financially distressed companies

After being caught kilograms of cocaine, and after bank records showed him laundering money, George Sylvester Frink Jr. of Baltimore was looking at life in prison, but instead is like to get 51 months for his part in vast, sophisticated conspiracy that law enforcers say was responsible for bringing in as much as 3,000 kilograms of coke from California. Body builder Gerald Lamont Jones of Golds Gym and Pimlico Motors is the alleged leader of the scheme, but has not yet been charged.

State officials said at a legislative briefing Thursday that their agencies must do more to flag financial mismanagement at group homes — problems similar to those that went unheeded at an Anne Arundel County facility where a 10-year-old died this month.

The new owners of a longtime Baltimore manufacturing company are considering moving operations to a new plant, possibly in Delaware, an executive with the firm said.

Maryland's Board of Public Works, a panel that includes the governor and other top state officials, did little to scrutinize millions in contracts it awarded in recent years to the financially strapped operator of a group home where a 10-year-old boy died this month, records show.

ust days after the financially troubled Crumbs Bake Shops Inc. closed all 48 stores, including three at malls in the Baltimore area, the New York specialty chain stands to be acquired as part of a voluntary bankruptcy.

Maryland lawmakers and child advocates called Monday for an investigation into regulators' oversight of a troubled group home operator, asking why the state continued to give the company millions in taxpayer dollars despite long-standing financial and regulatory problems.

The recent death of a 10-year-old disabled foster child at an Anne Arundel County group home was just the latest in a series of problems at LifeLine, the state contractor that has been paid millions in taxpayer funds to care for "medically fragile" individuals, a two-month investigation by The Baltimore Sun has found.

The owner of the Sparrows Point steel mill could be selling a "significant percentage" of its stake in the property to local buyers, raising hopes for its eventual redevelopment.

Three people were arrested Wednesday in Towson following a drug raid

Investors who tried for years to get a stake in 1st Mariner Bank have closed on their purchase of the Baltimore institution.

The investor group buying 1st Mariner Bank in Baltimore said Monday that they've received necessary federal and state regulatory approvals and expect to close on the deal this month.

First Mariner Bancorp's days of publicly traded stock are coming to an end.

The Social Security Administration office that reviews disability claims for Central Maryland has the third-longest processing delay in the nation, prompting a member of the state's congressional delegation on Monday to call for action to address its expanding backlog.

The practitioner of a shuttered Catonsville laser surgery center who was convicted of raping a woman at gunpoint in 1987 was indicted by an Allegany County grand jury last week for sexually assaulting a patient behind locked doors.

The launch of Baltimore's anticipated bike-sharing program will be delayed until next summer after the hardware and equipment vendor selected by the city filed for bankruptcy, officials said Wednesday.

A Japanese firm that once licensed a key product made by Baltimore-based Hedwin Corp. was named the winning bidder in a bankruptcy auction Friday for the manufacturer.

A settlement was filed in bankruptcy court Tuesday that could provide victims of a nationwide meningitis outbreak linked to tainted steroid injections with $100 million as early as next year, lawyers said.

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Ten years after employees of Hedwin Corp. bought the company to save their jobs, the Baltimore manufacturer is headed to bankruptcy auction. But the jobs might once again be preserved. That's the intention of the initial bidder.

A new program to reduce manufacturers' energy costs focuses on companies making products here for a simple, weighty reason. Energy eats up big chunks of most manufacturers' budgets. Organizers see reducing that expense as one way to keep companies around in an era pockmarked by moves and shutdowns.

1st Mariner's founder launched the Baltimore bank as an alternative to big, faceless, out-of-state institutions at a time when banks based somewhere else had rapidly gobbled up 30 percent of the Maryland market. Now out-of-state banks control 80 percent of the pie. But that change hasn't dampened the enthusiasm 1st Mariner's new buyers feel for the institution.

High finance is a small world, just as Baltimore is a small town, and it showed as potential conflicts of interest cropped up during a fight over ownership of the city's biggest local bank.

In a stunning reversal, the spurned bidder for 1st Mariner Bank got approval Tuesday to purchase it — preserving the city's largest independent bank as a Baltimore-based institution..

An all-out battle over Baltimore's last major independent bank broke out Monday in a contentious court hearing, leaving a judge to decide — potentially later this week — whether the institution is sold to an investment group with local ties or a Pennsylvania bank.

National Penn Bank — a regional bank that mostly operates in Pennsylvania — emerged as the highest bidder for 1st Mariner Bank Friday, dashing the hopes of group of investors who wanted the bank to remain based in Baltimore.

Women's clothing retailer Coldwater Creek Inc. on Friday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after failing to find a buyer said it plans to close its stores by early summer

1st Mariner Bank, Baltimore's largest independent bank, will go to auction Thursday morning with more than one bidder.

A bankruptcy judge had approved First Mariner Bancorp's request last month to sell its bank as part of the parent company's bankruptcy filing. Bids for the Baltimore-based bank, which is not part of the bankruptcy, were due Monday by 4 p.m.

The Questar Properties building would stand 40 to 45 stories high — less than 500 feet — and contain 350 to 370 luxury apartments, said Stephen Gorn, chairman and CEO of the Pikesville-based company. The design remains fluid and will depend in part on feedback during the public process.

First Mariner Bancorp's losses mounted last year before the parent of 1st Mariner Bank filed for bankruptcy protection in February.

A foreclosure auction of Westport property connected to developer Patrick Turner's ambitious, 42-acre waterfront plan was canceled Friday for a second time.

The Daily Record's parent company plans to file for bankruptcy protection next week, the newspaper reported.

U.S. bankruptcy judge Robert Gordon Tuesday denied a bid for more time sought by Westport developer Patrick Turner, who has been trying for a decade to turn an empty piece of Baltimore's western waterfront into a high-end, mixed use community.

A U.S. bankruptcy court is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to grant more time to developer Patrick Turner, who has tried for 10 years to transform a piece of the Westport waterfront from grassy marsh to a bustling downtown neighborhood.

A bankruptcy judge has approved First Mariner Bancorp's request to speedily auction off its Baltimore bank, a process that drew heated objections from the creditors' committee and U.S. trustee.

Columbia's W.R. Grace & Co. said Thursday that it will give CEO Fred E. Festa a $1.5 million cash payment, part of a package of "emergence" bonuses in the wake of its exit from a nearly 13-year-long bankruptcy case.

Before a crowd of students, education leaders and activists, Gregory Thornton proclaimed that he was "coming home" to Maryland, where he will take the helm of one of the state's lowest-performing, but high-profile, school district this year.

Hampstead-based suit seller Jos. A. Bank Friday acquired casual clothing chain Eddie Bauer for about $825 million in cash and stock.

1st Mariner Bank will be sold to a group of investors who will recapitalize it with about $100 million to meet regulatory standards, its parent company said Monday.

After nearly 13 years in bankruptcy, the Columbia-based chemical maker W.R. Grace & Co. formally emerged from court protection Monday, bringing to an end one of the longest Chapter 11 cases in U.S. history.