Administration plans new efforts on foreclosures

BY: Associated Press
POSTED: November 28, 2009

The Obama administration, battling a foreclosure crisis that shows no signs of relenting, will step up pressure on mortgage companies to do more to help people remain in their homes, officials said Saturday.

The administration will announce its expanded program on Monday, Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said.
“We are taking additional steps to enhance servicer transparency and [...]

Md. shoppers line up for Black Friday deals

BY: Associated Press
POSTED: November 27, 2009

Shoppers around Maryland looking for deals flocked to stores that opened early to kick off the Christmas shopping season.
In Salisbury, the Toys ‘R Us had one of the the earliest openings and its midnight hours attracted a line of shoppers that wrapped around the building.
Nearly 100 shoppers lined up outside Naylor’s ACE Hardware store in [...]

Cumberland contracts for reuse of old hospital

BY: Associated Press
POSTED: November 27, 2009

The city of Cumberland has contracted with a Frederick-based developer to find tenants for the vacant Memorial Hospital building.
The mayor and City Council on Tuesday authorized Ridgecrest Investments Inc. to manage the property for 10 years.
Ridgecrest official John Laughlin says he anticipates filling the building with a variety of medical and non-medical tenants.
The deal came [...]

On the Move - Business edition 

BY: Daily Record Staff
POSTED: November 26, 2009

Architecture
Kann Partners, formerly known as Kann & Associates, of Baltimore, has made its chief operating officer, Chris Lesjak, an associate principal, and hired Katelin Crook as marketing director.
Awards
Five Maryland hospitals recently received the Medal of Honor for Organ Donation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Peninsula Regional Medical Center, in Salisbury; Anne [...]

New Best Buy to open in Glen Burnie 

BY: Daily Record Staff
POSTED: November 26, 2009

Best Buy Co., the Minnesota-based consumer electronics chain, has signed a lease for a 40,000-square-foot store formerly occupied by a Mars supermarket at the Chesapeake Square shopping center on Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie.
Renovations have begun, and the store is expected to open in January, according to Robert G. Pollokoff, president of The Fedder Co., [...]

St. Joseph Medical Center earns high marks 

BY: Daily Record Staff
POSTED: November 26, 2009

St. Joseph Medical Center, of Towson, announced that it has been named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals for Cardiovascular Care for 2009 by Thomson Reuters, in the category of community hospital.
St. Joseph said it is the only hospital in Maryland that received a place on the Top Cardiovascular Hospital list this year, and [...]

Editorial: UMMS at 25 

BY: Daily Record Staff
POSTED: November 26, 2009

A quarter-century ago, the University of Maryland Medical System set out on a new path —privatization. There was little in the way of a road map to show the way other than the University of Florida’s hospital, which had gone private in the 1970s.
 
The path wasn’t always easy. Facilities were outmoded and needed expensive and [...]

Gay-marriage friends, foes need each other 

BY: Charles C. Haynes
POSTED: November 26, 2009

Same-sex marriage advances in one region, then retreats in another, making the United States a two-nation nation on this issue — now and for years to come. Advocates on both sides are in the majority somewhere, but in the minority somewhere else.
 
That’s why two church-state encounters this month, in two very different parts of the [...]

Sonesta to operate N. Charles Street hotel 

BY: Robbie Whelan
POSTED: November 26, 2009

A Richmond-based developer has landed Sonesta Hotels as the brand-name operator for 301 N. Charles St., a hotel conversion project that has been stalled for more than a year while seeking financing.
 
Lifestyle Hospitality Group has been shopping for a hotel operator for the project since at least this summer, when it announced it put off [...]

Regional Perspectives: Planning for Maryland in the 22nd century 

BY: Joe Nathanson
POSTED: November 26, 2009

Local government land-use plans rarely have more than a 20-year planning horizon, which means they are essentially planning for the current generation and the next. Some development visionaries are now promoting the idea that we should really be planning for the next hundred years. Taking on a 100-year planning horizon brings to mind the Native [...]