Baltimore Business Journal articles from August 1995

Baltimore Business Journal archives from August 1995

Bigger home needed for Integrated Health. (Integrated Health Services Inc.)
August 4, 1995... Baltimore County-based Integrated Health Services Inc., which has seen its employment nationwide grow from 7,000 people to more than 39,000 in the past four years, is looking for a new headquarters. While company officials are keeping their...

First Maryland to spin off units. (First National Bank of Maryland)
August 4, 1995... First National Bank of Maryland will spin off its investment advisory and trust divisions by year end, with plans to move the new investment subsidiary into a separate building in October. The $10 billion bank company's move mirrors the former...

Panel tries to overhaul city rates. (Governor's Commission on Baltimore City Automobile Insurance Rate Reduction)(includes related article)
August 4, 1995... Accident victims who file too many claims and use attorneys to boost their insurance settlements deserve most of the blame for Baltimore City's high car insurance rates, according to a state commission that's trying to come up with strategies to...

Union merger gives labor hope. (proposed merger of United Steelworkers of America, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and United Automobile Workers)
August 4, 1995... The proposed merger of three of the nation's biggest labor unions makes Rodney Trump feel a little more optimistic about the future of Baltimore's workers. "I think it's a great thing," said the president of the United Auto Workers Local 239,...

Study rates Md. vs. competitors Va., N.C. (businesses in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina)
August 4, 1995... Early findings praise workers, not labor costs Maryland can hold its own against Virginia and North Carolina when it comes to accessibility, education, labor quality and transportation. But its regulatory and tax climates, and its labor...

Baltimore grows jobs, but slowly.
August 4, 1995... Employment in Baltimore rose modestly during the past two years, but that performance pales in comparison to trendy Southwest cities such as Austin and Las Vegas. On the other hand, Baltimore outscored other Northeast cities such as Hartford,...

By changing course, family firm stays ahead. (Belt's Corp.)
August 4, 1995... Every day, Skip Brown is reminded of his family company's humble roots. The president and chief executive officer of the Belt's Corp. can look through the windows in the lobby of the company's plush new Fells Point headquarters and see the...

Where have all the bankers gone? (Baltimore, Maryland)(Finance: Banking)
August 4, 1995... Officials move on in era of layoffs, consolidation Ted Rugemer cleaned out his desk at the Bank of Baltimore seven months ago. Yet another victim of the city's continuing bank mergers, Rugemer, a former senior vice president, is still...

More services mean more fees for most institutions. (banking fees)(Finance: Banking)
August 4, 1995... When it comes to banking fees in Baltimore, bigger doesn't necessarily mean better - or cheaper - for personal accounts. Actually, it's quite the opposite, with the biggest banks charging the highest fees. In response to a questionnaire from...

Cal-ebration: everyone's cashing on The Streak. (Cal Ripken Jr. to play his 2,131st consecutive game)(includes related article)
August 11, 1995... Jeff and Paula Welsh specialize in peanuts, but they just couldn't help but diversify into T-shirts and orange towels this year. A man who works in down-town Baltimore is likely to do something in September that nobody has ever done before,...

39 blocks slated to be razed. (Baltimore, MD)
August 11, 1995... More than 800 rowhouses will be demolished and hundreds of new dwellings built as part of a $35 million effort to revive the most blighted sections of East Baltimore. The Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition, a nonprofit...

Signet to merge Md., Va. banks. (Signet Bank-Maryland; Signet Bank-Virginia)
August 11, 1995... Signet Bank/Maryland plans to dissolve its Maryland charter and merge with the company's main bank in Virginia, the first sign of changes to come when federal interstate banking goes into effect next month. Signet Banking Corp., the Richmond,...

New insurance rates may end abuses.
August 11, 1995... Baltimore-based companies unscathed by S&P changes Maryland insurers say a new financial grading system implemented by Standard & Poor's Corp. could help the industry by eliminating abuses by agents who use the ratings to sell policies. The...

Md.-designed electric buses get contract. (Westinghouse Electric Corp. signs production contract with Blue Bird Corp.)
August 11, 1995... Electric-powered buses designed and engineered in Maryland may begin making stops in American cities over the next few years. Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Blue Bird Corp., a Macon, Ga.-based bus manufacturer, are working together to push the...

