Popular scratch-offs — such as the Maryland Lottery’s Baltimore Orioles offering — promise big prizes and inflated payoffs to hopeful gamblers, but at what odds?

IS MARYLAND’S LOTTERY
‘THE’ FINANCIAL ANSWER
TO ECONOMIC AILMENTS
PLAGUING THE STATE?

MARYLAND LOTTERY:
LET YOURSELF LOSE
 
By David Maril
 
We all have our dreams about the lottery and all the big revenues and jumbo payoffs so many local politicians are promoting. Isn’t it remarkable how so many have suddenly embraced gambling as the financial solution to economic ailments that plague the state?

Me? I don’t buy lottery tickets or go to casinos. Still, I have gotten to the point of a skeptical acceptance.

If you are not a player or participant, it becomes a fascinating study of human nature every time a potential lottery dollar-payoff-figure rises into the hundreds of millions.

Lottery talk becomes an interesting diversion.

We all love to fantasize about how our lives would change by winning $400 million. Hey, even a puny $1 million would mean a drastic change for most people.

Few of us however acknowledge that the odds of winning the millions-of-dollars mega jackpots are extremely remote. I think I’d have a better chance of being called in by the Orioles to pinch-hit in the ninth inning of the seventh game of this year’s World Series and delivering a walk-off bases loaded world championship-clinching home run.

Still, millions of consumers spend every dollar they have available to buy as many chances as possible for a shot at a giant prize.

You hear people swear that “after” they win they’ll never report for another day of work.

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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Friday July 11

[Scroll down for full week’s compendia]
 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
 
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond.   Your weekday morning look  (with links)  at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Friday:

Rear Adm. Walter E. “Ted” Carter Jr. has been named the 62nd Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis.

•  NAVAL ACADEMY NAMES NEW SUPERINTENDENT

The current president of the U.S. Naval War College, Rear Adm. Walter E. “Ted” Carter Jr., will formally relieve Vice Adm. Michael H. Miller as Superintendent of the Naval Academy during a change-of-command ceremony scheduled for July 23 at Annapolis.

Read More at:  Baltimore Sun

•  PRIVATE INVESTMENT FIRM NEGOTIATING SPARROWS POINT PURCHASE

Redwood Capital Investments LLC is seeking to purchase a significant portion of the Sparrows Point steel mill property, site of the former Bethlehem Steel plant.

Read More at:  Maryland Daily Record

•  SILVER SPRING COLLEGE AMONG CLOSINGS IN 11 STATES

Corinthian Colleges Inc., a for-profit education company facing multiple state and federal investigations, announced the closing in 11 states Thursday of its campuses operating under the Everest College name.

Read More at:  WBAL-TV (Channel 11)

•  EX-HAGERSTOWN COUNCILWOMAN ACQUITTED OF THEFT

Attorney Kelly Cromer, who served in the Hagerstown City Council from 2005-2009, was found not guilty Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court of stealing more than $9,000 from a client she represented in a divorce case in 2012.

Earlier this year Cromer entered an Alford plea to charges of theft in a separate case, and later agreed to a consent disbarment with the Maryland Court of Appeals in which she voluntarily surrendered her license to practice law.

Read More at:  Hagerstown Herald-Mail

•  MIKULSKI SUPPORTS OBAMA IN DEPORTATION CRISIS

The crisis of immigrant children crossing into the United States from Central America is an “emergency,” the senior Maryland U.S. Senator said Thursday at a hearing on the President’s $3.7 billion request for funding to provide food, shelter and other humanitarian aid to the apparently illegal immigrants.

Read More at:  WBAL-Radio (1090AM)
 

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Following in the footsteps of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Howard County Executive Kenneth Ulman has banned, by executive order, soft drinks with high sugar content from county proper- ties and events, leading to charges that he has over- stepped his bounds as an elected public official.

ULMAN’S BAN ON SUGARY SOFT DRINKS
AT COLUMBIA JULY 4 CELEBRATION
GOES TOO FAR, DOING GOOD

Will salmon burgers replace hamburgers?

THE DEMOCRATS SHOULD SEND
FORMER GOP VP DICK CHENEY
ON A NATIONAL MEDIA TOUR

U.S. soccer team exceeds low expectations
 
By David Maril
 
While wondering if Jürgen Klinsmann, the USA World Cup soccer team’s coach, is the toughest commentator in assessing what the squad needs to do to advance further in international play, it’s interesting to note the following:

  If a 1-1-1 World Cup Soccer record for the USA squad against the teams labeled the “Group of Death” merits a White House congratulatory call from Barack Obama and what seems to be universal fan praise, one has to wonder what kind of mammoth celebration would take place if the team scored a few goals and won several games.

