state officials insist that there is no public health threat.
Sixteen-year-old Serena Fasano, a junior at Glenelg High School, has been awarded a patent for a protein that she discovered - one that may someday help fight one of the world's deadliest diseases. "It's phenomenal," said Kendall Morton, the science team leader at Glenelg. "I'm very happy for her." Fasano will get to name the protein, she said, but she is not allowed to call it Serena, or to name it after her friends, as some have half-seriously requested. Instead, it will need a scientific name indicating it is a probiotic - a good protein.
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- The rare bacterium that caused the massive infection that killed 18-year-old Holly Patterson of Livermore in 2003 has been linked to all four California women who died after taking the RU-486 abortion pill. The recent finding has led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to plan a scientific meeting to discuss what many view as a medical mystery, FDA spokeswoman Julie Zawisza confirmed. "We will further explore the issues and outstanding questions we don't have answers to right now," she said.
Scientists are working to perfect a "superbug" to help clean up toxic wastes at thousands of radioactive sites worldwide. The mighty microbe - nicknamed "Conan the Bacterium" - combines the genes of two bacteria to perform a job neither could do on its own. The composite creature "can live quite happily in an environment with 1 million times the radiation a human cell could tolerate," Department of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said at a news conference...
Nobody celebrates when human activity drives a species of whale or songbird toward extinction. We see those losses as threats to the biological diversity that preserves our own well-being. But plenty of people are cheering as Helicobacter pylori vanishes from the teeming ecosystem where it has lived for thousands of years. H. pylori is a squid-shaped bacterium that lurks in the human stomach, and scientists have discovered that it can play a key role in the development of gastric ulcers and stomach cancer - a malignancy that killed more than 12,000 Americans in 1999.
PEOPLE sometimes can catch diseases in hospitals. It appears that at least five people, three of whom died, may have contracted Legionnaires' disease at Harford Memorial Hospital. At least one family believes hospital officials were not forthcoming about the source of their relative's fatal disease.Outbreaks of the disease, caused by the Legionella bacterium, are more common than generally recognized. The bacteria grow in water and are present in water systems, air conditioners and whirlpools.
PEOPLE ALWAYS ask me: How come the newspaper prints so much bad news? How come the front page always has negative headlines like: "Freak Espresso Machine Explosion Destroys Crowded Starbucks?" Why don't we print stories with a positive slant, like: "Destroyed Starbucks Was Popular Gathering Place for Lawyers?" Well, OK, then. You want good news? We got yer good news right here, starting with this: Exciting Advance in Livestock Flatulence As you know if you have ever stood outdoors in the Midwest, cows give off methane gas. We don't know why. Maybe they're bored.
The Johns Hopkins University is joining a group of elite universities that will offer free online courses through a company called Coursera, a collective leap that could open higher education to a broader audience. Though Johns Hopkins already offers courses online, Coursera is considered a potential game changer, because its classes will be available to unlimited numbers of students around the world. Some experts believe so-called "massive open online courses" could de-centralize higher education.
The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, College Park announced partnerships this week with a Silicon Valley-based startup to offer new online-only certificates in the fields of data science and cybersecurity. Though universities in the state, including Hopkins, have previously embraced online-only for-credit classes, the "specialization certificates" are a new experiment. Open to anyone starting this spring, the classes will be taught by professors at the colleges through Coursera, an education company founded by Stanford University professors in 2011.
In the summer of 2011, Sebastian Thrun lit a fire under colleges around the world. The Stanford professor and a colleague filmed themselves lecturing for their course on artificial intelligence and put the videos online so that anyone could join. Roughly 160,000 students from around the world took them up on the offer. And even Stanford students found the videos more compelling than going to the class itself. The runaway success of the "Stanford AI Course" touched off a wave of excitement over Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
Burck Smith is so far making good on his vision for revamping the way people pay for and complete college courses. His startup company, Straighterline, enables students to pay $99 a month for introductory college courses — and potentially save tens of thousands of dollars in the process. In November, Smith will embark on another disruptive tack in online higher education. His Baltimore company will allow college professors to pitch their own courses through Straighterline, and even set their own prices above a minimum threshold.
