baltimoresun.com news blog

Free movies next week! Food, Inc., Handmade Nation [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-09T13:29:26-07:00

Watch two FREE movie screenings next week!

To kick off DIY@Artscape, on Tuesday, July 14, there will be a free screening of Handmade Nation, a documentary exploring do-it-yourself culture.

The free Handmade Nation screening starts at 7 p.m. at the University of Baltimore auditorium, 21 W. Mount Royal Ave. A question-and-answer session with the director will follow the 65-minute film.

Discovered via The Broken Plate Company via Baltimore DIY Squad.

Then on Thursday ...

... July 16, head to the Charles Theatre for a free showing of Food, Inc., sponsored by Chipotle Mexican Grill.

The documentary Food, Inc. is about industrial food production and its impact on workers, human health and the environment.

Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis so get there early.

And don't miss other free & cheap summer movies in Baltimore and beyond. There are lots of outdoor screenings to choose from!

Calling all twentysomething-thirtysomething investors [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-09T12:23:41-07:00

I'm writing an article about investing in a bear market, and am looking to speaking to those in their 20s and 30s about whether they have cut back on investing or are putting even more money in the market because they have years for stocks to turn around.

Send me an email if you'd like to talk at eileen.ambrose@baltsun.com. Thanks.

Private schools and the economy [InsideEd]

2009-07-09T11:39:11-07:00

I'm working on a story looking at how private schools - and their families - are faring during these tough economic times. I am on the lookout for parents - in the city and the suburbs - who've decided not to continue sending their kids to an independent school because of the cost, or who've had to pull together additional resources to send them back another year.

Please send me an email if you'd like to share your experience. Thanks.

Fear, terror and economic anxiety [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-09T10:21:51-07:00

(art by Regina Boyce)

Last night I had a fascinating discussion with attendees of a community conversation organized by Art On Purpose, a local arts organization.

The group had held art workshops at several library branches exploring themes from Edgar Allan Poe’s work, including love and loss, madness and obsession, and fear and terror.

Several Baltimore residents created pieces addressing fear about the economy, and so for last night’s talk at the Waverly branch library, we dug deeper into what money provides and what folks were doing differently in the face of economic uncertainty.

We talked about priorities, and I offered up my frugal philosophy for life: how money gives us choices, whether it’s the kind of food we eat, the place we live and the health care we can enjoy. It’s better to start saving early, because you can’t take a loan for retirement.

Several attendees talked about the struggle to budget, how jarring it can be to suddenly become aware of how little money remains after addressing fixed expenses such as rent and utilities.

Another guest spoke about blowing up fixed expenses such as utilities altogether and going entirely without gas and electricity for most of last summer.

An experiment like that would certainly make you appreciate the simpler things. Another guest shared a story about a group of pre-teen girls who put aside their fancy video cell phones for more than hour to play with an old-fashioned deck of cards.

What are you doing differently because of the recession/economy, whether it's finding more economical entertainment, or cutting back on extras and rethinking eessentials?

You can see more art from the Art On Purpose workshops at other branch libraries this month as well as at the Baltimore Museum of Art this fall. The events are free and open to the public.

Don't put porn or taxes on your credit card [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-09T09:07:47-07:00

Credit card companies are clamping down on any consumer who suddenly seems like a financial risk.

But according to Robert Manning, author of Credit Card Nation, card companies are doing data mining to look at where we spend our money to determine if we might have lost our job or appear to be having money problems.

In an interview with Marketplace, Manning compiled a list of 10 things you shouldn’t buy with your credit card lest it send up red flags to your card company.

Among them:

Purchases at 99 cent stores or Wal-Mart, if you never shopped those bargain places before. From the card issuer’s viewpoint, it’s suspicious that you are suddenly a discount shopper.

Retread tires. What, you can’t afford new ones?

Porn or strip clubs. Are you trying to take your mind off financial problems?

Marriage counseling. Could it be that you are your spouse are fighting about money?

Taxes. Bad sign if you add debt on a card to pay off another debt obligation.

Check out the list and tell us what you think. Do you really believe card companies are scanning statements for such purchases?

Now playing on YouTube: loan-modification advice [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-09T08:32:36-07:00

The variety on YouTube is pretty amazing, when you stop to think about it. Old music videos. Clips of random people making silly faces for your amusement. Whatever hot new visual meme is making the Internet rounds. And -- now up this week -- a Freddie Mac video for borrowers who are behind on their payments and want to request a loan modification.

Foreclosure prevention amid the pop culture.

Freddie Mac says in a press release that homeowners will have an easier time of it if they gather these documents before calling:

* Most recent monthly mortgage statement;

* Pay stubs or other documents showing their household's monthly pre-tax income;

* Most recent tax return;

* Second loan or home equity line of credit statements;

* Account balances and minimum monthly payments on credit cards, car loans, student loans or other debt;

* A short, concise description of the financial hardship that is causing – or leading to – a mortgage delinquency.

Fair warning: There's no guarantee it won't still be a difficult process.

And be wary of consultant-type firms promising to get you a loan modification if you'll pay an upfront fee. The New York Times notes in this story that you can end up closer to foreclosure and several thousand dollars poorer, even if you got a "money back" guarantee. The Federal Trade Commission is going after some companies for "marketing potentially deceptive relief programs," the newspaper reported.

For advice on avoiding foreclosure-prevention scams, check out the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation's foreclosure-help page.

It's official: El Nino has begun [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-09T08:03:09-07:00

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has made it official: Another El Nino has begun, with sea surface temperatures in the eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean now more than 1 degree Celsius above the average.

Red and orange colors on the map at left show where sea surface temperatures in the Pacific are 1 to 2 degrees above average.

The phenomenon, which occurs every two to five years, on average, typically triggers changes in weather trends around the globe. It is expected to last at least a year, and is the first El Nino since 2006. Here's more from NOAA.

For Maryland, El Nino's effects are not as cut and dried as they are for some parts of the world, such as the Pacific coast and Indonesia. But studies have found a trend toward stormier winters. That can mean a lot of snow, or very little - a sort of all-or-nothing deal, depending on temperatures. The most notable storm in an El Nino year may have been the Feb. 11, 1983 storm that dropped 22.8 inches on Baltimore (photo, right).

The general conclusion the experts have reached about El Nino Winters in Baltimore is summed up this way:

"El Niño winters in the Baltimore Region mean a milder than normal December. They also tend to be all or nothing when it comes to snowfall. Either there are no significant snow storms and season snow totals average less than 5 inches or there is a tendency toward multiple snow storms with seasonal totals above 30 inches. These storms usually occur in January and February. November, December, and March often see little or no snow."

You can read more about this here.

(SUN PHOTO by Weyman Swagger 1983)

Looking for a Baltimore charter school? [InsideEd]

2009-07-09T07:57:38-07:00

I was talking yesterday to Carl Stokes, one of the leaders of Bluford Drew Jemison Science Technology Engineering Mathematics Academy. They are opening a new school in Southwest Baltimore this school year and are still looking for students. While the school received its charter some time ago, the city school board didn't approve a facility for it to operate out of until early April, by the time most charter schools have already signed students up.

As a result, the school has plenty of space for new sixth-graders. They have 60 students now but would like to sign up another 40 at least. They have room for 120.

The new school, which will be operated out of Diggs Johnson Middle School near Carroll Park, will begin with sixth grade this year and add on a grade each year until it becomes a middle and high school.

Their first school on Caroline Street in East Baltimore is an all-boys academy where students dress in white shirts and ties. The school goes until 6:30 p.m., offering after-school activities and dinner.

Stokes said parents of sixth-graders who are interested can go to bdjacademy.org or call 410-276-3270.

Brrrr .. Morning low close to record [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-09T06:34:31-07:00

That was one chill breeze coming in the bedroom window this morning. Reminds me of summer in New England. It was only 54 degrees at daybreak on the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville. And there were some colder readings than that across the region. York, Pa. reported a low of 50 at the airport.

It was 56 early this morning at BWI-Marshall Airport. That was within 2 degrees of the record low for a July 9 at BWI. The 54-degree reading there was set on this date a quarter-century ago - in 1984.

There was a low of 64 degrees at Washington Reagan. Dulles Airport, out in northern Virginia, reached 58 degrees. It was 58 in Hagerstown, too.

All this as we approach what is, on average at least, the hottest two weeks of the year.

Here are some other low readings from across the region. (Check the date on the map; the 7/9 data had not been loaded at the time of this writing.)

The forecast continues to look just fine. The seasonable weather is expected to continue, with some heating-up, and a chance of showers and thunderstorms over the weekend. But the first half of next week looks a lot like this week - mild temperatures and dry weather.

Summer wine tasting: Cheap Trick Thursday [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-09T06:16:56-07:00

The restaurants at the Tremont hotels --- Tug's Bar and Grille, the Grand Cafe and the Plaza Deli --- will host a complimentary wine and cheese tasting from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, July 9.

The restaurants and cafes plan to offer similar events every Tuesday and Thursday in July, according to the Downtown Partnership.

Towson Catholic closes its doors [InsideEd]

2009-07-08T15:43:51-07:00

Today, about 100 students and parents gathered at Towson Catholic High School to protest the sudden announcement yesterday that the school is closing after 86 years.

The school had lost about 80 students over the summer and could no longer afford the loss of revenue. Today, on our Web site, parents and alums have been talking about what might have happened if they had known about the financial trouble. Some argue that the school might have been able to get enough donations to keep the school open another year.

I wonder why so many parents pulled their children out over the summer? Was it the downturn in the economy that made paying for a Catholic school education too much for some parents or did they have concerns about the school?

And if some of the exodus was caused by the economy, are there other private and parochial schools in the Baltimore losing students?

Towson Catholic is the latest in a series of Catholic school closings this year and the archdiocese said it must find a new plan to sustain the existing schools as enrollments drop and the cost of supporting those schools goes up. One of the options is to provide some state taxpayer support to the parochial schools. We wonder what readers think of the idea?

Mason-Dixon meteor turns up on security cam [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-08T14:25:34-07:00

The big fireball meteor that startled residents in Central Maryland and southern Pennsylvania early Monday morning was captured on a security camera video in York Pa. It's about 18 seconds into the 70-second video. Meteorite hunters hope this will be a first clue to guide them to the spot where surviving bits of the meteor - if there are any - may have landed.

The camera was one of about 50 that protect the various facilities of the York Water Company. The president and CEO, Jeffrey R. Hines, said he and his wife live in York and heard the sonic boom touched off by the meteor as it entered the atmosphere at about 1:10 a.m. Monday. But they didn't see anything.

It wasn't until late on Monday that he decided to check the security video to see what the cameras might have seen.

"It didn't take long," he said. The quality isn't great. "It's a security camera, at night."

But the meteor is unmistakable, he said. "You can see the fireball, and see it all ready to burn out, and a number of pieces of meteorite. Probably four or five frames is all it captures."

Even so, Hines said, "It's pretty cool." With two or three more images like this, meteorite hunters hope to be able to triangulate on the meteor's trajectory, and its final seconds before any surviving pieces fell to Earth.

Here's to 12:34:56 7.8.09 [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-08T09:03:05-07:00

So you'll be sitting around the lunch table at work today, and you'll raise your cup of diet soda and call for a toast: "Here's to the magic of numbers, and to this magic moment in time: 12:34:56 p.m. on 7/8/09."

Your friends and co-workers will be amazed at your mathematical acumen, and your acute awareness of your place in the space-time continuum.

Either that, or you will be greeted with blank stares, and people will begin to leave the table, claiming to have pressing work to attend to.

Just remember, you heard it here first.

Search Baltimore Housing violations & code enforcement [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-08T07:07:03-07:00

I'm wearing my Watchdog hat while sharing this Consumer Web Site of the Week: Baltimore Housing's list of active code violations.

On this site, you can search for code violations at specific city addresses, or find code violations within a specific neighborhood. Addresses with stepped-up code enforcement and court orders are listed there too.

From the Code Enforcement Legal section page, choose "case tracking" to see court orders and outcomes.

Other goodies from the Baltimore Department of Housing and Community Development Web site include links to the Housing Code Enforcement handbook as well as the Permits and Inspections handbook.

Mortgage fraud in Maryland [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-08T06:27:31-07:00

Sure, it wasn't hard to get a mortgage under false pretenses when the rules were so loose that anyone qualified. But shouldn't mortgage fraud be easing now that we're several years into a lending clamp-down?

Nope. Mortgage fraudsters will always find a way.

That's the lesson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's newest Mortgage Fraud Report, which notes that the crime "continued to be an escalating problem in the United States during 2008." The FBI lists Maryland as one of the "top 10 mortgage fraud states" last year.

The problem ranges from people fudging numbers so they can buy a home -- the "crime? what crime?" folks -- to sophisticated thieves using faked documents to grab loan money and run.

The FBI warns that FHA loans, used to devastating effect in Baltimore flipping scams about 10 years ago, offer opportunities for today's crooks. And the housing slump is hardly a deterrent:

Multiple fraud schemes are being conducted by industry professionals who are in a position to exploit the current depressed housing market. Market conditions are also fueling the use of traditional and emerging schemes which have the potential to multiply across jurisdictions as foreclosures increase, the market contracts, access to credit diminishes, and more homeowners are unable to sell or refinance their homes. Properties affected by these schemes negatively impact neighborhoods; federally insured loan programs; the mortgage, banking, and securities industries; secondary market investors; tax payers; homeowners; and the overall US economy.

Restoration Hardware warehouse sale, now through the weekend! [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-08T06:04:27-07:00

Restoration Hardware Warehouse Sale in Edgewood! July 8 through July 12!

RH will throw open its doors for a final closeout sale, letting visitors peruse its stock of more than 5,000 discontinued, returned or otherwise rejected furniture, lighting and home accessories.

