O’s to hit 50 million mark
June 30, 2008
The Orioles are 523,645 people away from the 50 millionth fan to pass through Camden Yards’ gates since its opening in 1992. If the team’s attendance continues to hover around 27,000 per game, they should hit that mark during or before the Aug. 9 game against the Texas Rangers. (Anyone placing bets?)
O’s spokesman Greg Bader said last week that Camden Yards was the fastest ballpark to reach the 50 million landmark “and probably will be so for quite some time.” Bader added he thought the New York Yankees’ new stadium, scheduled to open next year, stood the best chance to beat the Orioles.
What’s interesting is the logistics of nailing down who exactly will be the 50 millionth fan later this summer. (The O’s are also on pace to host the 100 millionth fan in franchise history this year, which will potentially happen during the late-August series against the Yankees.)
With multiple gates at Camden Yards and people entering at the same time, pinpointing the lucky winner will not be an exact science. The best they can do, Bader said, is track the order of the tickets being scanned for entry as accurately as they can to select and announce who the milestone fan was during the game.
With an enticing prize package provided by the team and partner Maryland Lottery that includes season tickets for five years, $50,000 for the 50 millionth fan and $100,000 for the 100 millionth fan, how bad would you feel if you were the guy that walked in behind the winning ticket? Or what about the people who enter the park at the same time as the winner but at a different gate?
Bader said that everyone at the ballpark those days will receive a commemorative pin (which to me is like letting someone suck on an old piece of gum while you keep the caviar for yourself) but how disappointed would you be if you knew you were within inches of winning the prize?
And because of that, will there be people throwing elbows to get into Orioles Park this August when they’re getting close to the milestone? And does that then make it a great marketing campaign?
LIZ FARMER, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentLaw blog round-up
June 30, 2008
Good afternoon! It’s a short week, but there are plenty of blogs for you to check out:
Everybody has something to say about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller that struck down the capital city’s handgun ban. For two very different examples, compare these posts on Pillage Idiot and Volokh Conspiracy.
SCOTUSblog parses divisiveness on the nation’s high court.
Will Vermont Law School’s decision to bar military recruiters from campus nudge other schools, like the ones on this list, to take a stand?
Reading “Lions in the Street” has spurred Prof. William D. Henderson to ask, “Is it ok to detest your law partners?” and “Has the legal press downplayed the value of public service?”
As to the second question, The Daily Record cares about your interesting pro bono work. Tell me about it at 443-524-8156.
BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentPrepare for flyovers at Ravens games
June 30, 2008
Would Edgar Allan Poe be rolling in his grave? He might if he knew the Baltimore Ravens have hired a trainer to teach their avian namesakes to fly around M&T Bank Stadium before home games this season.
According to Associated Press, the team’s vice president for marketing, Gabrielle Dow, thought of the idea after seeing a trained hawk at a Seattle Seahawks game.
Georgia-based trainer Daniel Walthers is apparently teaching the birds to fly out of the tunnel players use to run onto the field and to mimic the words “touchdown” and “go Ravens.”
Can he teach them how to say “nevermore”? Or to “accidentally” drop birdie bombs on the opposing players’ bench?
What do you think of this new marketing ploy? Is it fun? A lame spectacle? Is there something else you’d like to see the birds do?
Or do you have concerns (like whether the birds will develop an attitude midway through the season and demand more money for next year’s contract)?
LIZ FARMER, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentThis week in Maryland Lawyer
June 30, 2008
The conventional thinking was that more women would rise to law firm leadership when more women became lawyers. So why aren’t more women managing partners? And how did these four women do it?
* The Court of Special Appeals orders a new trial for James Edward Johnson, reversing his murder conviction in the stomping death of a man in Essex in July 2004.
* The Maryland State Police and the NAACP get a compromise ruling in a lawsuit for access to records the association claims it needs to ensure compliance with a racial profiling settlement.