The conveyance of knowledge from one wise man to a gathering of eager young people has been the model for education since Ancient Greece, and it has survived largely unchanged in the face of every kind of technology - from the printing press to the personal computer. But education - college education - may have met its match in the Internet, a force for change that television, movies, music, book publishing and newspapers could not resist. What will happen when my alma mater becomes myalmamater.com?
The University of Maryland University College expects to be among the first wave of schools this academic year awarding transfer credit to those who have taken - and can prove they learned from - certain "massive open online courses," known as MOOCs. The school, which targets working adults with its own online classes, and six others nationwide have agreed to track student progress as part of a research study gauging how well the MOOCs, which are relatively new to the education world, prepared the transfers for a more traditional learning experience.
When some University of Maryland, College Park students return to class for the spring semester, they could be attending lectures, taking quizzes and completing group projects without leaving their dorm rooms. The university is participating in a pilot program that combines massive open online courses with traditional classroom instruction. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded $1.4 million to nonprofit research group Ithaka S+R to study how the state's university system could incorporate the increasingly popular online courses "There are two things we're seeking: new strategies that will improve learning outcomes and lower costs," said University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. Kirwan.
A week after the University of Maryland learned it was the target of a sophisticated data breach, President Wallace D. Loh said Tuesday that the university would extend free credit protection services to the 309,000 students, alumni and employees affected from the one year it had previously announced to five years. The university discovered last week that the Social Security numbers, birth dates and names of all students, faculty and staff issued a university ID card at College Park and at the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville since 1998 had been stolen.
CHICAGO - General Growth Properties Inc., the nation's second-largest mall operator, said Thursday it has $3 billion in debt remaining to be restructured and is considering "all indications of interest in the company." The company is also considering financing alternatives such as a public offering of equity. On Tuesday, the company, based in Chicago, said a bankruptcy court approved its plan to restructure $10.25 billion in debt. A plan for restructuring an additional $1.7 billion in debt is up for approval when some conditions are satisfied.
The company that runs malls in Towson, Columbia, Owings Mills and White Marsh is removing cellphone-recycling kiosks from its Maryland locations after politicians voiced concerns that the machines contribute to cellphone thefts. General Growth Properties is taking ecoATMs out of all its properties in the state, a spokesman for the Chicago-based company said Tuesday. The kiosks, which have been called "reverse vending machines," allow users to receive cash for used phones and other small electronic devices.
General Growth Properties will spend $1.8 million improving a seven-building office complex in Columbia's town center, its leasing agent said Thursday. The work on Columbia Corporate Center, across from the Mall in Columbia, will include renovations to suites, lobbies, common corridors and exteriors, said real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield. jhopkins@baltsun.com twitter.com/RealEstateWonk
Baltimore's political and business leaders praised the New York-based real estate investment firm purchasing Harborplace as a potential savior for the Inner Harbor mall that has struggled to find the right mix of tenants to appeal to both tourists and locals. When it was announced last month that Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. was eyeing Harborplace, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake cited the company's high-profile properties - among them Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, Union Station in Washington and Rivercenter in San Antonio - as evidence that Ashkenazy will do right by Harborplace.
Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc. said it amended its reorganization plan to increase its capital structure flexibility and improve investment terms, and remains on track to emerge from bankruptcy in October. The plan includes the reinstatement of $1.3 billion in bonds due in 2012 and 2013. The company, which in Maryland owns Harborplace, the Gallery, the Village of Cross Keys, Mondawmin Mall, Towson Town Center, Owings Mills Mall and White Marsh Mall, among others, said its emerging financing needs will be met partially by the reinstatement of the bonds and it does not expect to need a previously contemplated term loan.