Discounts range from 50 to 75 percent off.

Hours of the sale are ...

... 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Wednesday, July 8 to July 12. On Sunday, it's open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Here's the address: 1701 Trimble Road, Edgewood. The number is 410-671-9687.

Local condo law blog launched [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-08T05:49:05-07:00

Here's something to check out if you're a condo owner: Raymond D. Burke, a Baltimore attorney with law firm Ober Kaler, has started blogging about condo issues at Maryland Condo Law Blog. So far he's weighed in on mold, warranties and maintenance.

Burke specializes in construction defect cases.

Other condo-law attorneys see their field as a ripe one for blogging, too. There's a Northwest Condo & HOA Law Blog, for instance, and an Ontario Condo Law Blog.

Live Chat: Eileen Ambrose on finding a financial adviser [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-08T04:13:39-07:00

Eileen Ambrose: Finding a financial adviser

Credit card foreign conversion fees [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-07T14:16:31-07:00

World travelers, check your credit card. You might be charged a foreign exchange conversion fee even when making purchases in U.S. dollars.

Here's an email I got from Mary E.:

For our occasional international travel, we purposely keep a Capitol One Visa credit card that charges no foreign currency conversion fee. On a recent trip in Switzerland, several times when we used the card, we were asked whether we wanted to pay in U.S. dollars or Swiss francs. We did not know which would be to our advantage. In each case, we were told by the business that it would usually be to our advantage to pay in dollars. We chose dollars, but noticed when presented with the receipt that the transaction processing entity charged a currency conversion fee that was included in the exchange rate. Would we have been better off paying in Swiss francs, since our Capitol One card charges no conversion fee?

I'm somewhat familiar with Mary's issue because of an article I wrote yesterday on credit card issuers changing terms on consumers before credit card reforms kick in February.

In my reporting, Greg McBride of Bankrate.com told me that issuers have been getting more creative with fees. One of them is foreign conversion fees.

Usually, you only trigger a fee when you are making a purchase in a foreign currency. But McBride says card issuers have started adding the fee even if you are making purchases with U.S. dollars outside the country. The Caribbean, for example, is one place where you have the option of paying in dollars or other currency.

"Now we are seeing issuers assess the fee regardless of the currency...as long as the transaction takes place on foreign soil," McBride says.

If any of you know of a card that doesn't charge a foreign coversion fee, let us know. We'll pass the word onto Mary.

Four evenings beneath the Int'l Space Station [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-07T13:05:49-07:00

There is always a chance that clouds and storms will interfere. But if we get lucky, there should be plenty of opportunity to spot the International Space Station this week as it passes over the mid-Atlantic states.

The long hours of northern daylight at this time of year are keeping the station in direct sunlight later into the evening, and earlier in the morning, so there are actually more than 20 flybys that observers in the Baltimore area could catch in the next nine days if they were so inclined. But many are in the wee hours of the morning, and other passes are low to the horizon and harder to see.

In this post I'll highlight just four passes, all of them very bright, evening opportunities at least halfway up the sky from the horizon. Here goes:

Tuesday evening, July 7: Look for the ISS as it rises above the southwestern horizon at 9:32 p.m. EDT. It will pass through the Summer Triangle, climbing to 43 degrees above the southeastern horizon by 9:35 p.m. From there it will cruise off toward the northeast, disappearing at about 9:38 p.m. UPDATE: Good pass, very bright, no clouds. The unmanned Russian Progress supply ship trailed the ISS by about 15 seconds.

Wednesday evening, July 8: On this pass, too, the ISS will rise from the southwest at 9:57 p.m., passing just above Saturn. Then it will travel through the stars of the Big Dipper, about 48 degrees above the northwestern horizon at 9:59 p.m. From there it will head off toward the northeast as it flies over New England and the Canadian Maritime Provinces and disappears at about 10:02 p.m.

Thursday evening, July 9: This pass will begin in the southwest at 8:46 p.m. EDT. The ISS will appear like a bright, moving star, rising 46 degrees above the southeast horizon at 8:49 p.m. From there it will fly off toward the northeast and vanish at 8:52 p.m.

Friday evening, July 10: Watch for the space station to rise out of the western sky at 9:10 p.m. EDT, passing just below Saturn this time, then climbing to 46 degrees (halfway up) from the northwestern horizon. It will pass along the bottom edge of the Dipper stars at 9:13 p.m. before moving off toward the mortheast, where it will fade away at 9:16 p.m.

As always, come back here and let us know how you did. Take the kids out to watch. One of them might decide to become an astronaut. Or a science writer.

The image above, by the way, is the expected view through the ISS Cupola that astronauts will carry to the station and install sometime next year.

Wallops to test crew escape system Wednesday A.M. [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-07T12:09:32-07:00

There's an interesting launch planned for early Wednesday at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, down on Virginia's Eastern Shore. It's not one that will be visible for hundreds of miles around, but it does mark an important milestone for manned space flight. The weather forecast is promising.

At 6:15 a.m. EDT, NASA will attempt to launch its Max Launch Abort System, a rocket-propelled mechanism that's designed to pull astronauts and their crew capsule away from their boosters in the event of a failure at, or near, the launch pad. If there's a delay, the launch window is open until 10 a.m.

UPDATE: Launch (photo) was successful. Anyone see it?

The idea recalls the tall escape towers that topped the old Mercury and Apollo capsules. They were essentially small rocket engines designed to yank the crew capsule to safety and provide time for its parachutes to deploy and lower the crew safely to the ocean.

If the space shuttle had had a similar system, the Challenger crew might have made it to safety as their booster rockets and liquid fuel tanks blew up after launch in 1986.

The MLAS system is being developed for possible use with NASA's planned Orion spacecraft, the Apollo-like capsule that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station by 2015, and on to the moon in 2020, if all goes according to plan.

Anyway, the launch from Wallops Wednesday morning will be a short one - two minutes. The MLAS rocket is expected to carry a simulated Orion capsule no more than a mile into the sky, and a mile out to sea. But it would sure be something nifty to watch if you happen to be nearby.

The test vehicle is 33 feet tall and the whole system weighs 45,000 pounds. The weather forecast for the area is good.

For more information, visit the Wallops Web site. Their launches can be followed on Twitter @NASA_Wallops.

(NASA PHOTO)

Southwest's $30-$60-$90 sale is 48 hours only [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-07T10:41:07-07:00

OK, I get a lot of airfare sales in my inbox. I'm sure you do too. I don't even look at all of them, so I can't say this one is the best. But it's certainly one I haven't seen from Southwest before and the price is right.

Here's the deal: One-way fares are based on the distance you're traveling. Travel up to 400 miles is $30 each way. For example, BWI to Boston or New York. (Take that Megabus.com. Well, not really, but it's close.) Travel between 400-650 miles is $60 = BWI to Fort Lauderdale or Milwaukee. Anything more than 750 miles is $90 = BWI to San Diego or Seattle.

You have to travel between Sept. 9 and Nov. 18. Great for a fall leaf-peeping trip. (I can't believe I said "leaf-peeping" and it's not even August yet. Groan.) Book now - sale only lasts 48 hours - through 11:59 p.m. Wednesday.

Hot weather due back (briefly) for the weekend [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-07T10:18:09-07:00

Feeling a little warm downtown at the moment (87 at The Sun's weather station), but the airport remains at a comfortable 83 degrees as we write. This mild-for-July weather is expected to continue for the rest of the work week. But hot weather is due back for the weekend, forecasters say.

We're only a week into July, of course, but so far the temperatures for the month at BWI-Marshall are averaging a cool 71.5 degrees. That's 4 degrees below the long-term average of 75.5 degrees for the first week of July in Baltimore.

It can't last, of course. But if it did, it would make this the coolest July on record for the city. The only Julys that come close are 1891, which averaged 71.6 degrees for the entire month; 2000 and 2001, which ended with an average temperature of 72.7 and 72.8 degrees, respectively.

Two days so far this month have failed to reach the 80s, and two nights dipped into the 50s at BWI. No records were broken, but we're all saving a bundle on our cooling bills.

The days ahead look pretty much the same as another cold front slips by. Forecasters see slight chances for precipitation today, followed by some clearing and drier air for Wednesday. More chances for showers return Thursday, with highs only in the low- to mid-80s, which is a few degrees cooler than the long-term averages. Nights will hold in the 60s at the airport.

By Saturday, however, we'll be crowding 90 degrees again, with increased risk of showers and thunderstorms. That will persist until the next cold front drops by, perhaps by late Sunday.

Long-term outlooks still don't see much in store for us in the way of our more typically hot and humid Chesapeake Summer weather.

You're welcome, but please... In lieu of flowers, you may donate to your favorite charity.

(SUN PHOTO by Kim Hairston 2006)

Meteorite hunter says: Check security camera tapes [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-07T08:57:26-07:00

Professional meteor hunter Steve Arnold is asking home and business owners in central Maryland and southern Pennsylvania to check their security tapes from early Monday morning for evidence of the meteor that scores of residents across the region have been reporting.

Most reader reports to this Blog put the time between 1:00 a.m. EDT and 1:15 a.m., July 6, with many focused on 1:08 - 1:10 a.m.

Arnold, co-star of the Science Channel's "Meteorite Men" program, is hoping to use the tapes to triangulate on the meteor and calculate its path. From that, he hopes to launch a search for any bits of the space rock that may have made it to the ground.

"That security camera footage is badly needed," Arnold told me in an email note. "I am optimistic, as there should be a few thousand cameras that caught it on tape. The key is to find at least three good camera angles to triangulate from. By 'good,' I don't necessarily mean the clearest, or in color, but ones that have physical objects visible in the distance so that when visiting the camera in person, with a compass, one can tell exactly where the fireball extinguished. This way a definite line can be drawn from the lens of the camera to the object and on the the point of 'redardation.' Three good lines intersecting gives us what we need."

Arnold also asked me to see whether the region's weather radar captured a trace of the falling meteor. I've asked the National Weather Service at Sterling to look into it.

Security camera footage has been used before to document fireball meteors. There are lots of them on YouTube. So, if you own or have access to security camera tapes in the region, check your Monday morning data for the flash. If you find something, you can contact me at frank.roylance@baltsun.com, or Steve Arnold at MeteorHntr@aol.com. Or, copy us both.

A good way to earn a free night at a hotel [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-07T07:34:15-07:00

Yeah, you can save reward points, you can win it, you can get your Mom to pay for it, but here's a really cool way to earn a one-night stay at more than 50 hotels across the U.S.: Just spend 8 hours as a volunteer or doing community service between now and the end of the year.

The group you volunteer with has to be a 501c3 organization - a place like Habitat for Humanity, for example - and you'll need a letter from the organization proving that you did the work. Then make your reservation at least 48 hours in advance at places like the Hilton Garden Inn in Orlando, the Marriott in Charlotte, the Renaissance Pittsburgh, the Doubletree Atlanta etc.

You'll have to pay the taxes and rooms are limited at each hotel - but the offer is good through Dec. 20. Plenty of time to "give a day and get a night" from Sage Hospitality, the group that operates the hotels. (They also offer 50% off for military and first responders.)

Costco membership renewal fewer than 12 months long: Naughty Business of the Week [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-07T07:04:34-07:00

Costco has reached a settlement agreement with consumers who were short-changed on their membership renewals, with agreements that expired fewer than 12 months from the re-up date, according to Consumer Reports.

Basically, consumers would come in to the warehouse retailer months after their memberships had lapsed and sign up for another year. But the company would back-date the new agreement to when the original membership ended, so consumers who didn't spot the error would pay for a full annual membership that would expire in fewer than 12 months.

It's like paying to resume a subscription to a magazine and only getting 8 or 10 issues!

Under the terms of the Costco settlement agreement ...

... folks who renewed a Costco membership between May 2001 and May 2009 that expired in fewer than 12 months would receive anywhere from one to four months' free membership. Eligible members, both former and current, will receive a postcard in the mail.

Costco has also changed its policy, and if you renew more than two months after your old membership expired, your expiration date will be a year from the date you make the agreement.

This still seems shady to me.

I could see, perhaps, renewals lasting fewer than 12 months being reasonable if there was some incentive to restart right away, i.e. if renewing members paid a smaller annual fee than those who were starting afresh. However, that's not the case -- you pay the same for 12 months of membership whether or not your data is in their system already.

Shady!

(photo: Paul Sakuma/Associated Press)

Home maintenance [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-07T05:55:03-07:00

One of the joys of being a homeowner is replacing appliances when they break. Thus I spent last night researching my buying options after coming home to discover that my dryer was -- technically speaking -- no longer a dryer but rather a sort of amusement-park ride for clothes. (In wet, out wet, despite great tumbling action in between.)

It seemed the right time to replace the washer as well -- both washer and dryer are 17 years old, so they're elderly as appliances go. Total bill: $931.

This got me musing about the difficulty deciding when to replace and/or upgrade things. Get a new carpet, for instance, and you might have to repeat the purchase when it's time to sell (can you tell I own cats?). But if you hold off getting new things with the idea that you'll do it when you're leaving, you'll never get to enjoy them. And if you wait until things break, well -- you could end up with a pile of wet laundry.

How have you homeowners out there dealt with this now vs. later dilemma? What sorts of things have you replaced and why?

And you buyers out there: What deferred maintenance issues really bug you in homes for sale?

Flight attendants bare it all for safety [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-07T03:42:57-07:00

Airlines keep trying to get your attention for that all-important safety info at the beginning of each flight. Typically, we're fidgeting, popping gum, checking our bags, talking - anything except listening to the flight attendants or watching the video. Seems to be a problem for airlines everywhere. First, Delta had the beautiful blonde with the sexy voice talking about oxygen masks and exit doors. Now comes Air New Zealand with an in-flight safety video that features flight crew wearing nothing but body paint. It's part of the airline's "Nothing to Hide" campaign to promote their no-hidden-fees airfares. Take a peek, it's in pretty good taste. Nothing you'll want to hide from the kids. You can read more about the video from this NYT story.