  Republican candidate for governor Larry Hogan didn’t waste any time showing there’s little hope for a civilized rational discussion and debate of the issues between him and Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, his Democratic rival, leading up to the Nov. 4 election. Hogan’s political Internet commercial labeling Brown “the most incompetent man in Maryland” is low-class, stupid, and demeaning to the intelligence of Maryland voters.

The two candidates, with stark differences in their viewpoints and platforms, need to stick to the issues and eliminate the character assassinations and playing around with Facebook photos. These cheap shots are a major reason why so many voters get disenchanted with politicians and don’t show up to vote.

  Personally, I have little use for drinking sugary soft drinks and am all for publicly funded school food programs promoting healthy meals and sensible diets. However, the move by Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, who is the Democrats’ nominee for lieutenant governor as Brown’s running mate, to prohibit by executive order certain soft drinks from being sold on county grounds at July 4th holiday celebrations is crossing the line.

What’s next, substituting salmon burgers for hamburgers?

Over a year ago Ulman banned the distribution of sugary drinks in Howard County parks, libraries and other county properties and at all county-sponsored events, but not schools. However in 2006 the county prohibited soda sales in elementary schools, limited their sale in middle schools, and decreed that vending machines in high schools can’t contain more than 50 percent sodas.

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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Thursday July 3

[Scroll down for full week’s compendia]
 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
 
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond.   Your weekday morning look  (with links)  at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Thursday:

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was ranked Wednesday by ESPN in the second tier of leading NFL quarterbacks, behind Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger.

•  ESPN RANKS FLACCO 12th BEST NFL QUARTERBACK

He didn’t make first tier, with Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Andrew Luck — a surprise Tier 1 finalist — but he is in Tier 2, ranked No. 12, behind Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan and Tony Romo.

Read More at:  NFL.com | ESPN
| Baltimore Sun

•  STATE BOARD TRIMS MORE THAN $84M FROM MARYLAND BUDGET

Gov. Martin O’Malley on Wednesday persuaded the Board of Public Works to cut up to $84 million in planned spending for next year.

Under the governor’s proposal, nearly $76 million will be cut from the state’s $16.1 billion fiscal 2015 general fund, with an additional $1.2 million in planned special fund spending to be erased and about $7 million moved around to cushion any blow expected by a weak economy.

Read More at:  WBAL-TV (Channel 11)

•  SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE AT MORGAN PROMPTS INVESTIGATION

An investigation into Morgan State University’s handling of a reported sexual assault earlier this year has been opened by the U.S. Department of Education, as the number of colleges nationwide facing scrutiny for their response to sexual violence allegations has grown.

Read More at:  Baltimore Sun

•  D.C. SNIPER MALVO APPEALS LIFE SENTENCE

Lee Boyd Malvo claims his sentence of life without parole for a killing spree that terrorized the Maryland-D.C.-Virginia region for more than three weeks in Oct. 2002 is unconstitutional. His adult accomplice, John Allen Muhammad, was executed by Virginia in 2009.

Read More at:  WJZ-TV (Channel 13)

•  ANNAPOLIS TO CHARGE $1 FOR CIRCULATOR TROLLEY OR ELIMINATE SERVICE

Read more »

Diagram on the gear lever of a modern six-speed “stick shift” auto- mobile shows location of the vehicle’s various gears, which require that the driver depress a clutch pedal on the floor in order to shift.

AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS
TAKE FUN OUT OF DRIVING
AND DECREASE CONTROL

‘Stick shift’ vehicles are quickly disappearing
from U.S. roads, becoming relics of the past
 
By David Maril
 
Boasts of 100 miles per gallon, if cars and trucks are still using gasoline, have been predicted for the not too distant future.

Futuristic improvement designs for all-electric, partially electric, solar battery, and everything but wind-driven highway vehicles are either being perfected or formulating.

For several years Chevrolet has been promoting a car called the “Volt,” which runs either completely — or almost completely, depending on what definition you go by — on electricity.

Toyota made quite a name for itself getting the jump on the high mileage  hybrid market first. Other carmakers had to play catch-up but they all have their own versions of extravagantly priced models that will save you money at the gas pumps.

Producing these low-energy cars with motors that don’t pollute the atmosphere is a great accomplishment.  Maybe, in the next few decades, we will finally become energy independent as a nation and be able to shape a more reasonable and realistic approach to our foreign policy.

There is, however, one major downside to these noiseless vehicles. And it’s the reason why I will never own and drive anything but cars and trucks that run on traditional gasoline.

Much to my dismay, all of these vehicles of the future are equipped only with automatic transmission. All of this modern technology will soon render standard-shift cars obsolete.

I continue to wonder why with all the innovations in technology, it’s asking too much to design an electric car that has gears needing to be shifted.

And this is a shame. The ultimate driving experience calls for shifting gears that go with manual transmission.

Read more »