Empty stores haunt the corridors of Owings Mills Mall — their gates locked and shelves and racks bare. Slowly they have trickled out: Forever 21, Nine West, Express, all gone. Hulking department stores that once anchored the mall have shut down, leaving thousands of square feet of nothing. And as Ken James, a shopper and a suit specialist at the mall's Macy's, put it, "When McDonald's moves out, you know it's bad. " This is the latest bout of an identity crisis that has plagued Owings Mills since it opened in 1985.
It may be a buyer's market, but Harborplace is going to be a tough sell. General Growth Properties, the financially strapped owner of the pavilions and The Gallery, says it is looking for investors or buyers for its waterfront markets here and in New York and Boston. Buying into these projects would require deep pockets since the commercial credit market is so pinched, but as critical to the future of Baltimore's prime waterfront venue, an investor would need vision. The heart of the Inner Harbor's revitalization 30 years ago, Harborplace remains a draw for tourists.
CHICAGO - Two major investors in General Growth Properties are joining Brookfield Asset Management in offering to inject a combined $6.5 billion in fresh funds into the shopping mall operator to help it emerge from bankruptcy protection. General Growth said in a statement late Monday that its board is weighing an offer from Fairholme Capital Management, one of its largest unsecured creditors, and Pershing Square Capital Management, one of its largest shareholders, to invest $3.93 billion.
Simon Property Group Inc. said General Growth Properties Inc.'s plan for discussing Simon's proposed takeover of its bankrupt rival is "unreasonable" and asked the mall operator to reconsider its negotiating agreement. Simon, the largest U.S. shopping mall owner, said General Growth's draft of a nondisclosure agreement would prohibit Simon from talking with potential partners and wouldn't ensure the company receives the same information made available to competing bidders. Simon commented in a letter sent to General Growth Chief Executive Officer Adam Metz and distributed Friday in a news release.
NEW YORK - General Growth Properties Inc. said Wednesday that lenders have agreed to restructure about $9.7 billion in debt under a plan that will allow the nation's second-largest shopping mall operator to emerge from bankruptcy protection by the end of the year. General Growth will pay off loans covering 92 regional shopping centers, offices, community centers and related subsidiaries. The plan will allow the real estate investment trust to retain ownership of the properties, including Harborplace & The Gallery in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
Hurricane Sandy forced many area retailers to close Monday. Mall owner General Growth Properties shut down its Baltimore-area malls including Harborplace & The Gallery in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Towson Town Center in Towson, White Marsh Mall in White Marsh, Mondawmin Mall in Baltimore city and The Mall in Columbia. The Gallery remains ccessible for office tenants and guests of the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel. Management expects to know later today whether the malls will re-open on Tuesday.
When Harborplace first opened, it was hailed as one of the crown jewels of Baltimore's renaissance, and millions of visitors from across Maryland and around the country beat a path to its door. On a typical Saturday afternoon, the Light and Pratt street pavilions were beehives of activity, crowded with tourists who came to the Inner Harbor to eat, shop and gawk. More than 30 years later, Harborplace is still viable and still commercially successful, although not necessarily what it once was. There are any number of reasons for this, from competition elsewhere to the natural evolution of any attraction - but surely one big problem involved its owners and the lack of sufficient investment in the properties as ownership transferred from Rouse Co. to Chicago-based General Growth Properties, which subsequently landed in bankruptcy.
The Baltimore waterfront's iconic Harborplace is being sold to a New York real estate investment firm that has a reputation for purchasing distinctive retail centers, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Tuesday. Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., which is collecting unique commercial landmarks like Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, Union Station in Washington and Rivercenter in San Antonio, purchased the Inner Harbor mall from General Growth Properties, Rawlings-Blake said in a statement.
The longtime headquarters of the Rouse Co. will become home to the first Howard County branch of Whole Foods Market under a $20 million plan to renovate one of the community's most prominent landmarks and draw new residents downtown. The Howard Hughes Corp., the Dallas-based owner of the former Rouse headquarters, and Whole Foods Market of Austin, Texas, disclosed Wednesday that the upscale grocer has signed a lease for 45,000 square feet and plans to open a market by the fall of 2014 inside the largely vacant office building on Little Patuxent Parkway overlooking Lake Kittamaqundi.