A few more details on Cash for Clunkers [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-06T13:08:38-07:00

More details are being trickled out on the Cash for Clunkers program that’s expected to get up in running on or before July 24.

Government officials say dealers can expect to be reimbursed in about 10 days after a consumer buys a car and trades in the clunker.

They also elaborated more on fraud issues, asking consumers to report suspected fraud at (866)-CAR-7891 or TTY at (800)-424-9153.

The government site at www.cars.gov adds:

“You may also call the Hotline of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Transportation. The OIG Hotline is an important tool that is used to facilitate the reporting of allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, or mismanagement in the Department's programs or operations, including the CARS program. Allegations of fraud may be reported by DOT employees, grantees, contractors or the general public. The Hotline is set-up to receive allegations in variety of forms, including by email (hotline@oig.dot.gov), regular mail (DOT Inspector General, P.O. Box 708, Fredericksburg, VA 22404), fax (540-373-2090) or a toll free number (1-800-424-9071). OIG's Hotline is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is operated by a third party contractor.”

Louis Vuitton Towson [Consuming Interests]

2009-07-06T12:10:19-07:00

Loyal readers, please allow us to formally introduce Andrea K. Walker to our merry band of Consuming Interests bloggers. We've referenced her stories about Baltimore area businesses frequently in the past, and now she's got a juicy bit of retail news to share:

Hi All. I’m Andrea K. Walker, retail reporter at The Sun, and I’m joining the consumer blog today. Luck would have it that there’s actually news on my first day.

Just as all of us are becoming tightwads given the state of the economy, the epitome of extravagance is coming to town. Louis Vuitton is trying to convince us to open our wallets just a little – okay maybe a lot at their prices – with a new Louis Vuitton store they’re opening at Towson Town Center Wednesday.

The store is the first in the Baltimore area. It may seem counterintuitive to open such a high-end store during such a tough time. A glance at the Louis website shows a wallet can run as much as $725. But Louis joins Lacoste and Burberry among stores that have already opened up in a new luxury wing Towson Town Center launched at the height of the economic downturn.

General Growth, the mall’s owner, said the wing was planned well before the recession. And they think that shoppers will eventually splurge on luxury goods once the economy turns.

I myself felt like ...

... an intruder just walking through the Burberry store when it first opened – as if the salespeople were saying to themselves, “you know you can’t afford anything in here.” I’d probably suffer from similar anxiety walking through the Louis store. So, I probably won’t shop there as much as I wish I could.

But what about the rest of you guys? Do you plan on making a trip to the Louis Vuitton store? Is this the right time to be promoting such extravagance? Or is this what Baltimore needs to put us up there with other cities?

Who is deciding what will be taught in classrooms of the future? [InsideEd]

2009-07-06T11:53:46-07:00

We've recently found out who will be writing and reviewing the new national or "common core" standards for math and language arts. For those of you who would like to know who is likely to be the group deciding what is important to be taught in classrooms, here's the list.

This year, Maryland and 45 other states decided to jointly develop a common group of standards for what should be taught in kindergarten through high school. The collective wisdom among most education policy experts is that it would be easier and cheaper if there were national standards. In other words, what a second-grader might need to know in Florida or Massachusetts varies little.

But for years, every state developed its own curriculum, standards and tests. That process will likely change soon. For a good story on the subject, go to Education Week.

A Mason-Dixon meteor? [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-06T09:43:07-07:00

We have been receiving reports today of a likely meteor over north-central Maryland and southern Pennsylvania early Monday morning. (Not the one in the Flickr.com image above.)

Below are the first reports we have received. If you heard or saw something similar, around the same time, please leave a comment. Include the time, your location, which direction you saw the object or flash, a description of what you saw, and note any boom or other sound you heard, as well as the time lapse between flash and boom.

The York Dispatch: In York County, Pa., police officers from Penn Township, Southwestern Regional and Newberry Township reported seeing a flash and hearing a boom around 1:15 a.m. Monday, July 6, according to local 911 centers. Officials in Harford County, Md. also reported seeing a flash and hearing a boom near the Mason-Dixon Line.

Capital Gazette: An Annapolis city police officer reported that she and her partner both saw what she described as a "bright blue light in the sky" just after midnight. It was followed by "a light with a tail, falling from the sky," according to our informant. Annapolis police reported hearing a similar report on Baltimore County police radio.

Gary Moon, reporting to The Sun's News Tips: "I heard and felt a deep earth blast similar to an earthquake, which shook my home in Glen Rock, Pa., early Monday morning. I thought I would hear MUCH more about this one ... nothing."

Deborah Markow, Havre de Grace: "Last night, couldn't sleep, went out on back deck, laid on lounge, eyes closed and then it was like someone pointed a flash light in my eyes it was so bright. I saw another one streak through the sky ... It was one of the most thrilling sights to behold a ball of fire flying through the sky."

I have not yet seen any meteor reports of this event on the American Meteor Society's Fireball Sightings Log, but it's early yet, and this fireball, coming in the wee hours after a long holiday, probably did not catch many people out and about.

Which makes reports like these, and yours, all the more important. If you saw this object, be sure to leave a report with the AMS, too.

But judging from the descriptions, it almost certainly was a fireball, which is simply an especially bright meteor, vaporizing with an impressive flash.

Here's a pretty good example on video.

They are sometimes followed by a sonic boom, which would explain the booming noises in the reports. Some fireball observers - though none yet for this event - also report a crackling or hissing sound that is concurrent with the meteor's flash and which has never been fully explained scientifically.

Although meteor rates begin to pick up in July, this is not the peak time for any particular meteor shower. It seems likely this was a "sporadic," or isolated meteor that just happened to be especially big and bright. Big ones like this are always unexpected, always startling to witness, and always a thrill.

More search options for home buyers [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-06T06:19:28-07:00

You might use Google to search for a variety of things, but chances are you don't for real estate listings. Thing is, you can.

Search Engine Land, a search engine news site, notes today that Google Maps has expanded its real estate information. To take a look, throw in "Baltimore real estate" on the site, then click on the option to "Search for real estate listings near Baltimore, MD." (If you don't click that option, you'll see a map dotted with real estate companies and organizations.)

What you get isn't all you can find on the established real estate search engines. But you might find it useful:

On the map, each individual listing, whether a property for sale or rent, behaves like a business listing does in Google Maps’ business search. Users can click the red icon/dot for more information about the property; they can get directions, save the listing to My Maps, or send the listing to someone else via email, phone, car, or GPS.

I was interested to see how local listings (at least the ones Google could find) were spread out in nearly all the nooks and crannies of the area. You really can get a fuller perspective by seeing something mapped out.

I also tried searching for Baltimore real estate on Google Base. There, you can specify if you want to see properties for sale or for rent, or things that are being sublet, or even rooms for rent. Google Base tells you where it's pulling the information, so you can jump to those sites if you want to search them directly.

Thanks to the excellent Liz Kay for noticing the Search Engine Land article! Seen any other interesting housing-search options lately?

New poll: Weigh in on Q&As [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-05T17:51:16-07:00

So: Q&As with housing experts -- with the Q's coming from you rather than me. You've already weighed in on the types of experts you're most interested in questioning (though feel free to keep suggesting professions or specific people in these comments). Now let me know how you'd like to do it. Live? Not?

The nice thing about a live chat is that it can turn into a conversation, with answers to questions begetting more questions. The downside: You'll miss it if the time doesn't work for you. (Worse, if no one shows up on the blog at the allotted time, the chat will become the proverbial tree falling in the woods.)

Take a moment to tell me whether you'd come to the blog for a live chat -- almost certainly over lunch hour -- or whether you'd prefer another option:

Poll results: The experts you'd like to question [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-05T06:08:16-07:00

I'm thinking of lining up some expert-types willing to do live (or email) Q&As with you folks. When I mentioned that last week, I asked you to choose the sorts of experts you're most interested in questioning.

The results of the multiple-choice poll:

Housing-market forecaster got the most interest, with 19 votes. Not surprising, since the direction of prices and sales is always a hot topic among commenters here.

Close behind was appraiser -- also not surprising, what with recent debate about the effectiveness of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct.

After that, in order of popularity:

Mortgage originator

Credit-score expert

Real estate agent (a few of you offered specific suggestions -- thanks!)

And with one vote each: home stager, successful investor and flipper. (The last two were write-ins.)

Now, here's the thing: Housing forecasters -- good ones, at least -- have plenty of opportunities to appear in the national media. I don't want to convince one to free up a half-hour to an hour for a live chat and then have no one show up to ask questions. They'll never do it again -- ya follow?

So here's the deal: I'll look for a knowledgeable local appraiser willing to give this a go, and you be ready to pepper him or her with great questions. If that goes well, I don't see why we can't do this with a forecaster next, and then a mortgage originator and so on down the line.

Does that sound like a plan?

In secondary poll results, I asked you if you'd like to see fewer polls. (Yes, a poll about polls. Oh the irony.)

Almost half of you say you like the weekly polls and to keep doing them. Twenty-seven percent of you have no opinion one way or the other. Nineteen percent of you say less frequent polls would be preferable.

Of the remaining two voters, one of you opted for the choice to stop the polls altogether, and the other wrote in this suggestion: "how about doing some REAL reporting?" (Er -- you do realize you don't have to read this blog if it annoys you, right?)

I think Wonk reader MrRational's recommendation could make most folks happy: "Having polls is a great feature; but don't feel obliged to create one because of a schedule." So I'll still aim to do regular polls, but if nothing suggests itself in a particular week, I won't sweat it.

Space Station flyover Monday night [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-05T05:01:28-07:00

Space Cadets! There will be an unusually nice opportunity Monday evening to watch the International Space Station fly by on its way from the Louisiana coast to the Canadian Maritime provinces.

If skies are clear, we'll pick it up at 10:43 p.m. EDT, rising out of the southwest as it passes over northern Alabama. Look for a bright, star-like object hustling toward the northeast, rising about halfway up the northwestern sky by 10:46 p.m. At that moment, it will be somewhere over central Pennsylvania, about 280 miles from viewers in Baltimore, moving northeast at 17,500 mph.

From there it will pass through the handle of the Big Dipper and race off toward the northeast, disappearing from view at 10:49 p.m. as it flies over New Brunswick, Canada.

Sure, it's a bit late. But hey, it's summer. Take the kids outside with you and let them try to be the first to spot the station. That's their money up there, too. Here's more on what they're doing up there.

Tougher times for renters, landlords [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-04T04:10:02-07:00

We all hear that layoffs and salary reductions are bad for homeowners and will probably keep foreclosure numbers from dropping anytime soon. But the cuts aren't good for renters, either. And what's not good for renters -- in this case -- is bad news for landlords.

Half of U.S. property managers are having more trouble filling their units with "qualified renters," according to a new TransUnion survey. Eight out of 10 say they're worried about how the rest of the year will go. (TransUnion, a credit-information company that sells renter-screening services, said it surveyed more than 870 property managers last month.)

But what about the people who got foreclosed on? Aren't they in need of a place to rent? As it happens, only half the surveyed property managers reported an increase over last year in applicants leaving foreclosed properties. TransUnion speculates that "many consumers coming from these circumstances are moving in with family members or friends to share expenses."

Local landlords, how are things going for you? (Come on, now. I know some of you are reading. Well -- maybe not on the Fourth of July, but I'll wait.)

Renters, have you needed to make a change -- moving to a cheaper apartment, bringing in a roommate, going back to live with parents -- to deal with tighter finances? (Or are things going so well that you're moving to a nicer place?)

Hey there, underwater borrowers: Want a refi? [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-03T18:04:49-07:00

HUD announced this week that the Home Affordable Refinance Program will now accept borrowers who aren't behind on payments but are up to 125 percent underwater -- people who aren't going to find anyone else offering them a refi. Originally, program eligibility was limited to borrowers whose mortgages totaled no more than 105 percent of their home values.

You still need a loan that was bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. (Don't know if it was? Ask your lender. Or check here for Fannie and here for Freddie.)

Zillow, the real estate information site, estimated yesterday that 29 percent of Baltimore-area homeowners are prime candidates for the program because they owe between 80 percent and 125 percent of their homes' value on their conforming first mortgages. That's 151,000 homeowners. But Zillow can't say how many meet the Fannie/Freddie requirement. (That's not publicly available information, the company says.)

These figures are up from the 113,000 (or 22 percent) of metro-area homeowners with conforming mortgages who owe between 80 and 105 percent of their home values.

The number of potentially eligible folks is higher nationwide: 36 percent of conforming-loan borrowers now and 26 percent under the original rules, Zillow estimates.

But apparently-eligible and actually-eligible are very different things, as the original rules of the program prove. Bloomberg reports that Fannie and Freddie have refinanced 80,000 mortgages under those guidelines, a tiny fraction of the participation the feds hoped for. And 60,000 of those had loan-to-value ratios of 80 percent or less. Mortgage professionals say it's tough for borrowers to qualify.

Has anyone out there tried to refinance under the older rules? I'm curious to know how it went.

Instead of new homes, these folks got heartache [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-03T18:04:29-07:00

If you put down a deposit on a new home, you expect to get a new home. But whenever you hand over a chunk of change for something in return down the road, there's always an opportunity for something to go horribly wrong.

