u s department of the treasury

• Baltimore City Paper

Baltimore's narcotic history dates back to the 19th-century shipping-driven boom, quietly aided by bringing Turkish opium to China

• Opinion

Where's the accountability? [Commentary]

It's hard to avoid concluding that the confidentiality clause in Baltimore police brutality settlements is meant to protect those who govern the city, rather than those in whose name the city is governed. And in this regard — as, alas, in so many others — Baltimore embodies in an acute form one of the country's broader failures: the lack of accountability among our leaders for their extensive misbehavior.

• Public Transportation

Speakers at GBC summit offer fixes for national transportation 'crisis'

A panel of transportation gurus who gathered in downtown Baltimore on Thursday all agreed the federal transportation system is broken, but not on how to fix it.

• Defense

Federal agencies mulling threat of tax debtors holding security clearances

The officials who are responsible for safeguarding the nation's intelligence secrets are trying to figure out how to better vet millions of employees and contractors with security clearances, after auditors found that some of those workers owed more than three-quarters of a billion dollars in unpaid taxes.

• Politics

OPM allows fed workers to hang on to health cash

Federal employees will be allowed to carry money on their health savings accounts into the next year following a months-long lobbying effort by Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland and other lawmakers in the region.

• Howard County

Tin Lizzie's wine-making operation in Clarksville growing sweeter with age

There aren't too many Howard County businesses directly affected by the weather in California, but Tin Lizzie Wineworks is one of them.

• Maryland

Charles Lane: Shackled by 'dead men'

• Opinion

Want to expand the EITC? Cut fraud first [Letter]

• Maryland

Flag's symbolism can't be ignored

• Maryland

Election year a drag on productivity in Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) ¿ A fear of voting has gripped Democratic leaders in the Senate, slowing the chamber's modest productivity this election season to a near halt.

• Baltimore City Paper

HAFAssed

• Baltimore City Paper

Fannie-Freddie Updates

• Baltimore City Paper

NYT spotlights the derivatives lobby

• Baltimore City Paper

IRS Auditing Fewer Big Companies, More Small Ones

• Baltimore City Paper

Education to Win the Future!

• Baltimore City Paper

Bankenstein Lives!

• Baltimore City Paper

Still Waters

• Harford

Powdered alcohol no threat to Harford, yet, regulators say

In a county where the people who regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages are particularly tough on businesses selling to minors or to intoxicated patrons, what could emerge as a new drinking fad isn't raising any red flags. Not yet.

• Harford

NBRS Bank weathering latest federal order to shore up its capital, president says

Operations at NBRS Financial Bank have been fairly normal since the Federal Reserve Board of Governors issued an Prompt Corrective Action Directive to the community bank serving Harford and Cecil counties on April 7, NBRS President Hugh J. Garchinsky said Tuesday.

• Crime

Reports raise concerns over security at federal field offices

A series of recent federal reports have raised concerns with safety in small field offices scattered across the country, where federal employees at the IRS, Social Security Administration and other agencies are more likely to interact with the public.

• Opinion

Is Obama an über-president? [Commentary]

Responding to the Obama Administration's decision to delay enforcement of certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act ("ACA"), a number of politicians and commentators have argued that the president is running roughshod over the U.S. Constitution. Is President Obama abdicating his constitutional duties? To answer, one must consider both the relevant text of the ACA and any legal precedent that considers whether the executive branch enjoys the discretion that it claims to have. Fortunately

• Baltimore City

Baltimore Housing Authority to sell 22 complexes to private developers

The Housing Authority of Baltimore City is selling nearly 40 percent of its public housing to private developers under a national model designed to raise millions for upgrades and maintenance, Commissioner Paul T. Graziano said Wednesday.

• Maryland

Charles Lane: Market-based approach to tax changes

• Bitcoin

Hopkins researchers are creating an alternative to Bitcoin

Inside a drab computer lab at the Johns Hopkins University, a team of researchers is trying to build something that has never existed before: a digital currency that changes hands completely in secret. Its name is Zerocoin.

• Opinion

The Bernanke legacy [Editorial]

Outgoing Federal Reserve chairman helped rescue his country from a second economic depression

• Harford

Harford fire officials seek lower retirement age

Harford County fire and EMS officials are seeking county approval to lower the retirement age for members of volunteer fire and ambulance companies from 55 to 50 years old.

• Politics

Lawmakers press for federal FSA carry-over

Senate Democrats are pressing the Office of Personnel Management to allow federal workers to carry over a portion of their health savings accounts into the next year.