The Village of Cross Keys, an upscale North Baltimore shopping center and one of the earliest projects of Columbia founder James W. Rouse, has been sold by General Growth Properties to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., a retail and office property investor, according to a notice to tenants delivered Wednesday. The center on Falls Road is now being managed by Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc., according to the memo to retailers from the center's management office. The open-air shopping center has about 30 shops and restaurants, including Williams-Sonoma, Talbots, Ruth Shaw and Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa. Chicago-based General Growth, which owns most of the malls in the Baltimore area, has been selling off noncore assets to boost its balance sheet since emerging from bankruptcy in 2010.
The Columbia Association Board of Directors and General Growth Properties Inc. will meet April 3 on a variety of issues, including how the two organizations can best partner on the redevelopment of Columbia Town Center. The 7:30 p.m. meeting is open to the public and will be held in the Spear Center at GGP headquarters, 10275 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia. The discussion is expected to include GGP plans for the Columbia lakefront and Symphony Woods. GGP is scheduled to release its draft master plan of Town Center on April 28. Also on the agenda is a presentation by a GGP consultant on its regional storm water management plan.
General Growth Properties is giving consumers more time to shop for the holidays this week by extending hours at four of its malls - Towson Town Center, White Marsh Mall, Owings Mills Mall and The Mall in Columbia. The malls will be open 9 a.m. to midnight today and 8 a.m. to midnight Wednesday. The mall owner is extending hours to make up for lost shopping time during Saturday's snowstorm when the malls closed early. Toys 'R' Us will be open from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. today and Wednesday. It will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve. - Andrea K. Walker
A $4.7 million plan to buy and use three electric buses for public transit in Columbia was rescued by Howard Community College officials, who agreed last week to host a recharging station for the vehicles after owners of The Mall in Columbia refused. The three 35-passenger vehicles would be the first of their kind used for public transit in the United States, said John W. Powell Jr., CEO of Central Maryland Regional Transit, a nonprofit group that administers the transit system covering Howard County, Laurel City and western Anne Arundel County.
SANTA MONICA — After one half of Glendale Community College's football game on the road facing Santa Monica City College, the Vaqueros held a one-point advantage and were two quarters away from ending a double-digit losing streak in American Division Pacific Conference play.
But it was not to be, as the offense went dormant in the second half and the Vaqueros were once again plagued by mistakes on special teams, leading to a 44-28 victory Saturday afternoon for the host Corsairs. The loss extends the Vaqueros' American Division Pacific Conference losing streak to 11 games and puts them under .500 for the first time this season.
"We quite frankly gave the game away with special teams mistakes again," said Glendale Coach John Rome, whose squad allowed two kickoff return touchdowns a week prior.
GCC (2-3, 0-2) was up, 21-20, at the break, following a first half that saw the teams exchange the lead five times. However, in the second half, the Vaqueros struggled to get first downs, including on their first four possessions of the third quarter. The fourth possession, which followed a Corsairs fumble, did have the possibility of ending in points and extending the lead. Kicker Dan Blackford lined up for a 42-yard field goal, but he never got to make his attempt, as the snap sailed high and off the holder's fingertips.
Santa Monica (3-2, 2-0) then drove the ball the other way, ending the possession with a successful 23-yard field goal for the host's first lead since early in the second quarter. Special teams gaffes bit the Vaqueros again on the ensuing kickoff. The ball first bounced between two returners and, once it was picked up, was promptly stripped by Santa Monica and returned by Tyler Hasty six yards for a touchdown, stretching the Corsair advantage to 30-21 as the home team scored 10 points in seven seconds.
"All those types of mistakes, they add up," Rome said. "We play well enough to win the game, score 28 points, run the ball pretty well, control the clock, but we give up the big play. Our worst enemy is ourselves."
Glendale answered immediately with a 55-yard, four-play drive capped by a 47-yard touchdown run up the middle by Vaquero Joshua Martinez. The Vaqueros trailed, 30-28, after three quarters.