Example one:

Two business-partner siblings who registered a homebuilding company with the state near the beginning of the housing boom pleaded guilty this week to misusing deposits from 22 couples and individuals. I reported the story for today's paper -- you can read more about it here, but here's a taste:

Walter Osborne Ely Jr. and Kimberly Zahrey started JAE Developers in 2002 and collected between $1,000 and $50,000 in upfront payments from prospective home buyers, according to Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler's statement of fact submitted to Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Vicki Ballou-Watts. Instead of putting the money in escrow accounts as required, the two quickly spent it. Some of the money went to business expenses that had nothing to do with building the customers' homes, the state said. Some of it Ely and Zahrey spent on themselves, the state said.

Meanwhile -- example two -- the state attorney general announced Wednesday that a Garrett County homebuilder also failed to build homes for several customers or return their money.

This comes on the heels of Lorraine Mirabella's stories about Altieri Homes, which the state has charged with "failing to start or finish construction of at least 20 homes in Harford and Howard counties after taking deposits and payments." Owner Greig Altieri said in a story last month that the tough economy put him out of business.

This story makes me feel itchy [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-03T18:03:26-07:00

The City Paper's Edward Ericson Jr. has a story that will send a chill down the backs of homeowners and renters alike: Bed bugs are an increasing problem in parts of Baltimore. (There's a map here showing the location of bed-bug-related 311 calls.)

He writes, "They are fiendishly hard to eradicate, tougher than roaches, silent as a draft."

Just the thought of them makes some of the people interviewed in his story start "involuntarily" scratching. Many of the readers probably have, too.

Real estate for the Facebook crowd [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-03T18:03:07-07:00

Sawbuck.com has updated its real estate information site with a nod to social media, including a news feed of home listings that's a lot like the friend status updates on Facebook. Choose Baltimore as your city of search, and you'll see this compilation of new listings and price changes. (You can see sales and contracts, too, but only if you register.)

The Sawbuck site also offers its take on housing-market health, rating Baltimore a 58 -- "Not Healthy," though closer to "Barely Healthy" (60-69) than "Deteriorating" (40-49). The scale runs from 0 to 99.

Market activity varies from neighborhood to neighborhood, of course -- that's true nationwide. How would you rate the housing-market health in your neighborhood? (I realize this is tricky because "deteriorating" in a seller's mind might be "improving" from a buyer's perspective. Hmm: Maybe choose a number from 0 to 99 with 0 being a market where buyers can get homes for nothing and 99 where sellers can successfuly demand a buyer's first-born child in exchange for accepting their offer?)

Baltimore's new-construction tax credit [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-07-03T18:01:42-07:00

The clock starts today on that second chance for people who qualified for Baltimore's new-construction tax credit but didn't apply in time (it's a short window after buying). Here are the details on the amnesty approved by the City Council:

If you went to settlement on a new home after Oct. 1, 2004, you can apply for the city’s new-construction tax credit through Aug. 28, when the amnesty period ends. Homeowners in properties that were substantially rehabbed after being vacant may also be eligible.

You can find more details from the city Department of Finance, including the application form, in this PDF document. (You can also read my original post on the topic here.)

Why should you care, you ask? Because the credit reduces a homeowner’s property tax bill by half and then phases in the full amount over a five-year period. Yeah. That's why.

The City Council also changed the process going forward so new-home buyers have two windows to apply: within 90 days of settling and within 90 days of getting the first tax assessment notice.

Baltimore schools and colleges [InsideEd]

2009-07-03T07:00:00-07:00

Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso proudly presented a group of high-achieving students going off to the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, College Park at a board meeting recently.

It was an honor for the students, who are among a smaller-than-usual pool who had been accepted at those schools through special programs.

In recent years, Hopkins and College Park have attempted to boost the number of city public school students who were able to attend their institutions – among the most prestigious in the state – by getting rid of one of the most difficult barriers: money.

Maryland State Board takes on job of vetting candidates [InsideEd]

2009-07-02T13:42:28-07:00

The Maryland State Board of Education has decided to take on some of the role of vetting candidates for the city school board. In my story today, I detail the questions the board is now asking candidates who apply for the job. It seems they are trying to prevent a repeat of the Brian Morris problem. Morris, the former city school board chair, was found to have a long history of financial problems.

One of the questions on the candidate questionaire asks if there is anything in the candidate's background that would be potentially embarrassing to the citizens of Baltimore if it came out. State school board president James DeGraffenreidt said the school board expects to "conduct more detailed inquiries concerning the qualifications and backgrounds" of the candidates. In other words, the state will be doing its own background checks.

Another week of cooler-than-normal temps [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-02T08:52:18-07:00

You could almost call it a "cool wave." But "cool" is probably not the best word to describe the slightly-lower-than-normal highs and lows in the NWS forecast for the next seven days. A "mild wave," maybe? Or a "pleasant wave"?

Whatever. It's welcome and it's saving us all money.

The real weather news is that we've slipped into this pattern of what meteorologists out at Sterling are calling "troughiness," as in, persistent low pressure to our north that is sweeping disturbances through the region, giving us plenty of clouds, with daily chances for scattered showers and thunderstorms.

And that seems to be keeping the temperatures in check. Highs for the next week will stall out in the low- to mid-80s. And the overnight lows will sink into the low- to mid-60s (maybe even some 50s in some places) - good sleeping weather if the humidity doesn't bother you. That's all a few degrees below the long-term averages for this time of year in Baltimore, which are in the 86/87-degree range on the top end, and 65/66 at night.

Baltimore seems to have been the focus of last night's rainstorms. One city church was struck by lightning. We could hear the thunder from the WeatherDeck in Cockeysville, but only received a bit of the water. Here at Calvert & Centre streets, however, The Sun's weather instruments picked up 0.92 inch of rain. (The station was down for a few hours this morning after some computer reconfiguration. Should be back shortly.)

And that was close to the most reported anywhere in the metro area. Hamilton reported 1.13 inches to the CoCoRHaS network this morning. Towson reported 0.92 inch. Kingsville, in Harford County, had 0.86 inch. St. Mary's County also got a good deal of rain, though probably from a separate storm cell. BWI reported only 0.37 inch up until midnight yesterday.

Sunday still looks like the best weather day of the long weekend for Central Maryland, with no rain chances in the forecast, partly sunny skies and a high near 84. The 4th comes with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, starting after 2 p.m. and continuing into the evening.

(SUN PHOTO/ Mauricio Rubio/Cooler-than-normal bagpipers in Catonsville parade 2008)

Storm risks decrease after tonight [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-01T13:51:30-07:00

Looks like the long holiday weekend will carry a risk of showers and thunderstorms clear through Saturday night, with a 30 percent risk that storms will impact the fireworks. Sunday's forecast, for now, comes with no mention of rain, so if the pyrotechnics are postponed, Sunday should be ideal. (That's what happened in 2007. Sun outdoors writer Candus Thomson snapped the pic at left at the Inner Harbor on the 5th. Amazing.)

But the highest chances for thunder and lightning come tonight, rated at a "likely" 70 percent. So far, all the convection on radar appears to be well to our west, just beginning to move into western Virginia at 4 p.m. But forecasters out at Sterling seem pretty confident things will fire up around the I-95 corridor by 8 p.m. EDT, and cross the Chesapeake by 10.

After tonight, rain chances diminish to the 20-30 percent range, save for 50 percent tomorrow night. That should allow us some sunshine, at least, and time to enjoy the mild, low-80s temperatures over the holiday weekend.

Headed for the beaches? Here's the Ocean City forecast. Looks like folks headed east will have fine weather after Thursday night. No rain in the forecast at all for the weekend, with highs in the upper 70s and low 80s. Perfect.

Going west? The forecast for Oakland, in Garrett County looks a bit wetter and grayer. But Independence Day itself looks good. Rain chances return for Sunday. Bring a book.

Small tremor jiggles Delaware Bay [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-01T09:23:52-07:00

The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting a small earth tremor at about 9:45 a.m. EDT this morning, measured with a magnitude of just 2.8. That's not likely to be felt by many, but is enough to detect and report.

The center of the shaking was pinpointed in southern New Jersey, on the eastern shore of the Delaware River near Pennsville, NJ, about 8 miles south southeast of Wilmington, Del.

The quake was centered about 3 miles deep. Here's a map. Anyone feel anything?

May, June without 90s ... Cool summer ahead? [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-07-01T08:28:04-07:00

June ended at midnight last night without having delivered a single day in the 90s. May ended the same way. Baltimore - or BWI at least, the station of record for the city - has had just three days in the 90s so far in 2009, all of them in April.

So, does that mean we're in for a "cool" summer ? "Maybe," said Steve Zubrick, the science and operations officer for the National Weather Service's Sterling forecast office. He's been crunching the numbers for the past few months, and found the following:

1. June 2009 had the fewest 90+ days (zero) since 1979. That's only happened six times since they began keeping official records for the city - in 1886, 1903, 1916, 1972, 1979 and 2009. The average number of 90+ degree days in June in Baltimore is 5.7. Last year we had nine. The record is 18, in 1943.

2. May passed without any highs in the 90s, too. The last time May and June both stayed out of the 90s was in 1979. That's only happened four times: in 1979, 1972, 1886 and 2009.

3. So how do summers with no 90-degree weather in June turn out? Zubrick said the coolest three-month (June-August) summer period on record for Baltimore was in 1903, which saw no 90-degree weather in June. The summer of 1886 was the 6th coolest, and also had no June days in the 90s. The summer of 1912 was the 12th coolest on record, and likewise had no June days in the 90s.

4. On the other hand, that latest long-term forecast for Baltimore for this summer, issued at the end of May, called for a cooler-than-normal June, but above-normal temperatures overall for the 90-day summer period. If they're right, we're in for a hot July and August.

5. As for rainfall, April, May and June together produced 19.74 inches of rain at BWI. That ranks as the second-wettest April-June period on record for the city.

For Zubrick's complete (unofficial and preliminary) report, read on.

(SUN PHOTO/John Makely 2006)

Russian eruption triggers volcanic sunsets [Maryland Weather blog]

2009-06-30T15:30:08-07:00

A tremendous eruption by Russia's Sarychev volcano, in the Kuril Islands, on June 12 is causing strange and beautiful violet and lavender sunsets around the northern hemisphere this week. The astronauits aboard the International Space Station shot some amazing video of the eruption as they flew over.

The sunset colors occur when fine particles of ash and sulphur dioxide blasted into the stratosphere by the eruption begin to scatter blue light. Mixed with the reddish colors of a normal sunset, they produce the purplish hue.

Photographers in northern countries have been taking remarkable pictures of the sunsets. I'm not sure whether the particulates have made it as far south as Maryland, but it's worth watching the sunsets this week.

In addition to the unusual colors, some photos show high clouds, bright yellow bands called a "twilight arch," and tall crepuscular rays fanning out from the western horizon. Here is a gallery showing some of these phenomena.

The eruption on the remote island in the Kuril chain northeast of Japan smothered half the island in lava. Here (below) is a photo of the island, snapped today by NASA's Terra Earth-observing satellite. The gray color on the northwestern side is lava. The red in the false-color image is actually green vegetation.

For a comparison shot, showing what the island looked like before the eruption, click here.

State school board member Blair Ewing dies [InsideEd]

2009-06-30T13:20:41-07:00

Anyone who was a frequent visitor to state school board meetings over the past year knew that when Blair Ewing raised his hand to ask a question, it was time to perk up and listen because you knew he was likely to get straight to the heart of the issue. He was always a gentleman, polite and respectful, but he could also boil down all the education jargon to ask simple questions that exposed the core of a problem. He didn't mind putting the staff of the state department on the spot and more than once asked for more information or suggested a different course of action. Lately, he had taken a great interest in finding a way for students in Maryland to take an international test that would expose how well they compared to those in other countries.

Ewing, who lived in Montgomery County and served on the school board there for many years, died today. He had been active on the state board through May. I asked the chair of the board for his thoughts. Here is what James DeGraffenreidt said: "Personally, I enjoyed the fact that he exhibited such a consistent, positive tone even when there were substantive disagreements over major policy issues. The fact that he always prepared well and listened to everyone's point of view made the state board more effective. We certainly will miss him and express our deepest sympathy to his family."

Deciding when to refinance [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-06-30T06:02:00-07:00

Let's say for argument's sake that you know you could refinance if you want to (no sure thing for a lot of homeowners today) but you're not certain if you should.

Enter "A Financial Analysis of Consumer Mortgage Decisions," a new report by the Research Institute for Housing America and the Mortgage Bankers Association. It discusses various mortgage choices and when it makes sense to get what, including a refinancing.

The authors' advice: Don't just consider interest rates. Look sharp at the closing costs.

Play around with this "Optimum Mortgage Refinancing Calculator," noted in the report, and you'll see how cosing costs can make a difference.

Say you've got a 6 percent interest rate on a mortgage with a balance of $250,000. You're contemplating a refi into a loan that has a 5.5 percent interest rate and 1 discount point.

If your closing costs add up to $2,200 and you roll that into your new mortgage along with the point, you'll save $137 a month over your old loan.

But what if you have $5,000 in closing costs, at the higher end of what LendingTree says the range can be?

Then your monthly savings are $121. That's $192 less a year than the savings with the cheaper closing costs.

Ah, you say, but a savings is a savings. Who cares about the closing costs if you can roll them into the mortgage amount and still pay $121 less a month?

Because, the authors say, you want to think about the "opportunity cost" of refinancing now only to see rates fall further. If you refinance now, it might not be in your best interest to refinance later as well.

"If closing costs are significant, say 3 percent of the remaining principal, and you refinance every time there is a 50 basis point drop in rates, you may never fully recover the cumulative closing expense incurred," they write. (And meanwhile your principal keeps growing. That's why the "serial refinancing" encouraged by some -- ah -- "helpful" folks in the mortgage industry isn't a good idea for a typical borrower.)