• Business

Economic turnaround in Hampden area makes mill rehab ineligible for tax credit

The makeover of the mills along the Jones Falls into a hub of trendy restaurants and residences has succeeded so well that parts of the area no longer qualify for the federal tax credit that helped finance some of the work.

• Laws and Legislation

Terra Nova Ventures' $19 million Clipper Mill Road project moves forward

Terra Nova Ventures would convert the Whitehall Cotton Mill site into 27 apartments, about 25,000 sqare feet of office space, and 20,000 square feet of shopping, about twice the size of Belvedere Square. The design also reserves space for a 6,000-square-foot restaurant with a terrace overlooking the Jones Falls.

• Opinion

Reining in secret money [Editorial]

The new IRS rules are needed to respond to an avalanche of secret money that threatens to corrupt our political system

• Laws and Legislation

Some agencies do better than others at keeping the language simple

The Center for Plain Language, a Washington-based group that promotes clear communication in government and business, released its second annual report card last week assessing how well federal agencies communicate with taxpayers.

• Laws and Legislation

Financial planners field anxious queries from federal workers

Financial planner are fielding anxious questions from federal employees in the wake of the partial government shutdown. The appeal of federal work, besides good benefits, has long been stability — but not so much in the last few years, and the last few months in particular.

• Casino and Gambling Industry

State 'concerned' about Caesars allegations

Maryland gambling control officials said Tuesday they're "concerned" about allegations in other states involving the company building Baltimore's casino, Caesars Entertainment Corp., and are gathering information.

• Casino and Gambling Industry

Caesars acknowledges federal probe, says won't affect Baltimore plans

The parent company of Baltimore's casino said Monday that one of its businesses is the subject of a federal investigation into money laundering — and that it was pulling out of a $1 billion casino venture in Boston.

• Politics

Congress approves deal on shutdown, debt

Congress Wednesday night approved a bipartisan deal to reopen the government and extend the nation's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling into early next year, a measure that will send tens of thousands of federal employees in Maryland back to work.

• Opinion

Democrats are to blame for the government shutdown

Democrats are to blame for the government shutdown

• Business

Investors wary and weary, but not panicked over debt ceiling standoff

Maryland financial advisers and money managers say investors are concerned but not panicked yet by debt ceiling brinkmanship

• Business

What you need to know about the debt ceiling

The debt ceiling, why it's important and what you need to know about it.

• Politics and Government

Obama to make public plea in Maryland

President Barack Obama will make his case for reopening the federal government at a construction firm in Maryland on Thursday as a political solution to end the two-day-old shutdown remains elusive.

• Business

Memories of the financial crisis, five years later

Maryland financial professionals look back on financial crisis and the repercussions still being felt

• Health

Maryland approves premiums for small-business insurance exchange

Maryland small businesses buying health coverage for their employees through a new state insurance marketplace could pay anywhere from 5 percent less to 15 percent more in premiums next year under rates state regulators approved Tuesday.

• Business

Treasury Department to auction securities in Severn Bancorp, five other banks

The Treasury Department announced that it intends to sell securities in six banks, including Severn Bancorp Inc. of Annapolis, as it winds down the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

• Obituaries

Lester A. Houck, government worker

Lester A. Houck, a retired Treasury Department worker who was the oldest member of Wesley United Methodist church, died Aug. 16 of liver failure at Vir-Les, his Westminster farm.

• Features

IRS to recognize legal same-sex marriages nationwide

Legally married same-sex couples will be recognized for federal tax purposes no matter what state they live in, the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department announced Thursday.

• Politics

Former Md. regulator named to No. 2 Treasury job

Former Md. regulator named to No. 2 Treasury job

• Business

Lending increases to Maryland small businesses under federal program

Maryland institutions have increased their lending to small business under a federal program by nearly $337.7 million since the low point of the recession, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Tuesday.

• Health

Businesses welcome reprieve from offering insurance

Delay of employer mandate under health reform gives businesses more time to understand requirements

• Health

Obama delays health care law provision for businesses

The Obama administration plans to postpone a key requirement of the president's health law, delaying until 2015 penalties on large employers that don't offer health coverage.

• U.S. Department of the Treasury

Access to SSI payments temporarily disrupted

Supplemental Security Income payments to adults and children with disabilities were temporarily unavailable during an intermittent outage in the earning morning hours Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Fiscal Service said Monday.

• Foreclosures

Md. foreclosure activity high despite recovering market

Last month's high foreclosure rate wasn't an anomaly. For about a year, Maryland's foreclosure numbers have been among the highest in the country. That's largely because the foreclosure process here requires judicial oversight, drawing out the time it takes for banks to claim a property.