"The Demon Plague by Joreid McFate is a fantastic paranormal suspense science-fiction novel, involving time-travel and mysticism. This 424 page book is also available in e-book format.
Due to the volume of books I review, most are donated to our local library when the assignment is complete. However, this is one book that I just cannot part with. I felt this comment is important to mention, because only .04% of the books I review find their way to my personal bookshelves.
This exciting tale begins when a demon plague sweeps over mankind, wrought when some scientists developed a technology that mastered time travel. There are factions who radically search for a way towards racial and genetic purity - while others strive to cure the plague and fight for basic human rights. Crystal Patience Gladstone Donovan is caught up in this war when, at her grandmother's deathbed, she is given a family heirloom and told that she is the 'Star' and to await her 'Moon'.
Soon she is involved in a journey into the past where she meets her ancestor Patience Gladstone Talbot, another 'Star'. Crystal learns that her middle names are common throughout time as they are given to the gifted child who is known by a birthmark. Chase scenes, deceit, battles, flashing back and forth into the past and into the future are all stepping-stones for Crystal and her friends in their attempts to do the right thing.
This story line could be used as an excellent reminder of the dangers and grand possibilities advanced technology could reap. It was refreshing to experience realistic female hero characters in this novel. I was absolutely astounded when I read that not only is Joreid McFate actually two separate authors, but that despite many other collaborative projects they have never met and never spoken on the telephone!
~ Lillian Brummet - Book Reviewer - Co-author of the book Trash Talk, a guide for anyone concerned about his or her impact on the environment ­ Author of Towards Understanding, a collection of poetry.
"Carlton Austin has crafted a wonderful piece of work in Second Eden - an action-packed suspense thriller with a little romance and some elements of science fiction. Its beautifully designed cover incorporates gorgeous images depicting scenes within the plot and the book is available in both hard and soft cover.
Moon Child by Simone Maroney is a larger sized adventure, fantasy novel with 55 chapters. The story line involves complex relationships between six main characters, which are delicately balanced leaving room for intrigue.
"Action, thriller and humor - this book has it all! Men of Extreme Action by Joseph Kochanoff is one of the better books I have reviewed this year. Based in the action movie making industry, Joseph incorporates murder, excellent fight scenes and sabotage.
Fun Works: Creating Places Where People Love to Work by Leslie YerkesBooks on this subject have been around for decades. I have many of them on my own bookshelves and have seldom referred to any of them in the spirit of research, study or bench marking.
You look at the salesletter and the price tag ($8.95 USD) for the e-book What $ells on eBay For What, and they look pretty unpretentious.
This beautifully laid out trade paperback has a gorgeous and practical design both inside and out. I recommend you read this book with a highlighter and a pen and be ready to take copious notes in the blank pages thoughtfully provided between chapters.
Unfortunately, I have seen too many of even the most noble and vitally needed charitable nonprofits fade into obscurity, never having accomplished the laudable goals they set out to achieve. In most cases, the reason for their demise is that they did not promote themselves with vigor and assertiveness.
In his ebook "Affiliate Mistakes Special Report," Chuck McCullough teaches you how to spot and avoid or correct ten simple, yet costly errors that can seriously damage your efforts to promote affiliate programs successfully. Instead of writing about the broad based generalities of affiliate marketing, Chuck takes you by the hand and teaches you why most affiliates never make a dime in commission.
"Jason Seeley's War" is centered in the heart of a small American town where two youth are deeply in love, and have been since high-school. Jason and Natalie's love runs with a flexible strength that endures her recovery from a horrible drug addiction.
Author Joseph Yakel presents his own blend of humor and melodrama in this country boy comedy. Offered as a light-hearted, fun adventure with a feel-good edge, Yakel said he was looking to amuse his audience with something a little different.
The other day I was surfing the net looking for resources relating to WordTracker. WordTracker is, in my opinion, one of the top two market research tools on the net.