The mortgage calculator I linked to above attempts to take all this into account and tell you whether -- given your potential interest rate and costs -- it's a great, OK or bad idea to refinance. Its opinion on the refi opportunity with $5,000 in closing costs: Pass. It dubs the one with $2,200 in closing costs "OK, But Not Optimal." (What would be optimal in this case? Closing costs under $1,250. Or $2,200 in closing costs with a 5.4 percent interest rate rather than 5.5 percent.)

The authors dub this "refinancing efficiency."

What do you think of this way of looking at refinancing options?

And something to consider in today's environment: Does it make sense to hold off refinancing on the chance that rates could go lower when the prevailing expectation is for increases?

Home appraisal "code of conduct" under fire [The Real Estate Wonk]

2009-06-29T16:53:49-07:00

Inflated home appraisals were one ingredient in the toxic stew that overflowed onto our economic stove, if you'll permit me a Dave Barry-like analogy. Enter the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo's plan to change the process using the heft of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The code, which went into effect last month, prohibits "lenders and third parties from influencing or attempting to influence the development, result, or review of an appraisal report," at least if they want to sell to mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie. The idea is that appraisals will more likely reflect true value if lenders, brokers, agents, etc., aren't suggesting to Joe Appraiser that $504,999 is an excellent number for anyone who intends to do any business with them again.

But many industry folks -- including appraisers -- aren't happy about the rules. As The Wall Street Journal reports:

The code bars loan officers, mortgage brokers or real-estate agents from any role in selecting appraisers. This has encouraged lenders to outsource the selection to appraisal-management companies, or AMCs, which take a sizable cut of the appraisal fee. As a result, appraisers are under pressure to "do it faster, do it cheaper," said Bill Garber, a spokesman for the Appraisal Institute, a trade group.

The National Association of Realtors' Lawrence Yun says "stories of appraisal problems have been snowballing from across the country with many contracts falling through at the last moment." The National Association of Mortgage Brokers proclaims, "Tens of thousands of consumers have already been robbed of their opportunity to enjoy historically low rates by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s rule." The appraisal management companies, critics say, don't seem to care if the appraisers they pick know anything about the neighborhoods in question.

News that U.S. Reps. Travis Childers (D-Miss.) and Gary Miller (R-Calif.) are co-sponsoring a bill to put the Home Valuation Code of Conduct on an 18-month moratorium was met with some loud cheers Friday. (You can follow some of the chatter here, at Mortgage News Daily.)

But though it doesn't think the code is "ideal," the Appraisal Institute is not amused by all the talk of faulty appraisals. It issued a press release after the NAR blamed appraisers for lower-than-expected May sales numbers:

Bill Garber, Appraisal Institute Director of Government and External Relations, said: "We take offense with the notion that the appraisal is only good if it happens to come in at the sales price. That mentality helped cause the mortgage meltdown to begin with. The fact that the appraisal does not match the sales price is not the fault of the appraisal but a fault of the market today.”

Have you had personal experience with the appraisal process since May 1 as a buyer, homeowner or industry pro? Let me know what you think of it, and of the bill to put the code on ice.

End-of-year message from Dr. Alonso [InsideEd]

2009-06-26T13:00:00-07:00

Here is the text of the end-of-year-message Andres Alonso sent out today. What do you think about what he says?

June 26, 2009

Dear City Schools Colleagues, Staff, Partners and Friends,

Next week we begin the 2009-10 fiscal year, and I want to thank you again for your part
in making this past year a tremendous one for our students and schools.

This time a year ago I wrote to you about changes we were implementing throughout
Baltimore City Public Schools to allow us, together, to build a system of great schools. It
was a time marked by uncertainty, but also by hope and imagining what could be.

Then, throughout the 2008-09 year, we saw those possibilities take root and begin to
become reality. We saw record and historic student achievement gains; the first
enrollment growth in four decades; a brand-new level of family and community
engagement in our schools; and elected officials, partners and friends rallying around our
students like never before. We saw what can happen when the work of a city and its
school system is all about what is best for kids, staying true to that focus and being
accountable for our students’ success. We saw not only that great things can happen in
City Schools, but that great things are happening in City Schools.

The transformation of City Schools is under way. And I’d like to share with you a few
things about the past year that give me cause for such confidence.

The final day of Space Camp [InsideEd]

2009-06-26T11:14:19-07:00

Thursday was the final day of the Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy program, which 33 middle school math and science teachers from the Baltimore area took part in in Huntsville, Ala. Here are the final reports from some of the teachers who have been blogging about their experiences this week.

From City College math teacher Luis Lima:

Thursday was the last day of Space Camp. For Team Destiny, it was an emotional roller coaster. We started with an update on the status of NASA’s Ares program (the next manned mission to the moon). We were all very excited because after the update we were going to complete out mission on the Endeavour. Emotions were also running high because we knew we were hours away from saying goodbye to the amazing group of people who made up Team Destiny. But that is another story.

Mission Endeavour was a complete success. We had the most anomalies (things that can go wrong during any mission) thrown at us. At one point in time we were hit by a tornado and had to evacuate mission control while two of our crew members were space walking in order to repair the tiles on the orbiter. As I described in my previous blog, this is a very realistic environment and it was interesting to see how we all worked together to complete the mission and also have some fun. Today’s simulation brought home to me a statement I heard during my five days here: that NASA trains the fear out of its astronauts. Not that we were in danger at any time. But the mission simulation is pretty realistic and I had insight.

I guess we were on the right path today, since we were visited by a star trooper. After the mission, we were on the war path to complete all of our other chores: creating memorabilia to share with the team and to present to our counselors. Leigh and Lindsey, the multi-talented pair of educators who were our camp leaders, made our experience even more memorable through their competent, effective and meaningful leadership. But I digress ...

So, this is after lunch and we are all in the auditorium to attend Story Musgrave’s lecture. It was one of the most memorable presentations I have attended so far. Story’s amazing life story is an inspiration. He is brilliant and funny and, at his age, is still going strong. You may be asking, Story, who? Story Musgrave is the astronaut who has flown six shuttle missions. He was also responsible for the design of the tools and repair procedures for the maintenance of the Hubble telescope. Check him out. He was more than accommodating with our picture requirements, he signed anything you could have asked him to, and was really nice to all of us. I am in awe of the brilliant simplicity and technical excellence of his design.

Our next adventure was to explore the Lunar Stations with a set of problem-solving activities related to living and working on the moon. There were lots of great and easy-to-use activities to help students cooperate in the solution of complex problems. Very cool.

Let me give you a quick tip. If you ever come here, take the time to go on the Space Shoot. Now, you want to face the Apollo 11 rocket.

Math teacher's Space Camp report [InsideEd]

2009-06-24T16:04:41-07:00

From Hereford Middle School math teacher Rachel Murphy, one of the 33 area teachers participating in the Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy program in Huntsville, Ala., this week:

Wow, where do I start? I will try my best to fill you in on all the amazing things we have been doing while at Space Camp. First let me say that I did not realize that Honeywell employees actually pay with their own money for our scholarships, so thank you to those employees who provided me with this experience. So far, this has been the greatest professional development that I have ever participated in. Saturday when we arrived, there were no scheduled activities planned, but a bus was provided to go to a local “mall” (I would compare it to the avenues at White Marsh and Hunt Valley back home). It was very upscale, and beautiful, and included a canal with gondola rides. I ate dinner with five others from Maryland and two other teachers, one from Delaware and one from Tampa. It was fun getting to know the other teachers in a laid-back and social setting.

Sunday morning we were up and running early in the morning (7:30). I met my teammates - Team Destiny. I’m not sure what the other bloggers have been saying, but I have to say that we are the best team! There are 18 of us, six from Maryland. Other states and countries represented include England, Canada, Delaware, Texas, Utah, Pennsylvania and California. We bonded quickly through a few team-building activities. Throughout the day we took a tour of the museum, learned the ins and outs of how NASA builds and launches their shuttle missions, as well as more about the Honeywell Corp. My favorite part of the day was building a bottle rocket. I have never seen a 2-liter bottle of soda go that high before! We ended the “scheduled” activities around 8 p.m., but hung out with each other for a few more hours before we called it a night. They were not kidding when they said they send us home tired!

Monday, again we were up bright and early. We completed our first shuttle mission. I was an EVA on the International Space Station and got to build a tower “in space.” That was awesome! Once I return, you will be able to see some pics and video of my mission. In addition to our first mission, we participated in another rocket-building event (they were launched today - super cool!), and listened to a presentation from Ed Buckbee, who was selected by rocket scientist Wernher von Braun to start the U.S. Space and Rocket Center Museum and started space camps. He had many fun and inside stories to tell about the “good old days” of NASA.

Another Space Camp Dispatch [InsideEd]

2009-06-24T10:00:00-07:00

From City College math teacher Luis Lima, one of the 33 area teachers participating in the Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy program in Huntsville, Ala., this week:

I can’t tell you how much fun this has been. Just to give you a short run, I played with toys in space, landed an egg on Mars, launched an engine rocket, helped air traffic control teach math, trained for a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station, walked on the moon, and spun around out of control.

My team, Team Destiny, is awesome! There are educators from all over the U.S., and Canada, the Philippines and, yours truly, Brazil. We had a full day of activities, beginning with the Toys in Space Workshop. Not only were there lots of neat ideas on how to use regular toys to represent laws of physics and gravity, but we also got to make our own. It’s super interesting to watch Team Destiny work together to complete the assignments, document the whole experience and have fun.

After a quick break, we all went to Mars - or had a quick fly by some interesting activities and projects we can use. I learned a lot about Mars and again worked in a small group to design and build a spacecraft to safely land a chicken egg on the Red Planet. To land an egg traveling at about 250 mph whole was a lot of work. I believe all the eggs used during this project landed safely. It was not the landing of the eagle, but the next best thing.

Engine Rocket Launch followed our lunch break. Fifteen model rockets flew off into the summer skies of Alabama, where the weather is a lot like my hometown of Rio de Janeiro than I thought possible. My engine did not fly - lots of smoke but no take-off! I was told it happens. I was happy to see that the parachute assembly worked as designed, but the whole thing remained attached to the launching pad. It was a little frustrating until I remembered that at least the engine was not devoured by the rocket-eating trees around the launching field. I watched 15 successful launches. And I had a few ideas on how to use rockets in my math classes this fall.

Another workshop today was on how to use aeronautics to teach math ... airplanes and flights. It must have been my lucky day: how to use the math behind air travel and some cool Web sites to bring it all together. It was quite cool to me.

State Board of Education update [InsideEd]

2009-06-24T07:30:00-07:00

While the state Board of Education is still mulling over possible changes to the vetting process for city school board candidates, several other things came out of their meeting yesterday.

The board approved the restructuring plan for Baltimore's Moravia Park Elementary/Middle School, which will require all school employees to reapply for their jobs. All the staff positions at Moravia have been posted and interviews and selections are already taking place, city schools CEO Andres Alonso said.

Alonso told members that he was happy to be there "for only one school,” noting six schools were brought before them the previous year, and more the year before that. Alonso said he saw that as a sign of the progress that's been made.

For those who've been asking about the MSAs: State schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick said during yesterday's meeting that the results have been sent to each district, and the appeals process has begun, as adequate yearly progress is being determined. Grasmick said the results should be reported at the board's meeting in July.

And finally, the "voluntary state curriculum" may officially become "voluntary" no more: Grasmick said the board will be asked to remove the word from all references to the VSC.

Supreme Court rules on special ed [InsideEd]

2009-06-23T12:26:27-07:00

Dear Inside Ed folk,

We're working on an editorial for tomorrow's paper about recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including one dealing with special ed. The court decided 6-3 that federal law allows parents of special ed students to seek government reimbursement for tuition at a private school that can meet their children's needs, even if they've never gotten special ed services in public school. We have an entry about it over on the Second Opinion blog. Swing by and let us know what you think. We'll print some of the comments in the paper.

//AAG

Honeywell director talks about Space Academy [InsideEd]

2009-06-23T09:11:12-07:00

Dave Wickersham, Honeywell's director of environmental projects, talks about the company's sponsorship of the Educators @ Space Academy program, which 33 Baltimore-area middle school math and science teachers are attending this week at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Tackling school dropouts [InsideEd]

2009-06-23T07:45:00-07:00

In my story today, I take a look at dropouts – and, more specifically, dropout prevention and intervention – the focus of a day-long summit at Randallstown High School yesterday. Hundreds of state educators, believed to represent all 24 school systems, attended the event, said to be a first for Maryland. It was sponsored by America’s Promise Alliance, an organization tied to former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife and current chair, Alma.

One of the noteworthy moments during the summit involved a theatrical performance put on by a troupe from Garrett County, who portrayed seven characters – six students and a parent – explaining why they chose to drop out. The writer of the play, called The Goodbye Kids, explained to the audience that the concept emerged from more than 20 interviews she did with dropouts. The characters were composites of what she gleaned from those talks, she said.

The characters, all students at “Run of the Mill High School,” ranged from a boy who bellowed about how much his teachers bored him to a girl whose family never set a high priority on finishing school to a poor student who was sick of being mocked for his appearance – and stench. Other highlights included a student who’d always gotten by – until that one teacher noticed his inability to read – and the mother of another who had been regularly mocked for being gay.

Interestingly, the profiles foreshadowed a later presentation from Robert Balfanz, director of the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University.

Moving to a new blog - come on over! [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-26T08:48:35-07:00

The one constant in life is change, it seems. Here at The Sun, that means I'm moving to a new blog. Today marks the debut of "B'more Green," devoted to showcasing some of the efforts of Marylanders to live more gently on the land.