* In Verdicts & Settlements: A civil jury in Baltimore rules for the police officer who killed a 14-year-old after being called to the house by the teen’s mother. And in Baltimore County, a fallen trick-or-treater loses her lawsuit against against the costume-clad property owner.
* Dana O. Williams takes over as head of the Baltimore County Bar Association, while solo practitioner Jim Carbine talks about writing his unusual genealogy during two of the busiest years of his career.
* In their columns, Judge Dennis Sweeney looks at recent developments in jury trial practice, while Jack Gohn discusses the Supreme Court’s ruling on the rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees. Also, a letter writer takes issue with the Supreme Court’s ruling on punitive damages in the Exxon case.
PLUS: Legal briefs, On the Move, and digested opinions from the Court of Appeals, Supreme Court, 4th Circuit, and Maryland’s federal courts.
As always, please feel free to comment on any of these stories or suggest others we should be covering.
BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law
Sphere: Related ContentRFP issued for new law school design
June 30, 2008
Calling all architects and engineers: the University of Baltimore wants you to design its new $107 million law school.
A request for proposals (PDF) was issued Friday for the new John and Frances Angelos Law Center, scheduled to open in 2012. The building, like the current law school home, will be named after the parents of Peter G. Angelos, a UB alum who recently pledged up to $5 million in matching funds toward construction.
The Abell Foundation is underwriting a $150,000 design competition for the building, to be located on the corner of Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue. The architect is scheduled to be selected by January.
An initial technical proposal is due July 28, and those interested can attend a pre-proposal conference and tour the new building’s site July 10.
DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentThe two Baltimores
June 30, 2008
While walking up Saratoga Street last week, returning to our newsroom after grabbing a cold drink, I came across the polar realities of what I like to think of as the two Baltimores.
On my side of the street, a hunched-over figure was zigzagging his way toward me. As I got closer, I could see his eyes were barely cracked, his mouth hanging open. Having the unfortunate experience of almost losing two friends to heroin, I recognized the zombified state this man was in.
While sidestepping him as he almost fell into me, I couldn’t help but notice the streetscape on the other side of Saratoga. The usual smokers on the corner of St. Paul and Saratoga, chatting away with each other and on their cell phones. A jogger with her iPod on making her way past two businessmen in suits and ties, iced coffees in hand.
When I come face to face with the two worlds mentioned above and I think of the color scheme that plays out in some crumbling city schools, I wonder has this city made that much progress when it comes to desegregation and race relations? Are we sidestepping the racial fault lines that exist between us just as I sidestepped the drug addict stumbling down Saratoga?
No matter how many new high rises enter the bustling city skyline, and no matter how many new bioparks sprout up from the asphalt, the daily struggle for survival that some of the less fortunate go through will not go away despite those of us that are blinded by our own comforts. A life taken on Monroe Street should cause the same outcry that a life taken in Federal Hill or Canton would, regardless of race, gender or age.
Am I the only one who doesn’t think that’s always the case?
Francis Smith, Special Publications Assistant Editor
Sphere: Related ContentRecession: Are we there yet?
June 30, 2008
On the way to work today, I was talking with a co-worker about recessions. Are we actually in one, and, if so, how can we tell?
Most economists say that it can take several months of being in a recession for experts to actually determine that we’re in one, and sometimes we don’t know for sure until well after they’re over.
If you’ve heard and believed forecasts that the economy will bounce back in the second half of the year, Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein has some bad news for you.
Unlike some financial gurus (see: Warren Buffet) who say the limping economy and announcements of job cuts are a sure sign that we’re already in a recession, Pearlstein writes in Friday’s Post that the trouble has just begun.
Pearlstein says the only way we can get the economy back in shape is by “letting the dollar fall to its natural level, wringing the excess capacity out of industries that overexpanded during the credit bubble and allowing real estate prices to fall in line with incomes.”
What do you think — are we already in a recession, or is the worst yet to come?
DANIELLE ULMAN, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentNo rest for the Martin Mars
June 27, 2008
Retirement continues to be a postponed option for a pair of seaplanes, built in Middle River, that have been fighting forest fires in the Pacific Northwest since a brief stint in World War II.