Businesses are run mostly on auto-pilot and any problem areas are only dealt with when they are already critical, but by then it may already be too late. Most business managers are too busy with the day-to-day work to sit back and look at the business critically in terms of its context and the direction it is going.
The Little Mornings, by C M Albrecht is a murder mystery with 262 absolutely absorbing pages. We have three main characters here - the grandfather, an alcoholic of questionable character, a slightly off balance woman (Angie) and an impressionable young man (Darcy) who becomes mixed up in a whirlwind of events.
I have decided to start with this text as simply far too many people have said to me I should - it clearly has an enormous following of people who found the message rang true for them.In the introduction to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Covey talks about how we perceive reality based on certain beliefs or paradigm.
The Legend of Juggin' Joe is a fiction based on a few historical family members that is written with a light, entertaining feel and a twinge of humor. This book is certain to take you away from your reality, and into the shaded mountains where moonshine is made!Young Joe is a hillbilly-like character who was raised in the days when stills were an important source of income for many mountain folk.
Over the years, several books and countless magazine and newspaper articles have been written about Southwest Airlines. Numerous MBA programs highlight the Southwest structure, its culture, its CEO, its low fares and other reasons as to why it is the bright spot in an otherwise dismally performing industry.
King Bartholomew and the Jester's Riddle by Pina Mastromonaco is a wonderful, fun book with a humor level perfect for children aged four to eight. Entertaining riddles entice readers to try to guess the answer while enjoying the tale.
May-Day!The school bus had long since disappeared over the last hill toward the main road one afternoon when I set my books on the kitchen table and hurried into the living room to talk to my mother.Mom was sitting in her favorite easy chair by the picture window, and her crutches were laid neatly on the floor next to the chair where she could reach them.
The nonprofit Pups for Peace has sent 17 bomb-sniffing canines to Israel, and eventually hopes to provide 1,000 of them.
As Israel's consul general in Los Angeles, Yuval Rotem receives up to 200 e-mail messages a day, many with offbeat, sometimes absurd suggestions on how Israel can better protect its citizens against attacks.
Last spring, shortly after the Passover suicide bombing in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya that killed 21 people, Rotem received an intriguing message from Glen Yago. The director of capital studies at the Milken Institute in Santa Monica, Yago proposed starting a local bomb detection school for dogs, which could then send the trained animals to Israel to thwart terrorist attacks.
The military, police and private security firms in Israel already deploy about 200 bomb-sniffing dogs, but, according to Yago, that is nowhere near enough to cover thousands of potential targets.
So Yago proposed the bomb school, to be funded primarily with private donations. After checking with the Foreign Ministry in Israel, Rotem gave Yago the thumbs up.
Five months later, the Israeli Defense Forces have an extra 17 highly trained canines to sniff out bombs. And more are on the way.
Trained in a secret location in the San Fernando Valley, the dogs are the first offerings of Pups for Peace, a nonprofit organization founded by Yago that hopes to eventually send 1,000 dogs to Israel.
Many of the canines -- Labrador retrievers, German shepherds and Belgium shepherds known as Malinois -- are purchased for several thousand dollars each from noted breeders in Europe. The dogs then undergo about two months of extensive training at their Southern California base before they graduate and are shipped to the Middle East.
At the Valley training center, every possible bombing scenario is simulated, using buses, cars, buildings and people.
The dogs are trained to detect a wide range of weapons, from crude homemade devices equipped with nails to sophisticated bombs packed with powerful explosives such as C4.
It was the explosion at the Park Hotel in Netanya that spurred Yago to action. For Yago, a Jew, it was the last straw. He had to do something to help stop the killings.
At a family dinner, his son, who lives in New York City, told him about the large police dog presence in Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks. That gave him his idea.
"Maybe if there were more trained bomb-detection dogs in Israel, they could help prevent the carnage suicide bombers so often brought," Yago said last week in a telephone interview from the Tel Aviv Sheraton Hotel. "I inquired and found there was a real shortage of dogs."
Soon, Yago was researching on the Internet. A name kept popping up -- Mike Herstik, one of the premier trainers of bomb-detection dogs in the U.S.