This marks farewell for Bay & Environment, a blog I shared for years with now-former colleagues Rona Kobell and Tom Pelton. For nearly a year now, I've held down the B&E fort solo, and I appreciate your patience and dedication. Now I'll be joining Meredith Cohn and Christy Zuccarini at the new blog, where we'll be highlighting green issues around Baltimore while still sharing news and views about the Chesapeake Bay and our environment. So come on over, please!

You can find it by going directly to this link: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/green/ Or go to www.baltimoresun.com and look it up in the blogs. Those of you who've been getting RSS feeds of blog posts will need to subscribe to the new blog.

From Rona: Goodbye (again) and thanks! [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-21T16:18:27-07:00

About nine months ago in this space, I said goodbye. I was embarking on a journalism fellowship at the University of Michigan, where I would spend the year studying economic approaches to environmental sustainability. I promised I would come back, though, and continue to report on the health of the Chesapeake Bay.

I'd called the movers, packed the house, talked to my new bosses about how they want me to cover my beat in the brave new world of Facebook and Twitter. I was working on story ideas, calling sources and looking forward to deadlines again.

Then last week, I heard that two colleagues - both older than I am, both with families to support - were about to get laid off. So I volunteered to be laid off instead, so one of them would be spared. The company will provide me with a severance package that gives me some breathing room to figure out what to do next. I hope the next thing includes environmental reporting, but my next gig isn't lined up yet.

It was a quick decision, and yet one that had been marinating in my mind for months. In a year when we were challenged to figure out what our heart's desires were and to follow them, I realized, for the first time in 16 years, that some of mine lay outside the newsroom walls.

This year, I wrote a screenplay. I read good books. I put more miles on my bike than I did on my car. I picked up my daughter early from school and took her out for ice cream and to the library. I went out with my husband. I cooked dinner occasionally. I traveled - to Russia and Argentina and Northern Michigan and New York. I had time - a luxury foreign to journalists and working mothers - to think about what I want. And what I want is to keep doing all of those things. The two journalists in danger of losing their jobs want to keep them; to the extent that I can make that happen, I want to do that, too.

When I got the Bay beat in 2004, I felt like the luckiest person in the newsroom. I had a job where I got to be out on boats all the time, where I interviewed fascinating people, and where I learned something new every day. To tell you the truth, I never stopped feeling that way - even when I had the worst seasickness you can imagine, it still beat a day sitting at my desk. My mother worked at the same job for two decades and was miserable nearly the whole time, so I knew how rare it was to get to do something I loved and get a bit of a suntan in the process.

My heart may not be in the newspaper anymore, but it will always be with my current and former colleagues - terrific journalists, and great people.

I'll be back in Baltimore at the end of May. Feel free to send any correspondence, love letters, hate mail, life coaching, lunch invitations, freelance work or job offers to rkobell2002@yahoo.com I'll answer. Seems I'll have some time on my hands.

Sincerely,

Rona Kobell

Chesapeake Bay reporter

The Baltimore Sun

"Ghost pots" haunt Maryland waters, too [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-15T07:50:00-07:00

There apparently is an answer - or at least an estimate - of how many derelict crab pots there are bumping around the bottom of Maryland's portion of the Chesapeake Bay.

A few days ago, I posted here about the results of an effort last winter by Virginia watermen to retrieve lost aka "ghost" pots in their waters. They pulled up more than 8,600. At the time, I wondered how many more there might be north of the Old Dominion, still catching and killing crabs and other fish and animals in Maryland waters.

Kim Couranz of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Chesapeake Bay office reports that her people have been hard at work studying the impact of ghost pots in Maryland's portion of the bay. A couple years back, in collaboration with the state Department of Natural Resources, they did a survey and determined there are about 42,000 "ghost" pots loose in Maryland waters.

Next question is, what if anything is to be done about them?

Clearing Maryland's air with cleaner diesel engines [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-15T04:29:30-07:00

You may not fix every problem by throwing money at it, but it sure can help. Maryland is getting $1.73 million in economic stimulus funds to spend on reducing harmful diesel emissions from buses, trucks, ships and construction equipment like the crane pictured above at the Port of Baltimore.

Diesel exhaust contains soot, or fine particulates, and other toxic air pollutants, which research has shown can aggravate asthma, contribute to cardiovascular disease and even cause premature death. Millions of Americans live downwind of places where lots of diesel engines are at work, such as rail yards and ports.

Here in Maryland, the state is working on reducing those unhealthy exposures, with federal help. The Department of the Environment will distribute the funds it's receiving from the Environmental Protection Agency to retrofit existing diesel engines.

The funds were authorized under the Obama administration's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide grants and loans for retrofitting diesel engines. It hasn't been decided yet precisely how the new funds will be spent, but an EPA spokeswoman said they'll generally go to reduce emissions from ships, construction equipment, school buses and trucks.

The diesel-powered dredging equipment shown above at the Port of Baltimore was retrofitted with particulate filters (seen at right) that are supposed to reduce soot emissions by more than 90 percent. The crane was among the retrofits paid for with a $295,000 "clean diesel" grant EPA awarded the state last year. The federal grant - and matching state funds - also paid to retroft buses in Rockville and in Prince George's and Washington counties.

Government funds can be spent on cleaning up government-owned diesel emissions, but the privately owned oceangoing vessels that call at ports also are a significant source of harmful air pollutants. A recent report by the EPA Inspector General's office estimated that commercial marine vessels accounted for 69 percent of the sulfur dioxide emitted at the port, and more than a quarter of the soot, or fine particulates that can get in lungs and cause health problems.

EPA announced earlier this year that it plans to reduce ship pollution within 200 miles of U.S. shores under a new international agreement. U.S. and foreign-flagged ships are to be required to use dramatically cleaner fuel and more effective pollution controls for their engines, the agency said. For more on that, go here.

(Photos supplied by Bill McAllen, Charm City Publishing)

A jaundiced view of the Bay cleanup [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-14T04:50:35-07:00

While the press coverage of the annual Chesapeake Bay summit this week focused on President Obama promising a stronger federal role in the cleanup effort, and state officials pledging to accelerate their pollution reductions, Howard Ernst isn't buying any of it.

The associate professor of political science at the Naval Academy has written one critical book on the shortcomings of the restoration effort, Chesapeake Bay Blues. He's got a new, updated account heading to the printer now.

"It certainly doesn't seem like a new direction for the bay restoration effort," Ernst said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "There's nothing new about more deadlines, more promises. What's missing .... is the funding and statutory powers that would make those deadlines accomplishable, make those goals attainable. "

Ernst was similarly dismissive of the new 2025 long-term cleanup "end date." He noted that officials were careful to say that would not be the year when the bay is actually restored but when all the policies and reductions are in place that they believe should restore it.

"It's back to business as usual," he says, "creating a deadline (when) none of these elected officials will hold their positions. So much for accountability."

As for the executive order issued by Obama, Ernst says it does nothing except delay action by another four months. It gives the Environmental Protection Agency 120 days to determine what regulatory powers it has or needs to require the bay cleanup, he contends, even though the Clean Water Act outlining those powers was enacted in 1972. The order also sets up a "federal leadership committee" to coordinate the bay cleanup efforts of the various federal agencies and departments - "another layer of bureaucracy," the critic says.

"There's never been a better opportunity for doing something tangible and big right now," Ernst concluded, "and the EPA and the bay states missed that opportunity."

Anyone share Ernst's criticism, or maybe have a different view? Is this about the best that can be done, perhaps, given our lousy economy and traditional resistance by many to being regulated or taxed to pay for cleanup? Will new deadlines every two years prod the politicians to do more now, instead of putting off the tough decisions to their successors?

Uh, about those milestones .... [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-13T12:36:14-07:00

There was a lot of talk at Mount Vernon on Tuesday about "a new day" dawning in the long struggle to restore Chesapeake Bay, with President Obama declaring the bay a national treasure and states agreeing to short-term pollution reduction plans, aka "milestones." Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, head of the bay Executive Council (pictured at right), called it a "turning point," though he acknowledged there was still a lot of work to do. The cleanup effort now is being ramped up and is going to be much more accountable, we were told.

But take a look at those milestones, at least the two-page summaries handed out to the press and now posted online. They skimp on key details, especially on what the backup plans are in case those measures fall short, and on what the consequences will be if the states blow these new milestones. We'll have to wait for those information gaps to be filled, we were told.

Next, look at the graphs showing how much nitrogen and phosphorus pollution each state promises to eliminate. The graphs start at several million or tens of millions of pounds. not at zero. Had the graphs had a scale that showed how far pollution ultimately has to be reduced by the "end date" of 2025, the divergence between past reductions and future promises would have looked a lot smaller.

Then there's the case of the mysterious missing information on a few of the states' milestone statements. The two-page outlines of cleanup efforts for the entire six-state bay region and for Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia showed graphs with two diverging lines, depicting pollution reductions already in progress and even greater efforts those states were committing to make by 2011. The graphs projected accelerations of cleanup ranging from 52 to 502 percent.

But the summaries handed out Tuesday for Delaware, the District of Columbia, New York and West Virginia showed only one line on their graphs. Each graph depicted the pollution reductions that were being pledged through 2011. Missing was any line projecting the rate at which pollution would go down based on efforts already under way.

Drafts of the milestone documents circulated only a few days before Tuesday's summit did show current and future rates of cleanup. The District, New York and West Virginia all were shown making less progress in the next few years than they had been making up to now. That's right - negative progress. For New York, the drafts showed a 15 percent backslide on the rate of nitrogen reductions, and for West Virginia a 61 percent slippage in nitrogen and a 45 percent decline in phosphorus removal rates.

The graph lines and calculations showing negative progress were missing from the final milestone documents handed out Tuesday at Mount Vernon. What would George Washington think?

"Ghost pots" kill crabs - and more [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-12T06:57:42-07:00

The roundup last winter by Virginia watermen of derelict crab pots found there are plenty of them lurking in the Chesapeake Bay - and they keep catching and killing crabs, and other aquatic life.

Virginia paid out-of-work crabbers $300 a day plus fuel to scour the bay bottom for the "ghost pots,"as they're known - wire-mesh crab traps that get lost when cut loose from their markers by storms or passing boats. Using side-imaging sonar, they found and retrieved more than 8,600, according to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which set up and supervised the effort. They also collected 61 abandoned fishing nets, plus assorted other debris, including a baby stroller.

The pots evidently keep catching years after they've been lost. As seen in this photo from VIMS, the recovered pots held almost 5,000 crabs and other animals, including fish, eels, turtles, a duck and a muskrat. Scientists figure each derelict pot, if still functional, can catch and kill up to 50 crabs a year.

If that many abandoned pots were found in Virginia waters of the bay, how many might there be in Maryland?

A plugged-in bay cleanup summit - sort of [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-12T05:28:57-07:00

State, federal and local officials gather at Mount Vernon in Virginia today to chart a new, reputedly more accountable course for jump-starting the long-running effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay. Gov. Martin O'Malley says he'll lay out a plan for accelerating pollution reductions by 2.5 times the current pace. He joined scientists Monday for a look at the Bush River near Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County, one of a handful of places in the bay where noticeable progress has been made in recent years. You can read more about it in The Baltimore Sun.

For those who can't make it to George Washington's Potomac River home, much of it will be Webcast live. Go here, starting around 11 a.m. You should also be able to get live updates via Twitter @chesbayprogram Starting around 12:30 p.m., there'll also be a panel discussion with scientists, an ex-politician (former Maryland Rep. Wayne Gilchrest), activists and a waterman about the economic, cultural and ecological importance of restoring the bay. Billed as a first, this "Chesapeake Chat" will be moderated by Sheilah Kast, host of public-radio WYPR's "Maryland Morning" show.

Of course, you'll only be able to follow the public proceedings - not the lengthy closed-door huddle of the governors, EPA administrator and others as they chew over what they're going to publicly announce at the end of the shindig, around 2 p.m. How accountable is that?

Shore rural land preservation bid fails [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-06T05:14:02-07:00

An effort to slow the loss of forest and farmland in Wicomico County fell short yesterday as the Eastern Shore county's council narrowly defeated a measure that would have tightened rural development rules.

By a 4-3 vote, the council rejected a hotly debated proposal to delete the county's so-called "clustering" rule, which allowed builders to put homes on three-acre lots as long as half the farm is spared from development. If approved, the measure would have scaled back the number of homes that could be built in rural areas.

The move, which was unanimously recommended by the county's planning commission, was supported by environmental and conservation groups, by residents upset with sprawl and even by some farmers. But other farmers and real estate interests vehemently opposed the change, saying it would deprive rural landowners of income they could make by selling to developers.

Development of rural land fragments wildlife habitat and increases pollution of streams and the bay. Wicomico, in the heart of the Shore, has been losing farmland at a rapid clip. According to an analysis by environmental groups, more home lots were approved outside of the county's designated growth area in 2007 than at any time since the mid-1990s. USA Today reported that six out of 10 homes in the county are beyond the reach of fire hydrants.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which had backed the downzoning, issued a statement calling the vote disappointing. The environmental group noted that the downzoning had been proposed by a group the county council had appointed to study how to preserve more rural land.

"Our current policies put the future of the county's rural lands at risk," said Alan Girard, head of CBF's "Heart of the Chesapeake" office in Salisbury.

The Salisbury Daily Times reported that after the vote, Wicomico County Executive Richard M. Pollitt Jr. said he would form a commission to try again at drafting the "nuts and bolts" of a land preservation scheme.

New downtown local farmers' market [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-05T16:35:45-07:00

For all the locavores out there, there's a new farmers' market in town. Every Tuesday from now until October, local farmers will be selling fresh fruits, vegetables, artisan cheese, eggs and more in the park in front of the University of Maryland Medical Center, along the Paca Street sidewalk.