According to a report by the Canadian Broadcast Corp. on Friday, one of the two remaining Martin Mars “flying tankers” has been hired by the U.S. government to fight wild fires in California. One of the planes was brought in to fight fires in 2007 as well.
The planes, also called “water bombers,” were purchased in 2007 by British Columbia-based Coulson Aircrane for an undisclosed amount. The Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum unsuccessfully tried to buy one of the planes and bring it back to Baltimore, where it was built.
The Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Co., precursor to Lockheed Martin Corp., manufactured the seaplanes in the early 1940s where they were originally envisioned as “flying dreadnoughts,” capable of carrying troops and raining down thousands of pounds of bombs on a battlefield. The planes were re-tasked before the end of the war to serve as long-range reconnaissance or cargo transport. Five Martin Mars were built at the Middle River plant.
The planes have a wingspan of 200 feet, are 117 feet long and can hold 7,200 gallons of a fire-suppressing water and foam mix.
The good news though, is that at least one of the planes is getting a bit of respite. Coulson Aircrane owner Wayne Coulson told the CBC that only one of the water bombers is in regular rotation until there is a high enough level of demand to put both in the rotation.
BEN MOOK, Assistant Business Editor
Sphere: Related ContentReport: Giannasca to bypass Baltimore, head for Hilton Head
June 27, 2008
In a story in today’s Reading (Pa.) Eagle, Edward V. Giannasca II says he will appeal his $33 million loss to former Raven Michael McCrary — and denied he has any intention of fleeing the country with his three children, as alleged by his ex-wife.
“What is she talking about fleeing? I’m right here,” Giannasca told the paper from his office in Reading, where he’s seeking approval for a $2.8 billion mixed-use project on 80 acres along the Schuylkill River.
Giannasca said he “merely got passports for all the children at the same time because one son needed one,” the Eagle reports.
He will have a chance to explain that to visiting Judge Paul E. Alpert, who ordered him to appear in Baltimore City Circuit Court on Monday, June 30, under threat of a body attachment.
But, according to the Eagle, he has other plans.
“Giannasca said he won’t be there because he and his family will be on a weeklong vacation in Hilton Head, S.C.,” the story said.
The Eagle also says Giannasca stayed away from this week’s legal proceedings in Baltimore, despite a court order and his own promise to appear, on advice of counsel.
BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law
Sphere: Related ContentTips for wearing that red robe
June 27, 2008
The Board of Public Works meeting was running late Wednesday, leaving many Maryland judges sweltering in the late June sun as they waited to attend the swearing in of Sally D. Adkins to the Court of Appeals in the Legislative Services Building in Annapolis.
The jovial jurists appeared not to mind the 30-minute delay of the scheduled noon proceeding, particularly Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell, who brought his digital camera and took pictures of the attendees.
Asked whether the board, an executive-branch agency, was showing unconstitutional disdain for the co-equal judicial branch, Bell responded in the negative.
“They’ve got work to do,” Bell said. “I’m not going to fight about that.”
Other current and former members of the high court congratulated and offered advice to Adkins, including retired Judge Dale R. Cathell, whom she replaced on the bench.
“Sally, you made it. Now, relax,” Cathell said. “It’s a long haul from where you start out to get here.”
Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr., when asked what advice he would give Adkins, joked that when writing opinions “she should ask herself, ‘What would Judge Harrell do?’”
Judges Joseph F. Murphy Jr., Lynne A. Battaglia and Clayton Greene Jr. were longer on praise than advice, saying they expected Adkins would be “wonderful,” that she would “step right in” and “make the transition very quickly” from the Court of Special Appeals.
And Peter B. Krauser, chief judge of the Court of Special Appeals, jokingly offered self-serving advice to his former colleague upon her elevation to the higher court.
“Remember these words: To reverse is human, to affirm divine,” he said.
STEVE LASH, Legal Affairs Writer
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