"Out of the blue I get this call from this guy, Glen Yago, asking me if I would be interested in training dogs that would be sent to Israel," said Herstik, 46. "Then he wanted to know if we could train 1,000 dogs in a month. Of course, that's impossible."
Still, Herstik and Yago quickly teamed up and formed Pups for Peace. Within two months, there were 60 dogs enrolled in the program, some purchased, some donated, others rescued from shelters.
"I was the kid on the block who had a dog with him wherever he went," said Herstik, the son of Auschwitz survivors who was born in Tel Aviv and grew up in the Valley. "It was just natural my life went that way professionally."
As a teenager, Herstik entered dogs in obedience and tracking competitions. He made a living training dogs as an adult. Then, after the Alfred E. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was destroyed in a bombing attack in 1995, Herstik focused his attention on explosives detection.
"There was a tremendous shortage of dogs, and given the situation in the world, I knew there was going to be a great need for them," he said.
He immersed himself in study. He picked the brains of every dog trainer he could find, contacted law enforcement agencies and interviewed bomb technicians. In 1998, he obtained an operating license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The lead detective of the Los Angeles Police Department's bomb squad said he only buys Herstik-trained canines.
"Mike has the best dogs," said Det. Joe Pau, who recently took possession of one Labrador and has an order for three more at about $10,000 each. "He does things with dogs that make them head and shoulders over anyone else's."
When Herstik's dogs detect something suspicious, they sit and stare at the probable location. Other trained dogs merely sit down once they sense something, according to Pau.
"Say a Mike dog senses explosives in the top drawer of a desk, he will stare, not just at the desk, but at that top drawer," said Pau, who has been in the bomb squad for 20 years. "When you get a dog like that, it eliminates a lot of work and saves a lot of time."
On July 3, Burbank police in an alley spotted a suspicious car with a man sleeping inside, and notified the LAPD's bomb squad.
"It makes me feel good when I hear my dogs have made their finds," he said. "When I get a call that starts with, 'Guess what your dog did,' that's the best feeling in the world, that your dog actually busted a bomber. I haven't got that call from Israel yet, but I sure hope to get a bunch like that."
Nazareth Board Faces Tough School Redistricting Decision * Tonight, Directors Must Choose One Of Three Options Developed To Cope With Enrollment Pressure. by BRYAN HAY, The Morning Call
Bike Tour Ends With A High-five * 850 Cyclists Participated In The Annual Ms 150 Pa Dutch Bike Tour Over The Weekend To Help Raise Funds To Battle Multiple Sclerosis. by DONALD BLOUNT, The Morning Call
Kempton Fair Queen Crowned * Nazareth High School Senior Named Fairest In 31st Annual Contest. The Morning Call
Bethlehem Police Win 7 Gold Medals At The Pennsylvania Police Olympics * They Also Take 7 Silver And Bronze by PHIL BOYLE, The Morning Call
Order To Suspend Chief Is Upheld * Liott Was Disciplined For Failing To Update Upper Perk Police Commission On His Health After Heart Attack. by APRIL PETERSON, The Morning Call
Souderton Secretaries Get A Raise * Contract With School Board Gives 4% More. Others Also Get Pay Hikes. by JACK KRAFT (A free-lance story for The Morning Call)
GAYLORD — Gaylord soccer magician Jeff Cook was a shoo-in pick for the All-Big North Conference soccer team, released this week.
Cook, a talented midfield who was a leader for the Blue Devils the past three seasons, was Gaylord’s only selection on the first team.
Senior defenseman Matt Zaremba was a second-team pick, while senior forward Mike Stilson, senior defenseman Joe Arnold and sophomore forward Jason McArt were all Honorable Mention picks.
Petoskey, who earned the Division 2 state championship with a 1-0 victory against Dexter Saturday, had three members on the all-league team, including goalkeeper Grant Reed, BNC leading scorer Jason Muller and rock-solid midfielder Michael Bingaman.