The medical center, University of Maryland Baltimore and the local community have teamed up to bring fresh, locally grown food to the workers, patients, visitors and residents of that busy corner of downtown. Local food reduces the energy and air pollution caused by long-distance transportation, according to advocates, and the types of food offered are generally pretty healthy.

Ed Fishel, the university spokesman who took the accompanying photo of the market's opening day today, reports that vendors were selling French bread, range-grown chickens, cheese from western Maryland goats' milk, apples and flowers. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

A contest to cheer: Local students team up to save streams [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-05T09:23:45-07:00

If you're a little tired of overhyped TV game and talent shows, here's a contest with some real green behind it. A pair of Hanover middle school students has made it to the finals of a national contest aimed at encouraging American youth to make environmental change in their communities.

Luke and Jack Andraka, students at Chesapeake Science Point public charter school in Anne Arundel County, are representing Maryland in the "Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge." Team AMD, as they are known, are vying with 21 other states' teams for either the grand prize or one of two national prizes. Besides bragging rights, they stand to win an appearance on the "Planet Green" TV network or even an "adventure trip."

The Andraka team is trying to develop a grassroots campaign to clean up the acid mine drainage that plagues many streams and rivers in the coalfields of western Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The boys' dad and team mentor, Steven Andraka, explained that his family spends its summers and many weekends at a place near Morgantown, W.Va. and they noticed that the local stream there, a tributary of the Cheat River, was impaired by acidic seepage from mining activity.

Various state and federal government agencies are working to curtail acid mine drainage, which can impair and even kill off fish and other aquatic life in streams contaminated with metals and acid from old coal mines. But with the encouragement and guidance of their dad, the boys - Luke, 14, and Jack, 12 - set out to devise a way for school or community groups to do something about the problem on their own.

Scientists urge cutback in DDT use in Africa, Asia [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-04T10:49:12-07:00

An international group of environmentalth health experts is warning against the growing practice of spraying the pesticide DDT in homes in malaria-plagued African and Asian countries.

Marla Cone, writing for Environmental Health News, reports that the group of 15 scientists, led by a University of California epidemiologist, urges that DDT be used only as a last resort, even to fight a deadly disease like malaria. People are at risk of serious health effects from the pesticide when it is sprayed in their homes to kill malaria-bearing mosquitoes, the group said.

The scientists' stance is likely to reignite a debate about the safety of DDT, which has been banned for decades in the United States and much of the rest of the world. The US banned it in 1972 after scientists found it building up in the food chain and that it was behind steep declines in populations of bald eagles, pelicans and other wildlife.

Public health experts, however, have argued that the pesticide is the only one effective at fighting malaria in Africa and Asia. Spraying it in homes was officially endorsed by the World Health Organization and by a U.S. aid program to fight world malaria that was launched by former President George W. Bush. Here's a link to WHO's guidelines for indoor residential spraying.

Malaria remains one of the world's deadliest diseases, claiming about 880,000 lives a year. But Cone reports that the scientists, who reviewed some 500 studies, concluded that because of the health problems that could be caused by DDT, it “should be used with caution, only when needed, and when no other effective, safe and affordable alternatives are locally available.”

Among the health risks the scientists cited: reduced fertility, genital birth defects, breast cancer, diabetes and damage to developing brains.

Are Marylanders actually paying too little for electricity? [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-04T08:11:21-07:00

Are electricity rates in Maryland too low to promote conservation among consumers? That's what a local economist suggests. In an interview published in Maryland Commons, an online journal of news and commentary, Professor Tim Brennan at University of Maryland, Baltimore County argues that letting electricity rates rise is the best way to get consumers to conserve.

Brennan also says he favors putting a price on climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, either through some kind of tax or cap-and-trade scheme.

"One of those may be better than the other for environmental or political reasons, but either goes a long way toward preventing all of us from regarding the atmosphere as a free dump for the exhaust from our burning," he said.

Brennan also questions the recent efforts by legislators and Gov. Martin O'Malley to re-regulate power generation, suggesting that the current political pressures to hold down prices while also trying to reduce consumption may be discouraging power plant construction.

What do you think? How many are cutting back because it's the right thing to do, and how many to save money? Have you done anything to conserve energy in your life? Increase insulation in your home, turn down the thermostat or drive less? Were you conserving more when prices were higher recently?

To read more of Carrie Madren's Q&A with Brennan, go here.

See where Baltimore's water comes from [Bay & Environment]

2009-05-02T17:14:40-07:00

Ever wonder where your tapwater comes from On Sunday, you can see it, up close and raw. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., people can visit the three drinking-water reservoirs Baltimore city maintains to supply the region and learn how its safety is maintained.

Walk out on Loch Raven Dam, like you used to be able to do, and get a presentation from the engineers who oversaw reconstruction of the impoundment. You can hear, too, about the Gunpowder Valley and its role in the region's water supply. Up in the Pines area, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., check out a presentation by "Scales and Tales" of what animals occupy the reservoir watersheds.

Guided hikes, fly fishing lessons and more, including live music. All part of the kickoff of National Water Week. Call 396-3500 for more information. (Warning: Event may be canceled if it's raining cats and dogs.)

New blog [You Don't Say]

2009-05-01T09:19:21-07:00

Find John and "observations on language and the craft of editing, with additional reflections on subjects of no necessary connection with the former topics," at his new blog, johnemcintyre.blogspot.com.

A good run [You Don't Say]

2009-04-29T03:38:46-07:00

When in 2006 I celebrated my 20th anniversary at The Baltimore Sun, my wife, Kathleen Capcara, made a magnificent cake for the copy desk and wrote on it, "20 to life."

I did not anticipate then an early parole.

Yesterday, the grim economics of the newspaper business made April 28 my last day at the paper. It was, as they say in theatrical circles, a good run. I had more than two decades of the company of some of the smartest and funniest people I have ever known, working for supportive editors of the paper, and in all that time we struggled day after day to make The Sun a formidable newspaper. We succeeded more often than we failed, and no man has been more fortunate in his colleagues than I have.

But when the curtain falls, you are supposed to get off the stage, and this is my final post at baltimoresun.com. I expect to continue blogging elsewhere, but you will no longer find me at my post here. In addition to colleagues who have been great fun, I have had the good fortune to collect a remarkable corps of loyal readers, and I salute you all with gratitude and affection. You have enriched my life.

Maryland's air still a health threat, despite some gains [Bay & Environment]

2009-04-29T03:25:03-07:00

Despites some improvements over the past decade, the air most Marylanders breathe still can make them sick and even cause premature death.

That's the upshot of a new report by the American Lung Association, which after analyzing air quality readings from 2005 through 2007 finds that Baltimore city ranks 15th among U.S. counties with the worst short-term particle pollution.

The greater Washington-Baltimore region was judged to have the 14th worst ozone pollution, with 28.8 days a year, on average, when smog reached unhealthful levels. That's better than it used to be. A decade ago, the region averaged 42 days a year of bad ozone. But the short-term trend is headed in the wrong direction - the region only had 26.3 days of unhealthful ozone levels from 2004 through 2006, according to the group.

Though fine-particle pollution is worse in the city, it's a problem elsewhere in the state as well. Baltimore County joined the city in earning a "failing" grade from the lung association for short-term particle levels, while Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties got "D"s for having at least a handfull of days with harmful particle pollution every year.

Baltimore once ranked second only to Los Angeles for having the worst summertime ozone, or smog. Ozone levels have improved, with fewer days of really high readings. But that good news has been offset by research finding that air pollution is still harmful at lower levels. In response, the Environmental Protection Agency last year tightened its standards on ozone pollution.

Of 15 counties in Maryland where air quality is monitored, all but two scored failing grades for ozone pollution from the lung association. The only two that didn't flunk - Baltimore city and Worcester County - didn't have enough air data to analyze, the group said.

Ozone is produced when chemicals from vehicle exhaust and power plants mix in hot sunlight. It can cause a sunburn-like inflammation of lungs and bronchial passages, leading to shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing and coughing. It can worsen asthma and even cause premature death.

Particle pollution is also a silent killer. It's a toxic mix of microscopic soot containing chemicals and metals from diesel exhaust and other forms of combustion. Even short-term exposure to elevated levels can cause health problems, including heart attacks, strokes, asthma attacks and premature death.

Maryland's air picture is mirrored nationally. Despite progress in many cities over the past decade in curbing ozone pollution, the lung association found that 60 percent of Americans still breathe harmful levels of either ozone or particle pollution. The group wants EPA to tighten air pollution cleanup requirements even more - meanwhile, it urges people to drive less and use less electricity, avoid burning wood or trash and urge local school systems to replace old diesel buses with cleaner vehicles.

To read the ALA's latest "State of the Air" report, go here. You can also find out how the air is in your area by typing in your Zip code.

Regrettable errors [You Don't Say]

2009-04-28T05:39:00-07:00

I’ve always thought that one of the charming things about newspapers is the way they fess up to errors. The practice probably has its roots in law — making that correction to avoid getting sued — but it is consonant with publications’ efforts to maintain credibility with accurate reporting.

If you enjoy that sort of thing, at the Web site Regret the Error, Craig Silverman republishes the daily corrections of the news media, along with an annual summary of plagiarisms and other misdeeds.

We don’t typically run corrections of typographical errors or slips in grammar and usage (Complaints about the latter categories tend to be funneled to me); instead we correct errors of fact or omissions. I recall a correction from many years ago about a recipe for hearty cheese soup that had omitted the instruction to add half a gallon of warm water. Anyone who attempted the recipe as originally published is probably receiving high colonics to this day.

Superstitions accrue to newspapers like barnacles to the hull of a ship.* The superstition about corrections is that one must not repeat the original error. This, too, probably has a legal root, out of apprehension that republishing the error could widen exposure to a lawsuit. But observing this superstition leads to opaque corrections like this one from The Sun, one of my favorites:

In early editions of The Sun yesterday, the wrong sea turtle was pictured being released in Virginia.

It was corrections like this that led a former editor to issue a firm instruction that the error may be repeated in a correction whenever it is necessary for clarity.

I wish newspapers had more editors firmly insisting on clarity.

*Probably the most widespread superstition is the prohibition on whistling in the newsroom. I was told when just a tyro that it originated because someone was whistling in the newsroom of a San Francisco newspaper at the moment of the great earthquake of 1906.

So it has come to this [You Don't Say]

2009-04-27T13:06:56-07:00

A colleague who is taking a graduate-level course has asked a number of us to respond to questions about the nature and future — if any — of copy editing.

The means of production

Copy editors have always been the hinge between writing/editing and the physical production of newspapers and books. The great change that occurred on copy desks during the last quarter of the 20th century was the elimination of printers in composing rooms and the transfer of formatting and typesetting production to copy desks. Mention CCI., SSI,. DTI, Harris or Unisys to a group of copy editors, and you can watch the blood drain from their faces.

The process has accelerated in this century, with production of electronic copy added to the production of print copy. The new inspiration is the editing of "platform-neutral" copy: text that can then be manipulated for print and electronic publication.

The effect has been that as staffing on copy desks has declined, more and more time has been taken up by formatting and coding for production purposes, with less and less time allowed for the editing. The struggle to maintain the standards of factual accuracy, grammatical precision, and clarity remains.

One side effect: Because writers, most editors and many managers remain determinedly ignorant of the details of production, lest they lose caste, the copy desk’s immersion in these details has not generated an improved reputation for copy editors.

The schooling of editors

It’s impressive that some journalism programs are investing in state-of-the-art equipment for the training of their majors, but they will probably find that keeping the equipment state-of-the-art is an expensive and losing battle. But it’s likely that the young will embrace new technology — Facebook, Twitter and whatever will succeed them — faster than their elders.

What continues to be lacking in journalism education is a thorough grounding in the use of the language. Many Journalism majors have the sketchiest grasp of English grammar and usage, and much of what they do think they know consists of superstitions and bad advice. (Imagine a medical student who had either no training in anatomy or, worse, Galen’s.)

They have also had very little training in the structural analysis of texts. I don’t mean what used to be called structuralism, but the ability to identify the focus in a text, to anatomize its structure, to examine how effectively the elements are organized in that structure, to comment with authority on metaphor and the use of other rhetorical devices.

The future of editing

So long as people have difficulty writing with precision and clarity, copy editing will be useful. Whether that usefulness will be recognized, however, is questionable. The “dead-tree media” — newspapers, magazines, books — are dismissing their copy editors at an alarming rate to cut costs. Electronic media have never invested all that heavily in editors to begin with. These developments have been accompanied by a great deal of asinine rationalization to the effect that writers don’t really require all that much editing.

So, you smart young people who want to get into the paragraph game, who show some ability and enthusiasm for the act of editing, there is an enormous need for your services. The potential inner satisfactions of taking low-grade prose and turning it into something clearer, more forceful, and more precise have never been greater. Unfortunately, you may not be able to land a job, and any job you land is unlikely to lead to prosperity. For you, going into editing will be like following a monastic vocation. God bless you, and don’t forget to write.

Strict, stricken, Strunk [You Don't Say]

2009-04-25T12:24:48-07:00

In this, the last post I intend to write about The Elements of Style, I draw your attention to Geoffrey Pullum’s Language Log post with links to New York Times commentary on “the little book” by Language Hat, Grammar Girl and other eminences. Particularly telling is Language Hat’s evaluation of the beloved book as “the mangiest of stuffed owls.”

Of my own comments on the matter, I have only this to add. I have a sentimental recollection of encountering The Elements of Style at 18. But like many of the other delights one may recollect from youth — first loves, kir royales, amateur guitar playing — it does not hold up well on repeated encounter.

Second-best is good enough [You Don't Say]

2009-04-25T09:11:34-07:00

A little digression into presidential politics.