Trying to psych out Wall Street. (stock buybacks)(includes related article)
August 11, 1995... Wave of companies try stock buybacks to stir investors' interest Integrated Health Services Inc. sent Wall Street a message this spring that its stock was much too cheap. The health care company announced a plan in April to buy back $50...

State loses round one in case over DEED firings. (Maryland Department of Economic and Employment Development)
August 11, 1995... At least one of the employees dismissed from the state's economic development department weeks before a reorganization took place will have a judge decide whether he should get his job back. Curtis Matthews, who claims that he was illegally...

Directors' pay under fire. (compensation for directors of public corporations)
August 18, 1995... Shareholders question cash compensation Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. drew sharp protests from shareholders this year for offering its 14-member board of directors a retirement pension of at least $18,000 a year for life. That comes on top...

Panel wrestling with Md.'s taxes. (Maryland)
August 18, 1995... A group helping to map legislative strategy for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce is taking a creative approach to changing the state's tax-hell image, tossing around suggestions to make the nation's businesses sit up and take notice. Among the...

City on nonprofit short list. (International Youth Foundation Inc.)
August 18, 1995... Youth foundation looks for new HQ Baltimore and Annapolis are on the short list for an international nonprofit agency that's casting about for a new home. The International Youth Foundation Inc., which was started with a $65 million...

Car insurance panel looks at race, rates. (Baltimore, Maryland)
August 18, 1995... A proposal to require the state's top insurance official to regulate the issue of race in pricing Baltimore City car insurance policies has drawn fire from all sides, with even the commissioner himself questioning it. "As a regulator, I...

CPA strives to expand beyond Korean niche. (Korean American accountant Albert Kim)(Minority Business: Special Report)
August 18, 1995... As a student at Dulaney High School, Albert Kim didn't have the opportunity to attend basketball games or participate in typical high-school activities. His life was too full. After attending class, Kim would rush to the family's grocery store...

Temp services firm finds the ground fertile in Towson. (Aspen Temporary Services; Towson, Maryland)(Minority Business: Special Report)
August 18, 1995... Ernest Hemingway once said people are much like flowers. There are times when you find yourself not growing as well as you should in one garden and you have to transplant yourself to another. Some business owners have followed the writer's...

State eyes securities firm deal. (Invest Maryland Corp.)
August 25, 1995... State securities officials are considering appointing a conservator to take over a controversial Annapolis company that shareholders claim bilked them out of millions of dollars, according to sources. Officials spent this week trying to work...

Hopkins sued under ADA. (John Hopkins University; Americans with Disabilities Act)
August 25, 1995... A Johns Hopkins University secretary fired for allegedly mishandling a manuscript has filed a wrongful termination suit against her former employer under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Ann Ten Eyck Dunbar, who worked in the School of...

City tries to stay in the game.
August 25, 1995... Downtown Partnership crafting business plan to keep jobs This fall, the Downtown Partnership is expected to unveil an economic development plan designed to keep Baltimore's core financial district a contender in the battle for jobs and...

BGE pulls out of pro-business group. (Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.)
August 25, 1995... Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. is dropping out of a pro-business Maryland watchdog group it helped found 12 years ago. BGE was a charter member of Maryland Business for Responsive Government when the group was formed in 1983 to promote a...

'Five star-type' restaurant sought for Harrison's.
August 25, 1995... The new owners of the former Harrison's Pier Five hotel complex are negotiating to bring a "five star-type" upscale restaurant to the Inner Harbor property." "We're talking with two companies," said developer Otis Warren Jr., who is heading a...

Self-insured firms in an uproar over state change. (includes related article)
August 25, 1995... A little publicized change in the state's health insurance regulations has infuriated a number of self-insured small business owners who claim the new rule would raise their health care costs significantly. "It's caused quite a bit of ruckus,...

Hanford County leads boom.(Real Estate)
August 25, 1995... Pent-up demand leaves companies clamoring for more space If buildings were lottery tickets, Harford County would be holding the winning combination. The pro-business county has more than two million square feet of commercial construction...