Robert V. Remini’s biography of Henry Clay includes this little nugget from the presidential election of 1844:

[W]hat many of Clay’s critics held against him, it seemed, was his outstanding ability. They did not want a statesman in the White House. They preferred men of lesser talents. Clay “may be a more brilliant orator” than Polk, conceded the Richmond Enquirer on October 28, “but we do not want splendid eloquence to conduct the executive department." He may be a “more dashing politician” than his opponent, “but we do not want any high flying and daring politician, who soars beyond the constitution” in pursuit of some “extravagant object. ... We want no aspiring ‘moon-reaching’ president.

The Republic will sometimes, luckily, place a Lincoln or a Franklin Roosevelt or some other exceptional person in the White House, but a look at that dim group between Jackson and Lincoln, or most of the chief magistrates between Lincoln and the first Roosevelt, among others, points to a strong recurring preference for unthreatening, genial mediocrity.

Evil surrounds us [You Don't Say]

2009-04-24T12:33:06-07:00

The latest threat to the English language, public discourse and the intellectual development of children is — wait for it — Twitter. Language Log rounds up some of the most egregious examples of threat-or-menace writing, but that post is two days old and almost certainly out of date.

Nancy Friedman has gotten some attention with a delightful send-up of Maureen Dowd on Twitter, “Ms. Dowd Interviews the Inventor of the Telephone.” In doing so, she reminds us of the multiplicity of these threats to Civilization as We Know It.

There was also radio (“Red Rubber Ball” as a specimen of the richness of metaphor in pop music). There was broadcast television insidiously weakening the minds of the American public (Gilligan’s Island). Now we have cable television accelerating the rot (reality shows, Donald Trump). And Facebook. (Of the “five most” quiz selections, the one that appeals the most is the Five People I Want to Punch in the Face, but, unfortunately, I do not know the identity of the inventor of Facebook’s “five most” quizzes.)

Twitter, like the telephone, radio, television and Internet, affords multiple opportunities for wasting valuable time with inane stuff, and, like the telephone, radio, television and the Internet, it is useful within limits. It’s up to people to arrive at sensible limits. People who waste their time and yours on Twitter would, lacking Twitter, waste their time and yours in some other manner.

I thought that the silly season fell in the summer, but perhaps global climate change has sent it out of whack. In addition to the nonsense about Twitter, we have the governor of Texas apparently advocating secession — an issue we thought was settled one April morning 144 years ago at a little town in Virginia. We have Rod Blagojevich talking about starring in a reality TV show, which would out-Trump Trump. We have George Will carrying on about the evil cultural influence of denim — and providing fodder for Stephen Colbert and half the bloggers in the known world.

Take a break, people. Close this page. Get out of the basement. Turn off the TV. Make yourself a cup of tea. Pick up a book. The Wordy Shipmates, Sarah Vowell’s breezy account of our half-loony Puritan forebears, can give you a little perspective. You need it.

Watch out [You Don't Say]

2009-04-24T07:49:51-07:00

A point that I was laboring to make in the post “Crisis of authority” is expressed more compactly in Sarah Vowell’s latest book, The Wordy Shipmates:

... Protestantism’s shedding away of authority ... inspires self-reliance—along with a dangerous disregard for expertise. So the impulse that leads to democracy can also be the downside of democracy—namely, a suspicion of people who know what they are talking about.

Not that I am saying that Protestantism, self-reliance and democracy are Bad Things — I endorse all of them, and the Internet too. But we should keep our wits about us and be conscious of the limitations and dangers inherent in them.

Surely you jest: The parks department [You Don't Say]

2009-04-24T05:21:33-07:00

Stirring up the animals [You Don't Say]

2009-04-23T16:13:27-07:00

The title of this post is H.L. Mencken’s description of his favorite occupation, provoking the dim and bigoted of his day. I will confess to a taste for it myself — and how could I deny it after tweaking those earnest Wikipediasts and the horde at The Web Site That Must Not Be Named? — which leads me today to direct your attention to a venerable group of cranks.

The Abbeville Manual of Style blog reports in "Supreme Court Shakespeare Screw-Up!" on the decision by a group of venerable jurists, inveigled into one of those inane mock trials of historical issues, that William Shakespeare was not the author of the plays of William Shakespeare.

Anti-Stratfordism has been a magnet for cranks since the 19th century, and their numbers appear to be annually replenished. It appears to draw people who are screwy about credentials, since Shakespeare lacked the two, noble blood and university education, that appear to matter to them.

That Shakespeare was widely acknowledged as the author in his own time, that the cranks have to resort to ingenious manipulations of known chronology (Christopher Marlowe and the Earl of Oxford having inconveniently died before all the Shakespeare plays were produced), or that they can only establish alternative authorship through bizarre and unproved (and unprovable) conspiracy theories does not give them pause.

And why should it? The Internet is a real big tent, and it can accommodate many freak shows. And that publishers continue to bring out the occasional anti-Stratfordian book indicates that the easily gulled remain, as ever, a lucrative market.

This way to the egress.

A burr under the saddle [You Don't Say]

2009-04-23T15:25:01-07:00

This comment by Mr. Ross at the “All the noise” post has been a source of minor agitation for the past two days:

...a refusal to arrive at agreed-upon facts. Like the existence of weapons of mass destruction? A refusal to agree on that kind of fiction would certainly seem to be something to be thankful for. In any case, I am less than convinced about the "discourse" you say people used to seek in newspapers, as almost all news consumers seem to select the sources which most closely reflect their prejudices. Internet is not really different in that way, but it is at least less susceptible to the kind of deliberate distorsion we have come to expect from the Murdochs, Berlusconis and Hearsts of this world. A little grafitti-level discourse is a small price to pay, at worst a nuisance, like spam in your email (and sometimes even spam can be entertaining).

The initial rhetorical question is an allusion to The New York Times, which the comment subsequently equates with the Murdoch and Berlusconi publications. The first thing that irritates me is this leveling, this shrugging that all newspapers are equally biased and unreliable as well as obsolete.

Surely there are distinctions. When the Jayson Blair scandal blew up, the editor of The Times lost his job. The newspaper published its findings in an investigation that I cite each semester in my copy-editing class; the printout runs to 17 pages. When the Jack Kelley scandal hit USA Today, the paper published a front-page account that ran to two full pages inside the section. It would have been a good thing had editors raised more questions about those gentlemen, and if the questions that were raised had been heeded, but it was responsible for the two papers to confront the lapses squarely.

And there are distinctions to be made. There are good reasons that so many people read The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, even if they happen to disagree with the editorial positions of the papers. One of those reasons is that the two papers are rigorous in their editing, in their determination to verify the information they publish and to present it in clear and comprehensible English. That the results can fall short of the goal is a given in human experience, but it does not mean that the effort is pointless.

That effort, the struggle by editors, including copy editors, to make it right and make it clear is the second ground of my irritation. There are hundreds and thousands of copy editors still at newspapers and magazines and even some Web sites who are struggling every day to accomplish that feat of making the publication right and making it clear. I have worked alongside such people for nearly 30 years; I know how hard they work, and I know how much they accomplish. That our masters in these three decades have made boneheaded business decisions — for which we have had front-row seats — and that a changing business climate is decimating our ranks does not in any way detract from the effort and the accomplishment.

If you think otherwise, have a look at what you get without editors. I look at some of the offal available on the Web and marvel at the suggestion that the Internet is less given to distortion than the daily press. The writing is not necessarily any better, either.

Against the grain [You Don't Say]

2009-04-22T13:39:39-07:00

I wouldn’t call it a challenge, precisely, but Kevin Cross has filed a thoughtful suggestion: “Much of your blog is about writing gone wrong. I thought it might be interesting to highlight those occasions when writers get it right.”

Those of us in the dwindling ranks of copy editors are not engaged to sit at the desk for eight hours admiring the work. Our specialty is pathology; we are looking for things that have gone wrong. So the suggestion that this blog should feature writing worth praise and admiration poses a difficulty. Panegyric doesn’t come easily to us.

Oh, there have been some occasional mentions, such as Robertson Davies on language in The Rebel Angels: “Funny how languages break down and turn into something else. Latin was rubbed away until it degenerated into dreadful lingos like French and Italian and Spanish, and lo! people found out that quite new things could be said in those degenerate languages — things nobody had ever thought of in Latin. English is breaking down now in the same way — becoming a world language that every Tom Dick and Harry must learn, and speak in a way that would give Doctor Johnson the jim-jams.”

I once cited my favorite passage from Nabokov’s Pnin and on another occasion admired Bill Glauber’s elegant opening to an article on the funeral of one of the Kray brothers.

I’ve been quoting Mencken since high school, and in light of the past week’s brouhaha over The Web Site That shall Not Be Named, this seemed apposite: “Here [in the United States] the general average of intelligence, of knowledge, of competence, of integrity, of self-respect, of honor is so low that any man who knows his trade, does not fear ghosts, has read fifty good books, and practices the common decencies stands out as brilliantly as a wart on a bald head, and is thrown willy-nilly into a meager and exclusive aristocracy.”

When I was in graduate school, Lytton Strachey on the scholar’s lot struck a chord: “In the early years of the eighteenth century the life of learning was agitated, violent, and full of extremes. ... One sat, bent nearly double, surrounded by four circles of folios, living to edit Hesychius and confound Dr. Hody, and dying at the last with a stomach half full of sand.”

Mr. Cross was kind enough to suggest a couple of examples by Louis Menand from The New Yorker:

An example from one of my favorites, Louis Menand:

"Jean-Paul Sartre preferred the company of women."

This guy knows how to write an intro.

Another Menand favorite, albeit a mite clunky:

"The first punctuation mistake in "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" (Gotham; $17.50), by Lynne Truss, a British writer, appears in the dedication, where a nonrestrictive clause is not preceded by a comma. It is a wild ride downhill from there."

Perhaps you would like to suggest some favorite passages.

Sometimes people are just wrong [You Don't Say]

2009-04-21T14:04:54-07:00

I commend to your attention Arnold Zwicky’s post on Language Log, “Prejudices, egocentrism, impositions and intransigence.” It is as neat and compact a summary of the different categories of peevishness and misguided certainty about language as I have seen.

Many of the complaints that come in from readers of The Sun point out embarrassing lapses in our print and electronic editions, but many also fall into the categories that Professor Zwicky describes. And it is typically the people who are wrong who are most stubborn and intemperate, most resistant to explanation.

Particularly tedious are the people who imagine that English is in decline and that “correct” English needs some kind of official “protection” from the barbarians who are destroying it. This belief, which has cropped up regularly for at least the past five centuries, displays a profound misunderstanding of the nature of the language and its operation.

The only way we are going to get to an intelligent discussion of grammar and usage — particularly in the area of concern for this blog, the ways that standard American English can be written most effectively — is to become willing to examine our own preconceptions and prejudices, with an eye to adjusting them to the realities of the language.

If, in the process, we could avoid tirades and denunciations, that, too, would be progress.

Professor Zwicky has closed the comments on his post, but you can feel free to respond here.

All the noise [You Don't Say]

2009-04-21T06:54:38-07:00

One of the many things the Internet has accomplished is to make generally available the kind of commentary previously restricted to the walls of men’s rooms.

It’s all there: the relaxation of inhibitions afforded by anonymity; the indulgence in prejudice, hostility, anger and contempt; the hyper-masculinity*; and even an occasional lone flash of imagination and wit.

My estimable colleague, David Sullivan of The Philadelphia Inquirer, recently contrasted that kind of discourse with the kind people used to seek in newspapers: “Newspapers — which exist in a world of ‘Let us tell you something we have determined to be right and you do not know and realistically you could never find out on your own’ — simply can't compete with ‘Let me show you what a dude I am.’ "**

This coarsening of public discussion appears to go hand in hand with a refusal to arrive at agreed-upon facts. It is not just that there are differences of opinion being aired; one expects vigorous disagreement over aesthetic judgments and political views. What is disturbing is that if you differ from my perception of reality, I will simply heap personal abuse on you.

The phenomenon itself is not novel — one recalls the vicious pamphleteering between Protestants and Roman Catholics during the 16th and 17th centuries or the scurrilous accusations that have marked American politics from the earliest days of the Republic.

But the sheer volume of it — volume in both senses, quantity and decibel level — is disturbing. It crowds out much of what attempts to be reasonable.

*Observation suggests that men who are assured in their masculinity see no particular need to comment on the masculinity of others.

**These comments should in no way be construed as a reflection on a certain popular Web site whose members — many of whom, I am assured, hold the Ph.D. — engage in freewheeling discussion, genial banter and amusing personal remarks.

Avast, Matey, heave to [You Don't Say]

2009-04-18T17:57:27-07:00

Given the rate at which print and electronic publications and publishing houses have been discarding their copy editors, it seemed only a matter of time until the last of us, stuffed and mounted, or perhaps mummified, would be put on display at the Smithsonian, along with Martha, the last passenger pigeon.

But walking around Fells Point’s Privateer Day with my daughter this afternoon, I caught a glimpse of a possible future for us.

In the 18th century (good times), nations that came up short on naval resources resorted to privateers, essentially pirates who were licensed to plunder and, at least officially, limited in their targets. For our beached copy editors, the role of privateer could open up fresh possibilities for employment.

Some official organization — a logical one being the American Copy Editors Society, perhaps at its forthcoming national conference in Minneapolis — would issue letters of marque authorizing copy-editing privateers to board offending publications, seize texts and deal with them appropriately.

Some technical details — the precise wording of the letter of marque, the design of the flag under which copy-editing privateers would operate — remain to be worked out. But a fleet could be operational in comparatively short order.

For those of you who imagine that your writing is pristine and that readers will long for unmediated contact with you: Heave to and prepare to be boarded.